Who invented 4-card majors?

[Jennifer Murphy]

I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

[John Hall]

Post by Jennifer Murphy
I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

Is it more a case of who invented 5-card majors? I have the impression,
but could very well be wrong, that in the early days of contract bridge
4-card majors were standard.

[Jennifer Murphy]

Post by John Hall

Post by Jennifer Murphy
I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

Is it more a case of who invented 5-card majors? I have the impression,
but could very well be wrong, that in the early days of contract bridge
4-card majors were standard.

If you are saying that the bidding system that included 4-card majors
wasn't called "4-card majors" until after the introduction of 5-card
majors, you raise a good point. I don't recall what we called the system
back then.

In any case, my question is not about 5-card majors. I would like to
know whether there was one person who was primarily responsible for the
bidding system that included 4-card majors or did it just evolve over
time.

[Barry Margolin]

Post by Jennifer Murphy

Post by John Hall

Post by Jennifer Murphy
I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

Is it more a case of who invented 5-card majors? I have the impression,
but could very well be wrong, that in the early days of contract bridge
4-card majors were standard.

If you are saying that the bidding system that included 4-card majors
wasn't called "4-card majors" until after the introduction of 5-card
majors, you raise a good point. I don't recall what we called the system
back then.
In any case, my question is not about 5-card majors. I would like to
know whether there was one person who was primarily responsible for the
bidding system that included 4-card majors or did it just evolve over
time.

I've been reading "Bumblepuppy Days", which is the history of whist and
its evolution into bridge. It looks like it goes back to the origin of
bridge whist. The main difference between whist and bridge whist was
that the trump suit was chosen ("declared") by dealer or his partner
rather than being set randomly. The heart suit was worth the most points
(the order was spades = 2, clubs = 4, diamonds = 6, hearts = 8, NT = 10
or 12 depending on US or Europe), and it looks like a common strategy
was to declare hearts if you had at least 4 of them and not a strong
enough hand for NT.

[jonathan23]

Post by Jennifer Murphy
I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

In some old auction bridge (predecessor to contract) books from the 1920s that I've seen it seemed like opening a major suit required a good (i.e. headed by a couple of honours) five-card suit. If you didn't have a major that good you opened 1NT (which had no specific range and could include unbalanced shapes) or faked a 1C or 1D opening as we might do now. Bidding was quite different when there was no requirement to actually bid game to score it.

Opening bids in four-card major suits (or maybe even four-card suits in general) were a "daring" innovation that someone thought up in the 1920s. Sidney Lenz wrote an essay on it that was included in his book "Lenz on Bridge Vol. 2" published in 1926, and which is available on the Internet Archive (www.archive.org).

The auction bridge experts of the '20s gradually opened their minds to opening the bidding on a four-card major like AKxx or AQJx. At this time some experts said that they didn't want to open a five-card suit unless it was headed by Q or better.

The standards for biddable major suits relaxed gradually through the early Contract era until they reached "Q10xx or better, *usually*, subject to the principle of preparedness". That was probably first set down in the Four Aces' system book in 1935 (the American expert-standard system that "Gold Book" Culbertson and Goren were based on) and was considered "normal" American-style bidding through the 50s or so. Later editions of the Goren system in the 60s and 70s raised the minimum biddable four-card major up a bit to KJxx, AJxx, or QJ10x but Goren himself wasn't really writing the books anymore by then.

Five-card majors came back in the 50s, driven by the Roth-Stone and (a few years later) Kaplan-Sheinwold systems' move toward more "scientific" bidding. Other experts also started to adopt the idea (John Crawford and Sam Stayman were two, I think) or at least preferred to only open five-card majors with rare exceptions for very strong four-card suits.

[[e-mail]]

Post by jonathan23

Post by Jennifer Murphy
I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

In some old auction bridge (predecessor to contract) books from the 1920s that I've seen it seemed like opening a major suit required a good (i.e. headed by a couple of honours) five-card suit.

My understanding, for which I no longer have a reference, was that auction bridge was distorted by exaggerated bonuses for trump honors. Which did not have to be in the same hand.

So if you declared a trump suit with 10xxxx facing xxxx, you lost points net, no matter how many tricks you took.

Carl

[Jon Campbell]

Post by ***@verizon.net

Post by jonathan23

Post by Jennifer Murphy
I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

In some old auction bridge (predecessor to contract) books from the
1920s that I've seen it seemed like opening a major suit required a good
(i.e. headed by a couple of honours) five-card suit.

My understanding, for which I no longer have a reference, was that
auction bridge was distorted by exaggerated
bonuses for trump honors. Which did not have to be in the same hand.
So if you declared a trump suit with 10xxxx facing xxxx, you lost points
net, no matter how many tricks you took.

That could be a factor. The trick scores were very low and the honours
bonuses were much more complicated. Holding three honours between two
partners had a score value equal to two tricks, and four and five honours
between two partners had a score value equal to four and five tricks,
respectively. The undertrick penalties were also much higher in comparison
to trick scores and game/slam/rubber bonuses.

I have found an RF Foster book from 1922 that states that people (doesn't
say who, specifically) were lobby for inclusion of contract bridge in the
official rules as early as 1917. The chairman of the laws committee that
declined to do so is quoted as saying "Auction, as it stands, gives the
expert sufficient advantage. Contract auction would almost legislate the
poor bidder out of the game. It might make auction more attractive to the
few, but must do so at the expense of the many." Foster spends about two
pages discussing how the contract scoring table was in a state of flux as
people were trying to figure out how to make the game more interesting.

Here's a link to the book that turns right to the pages where he discusses
it:

https://archive.org/stream/fosteronauctionc00fost_0#page/342/mode/2up

[t***@att.net]

Harold Vanderbilt invented Bridge (in its modern form though with lots of precursors) and published a 4-card major, strong club, system in 1929 (containing weak twos). Supposedly, Geoffrey Mott-Smith kept suggesting 5-card majors all along supposedly. (I think I got this from "Walk of the Oysters.") Paul Stern invented the Vienna System of 5-card majors and strong club in 1935 (his team beat the Culbertson team in a noted match.)

It's not clear that the principles (except for canapé which was invented by Pierre Albarran) were just floating around. Individual treatments can often be linked to the first publicist. Names do not necessarily attach to the inventors. (Like in mathematics where Simon Newcomb discovered Simpson's Paradox and Benford's Law).

[Joanna Shuttleworth]

Post by t***@att.net
Paul Stern invented the Vienna System of 5-card majors and
strong club in 1935 (his team beat the Culbertson team in a noted match.)

This isn't quite right – the opening one club in Vienna denied a five-card
suit except possibly in clubs, normal opening strength 18-27 points
[7-5-3-1 !]. Opening bids of one in the other suits showed five cards
or longer. 1NT was the usual strong opening bid (28+), except when
opening two of a suit which were asking bids.

[KWSchneider]

I disagree that Albarran “invented” canapé. George Coffin (the same George Coffin who used to direct the duplicate game at the Newton, MA YMCA years ago) stipulates on page 158 of his book titled “NBC: Natural Big Club” (written in 1969):

“Canapé bids were originated in 1936 by the late George O. Charron of Nashua, past president of the New Hampshire Bridge Association. A few years later the late Jack Kushner of Springfield, Mass. injected canapé bids into the Tierney Notrump System (TNT) that was originated by Edgar Tierney of Westfield.”

This pre-dates by a decade anything Pierre Albarran (the so-called “inventor” of canapé) ever published.

[Will in New Haven]

Post by Jennifer Murphy
I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

Opening bids in four-card suits predate the invention of Contract Bridge. But the ranks and trick values of the suits were different in Auction so it isn't quite the same.

Among the earliest Contract Bridge systems, two of the most popular were Culbertson and the Official System. Both included opening one of a Major on four.

_Not_ opening 1NT on a four-card Major was the innovation.

[Jon Campbell]

Post by Will in New Haven

Post by Jennifer Murphy
I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

Opening bids in four-card suits predate the invention of Contract Bridge.
But the ranks and trick values of the suits were > different in Auction
so it isn't quite the same.

Auction changed the ranks and trick values for different denominations
multiple times. Early on spades were the lowest suit in trick value and
you couldn't even score game by taking all the tricks. And for some time a
bid had to outscore the last bid made to be sufficient (So when you have
relative trick values of 2, 4, 6, and 8 or something like that then a bid
of one at 8 points/trick required a bid of _five_ in the 2 points/trick
suit to outbid it at all).

Then sometime in the 1910s someone came up with the idea of creating a new
bid rank of "Royal Spades" that ranked highest, so you could bid "spades"
for a low trick-value, or "Royal Spades" for a high one. Apparently this
resulted in the cheap spade bids being used conventionally (how I don't
know).

By sometime before 1920 the auction bridge trick-scoring table was
stabilized to have the denominations rank as they do now and the number of
tricks taken in each strain to make game the same as it turned out in
contract (clubs 6/trick, diamonds 7, hearts 8, spades 9, notrump 10 - 30
points required to make game). Meanwhile undertricks were worth about 50
and the slam and rubber bonuses were quite low in comparison so that must
have required a very different mentality. It all seems so dry that I'm not
surprised bridge didn't really take off until the modern contract scoring
table was invented.

Post by Will in New Haven
Among the earliest Contract Bridge systems, two of the most popular were
Culbertson and the Official System. Both
included opening one of a Major on four.

The standards for "biddable suits" in the earlier iterations were almost
comical. Quite often a five-bagger was not considered "biddable" unless
headed by the Q or even Q10, and four-baggers required KQxx or KJ10x or
better or something like that.

Post by Will in New Haven
_Not_ opening 1NT on a four-card Major was the innovation.

Culbertson was the only major authority who seriously objected to 1NT
opening bids, as in he didn't think you should make them at all with _any_
biddable suit in the hand. Official and the Four Horsemen (the other major
player in that era) were considerably more liberal about it, although still
almost reactionary by modern standards.

Culbertson's problem with 1NT openings was that he didn't have tight enough
limits on the bid, or any responding methods that worked well. Since others
had invented the idea of limited 1NT openings and methods for dealing with
them that worked better Culbertson contrarily decided not to follow them
until the need became painfully obvious.

[Will in New Haven]

Post by Jon Campbell

Post by Will in New Haven

Post by Jennifer Murphy
I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

Opening bids in four-card suits predate the invention of Contract Bridge.
But the ranks and trick values of the suits were > different in Auction
so it isn't quite the same.

Auction changed the ranks and trick values for different denominations
multiple times. Early on spades were the lowest suit in trick value and
you couldn't even score game by taking all the tricks. And for some time a
bid had to outscore the last bid made to be sufficient (So when you have
relative trick values of 2, 4, 6, and 8 or something like that then a bid
of one at 8 points/trick required a bid of _five_ in the 2 points/trick
suit to outbid it at all).
Then sometime in the 1910s someone came up with the idea of creating a new
bid rank of "Royal Spades" that ranked highest, so you could bid "spades"
for a low trick-value, or "Royal Spades" for a high one. Apparently this
resulted in the cheap spade bids being used conventionally (how I don't
know).
By sometime before 1920 the auction bridge trick-scoring table was
stabilized to have the denominations rank as they do now and the number of
tricks taken in each strain to make game the same as it turned out in
contract (clubs 6/trick, diamonds 7, hearts 8, spades 9, notrump 10 - 30
points required to make game). Meanwhile undertricks were worth about 50
and the slam and rubber bonuses were quite low in comparison so that must
have required a very different mentality. It all seems so dry that I'm not
surprised bridge didn't really take off until the modern contract scoring
table was invented.

Thanks. My knowledge of the matter was derived from playing auction with my grandmother who refused to learn contract. She used that first scoring table that you mentioned, which is logical as she stopped playing when her husband, my grandfather, went off to WWI. She started playing again in the Sixties, with my brother, my mother and I. We all played contract so we played the version of auction that she remembered.

Post by Jon Campbell

Post by Will in New Haven
Among the earliest Contract Bridge systems, two of the most popular were
Culbertson and the Official System. Both
included opening one of a Major on four.

The standards for "biddable suits" in the earlier iterations were almost
comical. Quite often a five-bagger was not considered "biddable" unless
headed by the Q or even Q10, and four-baggers required KQxx or KJ10x or
better or something like that.

Post by Will in New Haven
_Not_ opening 1NT on a four-card Major was the innovation.

Culbertson was the only major authority who seriously objected to 1NT
opening bids, as in he didn't think you should make them at all with _any_
biddable suit in the hand. Official and the Four Horsemen (the other major
player in that era) were considerably more liberal about it, although still
almost reactionary by modern standards.
Culbertson's problem with 1NT openings was that he didn't have tight enough
limits on the bid, or any responding methods that worked well. Since others
had invented the idea of limited 1NT openings and methods for dealing with
them that worked better Culbertson contrarily decided not to follow them
until the need became painfully obvious.

I meant to type "not opening 1M." but I'm always saying notrump when perhaps I shouldn't.

[Pertinax]

Post by Jennifer Murphy
I know that Charles Goren standardized and popularized the old 4-card
major bidding system, but who invented it? Was there one main person, or
did it evolve over time?

Auction Bridge bidding was based around constructive non-forcing bids, as the aim was to simply outbid the opponents to win the contract, (without conceding a greater penalty). So you bid 5 card suits, as you were likely to be left in them. If you had shortage in Opener's suit, you could "Take-out" of it into your own 5 card suit. I read a couple of old auction bridge books from the 20s when I was at uni that used this approach.

The idea of Contract existed e.g. Plafond in France, but it didn't become popular until Vanderbilt created his Contract system in 1925 with increased penalties and slam bonus that required accurate bidding. By 1929 Vanderbilt Contract was the dominant form being played in Gentleman's clubs.

Openning, and responding with 4 card suits was a feature of Culbertson's Approach Forcing. With the forcing 1/1 you could bid 4 card suits with a good chance of finding a 4-4 fit, which are superior to 5-3 fits as Trumps. Culbertson challenged Lenz to prove that his Approach Forcing was superior to the old Auction bridge style bidding in 1931 and then P. Sim's team. Culbertson won easily (though his team the better players). Culbertson became the leading bridge theorist and writer and played more exhibition matches to promote his system. Everyone adopted this idea. Acol was first published in 1934 after Culbertson's team toured the UK and used 4 card Majors and a forcing 2/1, which Culbertson then adopted for his Gold Book system in 1936.

Roth-Stone and Kaplan-Sheinwold popularised 5 card Majors in natural systems used by experts in the 1950s. But it took decades (until after Goren handed his publishing empire over to others who favoured modern methods) that they became standard for club duplicate and social bridge.