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John Templeton  MITCHELL

 Scozzese, nato nel 1854 a Glasgow, si trasferì a Chicago negli Stati Uniti quando aveva 21 anni e presa la cittadinanza americana restò in quella città per il resto della sua vita che si interruppe nel 1914.

 Fondò il primo Whist Club a Chicago e scrisse il primo libro che si ricordi sul Whist competitivo.

 Nel 1895 fu campione americano di Whist  e Direttore dell'American Whist League.

 Rimane noto soprattutto per essere stato l'inventore della più diffusa formula di svolgimento dei Tornei a coppie che, limitando a due soli il numero dei giocatori da mettere d'accordo, rese un grande servigio alla diffusione del gioco.

  Mr. John Templeton Mitchell, born 1854 in Glasgow, Scotland and died 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, was known as and referred to as the King of Duplicate Whist.

 He was paramount in developing and devising table movements for both boards and players at Whist tournaments.

 A movement still popular today in the game of bridge and conducted practically globally is the Mitchell Movement, but he also devised many additional schedules for Individual Movements, Pair Movements, and Team Movements.

He assisted to adapt the matchpoint scoring and employed the game of Whist for the purposes of duplicate auction. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he immigrated to the United States in 1875 and became an American citizen and took up residence in Chicago, Illinois.

It was not until 1888 that he became interested in the game of Whist. The story, mostly valid, states that he became interested when he saw a newspaper clipping from the London Field, which referred to a Duplicate Whist Match being contested by two Duplicate Whist Clubs in his native Glasgow, Scotland, using James Allison's Automatic Hand Registers. Thereupon he decided to establish and form the Chicago Duplicate Whist Club.