Charles Goren facts for kids

Charles Henry Goren (born March 4, 1901 – died April 3, 1991) was a famous American bridge player and writer. He made the game of bridge much more popular and easier to understand. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was known as "Mr. Bridge" because he was the top bridge personality in America.

Charles Goren's Early Life

Charles Goren was born in a place called Khotyn, which is now part of Ukraine. His family later moved to America. In 1923, he earned a law degree from McGill University in Montreal. While he was a student, a friend made fun of him for not being good at bridge. This made him want to learn everything he could about the game!

After finishing law school, Goren worked as a lawyer in Philadelphia for 13 years. But he was very interested in bridge. Another famous bridge player, Ely Culbertson, inspired him to change his career. Goren decided to focus on playing bridge in competitions. There, he met Milton Work, who was a big expert on card games like bridge. Work was impressed by Goren's knowledge and hired him to help write bridge articles.

Milton Work was one of many strong bridge players in Philadelphia during the 1920s. He helped make popular a way of counting points in bridge called the 4-3-2-1 point count system. Goren worked with Work's assistant, Olive Peterson, and they became playing partners.

Goren's big moment as a player came in 1937. He won a major championship called the Board-a-Match Teams (now known as The Reisinger National Bridge Championship). He won with three other players from Philadelphia. Goren continued to be a top player and even became a world champion at the Bermuda Bowl in 1950. He played competitively until about 1962, then spent his time writing and teaching bridge.

How Charles Goren Changed Bridge

After Milton Work passed away in 1934, Charles Goren started his own writing career. In 1936, he published his first bridge book, Winning Bridge Made Easy. Because of his experience with Work's system, Goren quickly became a popular teacher and speaker.

Goren's books sold millions of copies, especially Winning Bridge Made Easy and Contract Bridge Complete. By 1958, his daily bridge column was in 194 American newspapers! He also wrote monthly for McCall's magazine and weekly for Sports Illustrated.

From 1959 to 1964, Goren had his own TV show called Championship Bridge with Charles Goren on the ABC network. The show featured many top players and even famous guests like Chico Marx.

Goren played bridge with many partners. His longest partnership was with Helen Sobel. He also famously partnered with actor Omar Sharif. Sharif even wrote introductions for some of Goren's bridge books and later took over Goren's newspaper column with Tannah Hirsch.

Goren's Point Count System

As Goren continued writing, he worked on improving the point count system. This system, based on Milton Work's ideas, was a better way to value cards in your hand than older methods. Goren created a way to combine the high-card points with other features of a hand. This made it much easier for new and intermediate players to bid well in bridge.

Four-Card Suits Strategy

Goren also helped continue the practice of opening bids with "four-card suits." This means starting the bidding by showing a suit where you have four cards. He followed the lead of Ely Culbertson in this. Later, he stuck with this method, even when another popular approach called "five-card majors" became common.

Opening with a four-card suit can help players find a good "trump fit" with their partner. Many expert players still use this four-card approach today.

Other Bridge Ideas

Besides making bridge simpler for everyone, Goren also helped make the Precision bidding method popular. This is a "strong club system," where an opening bid of one club shows a very strong hand.

Today, a daily bridge column called "Goren Bridge" is still published. It is written by Bob Jones and uses Goren's methods.

Charles Goren's Legacy

Charles Goren passed away on April 3, 1991, in Encino, California, at 90 years old. He had lived with his nephew for 19 years. Even though few people play bridge exactly like Goren did today, the point-count system he made popular is still the main way most bridge bidding systems work.

After Goren's death, a bridge column noted that he left behind many fans. His famous syndicated column continued with Omar Sharif and Tannah Hirsch writing it.

Goren also appeared on TV! He was a guest on the Groucho Marx game show You Bet Your Life in March 1958. He also appeared on the TV game show What’s My Line in December 1961.

Charles Goren's Bridge Achievements

Honors

• ACBL Hall of Fame, 1964
• ACBL Honorary Member of the Year, 1959

Awards

• McKenney Trophy: 1937, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951
• Precision Award (for Best Article or Series on a System or Convention): 1974

Wins

• Bermuda Bowl (World Championship): 1950
• North American Bridge Championships (32 wins total)
  • Vanderbilt (Team Championship): 1944, 1945
  • Asbury Park Trophy (now Spingold): 1937
  • Spingold (Team Championship): 1943, 1947, 1951, 1956, 1960
  • Chicago (now Reisinger) (Team Championship): 1937, 1938, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1950, 1957, 1963
  • Men's Board-a-Match Teams: 1952
  • Master Mixed Teams: 1938, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1948, 1954
  • Life Master Pairs: 1942, 1958
  • Fall National Open Pairs: 1940
  • Men's Pairs: 1938, 1943, 1949
  • Rockwell Mixed Pairs: 1947
  • Hilliard Mixed Pairs: 1943
  • Master Individual: 1945

Runners-up (Second Place)

• Bermuda Bowl (World Championship): 1956, 1957
• North American Bridge Championships (21 times total)
  • Vanderbilt: 1934, 1936, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1955, 1959, 1962
  • Spingold: 1939, 1950
  • Chicago: 1944, 1951
  • Men's Board-a-Match Teams: 1946, 1955
  • Master Mixed Teams: 1946, 1949, 1950, 1951
  • Life Master Pairs: 1953
  • Men's Pairs: 1935
  • Hilliard Mixed Pairs: 1934