![]() Vanderbilt, the railroad tycoon and America's Cup winner, contributed to the development of the first major bridge system, the Vanderbilt Club. In 1977 he relocated to Hawaii, where at the age of 82 he won a major backgammon tournament. A lifelong bachelor, he lived for 47 years in the same Park Avenue apartment with old masters decorating his walls. His other interests included chess, mathematics and philosophy. He was an accomplished linguist and served as a consultant for several dictionaries. This was accomplished in spite of failing eyesight, which caused him to retire totally from bridge soon afterward. Playing in Stockholm with Barbara Brier, he captured the World Mixed Pairs Championship. ![]() In 1958 he helped found the World Bridge Federation and served as an American delegate until his retirement from all official positions in 1968.Īt the age of 74 he became the oldest person ever to win a world bridge title, and perhaps the oldest to do so in any competitive activity. He was a charter member of the National Laws Commission, and was co-chairman of the group that prepared a revised code in 1963. In 1948, at a time of crisis in the affairs of the American Contract Bridge League, he became its president and carried out a major reorganization that set the stage for steady growth. In 1930 he won the Master Pairs, now the Life Master Pairs, and presented a trophy that has been awarded to the winners of the event ever since. He won 19 national titles, including the Vanderbilt Teams and the Spingold Teams three times each. He is credited by some with inventing the forcing-two bid, which was the cornerstone of the Culbertson System. Von Zedtwitz was an amateur, interested in the theory and philosophy of the game rather than commercial success. Contract bridge became his passion, and in 1930 he toured France and England with the Ely Culbertson team, thereby helping to establish Culbertson as the pre-eminent authority on the game for the next two decades. In 1927 he won an auction bridge title, but was already adjusting to the new game introduced by his friend, the yachtsman Harold Vanderbilt. Afterward he settled in New York, renounced his title on becoming an American citizen and took legal action to recover money that had been impounded by the United States Government on the ground that he was an enemey alien. He was educated in Berlin and Bern and served in the German cavalry during World War I. His father was a Saxon Baron whose title he inherited a few months later following a fatal yachting accident. His mother was a Caldwell, a member of a wealthy Kentucky family. He was born in Berlin in 1896 with dual citizenship. In between he played in the earliest international matches, won a string of national titles, reorganized the American Contract Bridge League, helped found the World Bridge Federation and revised the laws of the game. Von Zedtwitz's long bridge career began in the days of auction play and ended triumphantly in 1970 when he won a world title. He had been suffering from respiratory problems following a stroke. Waldemar Von Zedtwitz, one of the greatest figures in the history of contract bridge, died in Hawaii yesterday at the age of 88.
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