EMINENT CONVERT TO BRIDGE

Evening Star, Issue 20585, 10 September 1930, Page 11

EMINENT CONVERT TO BRIDGE

DR LASKER FORSAKES CHESS FOR CARDS Dr Emanuel Lasker, of Berlin, the iamous enoss p.ayer, called to see mo a lew days ago (writes f rank naiglaud, in the ijonuon * Evening Stauuard’). 1 had been warned; ot ins coming, and as 1 shook uaads with him i hastened to explain that my knowledge 01 cness was extremely limited. “,Chess, sir,” said the do*,or. “ 1 do not come to speak to you of chess, nut of cards and midge.” VVhereat i was muen relieved.^ “ But have you given up chess? Have you forsaken your old mve?” “ i have not played a game of chess for over four years, and 1 do not intend to piay another.” “ What! And you for twenty-seven years the chess champion of the world! Are you not anxious to wrest the championship from the great Alekniuo?” “ i shall bo delighted to meet Alekhine and to deleat him—at tne card table. But at chess, no. But Jet us talk of bridge.” “Why, certainiy. But tell me hrst why you gave up chess lor cards.” “ That is a thing of tho past. . . . But, yes, 1 will tell you. Chess has no life, no movement, no human interest. It is stereotyped and machine likb. Bridge is full of interest and variety, ever changing and intensely human. As a recreation there is no comparison between the two games. Now, please, about bridge?” Dr Lasker hero informed me that he had been commissioned to write a series of articles on cards in a Berlin newspaper, quite a novelty in German journalism, and he thereupon bombarded me witli every kind of question on auction, contract, and current card topics in England. “And now, doctor, it is my turn. Please toll mo about bridge in Germany. Is any auction played there?” —“No; only contract.” “How long have you played contract?”—“ About four years.”

“Is it making headway in Germany?”—“ Yes,- it is increasing rapidly It is played in all the big cities and in most of the smaller towns, and is threatening to displace our old national game, skat.” “ It must indeed have become popular, and in a very short time. For what stakes do you play ?”—“ Generally for what is equivalent in English money to fid a hundred, although in one or two clubs in Berlin they play for ss, 10s, and sometimes more a hundred. But this is exceptional.” “Do you play _ tho Portland Club rules or the American rules?”—“ It is not tho same everywhere, but generally we play the Portland Club rules.” “Do you play tho latest American conventions?”—“Some players try to play the Vanderbilt Club, but they know little about conventions or principles.” “You tell me, doctor, you have played bridge in London and New York. How do you consider the standard of play in your country compares with tho English or American?” — “ Ach! sir, 1 am afraid that my countrymen have no card sense. They are —what do you call it?—‘ duffers.’ They can play aces and kings, and no more. They are not like tho Austrians, many of whom are fine players.”

“ Yes, tho Austrians have been expert card players lor years. Was it not an Austrian who brought off a well-known coup over sixty years ago?” —“ Ah! You refer to tho great Vienna coup.” _ Tbo doctor is a master of tho English language, written and spoken. Ho was for many years lecturer in mathematics at Owens College, Manchester, and he has recently been engaged in writing a bonk in English entitled ‘ An Enevelnpfcdia of Games.’ There lingered after he left me a memory of a very charming and intellectual personality, which is no more than one would expect of n bridge enthusiast, a doctor of philosophy, and nno of tho foremost mathematicians in Germany.