bridge in the SSSR

[ameliede at EARTHLINK.NET]

-----Original Message-----
>From: Robert Orr <colkitto at ROGERS.COM>
>Sent: May 15, 2011 8:44 PM
>To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
>Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] bridge in the SSSR
>
>But was bridge not originally a Russian game in any case?
>
>http://www.pagat.com/boston/biritch.html
>
>
> Well, since anecdotes are welcome, about 50 years ago I played bridge at UCLA with Kirill Taranovsky's son Ted who was also a grad student.  For some reason we played bridge in Russian, that is, we bid and played in russian, and suddenly all the terms are coming back:  bubni, trefi, chervi, piki, bez kozyrya, odin raz, dva raza, etc.  To trump is bit' kozyrem.  Double is udvoeno.  Apologize for any mistakes; can't check spelling where I am. 
Anyway, if I remember correctly, Kirill T. was a serious bridge player in Yugoslavia, whatever Stalin thought about it.  The story re bridge in the Kremlin in 1941 is that someone, I think maybe Molotov, was bidding a slam when he was told about the Germans invading.  Of course he played the hand before leaving the table.  Has all the earmarks of apocrypha, but who knows?
Jules Levin
Los Angeles 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------