Bridge with Claus
For decades Claus Buchthal of Chilmark has competed in American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) tournaments all over New England. Although he consistently wins master points, he has never been an "A" player, never one of the stars of the ACBL. Nevertheless, he is a tournament celebrity - a player known, liked, and admired by hundreds from Maine to Connecticut.
Follow him around the ACBL summer regional tournament at Sturbridge, June 24 to 28, where at 95 he is the oldest player competing. Each ACBL tournament event lasts about three and a half hours, and in most days there are three events scheduled. Claus and his Vineyard partner arrive in time to play Thursday afternoon and evening, but Claus's much younger partner announces that ten and a half hours of bridge is too much bridge for one day and that he will skip the Friday and Saturday morning sessions. Claus takes Friday morning off, but finds sitting around too boring and hunts up another partner for the Saturday morning side game.
At his age, Claus's energy is almost incomprehensible, but last fall it was faltering. A defective heart valve was slowing him down and even threatening his life. Doctors judged him too old for open-heart surgery, and so he talked his way into an experimental program at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and last winter he was the first patient in any Boston hospital to have a heart valve replaced through an incision in his groin, a procedure not yet sanctioned in the United States. Two weeks later, he played the ACBL Newton regional, his old self again.
Everywhere he goes at Sturbridge, people greet him - always by just one name, like Cher or Madonna. At breakfast, several players stop by his table: "Good morning, Claus." "Great to see you, Claus." In the hotel lobby, a passerby stops short: "Claus! How are you? Glad to see you here." Waiting for a table assignment in the main ballroom: "Which game did you play in last night, Claus? How did you do?" "Do you have a partner for Sunday, Claus?"
Many of the greeters are players who have partnered with Claus in tournament events. At every ACBL tournament, there is a "partnership desk," where people go to find partners or teammates. It's sort of like a dating service for competitive bridge, Players without Partners. Because Claus does not have a regular partner for Martha's Vineyard club games, he often travels alone to tournaments. Wanting to play in every possible event, he is a regular at the partnership desk, playing with dozens of different partners over the years, some of them several times.
Claus is very strict in choosing partners, querying them extensively about their master point totals and their bidding methods. One woman confesses that she lied, overstating her master points, out of fear that Claus would turn her down. He must be very good at identifying talent, because it is rare that one of his partnerships does not finish high enough in the event to earn master points, but a partner who disappoints Claus does not get a second game. People who win with Claus remember him, ask to play with him again, and tell their friends.
A short, stocky man with sloping shoulders, Claus settles in at the bridge table and peers at his cards with his chin on his chest, like a great gray owl solemnly considering which little mouse to eat first. Wise opponents know they are on the menu.
Although tournament bridge has become very technical in recent decades, with ever more complicated bidding and carding, Claus prefers to play a very basic system with few artificial bids or sequences. For a man who plays with partners who are often strangers, a simple system makes sense because there are fewer chances for misunderstanding. In general, he bids what he thinks he can make, and he usually makes what he bids. For that, opponents remember him, too.
Here is Board 26 from the Saturday evening session, June 27, at the Sturbridge tournament. It was played more than 50 times, but only three pairs bid and made the available grand slam. It shows that players can be successful with old-fashioned bidding tools (if they have a little luck):
**2♦ is a "waiting" bid. It may indicate a weak hand, but it could show a strong hand with no five-card suit. This is an old-fashioned bid. More modern treatments would have allowed Claus to show his three kings (or 11 HCP) right away. His 4♠ bid in his next turn showed a strong hand with good spade support.
***4NT is old-fashioned Blackwood, asking for aces. West knows that Claus has none (and will respond 5♣). However, he will next ask for kings. Keycard Blackwood would have allowed Claus to show the ♠K in this round, an important piece of information for West, as Claus's spade raise did not necessarily promise the king. Moreover, old-fashioned Blackwood does not have a way to find the ♠Q, which West also lacks.
****5NT asks for kings. Claus shows three with 5♠.
Most Wests settled for 6♠, certainly a reasonable choice, assuming they knew they were missing the ♠Q and one king. However, the missing king might be the ♥K (which is irrelevant) or it might be finessable. As it turns out, the hands are strong enough to make 13 tricks without finessing any king.
More important, ignorance is bliss. Because Claus plays a simple system, West doesn't know that Claus lacks the ♠♠Q. Claus might have it, or it might be finessable. There would be a play for 7♠♠ as long as Claus wasn't missing both the ♠♠Q and ♠♠K, but that wasn't likely. With three kings and three or four little spades, Claus would probably have bid 3NT or 4NT at his second turn, because then he would play the hand and the opening lead would come up to his kings.
This is where luck takes over. The missing king is irrelevant, because West's two lowest clubs can be discarded on the ♥K and ♥Q. But where is the missing ♠Q? West can play the ♠♠A and ♠K, hoping that the outstanding spades are divided 2-2. The odds slightly favor a finesse (a 50-percent chance), but which way? Claus's partner led a spade to the king and returned a spade to the jack, the right guess. A half dozen pairs were down one on this board, apparently having tried 7♠ (or 7NT) and misguessing the ♠Q. Of the three ways to play the spades, two will fail and one will win, which was the actual success rate. As West tabled the ♠J, South exclaimed in disgust, "Doesn't anybody ever guess wrong against me?"
Stirring up Sturbridge
A dozen Vineyard duplicate bridge players were extraordinarily successful at the American Contract Bridge League summer regional tournament held at Sturbridge, June 24 to 28. Everyone came home with ACBL master points, six players with baskets of them, including an unusual majority of coveted "gold points," which are awarded only to winners of sections and overall high finishers in multiple-section events.
The premier event, billed as "Gold Rush Pairs" for those with fewer than 750 master points, drew an astounding 332 players, requiring nine sections held in two hotel banquet halls. Susan and Dale Collinson finished second overall in the event, earning more than 14 gold points (more than half of the gold points required to be a Life Master).
Ed Russell and Deirdre Ling of West Tisbury, teamed with a pair from off-Island, won the C division of the Thursday Swiss teams.
Bill Blakesley of West Tisbury and Hugh Knipmeyer of Vineyard Haven ventured into very deep waters. On both Friday and Saturday they competed in championship events against players with thousands of master points. They finished fourth on Friday in a division for players with up to 3,000 points. They were also second in Bracket 3 of the Sunday round-robin teams.
The results: 16.59 Susan Collinson,16.59 Dale Collinson, 14.57 Edward Russell, 14.57 Deirdre Ling, 12.82 William Blakesley, 12.82 Hugh Knipmeyer, 3.26 Daniel Cabot, 3.26 Claus Buchthal, 3.19 Rhonda Cohen, 3.19 Eric Stricoff, 1.05 Simeon Denhart, 1.05 Geraldine Averill.
