Edwin Kantar

Edwin Bruce (Eddie) Kantar (born November 9, 1932) is an American bridge player, winner of two open world championships for national teams (Bermuda Bowls), and prolific writer of bridge books and columns. Kantar is from Santa Monica, California.^[1]

Biography

Kantar was born in Minneapolis. He learned the game at 11 and started teaching it at the age of 17, first to his friends and later at the University of Minnesota, which he attended.^[2]

Beside the 1977 and 1979 Bermuda Bowls, Kantar has won 15 North American Bridge Championships (NABCs) and is World Bridge Federation (WBF) and American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Grand Life Master.

Kantar started writing about bridge with an article on notrump bidding in the December 1954 of The Bridge World.^[3] He has written more than 35 bridge books and he is a regular contributor to the ACBL Bridge Bulletin (with two monthly columns), The Bridge World, and Bridge Today. In a survey of bridge writers and players taken in 1994, Complete Defensive Play was among the top 20 of all-time favorite bridge books.^[4] Six of his books have won the American Bridge Teachers' Association (ABTA) award for Best Book of the Year.^[5]

Kantar writes at home in California and lectures on bridge cruises. He also teaches occasionally in the Los Angeles area as well as lectures several times a year in various resort areas in the U.S. and Canada. When not writing about bridge, Eddie can be found at Venice Beach playing paddle tennis, a sport in which he has also garnered several trophies. Eddie is the only person ever to have played in a World Bridge Championship and a World Table Tennis Championship.^[6][7]

Bridge accomplishments

Honors

• ACBL Hall of Fame, 1996^[8]

Awards

• Precision Award (Best Article or Series on a System or Convention) 1981

Wins

• Bermuda Bowl (2) 1977, 1979
• North American Bridge Championships (15)
  • Vanderbilt (3) 1964, 1978, 1988
  • Spingold (4) 1961, 1962, 1973, 1978
  • Chicago (now Reisinger) (2) 1962, 1965
  • Reisinger (2) 1976, 1980
  • Grand National Teams (2) 1974, 1976
  • North American Men's Swiss Teams (1) 1987
  • Life Master Pairs (1) 1983
• United States Bridge Championships (3)
  • Open Team Trials (3) 1974, 1977, 1979
• Other notable wins:
  • Pan American Invitational Open Teams (1) 1977
  • Maccabiah Games (1) 1981

Runners-up

• Bermuda Bowl (1) 1975
• North American Bridge Championships (15)
  • Vanderbilt (7) 1961, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1983, 1989
  • Spingold (1) 1991
  • Reisinger (3) 1968, 1983, 1992
  • Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1970
  • Fall National Open Pairs (1) 1962
  • Men's Pairs (2) 1962, 1967
• United States Bridge Championships (1)
  • Open Team Trials (1) 1973

See also

• Edwin Kantar bibliography

References

1. American Contract Bridge League. The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (5th Edition). p. 661.
2. "Kantar, Edwin". Hall of Fame. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-12-23.
3. The Bridge World, Volume 26, Number 3 (December 1954), page 16.
4. (ACBL) Bridge Bulletin, June 2007, page 20.
5. "ABTA Book of the Year Winners 1982–current". American Bridge Teachers Association (abtahome.com). Retrieved 2014-05-16.
6. Francis, Henry G., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Francis, Dorthy A., Editor, Sixth Edition (2001). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (6th ed.). Memphis, TN: American Contract Bridge League. p. 675. ISBN 0-943855-44-6. OCLC 49606900.
7. "ACBL Hall of Fame – Edwin (Eddie) Kantar" on YouTube (audio-video). Interview by Audrey Grant. Retrieved 2014-05-16.
8. "Induction by Year". Hall of Fame. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-12-16.

External links

• Official website
• Citation at the ACBL Hall of Fame – with linked video interviews
• Edwin Kantar international record at the World Bridge Federation.
• Discover Bridge App and Practice booklets at www.will-bridge.us
• List of Kantar's books at Bridge Guys
• Edwin B. Kantar at Library of Congress Authorities, with 14 catalog records