Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Sorry, Mr. Blackwood

The Blackwood convention (which uses a bid of 4NT to ask for number of aces) is probably the most utilized and most famous convention in the history of bridge. When Easley Blackwood devised it, he submitted a write-up about it to the Bridge World magazine. They rejected it!

We're getting ready for our move to the new building. As I was packing things in my office, I came across the rejection letter dated May 24, 1935. The ACBL archivist has the original. This is a scan of a photocopy (click to enlarge):

3 comments:

  1. Great, old history. Just looking at the typing is fascinating.

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  2. @Crash: Yes, I agree. Did you notice how wide the indents are for each paragraph?

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  3. A prophet is often rejected in his own time.

    Re being a sucker for water...if we were playing poker, it might be good to hold up a nice water picture once in awhile to distract you.

    I won't tell anyone, though!

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