Chekhov query

[Michael Denner]

I had to write a long footnote on vint not long ago... Here's the essence of what I figured out (I am not a bridge player): 

Vint is a combination of the British game whist and préference (a game developed in Russia, despite its name), and is played by two teams of two. The rules and aims are pretty similar to bridge -- you aim to get win as many tricks as possible by bidding, as a team, the highest lead or trump card. 

Whist is actually the progenitor of bridge: Whist started out in the 17th century, maybe earlier, in England as a pretty simple, barroom game for the hoi polloi, not unlike Uno or War. It evolved, as it became popular with the middle and upper classes, into a family of more complicated, strategic games: bridge whist, contract bridge, auction bridge (later, just bridge -- which refers specifically to contract bridge). By the end of the 19th century, most people in the US and GB played bridge, not whist. 

Vint became popular in Russia at about the same time as whist was becoming bridge in the Anglophone world, i.e., around the beginning of the 1870s. It's still played a lot today. It got bidding for the trump suit before the deal from the game preference, but the number of cards and dealing from whist. Большой шлем in English is a "grand slam" -- A contract to make all 13 tricks. Usually there's a prize for it. A малый/маленький шлем is a contract to make 12 tricks -- a "little slam" in bridge parlance.  

Vint's different from most versions of bridge (I think) in that you get to negotiate the trump. 

I can definitely say that vint is a specifically Russian game, played in the US only by émigrés and the curious. 


mad
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Dr. Michael A. Denner
Russian Studies Program
Director, Honors Program
Stetson University
Campus Box 8361
DeLand, FL 32724
386.822.7381 (department)
386.822.7265 (direct line)
386.822.7380 (fax)
http://www.stetson.edu/~mdenner


-----Original Message-----
From: Zielinski [mailto:zielinski at GMX.CH] 
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 2:34 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Chekhov query

Vint seems to be a variation of whist:

"Variations of whist include solo whist, Boston whist (Boston),
and vint."

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9076789

Jan Zielinski

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