Alvin Roth (bridge)
Alvin Leon Roth 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. 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."
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. 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. 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
Awards
- Fishbein Trophy 1963, 1965, 1966
- Herman Trophy 1952
Wins
- North American Bridge Championships
- * Vanderbilt 1943, 1963, 1968
- * Spingold 1940, 1956, 1957, 1963, 1966, 1967
- * Chicago 1946, 1952, 1961
- * Reisinger 1967
- * Men's Board-a-Match Teams 1955, 1961, 1969, 1971
- * Master Mixed Teams 1952, 1953, 1955, 1965
- * Life Master Pairs 1956, 1971, 1972
- * Fall National Open Pairs 1942
- * Open Pairs 1960
- * Rockwell Mixed Pairs 1946, 1952
- * Hilliard Mixed Pairs 1959
- * Master Individual 1943
Runners-up
- Bermuda Bowl 1955, 1958, 1967
- World Open Team Olympiad 1968
- Olympiad Mixed Teams 1972
- North American Bridge Championships
- * Vanderbilt 1953, 1975
- * Spingold 1943, 1945, 1953, 1961
- * Chicago 1937, 1954
- * Reisinger 1966
- * Men's Board-a-Match Teams 1952, 1957, 1973, 1977
- * Master Mixed Teams 1945, 1963, 1966, 1973, 1975
- * Life Master Pairs 1965
- * Fall National Open Pairs 1958
- * Open Pairs 1958, 1966
- * Master Individual 1955
- United States Bridge Championships
- * Open Pair Trials 1967
Publications
;Books- 176 pages.
- 237 pages.
- 512 pages.
- 216 pages.
- 237 pages. Preface revised by Alvin Roth.
- 317 pages.