| jcerni20. 09. 2024 02:26:55 |
Contract Bridge: the only card game that is an Olympic discipline
Bridge is considered the most widespread card game in the world, but in Slovenia the number of players, of whom there should be at least a hundred million worldwide, does not confirm its world fame. There are about 300 active bridge players who are also club members. But the number is growing. In 1996 there were only 64.
Bridge is a mind sport that on one hand is most suitable for teenagers to learn concentration, combinatorics and teamwork, and on the other for maintaining the mind and is also considered the best sport against dementia. Bridge is part of the general curriculum in Europe, as it is a game where luck is almost completely negligible, everyone plays with the same cards, and there are as many as 635 billion possible game combinations. It's only about how you use your cards and what you do with them. The game is suitable for brain training.
Currently there are ten active clubs in Slovenia that are members of the Bridge Federation of Slovenia, which is also a member of the Olympic Committee of Slovenia (OKS). Bridge is actually not a card game, but one of the five mind sports. In addition to bridge, chess, go, checkers and Chinese chess are in this elite company, and as observers for entry into the World Mind Sports Council (IMSA), which since 2008 every four years organizes world mind sports games (WMSG), there are also poker players. At the last Olympics in London, bridge was presented experimentally, but it is predicted that already in 2020 it will be one of the official sports at the Tokyo Olympics. But bridge will not only be at the Olympics. In the form of a compulsory elective subject, students at some high schools in Slovenia can also learn it.
The first bridge club in Slovenia was established in 1958 in Maribor. The communist authorities abolished it for a decade. Again in Maribor they established a bridge club in 1968. Already in 1967 they established Bridge clubs in Ljubljana... They also established the Bridge Federation of Slovenia a few years later. Since they lacked 1 club, members of the Bridge Club Ljubljana established the Bridge Club Bled, which for more than a decade organized the popular International Bridge Tournament in Bled. At the beginning of the 90s of the previous century, the Bled international tournament extinguished.
Nowadays tournaments are organized within the Bridge Federation of Slovenia, for which you need to be a categorized player. Tourist bridge tournaments are also organized, where anyone can participate.
Contract bridge is a trick-taking game played by 4 players, named after the cardinal directions: south (S), west (W), north (N) and east (E). Two players form a pair NS or EW. Maximum is 13 tricks (52 cards for four suits without jokers: spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦) and clubs (♣). We know trump and no-trump play. There are 2 phases: bidding and play. The pair that wins the bidding is the declarer. It is divided into opener and responder. The other pair is defense. The player to the left of the declarer starts the play. He has the lead (attack). The declarer's partner places his cards on the table face up. He is in the dummy function, because the declarer tells his partner which card to play. Then the defender's partner plays the card. In the first trick, the declarer is always last to play. Thus he has the advantage, because he is last and has an overview of which card to play.
There is a lot of literature. Some in Slovenian. Much literature is in English. The most recognized contract bridge theorists in Slovenia are: Marjan Zadel, Gregor Kit, Barbara Drinovec Drnovšek, Matija Šink, Gregor Rus ...
Online contract bridge course contains theory and practice. For illustration of both, there are text, diagrams, video guides... On the site you have access to the winning application Wbridge5, which has been highly ranked multiple times when robots in contract bridge competed. Selected deals from contract bridge can also be viewed on the YouTube channel: Course of Bridge
Interesting links:
1.) Bridge Federation of Slovenia
2.) World Bridge Federation
3.) World Mind Sports Games
4.) Bridge – the most widespread card game in the world
5.) Welcome to the world of bridge
6.) Learn bridge in an hour
7.) Mind sport that is almost as enjoyable as sex
8.) The best card game has captivated the people of Postojna
9.) A game for life, but without bluffing and tricks
/10.) As a bourgeois game they played it illegally
11.) Bridge also at Ljubljana FMF: "the best mind games" 32 students will learn it in the first year
10.) In Maribor they have been organized playing bridge for 65 years. Why do they call this card game also the queen of games?
11.) Sebastjan Jeretič conquers bridge tournaments
12.) Bridge course at the Secondary Construction School in Ljubljana
13.) Training gray cells – not only for gray panthers
14.) Old articles about bridge
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