My early bridge career
I learned to play bridge when I was six years old, but did not play much until I was thirteen. That was because other kids did not know how to play bridge, and the local duplicate bridge club met on Thursday nights, a school night. But I played a lot of Oh Hell, which is similar to bridge and whist. I did not start studying bridge until I was twelve.
In those days contract bridge was in its infancy, and the general level of technique was not very high. The hallmark of an expert then was said to be the ability to run a squeeze play. I ran my first one at age thirteen. It was on defense. I put my partner in to run her suit, which squeezed the declarer. I was the only one at the table who understood what had happened. When I was fourteen the local life master said that I was the best player in the club at the play of the hand, but the worst bidder.
When I arrived in Japan I looked up the local duplicate club in Tokyo. The had a game on Tuesday night. I called them up and spoke to a guy named Joe Montalto, who was one of the top level players in Japan at that time, though I did not know that, of course. He said that he would play with me unless another walk-in arrived. We won, and I recall that we defeated a two diamond contract by six tricks for a top score on that hand. He criticized my play on that hand, which surprised me because 1) it worked, and 2) we got a very good result.
I started playing frequently at the club, which had a game every afternoon and some nights. I played to make the local life masters look foolish, which was not a very good attitude, I am afraid.
I played a lot with Yetta Graeler, who was the wife of the concert master of the NHK orchestra, Louis Graeler.
One day Joe asked me to play with him that coming Sunday afternoon. On one hand I played a trump squeeze, which I thought nothing about, but Joe was suitably impressed.
After the game he told me that he was thinking about asking me to join his team, and that if I was amenable, there was a tournament the next month that we could play in and he would decide after that. Of course I agreed, and we got together socially with the rest of his team that evening. BTW, Joe was very good at the play of the cards. It was said that he could play the hand one trick better than everybody else, but unfortunately, he overbid by two tricks.
One member of Joe’s team was Lou Schaefer, the Philippina wife of an American Colonel. There was another guy at the club, Kunio, who was a couple of years older than I. Lou used to tell people that we were her sons. She said, “I had Kuni when the Japanese invaded, and Bill when the Americans came back.”
After the initial team get together Lou took me aside and told me to ignore Joe’s criticisms. “He criticizes everybody,” she said. It soon became apparent that Joe was asking me to possibly join his team because his teammates were tired of his constant criticism, and no longer wanted to be his partner. On the team they would play at the other table.
Joe and I played often in the weeks before the tournament, and his constant criticism was wearing. The trouble is, he was often right, or his critiques fell into a gray area that you could argue with. I never did. Yetta was also hypercritical, but she was not in Joe’s league, and it was easy to sluff off her complaints. Later, in New Mexico I also played with a woman who was also hypercritical, but she never criticized me. One player dubbed us Spight and Malice.
(What is it with these hypercritical bridge partners? Bad karma?)
In those days Japanese tournaments were one day affairs, as the Japan Contract Bridge League did not have a whole lot of players. Early in the first session Joe criticized my play on the previous hand. But this time there was no gray area, his analysis was simply wrong. I saw my chance and I took it. I set my cards face down on the table and said, “Joe, you are wrong and you know it.” Then I got up and went to the men’s room. I waited around for a couple of minutes and then returned to the table. We finished the round in silence, except for the talk necessary to play the game. Later I told Lou and she said, “You said that to Joe Montalto?!” Joe never criticized me again.
A couple of months later he remarked to someone, “Bill is a fine young player, but temperamental.”
About six months after I arrived in Japan Yetta's son Johnny came back from Czechoslovakia. He is the 5 kyu who got me started playing go and was my first teacher. We played once a week, and sometimes more often, for about 11 months.
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John Fairbairn
is, he will say gote in a flash. Ask him how much it gains, and he will say 5 points. 
White can resign.
is like a dame. Because of the group tax, Black has no territory. OTOH, if White played at 3 the result would be seki, with no territory for either player.
, 
maintains the seki. White can resign.
and "a" together may be said to form a dame, as do 
and "b".
to prevent Black from playing there, but Black counters with 
.
and 
elsewhere
elsewhere
stone for a local score of 0, and White to play captures it for a local score of -2. Each play gains 1 point.
is sente.