Canadian Master Point June 1993 Available for Download

I am a little late on this one. Blame San Diego, but a new issue of the magazine is now available for download, if you haven’t done it already. While you are on the site don’t miss the free download of Mother Goose On Bridge, it is funny and pretty in a 1900’s sort of way.  Our staff worked very hard on this one since it is our Christmas present to you.

When I looked at the year of the magazine, oh my, almost 17 years ago, I thought what happened in June of 1993.  For those of you who may be too young to remember:

• Prince changes his name to a symbol and comes to be referred to as “The Artist formerly known as Prince”
• A weeklong product tampering scare, later proven to be a hoax, occurs as customers throughout the USA discover syringes in unopened cans of Diet Pepsi Cola.
• Dr. Charles Epstein of California and Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter receive bombs form the Unabomber. Gelernter seriously injured.
• Kim Campbell is chosen as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and becomes the first female Prime Minister of Canada.
• Guatemala president Jorge Serrano overthrown by army
• Jurassic Park” opens, sets box office weekend record of $502 million
• Actress Julia Roberts weds country singer Lyle Lovett
• English mathematician Andrew Wiles proves last theorem of Fermat
• “Late Night with David Letterman” airs for last time on NBC-TV

So much for trivia.

John Gowdy had just joined our editorial board which was a big boost for us. The first thing that caught my eye in the magazine was a letter to the editor from Chuck Galloway where he talks about how to improve your competitive notrump auctions when using transfer Lebensohl and negative doubles. I think I might just read that in more detail and see if I can use any ideas from it.

David Silver has one of his humorous stories in this issue, this time about the Total Quality Management in Hell. SIlver has just arrived at Hell’s Bridge Game and well things aren’t going so well, in fact the as Beelzbub says, “things have been going to Heaven.”

Fred Gitelman talks about his Bridge Master program. But there is a really beautiful hand in this article that contains a strip squeeze but not just any strip squeeze. Anyone who read this article would realize that Fred was a future superstar since he actually made this hand at the table.

An old friend, John Goold provided a bridge cryptic crossword. John and I went to university together and you guessed it, played bridge together in the college refectory. This did not improve our marks at all. John and I both worked together in the computer field several times in several places. John is now living in Costa Rica and actually played on the Costa Rican team at the Bridge Olympiad. Since my daughter is now spending almost half the year in Costa Rica I wonder if I could become qualified to play on their team. John do you need a partner?

Ray brings back a few bad memories and lots of good ones in his article on the Kansas City NABC. I have to admit I lost it a little when he didn’t find the right lead against a slam I had doubled. See if you can do better. Then again, he found a terrific lead on another deal to clinch second place in a regional Swiss. There is a picture of Paul Janicki, our current ACBL director in this article and honestly he doesn’t look any different now.

Dawn MacNeal writes a fun article about the Canadian Invitational Pairs Calcutta held by Irving Litvack in Toronto. There were many big names at this big money event. The winner was Eric Murray playing with Brian Glubok. This article includes some very fine hands and lots of quotes from the droll Mr. Murray. John Gowdy has an interesting article about responding to partner’s preempts.

I also have to mention that I reviewed Chien-Hwa Wang’s book “The Squeeze At Bridge”. It seems that even then I was the squeeze meister in the family. I did report that this book was designed for true squeeze lovers who wanted to be able to categorize many complex squeezes rather than a how to book. Interesting, as I researched books on squeezes while doing Love I did notice that a lot of them were just collections of types of squeezes with an example or two. What sets Love apart is that he creates the theory of squeezes and teaches you how to recognize them and how to execute them. Our new revised Bridge Squeeze Complete will be out early next year, Ray tells me. I can’t wait.

Lots more too including articles on Swiss team tactics and another on matchpoint tactics.