Jack Marx (bridge)

Jack Marx (John C.H. Marx 1907–August 29, 1991) was a British international bridge player who was instrumental in developing the Acol System of bidding.

Life

Marx went to Repton School, and served as a Captain in WWII in the RASC.

As a competition bridge player he was a genuine expert, though not the most pragmatic player. A modest man, Marx was widely loved, indeed, he was one of the few bridge players who never made an enemy. He did not, however, have an equable temperament, and this limited his career as an international player.

Marx was a member of the Harrison-Gray team, and partnered Gray to win the European Championship in 1950, but he turned down the chance of playing in the Bermuda Bowl the same year: :"A moody man, subject on occasion to sudden fits of apathy... a nervous, highly-strung man who will, quite suddenly and for no apparent reason, decline to play in a previously arranged match... He was compelled to refuse the Bermuda Bowl match on grounds of health; and any long marathon taxes him severely." [Ramsey, Guy. "Aces all". Museum, London, p112 and see also p114-5] .

Despite his temperament, he won the Gold Cup in 1937 and 1947, and once more in 1971 after Gray's death. ["The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge". ACBL, N.Y., various editions and dates.] [Faulkner, Gerald. John CH 'Jack' Marx 1907-1991, reprinted in Hasenson, Peter (ed) 2004. "British Bridge Almanack". 77 Publishing. p207-8]

Though he never wrote a bridge book, Jack contributed many articles to bridge magazines, compèred many bidding competitions, and appeared on many bidding panels. He held a variety of administrative positions in bridge organisations, and was a British Bridge League selector for many years. [Ramsey, Guy. 1955. "Aces All". Museum Press, London.] After a stroke in the 1970s he recovered sufficiently to play regularly at the London Duplicate Club, but no longer played in major competitions.

The Acol system

Marx is often said to be the first player to devise the idea of bidding 2C over 1NT to ask for 4-card major suits, though it is known that Ewart Kempson had used it in the early thirties. Marx worked out his version in 1939, before Stayman was invented, but published it only in 1946, so losing out to the American. [The Stayman system itself was actually invented by George Rapée! see Stayman convention, "The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge". ACBL, NY.] Marx also devised a Byzantine 4NT that was more complex but more informative than Blackwood.

His most important and lasting achievement was to co-operate with Skid Simon to build up the Acol system of bidding. Others were involved in this – Harrison-Gray, Iain Macleod, Terence Reese, Ben Cohen – but Marx and Simon were at the heart of it. They took the basic approach-forcing ideas of the Culbertson System and adjusted it to make the system more effective when both sides are bidding competitively. [Simon S.J. 1949. "Design for bidding".] [Cohen, Ben and Terence Reese 1938. "The Acol Two Club: with an introduction by S.J.Simon". Leng, Sheffield; subsequent editions were issued under the title of "The Acol System of contract bridge". Joiner & Steele, London, 1939, 1946, 1949, 1956.] The other noteworthy source, according to Marx, was 'Criticus': :"From him Acol took its characteristics of directness and aggression, [and] its reliance on broad principles supplemented by individual judgement rather than on meticulously framed rules of procedure. The composite product that resulted, though a hybrid, was a reasonably self-consistent whole." [Marx J. 1952. "Contract Bridge Journal", December 1952.] ['Criticus' 1933. "Contract simplicitas". Herbert Jenkins, London. [the identity of Criticus is not known] ]

Marx accepted the version of Acol published by Cohen and Reese, [Cohen, Ben and Terence Reese 1938. "The Acol Two Club: with an introduction by S.J.Simon". Leng, Sheffield; subsequent editions were issued under the title of "The Acol System of contract bridge". Joiner & Steele, London, 1939, 1946, 1949, 1956.] calling it "an able, lucid and faithful presentation of our ideas", but was most unhappy about Reese's attempt to update the system in 1952. [Reese, Terence 1952. "Modern bidding and the Acol system". Nicholson & Watson, London.]

:"The universal reaction of those who have hitherto played the system... has been one of bewilderment and dismay. What has happened, for instance, to the old Acol principle of limit bids? [Marx J. 1952. "Contract Bridge Journal", December 1952. p26]

The section Marx objected to most strongly was on responses to take-out doubles. [Reese, Terence 1952. "Modern bidding and the Acol system". Nicholson & Watson, London. 'Stronger responses to take-out doubles', p91-94] The changes proposed by Reese included making the jump response to a take-out double forcing for one round, and a subsequent raise from three to four would also be forcing. This in turn would have the unwelcome effect of stretching the simple suit response to a take-out double from 0 to 11 points instead of 0 to 8 points. The Marx counter to Reese was entirely successful: Reese's idea never became part of Acol.

References