June 06, 1997
The 24-Hour Bridge Club
by Matthew Granovetter
South dealer
East-West vulnerable
North
S A 7 6 3
H 9 8 7
D K 8 6 3
C 5 2
West East (Lavi)
S 5 4 S K T 9 8
H Q 3 2 H A T 6 5
D 7 5 4 D Q J T
C T 9 6 4 3 C Q 8
South
S Q J 2
H K J 4
D A 9 2
C A K J 7
South West North East
1 C pass 1 S pass
2 NT pass 3 NT (all pass)
Opening lead: H2
When I asked my Rabbi how it was possible that millions of people witnessed
the giving of the Torah on the first Shavuot, he answered, "Probably by
Internet." Indeed, the computer has this capability, and we are now experiencing
a revolution in many intellectual fields, including bridge. Many skeptics
have succumbed to this "new" world of global interaction, or should I say
global bridge tables?
Our story begins in 1989, when a University of California Riverside
student named Matthew Clegg began to court a student from Finland named
Merja. She had come to study genetics with Clegg's father, who taught at
the university. When she went home that fall, the two students kept in
touch via the Internet, and the following year Clegg moved to Finland,
where they were married in the summer of 1990. This was the year Clegg
first conceived of an Internet bridge server.
The project began as a way to learn more about the Internet while at
the same time resuming bridge games with his friends back in the States.
Clegg called his program, "OKbridge," because he wrote it to play bridge
with a friend in Oklahoma. The first version of OKbridge was released to
the public in August 1990. Although it allowed only four people to play
rubber bridge, the program quickly attracted players, who began to send
Clegg suggestions. By early 1993, the demands placed on Clegg's time by
the increasing popularity of OKbridge were becoming excessive and in June
1994 the commercial product, OKbridge, was launched from San Diego, California,
where the Cleggs had moved. It attracted an initial subscriber list of
about 500 users. By June, 1995, this figure grew to 1,250 and by 1996 to
3,000. Today there are more than 150 tables per day in play on OKbridge,
with players from more than 40 countries, making it the most popular "bridge
club" in the world.
The program requires a computer, modem, and Internet connection, but
works best under a Windows environment. Anytime day or night a member can
join a bridge game, play duplicate, or kibitz and "chat" (by writing messages)
with the other members. The atmosphere is always very friendly. Never has
there been so much talking at the table! Israel has the largest subscription
rate outside of North America, and today's deal from an OKbridge game features
one of Tel Aviv's most sparkling players, Moshe Lavi.
Lavi was East and had to defend the contract of three notrump by South.
West led the two of hearts to Lavi's ace, and Lavi returned a heart. South
finessed the jack, losing to the queen, and West played a third round of
hearts to South's king. South led the queen of spades and finessed it to
Lavi's king. Now Lavi's natural play was to cash the thirteenth heart,
the defenders' fourth trick, and wait for the setting trick. But Lavi looked
deeper into the hand. Lavi could see that he held the important highcards
in the spade suit and diamond suit. If he cashed a heart, what would happen
to him if South played three rounds of clubs? He would be squeezed! He
would have to discard a spade or a diamond, giving South an extra trick.
So Lavi did not cash the thirteenth heart, but instead exited with a diamond.
Declarer won in dummy and took the club finesse. On the third round of
clubs, declarer threw a diamond from dummy and Lavi had a discard available:
the thirteenth heart, the card he had saved. Now there was no way for South
to come to a ninth winner.
Readers interested in subscribing to OKbridge should email: help@okbridge.com
or phone in America 619-490-6770.
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