Canadian Master Point September 1994

If you are wondering why we are so slow in posting CMP on www.ebooksbridge.com Eric tells me that it takes him three working days to do all the work needed to post one and there is some other effort required by the lovely Luise.  But it is worth it when I look at the September 1994 magazine

There is some nostalgia for me in looking at this edition. We had been publishing magazines for three years and were now expanding with lots more distribution in Western Canada. Dawn MacNeal was handling advertising with Maureen Culp and John Gowdy on our editorial board. The effect of the magazine had spread outside our borders too as you will notice from letter to the editor from Peter Oakley of New Zealand, author of “The Diamond Major”. I think that our book and software reviews got a lot of play on the “web”.

There is a really cool puzzle which was originally printed in “The Listener”. You have to figure out a bridge deal from the descriptive narrative provided. The problem is that the narrative is missing words which you get by solving the puzzle. It’s really different and fun.

Fred Gitleman writes a story about the 1994 Canadian Team Trials, the CNTC, which his team won.   Now you may recall the Bermuda Bowl was played in Beijing China. The Canadian team was Canada Canada Boris Baran player Fred Gitleman, Eric Kokish, George Mittleman,  Mark Molson and Joey Silver with Irving Litvack as NPC.  This team came in second in the Bermuda Bowl losing to the USA in the finals. The USA team consisted of Bob Hamman, Nick Nickell, Eric Rodwell, Jeff Mekstroth, Bobby Wolff, Dick Freeman with one Edgar Kaplan as NPC. How exciting to have an all North American final. The final was very close but that is a story in and of itself. There is a wonderful story that Fred wrote about his time in Beijing. You can find it at

Fred’s Story

So the prelude story about the Canadian Team Trials is even more interesting.  First Fred had to make it out of Ontario.  His team included him , Geoff Hampson, Joey Silver, George Mittleman and Eric Kokish.  They managed a third place finish to just make it to the National Final!  Geoff dropped off to seek fame and fortune in the USA and the team added Mark Molson playing as five.  The story starts with an incredible double and lead against 3NT by Mark Molson.  I promise that this article alone is worth the cost of the magazine even if it weren’t free.

By the way if you win our World Championship contest you can pick as a prize World Class which includes a story about Fred and his experiences in the Bermuda Bowl.

Tom Dawson, who among other things is a bridge historian, writes a fascinating story about the history of world championships.  Lapt H. Chan contributes an interesting article for the magazine about transfers over 2NT.  He starts off by saying that the ideas in the article were introduced to him by a 23 year old New Yorker, one Brad Moss.  There are two articles for newer players including one on cue bids by Barbara Seagram.  Eric Sutherland, a Canadian bridge player and mathematician has an interesting stories about how to extensions of restricted choice.

There is also an amusing story about the Epson (an instant matchpoint game) where John Cunningham compares his ideas about some deals with the writeups in the handout booklet.

There is lots more with an article by Roselyn Teukolsky, David Silver, the mysterious Trent Valley and more.