Edgar Kaplan Nuggets
I
Source:
Nikos Sarantakos
All bridge enthusiasts are probably aware of
the fact that Edgar Kaplan was a magnificent Vugraph commentator, much
admired for his wit, besides his analyses. Such witty Vugraph comments have
been collected, published in bulletins and, in fact, most of them are
already on the Net (see, for instance, David Stevenson's pages).
On the other hand, Kaplan
also was an unsurpassable tournament reporter for the Bridge World.
His reports contain a wealth of witty remarks which have not, as far as I
know, been the subject of an anthology. It occurred to me to try and select
those "Kaplan Nuggets" from his reports, as a tribute to the great man that
I was not fortunate enough to know.
As opposed to the Vugraph
comments, the nuggets in the reports are on the average less droll -the
purpose here is different; nor are there in a report idle moments to be
handsomely filled with a witty remark. On the other hand, the reports give
to Kaplan the opportunity to present a distilled piece of wisdom and
experience in witty form.
The unavoidable snag with
such an anthology is that the net result may seem perhaps unfair to Kaplan;
I mean, the reader might conclude that E.K. was continually poking fun at
the players for their errors or bad luck -this is not obviously the case.
Also, since my anthology is concentrated in some periods, some players may
seem to have been constantly the target of Kaplan's wit, which is also
inaccurate. Another snag: some witty remarks are repeated here and there,
especially when Kaplan is criticizing his pet targets (the off-beat notrump
opening, for instance).
My Bridge World
corpus is far from complete; I have almost all the 90s issues, perhaps half
of the 80s' issues and very few from earlier (from the Kaplan era, that is:
I have perhaps 50 issues from the early 60s but Kaplan was not writing the
tournament reports back then; Moyse was). So, inevitably the anthology is a
bit lopsided.
After all these warnings,
please do proceed to the texts. I believe they are worth it!
Nikos Sarantakos
Luxembourg, February 2001
[Hamman reads the cards perfectly,
makes 2NT with an overtrick]
Making three, plus 150 (what a
waste of talent to have him declarer in a part-score!).
"Chicago
Spingold, II", TBW 1/1990, p. 7
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Perhaps you understand
why three Wests decided to double four spades after their partner had
preempted in hearts. All three are marvellous players, so no doubt the
decision is more sensible than it looks to me; perhaps it would be right in
the long run. In the short run, though, they were unable to take any heart
tricks in defence
[declarer made an overtrick]
Ibid, p. 12
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[On a 1D
opening on: Q63/Q3/QJ10952/K9]
My first bridge partner used to
bid on such hands -still does, actually; he would decide later whether to
treat his action as a psych or as a light opening.
"Antipodean
Bowl, II", TBW 5/1990, p. 6
-------------------------------------------------------------------
There was a swing in both matches
when layers impiously chose not to lead their God-given sequence.
"Texas
Vanderbilt", TBW 9/1990, p. 9
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[On grand
slams:]
It is astonishing how often a
player in seven is laying huge odds because the opposing team did not reach
even six at the other table.
"Texas
Vanderbilt, II", TBW 10/1990, p. 5
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[On keycard
disasters]
Many with-it partnerships are up
to six aces, plus several queens of trumps -talk about inflation!
"1990
Spingold", TBW 11/1990, p. 9
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Edgar Kaplan Quotes
[At both tables South holds: KJ1097/A4/AK6/J82,
opens 1NT, North goes to 3NT]
When I started to play bridge, everyone would bid:
one spade-two spades: two notrump-four spades. Plus
420, for a tied board. Nowadays, for some reason
that is far too subtle for me, it is fashionable to
open with one notrump. I admit that it makes no
difference, since the result, a tied board, is the
same. Everyone went honorably down in three notrump,
no swing. |
|
Franco carefully picked his way among winning lines
and found the only losing line in a game everyone
else made. |
|
'In his three notrump contract, declarer has seven
tricks. One more from heaven makes eight and where
there's eight, there's nine.' |
|