GLOSSARY
Auction Bridge:
The early version of BRIDGE, which developed from the first Bridge and Whist rules, was modified in 1903-1914. Clockwise bidding, pass, double and redouble commands were added. So it became possible to resign from the game when all four players pass at the beginning.
Bermuda Bowl:
World Bridge championship open set up by World Bridge Federation (WBF).
Bidding:
The process of setting contract by making simultaneous bids, which means offering specified amount of tricks to be taken the suit which the player wants to be a trump. There are many different kinds of bidding, openings and convention cards. For further details refer to CONVENTIONS section.
Bridge:
A card game. For the history and origin refer to the HISTORY section. For game rules refer to the BASICS or GAMEPLAY section.
Card Suits:
See SUITS.
Card Value:
See VALUE.
Contract:
The last correct bid that has been offered by player (no difference if it has been DOUBLED or REDOUBLED). By selecting the number with a card suit a player declares the number of tricks he will get while playing (the number declared plus six, e.g. 3
means a player declares 9 tricks - 6+3) and which suit will be trump (in this example player declared a trump ). For a successfully completed contract players get a specified number of points. When the contract is not completed, the number of points is transferred to the opponents' pair.
Contract Bridge:
The most popular form of Bridge evolved from AUCTION BRIDGE in 1915-1924 in the USA. Both forms were competing against each other until the early 30s. It is believed that the creator of that form of Bridge was HAROLD VANDERBILT, who set the most important rules and put them into numeric values. In 1932 they became the international scores. Since then those rules have not been changed up till now.
Culbertson Ely:
(1891-1955). He was born in Ploeszti, Romania and he died in Brattleboro (the USA). He was the American Bridge expert and for many years the biggest Bridge authority in the world, who reformed and popularized the game all over the world. He studied at Sorbona, Geneva, Yale and Cornell University. He was fluent in English, Russian, Spanish, French, Swedish, Polish, Italian, Latin, and more… In 1921 he came to the United States and married a famous Bridge teacher, Josephine Dillon. As a Bridge pair they both became even more famous and successful. In 1926-1929 he initiated the campaign for superiority of CONTRACT BRIDGE over AUCTION BRIDGE, which was very successful in a few years. In 1929 he started publishing "Bridge World" magazine, which became very popular and it still exists. He started publishing Bridge books which soon became bestsellers, for example "Contract Bridge Blue Book" or "Contract Bridge Red Book on Play". After 1938 he stopped being a Bridge expert as he was involved into political activities for GOREN CHARLES H.. As a declared pacifist, after the World War II he suggested international weapon control and presented that theory in his books "Total Peace" (1943) and "Must we fight Russia?" (1947). The United Nations having been created, his project became very popular and 59 members of Congress and Senate made the necessary resolution.
Declarer:
It is the player who accomplishes his contract using his cards and cards belonging to a dummy (see: DUMMY). A declarer is one of a pair who first offered CONTRACT the winning suit BIDDING.
Defender:
It is a declarer's opponent who tries to prevent a declarer from reaching CONTRACT declared in a BID. There are always two defenders against one declarer and one dummy.
Double:
It is the announcement that can be done after the opponent's BID. If this bid becomes a CONTRACT, the winning pair gain much more points. There are a few kinds of doubles:
Natural doubles - announced by opponents hoping to get more points for a declarer's loss;
Lead directing doubles - announced by a player in order to suggest his partner the suit of an
OPENING LEAD;
Informatory doubles - announced by a player to give his partner some information about his hand which means about his strength, the number of honors, etc. There are various kinds of tactics; for more information refer to Bridge books;
Tactic doubles - announced by a player to make decisions about further bidding easily - to play
CONTRACT, or to let the opposite pair do that;
Psychological doubles - made by a player emotionally or to deceive opponents.
Dummy:
It is a player whose partner has become a declarer and accomplishes a contract. A dummy cannot use his cards and his partner takes full control of them. When the first card is put on the table, a dummy uncovers his cards to the players and puts them on the table. Since that moment he does not play.
Goren Charles H.:
(1901-1991) An American Bridge publisher, a teacher and a TV presenter. Together with ELY CULBERTSON he is known as the greatest Bridge authority. He was a honorary member of American Bridge League and a world Bridge champion in 1950. For 18 years he was on the top of rank lists. In 1969 he was honored with a title of "Mr. Bridge". He was the first in history to create a series of TV programs about bridge.
Grand Slam:
It is a contract taking all tricks; seven declared, for example 7
, or 7NT. To win such a contract, players get a large number of points (see Scoring in GAMEPLAY section).
Honor:
The highest quality cards - Ace (A), King (K), Queen (Q), Jack (J), sometimes ten (10). A, K and Q are the oldest honors, while W and 10 are the youngest ones.
Hoyle Edmond:
(1679-1769). He was born in Great Britain. He was a WHIST authority and a professional teacher of this game. His book "A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist, Containing the Laws of the Game and also Some Rules Whereby a Beginner May with Due Attention to Them, Attain to the Playing it Well" (1742) has become the bestseller and has been reissued over ten times. He was the first theorist, who gathered and arranged all the game techniques, rules and ethics (the part regarding ethics and fair play has been transferred to the Bridge rules without any change). He was the first to add the calculus of probability to the game.
Little Slam:
It is a contract taking 12 tricks - six declared, for example 6 or 6NT. To win such a contract, players get a large number of points (see Scoring in GAMEPLAY section).
Low Card:
A card that is younger than HONOR. Every pack of cards (52) has 32 of them - eight in each suit. Those are the cards with numbers from 2 to 9. Sometimes a low card is marked as the letter "x".
Mitchell John Templeton:
(1854-1914) He was born in Scotland but moved to the United States in 1875, where he became famous Whist expert. He created the first Whist club in Chicago and wrote first book about Whist all over the world, which was published in 1891. He was the United States Whist champion in 1895, and the director of American Whist League.
No trump:
See NT.
NT:
This is a special bidding option, when a player chooses No trump. For example 4NT means taking 10 tricks (6+4) with no trump selected. In the bidding hierarchy this is the highest option.
Opening lead:
The first lead in the game, when the BIDDING is over. Sometimes the whole game depends on an opening.
Overtrick:
Every trick taken by declarers which exceeds the number of tricks declared while BIDDING.
Pack:
52 cards. All cards used to play Bridge. It consists of four suits; in each suit there are 13 cards - 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K and A. Also see VALUE.
Part score:
By a part-score we mean earning less than 100 points in one deal. This is an incomplete game. The points from incomplete games accumulate, that is when a pair gets 60 points in one deal and 80 points in the next one, two part-scores are one game finished. Then players (in our online Bridge the computer does it) draw another vertical line and points from another deals are put down under this new line.
Pass:
A player's declaration while BIDDING in which - only in this specified moment - he does not want to decide about a bid (or cannot decide, for example because of a bad set of cards). When four passes will happen at the beginning of the bid, cards must be shuffled and the game starts again from the beginning.
Redouble:
The announcement, which can be done only if DOUBLE was announced. It makes the number of points gained after the game even more valuable. Announcing redouble a player just declares that the opponent's double was a mistake.
Rubber:
A rubber is the base of the game. It finishes when a pair who have completed the first game get the number of points which allows them to finish the second one. Two games completed make one rubber (At least one hundred points under the line twice). The pair get a big bonus for the rubber completed. The scoring systems are presented in the GAMEPLAY section.
S.A.C.C.:
This early form of Bridge was created in India. For the first time it was published in "The Times of India". Its popularity never spread outside the India territory. However this system is claimed to be the precursory of the modern Bridge, because of the new, vital rules. For example the game was possible to be won only if a declared number of tricks was taken by a declaring pair.
Scoring:
Scoring is a system of getting points for won and lost deals, games, rubbers and so on. For details about scoring refer to GAMEPLAY section.
Suits:
One of the four groups of cards. Every group has its own, different suit (Clubs - black , Diamonds - red , Hearts - red 
, Spades - black 
). The hierarchy is set like this:
Clubs
- the lowest suit;
Diamonds
;
Hearts
;
Spades
- the highest suit.
When bidding is over, the suit set by the winning pair becomes the TRUMP SUIT. And this suit is always the highest in hierarchy! It means that when you put 2 on opponent's A when is trump, your card wins.
Trick:
Four cards are put on the table in the specified order (clockwise). The complete trick is taken by the player whose card was the highest. That player starts another turn by putting his card as the first one. A player may get the trick in three ways:
Qualitative - This happens when all cards are in the same suit and winning side's player has the one of highest value;
Quantitative - This happens when one of players from one pair has more cards in a specified suit than any of the players from an opposite pair;
Ruffing trick (ruffer) - is the trick taken when a player does not have any cards in a selected suit. This gives him the right to use the
TRUMP SUIT. If no more trumps are used, this player's team takes the trick.
Trump suit:
Trump suit is a suit that has won BIDDING - which happens when a player has suggested the number in that suit and other players PASS. In the game this is the strongest suit, which always beats the others. If the trick contains one trump card, a player who laid that card takes the trick. If the trick contains more than one trump card, the winner is a trump card with the highest value.
Undertrick:
It is every missing trick from the amount of tricks declared by a player while BIDDING.
Undertrick penalties:
It is number of points got by declarer's opponents (DEFENDERS), when a contract is lost.
Value:
Each card has its special value, which makes it stronger or weaker than other cards. The Bridge scale is presented in the chart below:
| 2 | weakest |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 | |
| 10 | |
| J - Jack | |
| Q - Queen | |
| K - King | |
| A - Ace | strongest |
Vanderbilt Harold Stirling:
(1884-1970). He was born in the United States in a famous multimillionaire family. As a businessman with many hobbies and interests, such as sailing, he was one of the most famous Bridge players in the history, one of the major reformers of a previous version of the game, and an outstanding player. He started to play professional Bridge in 1906 and until 1920 he was a member of the best pair in the USA. In 1925 he elaborated new score, which was the base of the modern Bridge system. As a member of the Law Committee of the Whist Club of New York after a couple of years he was chosen its president. He was one of the creators of the first international code of Bridge laws and its amendments in 1935, 1948 and 1949. Having contributed to this all, he was appointed the first honorary member of the World Bridge Federation.
Vulnerability:
A pair is claimed to be vulnerable if it has completed at least one game. It affects the number of points received by the pair when a contract is successful (gets more points) and the number of points received by the defenders if the declarer's contract is unsuccessful (defenders get more points).
Whist:
This card game which was the precursor of Bridge, came from Great Britain. The resources of this game were three card games - trump, ruff and whisk, which were played in the 16th century. At the end of the 17th century the game gained much popularity, but it actually started to flourish in 1743 owing to the EDMOND HOYLE'S publication about Whist. The game is played as follows: each player deals 13 cards and tries to win with a partner as many tricks as possible, exactly as it happens in Bridge; one card from one player. The trick is won and taken by the team with the player whose card was the highest. There is no such thing as determining a trump suit and scoring is very simple. (The TRUMP SUIT in Whist is the last card, which is meant for the dealer. Also, there is no such things as DUMMY; the players' cards are covered all the time).
LOBO113