Charles Goren
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Charles Henry Goren (March 4, 1901 – April 3, 1991) was a famous bridge player, writer and popularizer.
He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Russian immigrants. He earned a law degree at McGill University in Montreal. It was at McGill that a girlfriend laughed at his ineptness at the game of bridge, after which he vowed never to be made fun of again. He began studying the game of bridge intensely, reading every book available at the time on bidding and playing strategies.
When he graduated, he briefly attempted a law career in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Ely Culbertson was becoming rich and famous from the game of contract bridge, and Goren abandoned his original career choice to pursue bridge competitions, where he attracted the attention of Milton Work, who had developed the Work Point Count System. Goren began helping Work with his bridge articles and columns and, eventually, ghost-writing some of the material.
When Goren struck out on his own, his experience with Work's system and with writing about bridge allowed him to quickly become popular as an instructor and lecturer. In 1936, he published the first of what would be many books on playing bridge, Winning Bridge Made Easy.
In the course of his writing he made extensive use of Work's system. Previously, bridge players assessed their hands by counting 'quick tricks'. The high card point count system was a large step forward in bridge theory because it was easy to apply. Aces were assigned a value of four points; kings, three; queens, two and jacks, one point. A hand containing thirteen points was considered to be an opening bid.
Of course, hand distribution can add a great deal to a hand's value and so various systems to assess that have been applied over the years. Voids become very useful when there is trump agreement and so a void in the responding hand was counted as five points and a singleton as three.
Another feature of the Goren system was opening four card suits. An approach known as 'five card majors' has become very popular as a major feature of Standard American bidding. As the name suggests a bidder using that system promises five cards in the suit by bidding one Heart or one Spade.
There is much merit in Goren's four card opening approach, though, and many experts still use it. Any method that uncovers a four-four trump fit is very useful. 'Five card major' bidders sometimes use negative doubles to find four-four trump fits. The advantage of 'Five card majors' is when the opponents bid. Following the Law of Total Tricks is a lot easier in a 'Five card majors' system.
Bridge is an evolving game and many styles and new approaches have been developed over the years. Few people would say that they play 'Goren' now. That takes nothing away from the great skill and competitive spirit that made Charles Goren one of the foremost bridge players of his day.
Goren died in Encino, California, at the age of 90.pl:Charles Goren