Alvin Roth (bridge) explained

Alvin Leon Roth (November 6, 1914 – April 18, 2007) was an American bridge player, considered one of the greatest of all time, and "the premier bidding theorist of his bridge generation". He wrote several books on the game, and invented various bidding conventions that have become commonplace, including five-card majors, negative doubles, forcing notrump, and the unusual notrump.^[1] Roth was considered a fascinating theorist but was described by one partner, Richard "Dick" Freeman, as "very tough to sit opposite—unless you were so thick-skinned that no insult was severe enough to hurt, or you were willing to make extreme sacrifices to get on a winning side."^[2]

Biography

Roth was born in The Bronx. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School and studied mathematics at City College of New York, where he discovered bridge.^[1] Roth then took a job as a government statistician in Washington, D.C. He served in the US Army in World War II, where he met future bridge partner Tobias Stone, then returned to New York City.

He played for the United States or North America in the Bermuda Bowl world team championships of 1955, 1958, and 1967, losing the final each time.^[1] He also won a silver medal with the US team in the 1968 World Team Olympiad.

Roth was a Grand Life Master of the American Contract Bridge League, and a World Life Master of the World Bridge Federation.

After attending a bridge tournament in Miami Beach, Roth moved there and ran a bridge club for five years. Then he founded the Charles Goren School of Bridge in Washington and ran it for ten years. Roth then purchased the Mayfair Club in New York, which he managed until retiring to Florida in 1995.

Roth married twice, first to Fay Edelstein in 1940. They had a son, but were divorced in 1963, and she died in 1995. He married his second wife, Jean Farrell, in 1980.

Roth died of natural causes in Boca Raton.

Bridge accomplishments

Honors

• ACBL Hall of Fame, 1995^[3]

Awards

• Fishbein Trophy 1963, 1965, 1966
• Herman Trophy 1952

Wins

• North American Bridge Championships (30)
  • Vanderbilt (3) 1943, 1963, 1968
  • Spingold (6) 1940, 1956, 1957, 1963, 1966, 1967
  • Chicago (now Reisinger) (3) 1946, 1952, 1961
  • Reisinger (1) 1967
  • Men's Board-a-Match Teams (4) 1955, 1961, 1969, 1971
  • Master Mixed Teams (4) 1952, 1953, 1955, 1965
  • Life Master Pairs (3) 1956, 1971, 1972
  • Fall National Open Pairs (1) 1942
  • Open Pairs (1) 1960
  • Rockwell Mixed Pairs (2) 1946, 1952
  • Hilliard Mixed Pairs (1) 1959
  • Master Individual (1) 1943

Runners-up

• Bermuda Bowl (3) 1955, 1958, 1967
• World Open Team Olympiad (1) 1968
• Olympiad Mixed Teams (1) 1972
• North American Bridge Championships (23)
  • Vanderbilt (2) 1953, 1975
  • Spingold (4) 1943, 1945, 1953, 1961
  • Chicago (now Reisinger) (2) 1937, 1954
  • Reisinger (1) 1966
  • Men's Board-a-Match Teams (4) 1952, 1957, 1973, 1977
  • Master Mixed Teams (5) 1945, 1963, 1966, 1973, 1975
  • Life Master Pairs (1) 1965
  • Fall National Open Pairs (1) 1958
  • Open Pairs (2) 1958, 1966
  • Master Individual (1) 1955
• United States Bridge Championships (1)
  • Open Pair Trials (1) 1967

Publications

Books

• Book: Roth, Alvin . Alvin Roth (bridge) . 1 . Al Roth on Bridge: The Roth–Stone System for Duplicate and Tournament Play . 1st . Melville Publishers . Washington D.C. . 1953 . 176 pages.
• Book: Roth . Alvin . Alvin Roth (bridge) . Stone . Tobias . Tobias Stone . with . Bridge is a Partnership Game: The Roth-Stone System . 1st . E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.. 1958. 58-9305. 237 pages.
• Book: Roth . Alvin . Alvin Roth (bridge) . Rubens . Jeff . Jeff Rubens . with . Modern Bridge Bidding Complete: Introducing the Roth Point Count . 1st . Funk & Wagnalls . New York . 1968 . 68-21644. 512 pages.
• Book: Roth . Alvin . Alvin Roth (bridge) . Rubens . Jeff . Jeff Rubens . with . Bridge for Beginners . 1st . Funk & Wagnalls . New York . 1970 . 73-93922 . 216 pages.
• Book: Roth . Alvin . Alvin Roth (bridge) . Stone . Tobias . Tobias Stone . with . Bridge is a Partnership Game: The Roth-Stone System . 2nd . Granovetter Books . Ballston Lake, NY . 1989 . 22757918 . 237 pages. Preface revised by Alvin Roth.
• Book: Roth, Alvin . Alvin Roth (bridge) . 1 . Picture Bidding: the art of painting a bridge hand . 1st . Granovetter Books . Ballston Lake, NY . 1991 . 0-940257-11-4. 317 pages.

Pamphlets

• Negative Doubles (Louisville: Devyn Press, 1981), Championship Bridge no. 5
• The Unusual No Trump (Devyn, 1981), Championship Bridge no. 11

Notes and References

1. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1842431.ece (Obituary)
2. [Jeff Rubens|Rubens, Jeff]
3. http://www.acbl.org/about-acbl/hall-of-fame/induction-by-year "Induction by Year"