5 ms·
My favorite game in high school and college, which I played twice a week, at one of the clubs in Bucharest, until 1983, when sometimes in the fall Elena Ceauses
by netfortius 3y ago
My favorite game in high school and college, which I played twice a week, at one of the clubs in Bucharest, until 1983, when sometimes in the fall Elena Ceausescu issued an order to close all clubs and remove all mentions of bridge, from all media (we used to have weekly articles published with games analysis). The (un)funny way I found out about this was by my going with my partner to play, one night, and finding the club closed, with absolutely no trace of tables or other items we used to have, up until the session of a few days earlier. After having waited for a while, someone came by and we asked what happened, to which the answer was "There isn't and never was such a thing [bridge club] here! This is a chess club! What are you guys talking about?". Calling late in the night, from my house, the (ex)admin of the bridge club, his answer was very clear: "Don't call again, and don't mention this in public". And that was the end of bridge clubs in Romania (until after 1989). After this we resorted to "mini-clubs", at friends' houses, with up to 4-6 tables, and duplicating like in real tournaments ...
- londgine 3y agoI might be missing something, but what was wrong with the game bridge? Why did the leader of the nation hate it?
- cafard 3y agoPerhaps she lost badly in a tournament?
- raymondh 3y ago""" Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, outlawed bridge, popular with the intelligentsia, and shut down clubs where the card game was played. “They were worried that when too many intelligent people got together, it could easily develop into something else,” mathematician Mircea Mihu said. """ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-28-mn-69-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-28-mn-69-sto...
- londgine 3y agoBut it was replaced by a chess club. I assume that similarly intelligent people play chess.
- ricardobeat 3y agoChess is a 2-player affair only, and not conducive to conversation.
- gowld 3y agoBoth of those claims are incorrect.
- rst4455 3y agoMy guess, authoritarian communist regimes do not take kindly to any private gathering spots for the general public. People were expected to go to work, go home, keep their mouths closed.
- bombcar 3y agoIf you need a group of people that get together regularly and communicate using legal words to convey additional information not directly notable; bridge players are the way to go