1925-2025

Celebrating a century of Contract Bridge

Why is this game called “Bridge”?

Origin: Developed in the East Mediterranean and Russia, Russian Whist, was also known as “Biritch”.  it was a 19th-century card game that had evolved from Whist and was a direct ancestor of Bridge as we know it.

Biritch introduced the concept of bidding and the use of a "dummy" hand, allowing the dealer's partner to play a second hand. This bidding system evolved to become the auction in Bridge.  The meaning of "Biritch" itself meant the passing of the choice of trump to the partner. 

The modern game of contract bridge was the result of innovations to the scoring of auction bridge made by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and others. The most significant change was that only the tricks contracted for were counted below the line towards game and slam. That made bidding much more challenging and interesting. Another innovation was the concept of vulnerability, a difference in the sizes of penalties incurred and bonuses won by partnerships that have or have not won one game. That discouraged sacrifice bidding to protect the lead in a rubber. Some other scores were adjusted to produce a more balanced game. Vanderbilt set out his rules in 1925, and within a few years contract bridge had so supplanted other forms of the game that "bridge" became synonymous with "contract bridge."