Charles Wei, Precision bridge master, and Mrs. Wei (File photo)
Charles Wei's system of bidding made one of the world powers of contract and brought the championship tournament for the Bermuda Bowl to for the first time this year
The world's best contract bridge players gathered in the evening of May 6 to open the 18th Bermuda Bowl championships. This was the first world tournament ever held in the . The success of Chinese players in Bermuda Bowl competition at in 1969 and in 1970 led to acceptance of the Republic of China's invitation in 1971.
The Chinese team finished second in 1969 and 1970 and was fourth in 1971 as the defending champion Dallas Aces from , also known as the North American Team I, retained the title by defeating , 243 to 181 match points. was third.
The first Chinese venture into world tournament play was in 1964, when four young men finished 19th in a field of 29 teams at the World Team Olympiad in . Chinese bridge reached higher international stature three years later when Charles Wei of - engineer, builder and operator of oil tankers - perfected his Precision System of bidding. The system was used by the Chinese Lien Yu Team of in 1967 to defeat the and win the title.
In the 1968 Far East championships at , the Australians edged out in the final match. decided not to play in the Bermuda Bowl at Rio, however, and got the chance to represent the .
Wei was named non-playing captain with authority to select the team. He had only two months to find six players to oppose , , and the . Patrick Huang, who helped Wei develop the Precision System, and M. F. Tai, a player of great skill, were obvious choices. Finding the other four players was not so easy. A partnership was formed with members of the Bangkok Club System and Thai champions Kovit Suchartkul and K. W. Shen, both with world championship experience, emerged from retirement. The other two players were found in the . Dr. C. S. Shen, a professor of astrophysics, took leave from . Dr. Frank Huang, a statistician of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, joined Patrick Huang, his younger brother, on the team. Father of the Huangs is S. C. Huang, president of the National Contract Bridge League of the Republic of China.
Wei thus had one pair playing the Bangkok Club System and two pairs playing the Precision System. The Italian Blue Team seemed unbeatable. The and had strong teams with established partnerships. 's players had been assembled hastily and almost haphazardly. None of the members had played together as partners. Yet the Precision System was so easy to master that the two pairs using it had no serious misunderstandings during the nine days of play. Only the Italians proved superior.
The Italian champions had retired before the Stockholm Bermuda Bowl tournament in 1970. The Chinese again relied on the Precision System to eliminate , and the new Italian team. In the finals, the Dallas Aces had the advantage in dummy play and defense, but the Chinese matched them in bidding: was defeated only by the Americans, who were using the Neapolitan or Blue Team Club System similar to Wei's Precision System.
Charles Wei was born in Chekiang in 1914 and graduated from the in . He learned to play contract bridge in 1933 and then began to study the game and observe tournament play. In 1962 he watched the Italians defeat the and keep the title they had held since 1957. He concluded that the Italian system of bidding was more accurate than the natural system the Americans were then using.
Bridge is a game which can be made scientific by applying the laws of probability. Hoping to devise a system superior to that of the Italians, Wei studied every hand of championship play for the preceding 10 years.
Wei took five years inventing the Precision System and another five years perfecting it. He worked out a compromise between natural and artificial bidding. In the natural approach, the player bids what he has. Artificial systems open with a bid of 1 club to show a strong hand and then rely on more or less fixed responses. Wei kept the 1 club convention but with the further bidding as natural as possible.
"In the Precision System," Wei said, "every bid except that of 1 club is natural. It is easy for the average player to switch from the natural American method to the Precision System."
Precision opening bids are as follows:
In the finals against at in 1969, the Chinese team opened with a 1 no trump bid on this hand:
This contract went down five tricks for 250 points but gained 4 IMPs (International Match Points). East-West would have had no trouble reaching three no trump and scoring 400.
Responses to the 1 no trump opening bid are:
When an opener has a game or slam going, he will normally respond with 2 diamonds. This is an artificial bid that permits the partnership to reach game. It may also lead to some careful slam exploration. For example, the following hand:
would permit bidding of:
If the responder has no interest in game, he has two options. He can pass with a balanced hand or he can bid a long suit at the level of a major or a minor. These bids require the opener to pass, thus hinting to the opponents that they are being talked out of a game. For example:
The two diamonds bid in the Precision System takes care of certain hands which otherwise would be impossible to bid. A hand like:
can be used for bidding 2 diamonds, a conventional bid to show a 3-suited opening hand which is short in diamonds. The strength will usually be 11-15 points and the responder will usually be able to fix the final contract immediately. If the responder has no strength in diamonds, he may visualize a perfect fit with somewhat slender values. For example, the following hands:
would result in a bidding of:
The precision of the 2 diamond bid will often allow bidding to prevent the opponents from finding a good contract of their own. This is an example from the final match against in 1969:
Responses to 2 Diamonds Opening Bid:
Precision System of bidding has helped make Chinese players among the best in the world. It is winning popularity with some of the top American and European experts (File photo)
The structure of responses to 2 hearts and 2 spades (weak 2 bids) can be left to partnership taste.
Precision bidding is being demonstrated by an international team touring several countries. Wei offered to give US$1,000 to any charity designated by those defeating the Precision System players in matches at Hongkong, , , , and Tel Aviv.
Bridge champions demonstrating the system are Benito Garozzo and Giorgio Belladonna of , Dorothy Hayden of , Dimmie Fleming of and Alan Truscott of . Garozzo and Belladonna are members of 's Blue Team and hold 21 world titles. Miss Hayden represented the in world championship play and Miss Fleming is a former world titleholder in women's play. Truscott is bridge editor of the New York Times and a former European champion.
Charles H. Goren, an American authority on bridge, has written a book on the Precision System and endorsed it as the best system using the 1 club opening. Other leading players the world over are using, teaching or studying the Wei system. The winning players in the 1971 championships were Precision bidders. Wei's wife led a precision team to victory in the women's division of the U.S. Spring Nationals. Garozzo and Belladonna regard the Precision System as a compromise between the two systems of which they are masters. The Precision team of Dr. C. S. Shen and Victor Shen studied the system for only a week and then took third place in the French championships.
Goren expects the Precision System to become the world's most popular means of arriving at a bridge contract.