In this article we will look at some bridge history and consider one of the great names of the French game.

PIERRE ALBARRAN was born in the French West Indies in 1894 but spent most of his life in Paris. By the early 1920s he had established himself as a leading tennis player and represented France several times in the Davis Cup. But in the early 1930s he switched his attention to the new game of contract bridge being popularised in the States by the Culbertsons. He helped to promote the game in France and in 1935 he played for his country in international bridge events in New York and Brussels. Between 1945 and his death in 1960 Albarran wrote a series of books on bridge and became France’s leading expert. He helped to establish the point count as the basic method of hand evaluation and although he was a supporter of natural bidding systems he also popularised a system called CANAPE. This involved bidding the shorter suit first when holding strong two suited hands, a convention which has gone out of favour.

He is perhaps best remembered for the strong Two Clubs opening bid (LE DEUX TREFLES D’ALBARRAN). This is a forcing bid showing a point count of at least 24 but with any distribution. It is equivalent to the Two Clubs bid in traditional Acol. However STANDARD FRANCAIS now uses opening two bids which are similar to Benjaminised Acol. Two Clubs shows a strong hand with a 22 or 23 count and one or two unspecified long suits while Two Diamonds shows a 24 count. This makes it possible to open weak twos in the Majors.

In his excellent book “Bridge Facile” published in 1970, JOSE LE DENTU wrote about his bridge partner - “PIERRE ALBARRAN, LE PLUS GRAND NOM DE BRIDGE FRANCAIS, A ETE D’ABORD L’INVENTEUR DE LA METHODE ALBARRAN QUI FUT UNE DES PREMIERES ET MEILLEURES CODIFICATIONS DES ENCHERES NATURELLES. MAIS IL ETAIT AUSSI UN FIN PSYCHOLOGUE ET UN TRES GRAND ARTISTE DANS LE JEU DE LA CARTE.”