Alfred SHEINWOLD
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Alfred SHEINWOLD |
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"Freddy" è nato a Londra il 26 gennaio del 1912 ed è emigrato giovanissimo negli Stati Uniti dove si è laureato nel 1933 al City College di New York.
Esperto di leggi, è stato un noto articolista e uno degli scrittori di maggior successo e, nella sua vita il bridge ha svolto un ruolo primario, secondo solo alla musica che egli amava ancor di più, praticando il canto grazie alla sua buona voce tenorile.
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Sposato e separato da Betty, che poi si risposò con il campione Kaplan, fu sposato anche con Patricia Fox, altra campionessa e scrittrice e non solo di bridge.
Alfred ha vissuto prima in New York City e poi a Sherman Oaks, una cittadina una ventina di km a Nord Ovest di Los Angeles, dove si è spento l'8 marzo del 1997 a causa di un infarto.
Esperto in decrittazione durante la seconda guerra mondiale fece parte di uno dei tanti team che cercavano di decifrare i codici delle trasmissioni naziste.
Capitano della squadra USA che vinse l'argento nella famigerata edizione della Bermuda Bowl del 1975 nella quale vennero accusati di segnalazioni illecite gli azzurri Facchini e Zucchelli e che fu poi, ugualmente vinta dal Blue Team, fu costretto ad attendere un altro decennio prima di portare il team a stelle e strisce al titolo, battendo in finale la squadra austriaca a Rio.
Come giocatore ottenne molti successi in vari tornei nazionali tra i quali spicca la conquista della Reisinger nel 1958 e del Mitchell nel 1964.
Co-editore di "The Bridge World" dal 1934 al 1963, editore dell'ACBL bulletin dal 1952 al 1958, e per diversi anni autore del prestigioso Los Angeles Times Syndicate, è anche stato il primo ad introdurre le lezioni di bridge in una pay TV.
Presidente della ACBL Law Commission dal 1964 al 1975 e dell'ACBL Board of Governors dal 1970 al 1973, membro dell'Editorial Advisory Board della Bridge Encyclopedia, membro onorario della ACBL dal 1983, è stato una delle più eminenti figure del bridge statunitense tanto che, nel 1996 è entrato a far parte della prestigiosa Hall of Fame del bridge.
Oggi viene ricordato dall'Alfred Sheinwold Trophy che ogni anno premia i vincitori del Grand National Teams Flight B ai Summer NABC's e per il suo sistema dichiarativo il famoso "Kaplan-Sheinwold" che introdusse molte novità nella licitazione (cfr. Fragment Bid) e che viene ancor oggi utilizzato da un buon numero di giocatori.
Alfred Sheinwold (1912-1997) one of the world’s foremost
bridge columnists, authors and analysts, Alfred (Freddy) Sheinwold is best known
for a writing career that spanned nearly seven decades. But the champion player
and famed international team captain had many other credits inside and outside
the world of bridge.
Sheinwold was a Laws expert who served as chairman of the ACBL Laws Commission and of the Appeals Committee at North American Championships.
He was chairman of the ACBL Board of Governors in the early Seventies and was named ACBL Honorary Member in 1983.
Sheinwold wrote more than a dozen books as well as a series of Pocket Book of Bridge Quizzes.
He achieved fame as a lecturer and speaker with acclaim from many groups, including bridge teachers’ associations and the ACBL Intermediate/Novice program.
He was a story teller and raconteur without peer. A real audience pleaser, he had an amazing memory and an endless file of entertaining talks and anecdotes.
Of Sheinwold’s many popular books, the most successful, 5 Weeks to Winning Bridge, has gone through many editions and sold more than a million copies.
During World War II, he was chief code and cipher expert of the Office of Strategic Services. For a decade in the Forties and Fifties he was a singer with the Cantata Singers.
His writing and editing background is awesome, dating back to the Culbertson era, when he was technical editor, managing editor and senior editor of The Bridge World magazine. He was editor-in-chief of Autobridge since 1938.
He was editor of the ACBL Bulletin and edited the NABC Daily Bulletins.
He was the longtime bridge editor of The Los Angeles Times, was a contributing editor of Popular Bridge, and was the syndicated bridge and backgammon columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
Sheinwold was a top-ranked player until he retired from competition. He won the Chicago (now the Reisinger) in 1958 and the Men’s Teams in 1964. He was second in the Vanderbilt in 1958 and the Chicago in 1959. He also won numerous regional championships.
Sheinwold’s partnership, friendship and collaboration with Edgar Kaplan is legendary. The two co-invented the Kaplan-Sheinwold system, which features the weak notrump and other features still widely played in tournament bridge.
Sheinwold was non-playing captain of the 1975 Bermuda Bowl team when two Italian players were caught sending foot signals during play.
Sheinwold strongly felt that his American team should not continue in the tournament unless the offenders were ejected, but he was overruled by ACBL officials.
The Americans lost to the Italians. Ten years later, after the rift with ACBL brass was repaired, Sheinwold captained another American team in the Bermuda Bowl world championships in Saõ Paulo, Brazil --- this time they won.
Born in London England in 1912, Sheinwold lived in New York and graduated from City College of New York in 1933. He became associated with the Culbertson organization about that time --- and that’s when one of the most remarkable careers in American bridge got under way.
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