Charles Henry Goren (March 4, 1901 – April 3, 1991) was a famous bridge player, writer and advocate. March 4 is the 63rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (64th in leap years). ... 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... April 3 is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 272 days remaining. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game for four players, usually sitting around a table, who form two partnerships, or sides. The partners on each side sit opposite one another. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ...

Early years

Goren was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Russian Jewish immigrants. He earned a law degree at McGill University in Montreal. While he was attending McGill, a girlfriend laughed at his ineptness at the game of bridge, motivating him to immerse himself in a study of existing bridge materials. Philadelphia is a village located in Jefferson County, New York. ... Official language(s) None Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 33rd 119,283 km² 255 km 455 km 2. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... McGill University (Université McGill), is a publicly funded, research-intensive, non-denominational, co-educational university located in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... City motto: Concordia Salus (Latin: Well-being through harmony) Province Quebec Mayor Gérald Tremblay MPs Vivian Barbot, Bernard Bigras, Denis Coderre, Irwin Cotler, Stéphane Dion, Gilles Duceppe, Marlene Jennings, Francine Lalonde, Jean Lapierre, Paul Martin, Réal Ménard, Serge Ménard, Maria Mourani, Massimo Pacetti, Bernard Patry...

When he graduated, he briefly attempted a law career in Philadelphia. However, the growing fame of Ely Culbertson prompted Goren to abandon his original career choice to pursue bridge competitions, where he attracted the attention of Milton Work (who had developed the Work Point Count System). Goren began helping Work with his bridge articles and columns and, eventually, ghost-writing some of the material. Ely Culbertson (22 July 1891 - 27 December 1955) was an American expert on the card game contract bridge. ...

Bridge contributions

By 1936, Goren had begun his own bridge career and published the first of his many books on playing bridge, Winning Bridge Made Easy. Drawing on his experience with Work's system, Goren quickly became popular as an instructor and lecturer. Although he was never a particularly great player, his contributions to the game have made him one of the most important figures in the history of the game. 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Point count system

As he continued writing, Goren began to develop his high card point count system as an improvement over the existing system of counting honor tricks. The high card point system represented a large step forward in bridge theory and quickly gained popularity due to its simplicity. Goren and others would later refine the system to account for hand distribution, as singletons and voids can greatly increase the strength of a hand. High-card point count is a method of hand evaluation in the game of contract bridge. ...

Four-card suits

Goren also worked to popularize the opening of four-card suits, in contrast to the well-known five card majors approach that has become a major feature of Standard American bidding. Opening a four-card suit can improve the chances of the partnership identifying a four-four trump fit, and the four-card approach is still used by some experts today. The drawback of the four-card approach is that the Law of Total Tricks is more difficult to apply in cases where it is used. Standard American is a common bidding system for the game of bridge in the United States, and is now the most widely used method of bidding at Bridge in the world. ... The Law of Total Tricks pertains to the card game of contract bridge, and is used to help determine how high to bid in a competitive auction. ...

Other contributions

In addition to his pioneering work in bringing simple and effective bridge to everyday players, Goren also worked to popularize the Precision bidding method, which is one of many variants of so-called big club systems (which use an opening bid of one club to indicate a strong hand). In the game of contract bridge Precision Club is a strong club system that was invented by C. C. Wei and used to good effect by Taiwan teams in the early 1970s. ...

Legacy

Goren died in 1991 in Encino, California, at the age of 90, but his point count approach remains the foundation for most bidding systems. While few players "play Goren" exactly today, he enjoys a reputation as one of the great bridge players of his day and a skillful and spirited competitor. Encino is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley. ...