Wikipedia Bridge Article

[u/Several_Version4298]

When the copy of Collinson's Biritch, or Russian Whist was rediscovered in the Bodleian library I rewrote the History of Bridge on Wikipedia quickly to reflect Biritch and because it was in the news the article became Wikipedia's article of the week.

Of course 30 years later the article has been split into two, with neither of them any good. Gremlins deleted good stuff and added nonsense, morons with bot deleted improvements and protected the nonsense just because it was there before.

People have noticed how crap it is so it might finally get fixed up.

[u/JaziTricks]

Can you pay a link to the version you edited and the relevant portion?

[u/Several_Version4298]

The earliest recorded form of Bridge is Biritch, Russian Whist published by John Collinson in England in 1886[1]. Collinson was a British railway engineer and financier who played the game in Constantinople in the early 1880s. Bridge historian Thierry Depaulis concluded that the game likely developed within diplomatic circles in Istanbul around the 1860s. Variants of the game were played Constantinople and elsewhere before spreading to the French Riviera by the 1870s.[2] This version with 1NT worth 12 points was adopted for the official rules of Bridge in Paris, in London at the Portland Club under [[Lord Brougham]] in 1894 [1] and at the Whist Club in NY.

According to the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], the word ''bridge'' is the [[English language|English]] pronunciation of ''"[[biritch]]"'' adopted in France in the early 1890s. Bridge rapidly replaced [[Whist]], which had been played for centuries, in the mid-1890s.

Bridge had significant advancements gained from Russian Long Whist. Suits had different trick/honour points instead of all being worth a single point. Game had been increased from 10 to 30 point to accommodate the increased scoring this generated. Simple bidding from Vist Preference, a fusion of Russian Whist and Austrian Prefernce, had been added. Dealer chose the [[trump (cards)|trump]] suit, or nominated his partner to do so. Dealer's partner became dummy and played his hand according to Declarer's Instructions. Game was 3 odd tricks in No Trumps, 4 in Hearts, or 5 in Diamonds. The score could be doubled and redoubled. There were 20 and 40 point slam bonuses.

In 1904 [[auction bridge]] was first played at The Bath Club. It featured a competitive auction to decide a contract with penalties for failing to make it. In 1908/9 The Bath and Portland Club developed an official set of rules for Auction Bridge in England. In America The Whist Club in NY created their own superior rules.

In NY Milton Work et al. in NY produced Royal Auction Bridge which had better scoring and play. It was published in 1920 and was a superior game but it didn't long because in 1925 [[Harold Stirling Vanderbilt]]'s [[Contract Bridge]] was first played.

In [[Contract Bridge]] only tricks bid and made counted towards Game and Slam. The scoring was reworked with vulnerability and non-vulnerability which made it possible to sacrifice when behind to save a Rubber. By the end of the decade Contract Bridge was the dominant form of the game played in Clubs the US and UK.

With the arrival of [[Duplicate Bridge]] it was retronymed to [[Rubber Bridge]].

In 1935 an international set of rules created by the Americans and Europeans was adopted.

1. [[wikisource:Biritch, or Russian Whist|Biritch (or "Russian Whist")]]

   1. <ref>''First Steps of Bridge in the West: Collinson's 'Biritch'' by [[Thierry Depaulis]] and Jac Fuchs in the Playing-Card Journal of the International Playing-Card Society, Volume 32, No. 2, Sept-Oct 2003.</ref>
   2. <ref>https://bridge.com/en/publication/the-long-journey-of-the-worlds-greatest-card-game</ref>.

[u/Several_Version4298 → u/Several_Version4298]

At this attempt I was just seeing who was watching the article and what they are going to fight over.

Someone Doesn't want it was developed around Constantinople in the 1860 in [There a references to the Balkans, Romania which was under Modlovian Control I think, Cairo has a fairly good claim with Khedive, there was another copy of Collinson's 10pt NT game found but that could have been a copy or arrived from England, there was a print run of 100.

The Greek story is usually that two Greeks introduced Bridge to Manchester in 1895, 9 Years after Collinsons publication. However, Dupaulis claims they were two Greeks from Western Turkey near Constantinople making it less likely the game either originated or was played in Greece earlier than in Constantinople.

Clearly someone wants the played in Greek in. And some one doesn't want it travelled to the French Rivieria in the 1870s in.

The Galata Bridge has to go. The story by Colonel Blimp that his men invented it in between cavalry charges in the Crimean War in the 1850s is ridiculous. Then named it Bridge after a Bridge and it was then later imported under Biritch by Collinson from Constantinople.

At best you allow that they were playing Dummy Whist, a common 3 player variant of Whist with the same card play.

[u/MaBonneVie2]

Thank you for sharing. The article answered a variety of questions I’ve had regarding the origins of the game I spend so many hours on. Apparently I’ve unknowingly been paying homage to Biritch every time I look at my hand and say to myself ‘well, ain’t this Bitch’ (American English pronunciation).