Rixi Markus
Encyclopedia
Rixi Markus MBE was an Austrian
and British
international contract bridge
player. She won five world titles, and was the first woman to become a World Grand Master within the World Bridge Federation
. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire
(MBE) for contributions to bridge in 1974.
Jewish family in Gura Humorului
, Bukovina
(now in Romania
).
In 1916, her family fled, ahead of the Russian advance, settling in Vienna
. After finishing school
in Dresden
she returned to Vienna
, where she first made her name at the bridge table. Married young, and disastrously, she devoted herself almost entirely to bridge.
In 1938, she fled Austria after German forces entered Vienna (the Anschluss
). Rixi then made her home in London
, where she remained for the rest of her life. She worked as a translator for the Red Cross during World War II
, and became a naturalised British citizen in 1950.
Rixi's husband also came to London. He fought her efforts to gain independence in every way he could, and fought her for custody of their daughter Margo.
Divorce was not simple in those days, but Rixi obtained a judicial separation and a subsequent divorce in 1947. She described in her autobiography three subsequent long-term relationships with men: first Standish Booker, a leading bridge player, then Wash Carr (Walter Copley Carr) of the News of the World
, and lastly Harold Lever (Lord Lever), a senior Labour Party
politician.
Brilliant, intense and argumentative are amongst the mildest adjectives used to describe her presence at the table.
At the Vienna Bridge Club she became the protégée of Dr. Paul Stern
, inventor of the Vienna System of bidding
and leader of Austria's European champion teams. Soon she was one of the best women players, a 1935–1937 member of the Austria Ladies team that won three European and one world teams championship.
After the Anschluss
of Germany and Austria, both Rixi and Stern escaped to London (separately).
In 1950 Markus qualified to play for Britain by virtue of her naturalisation. Her first partnership was with Lady Doris Rhodes
, a good player who had played on 'Pops' Beasley's
British team in its 1933 match with the Culbertson
team. Markus–Rhodes played together in the "Ladies" flight of the European teams championships in 1951 (Venice
) and 1952 (Dun Laoghaire
or Dunleary), winning both times, and in a 1953 tour of the United States where they played in two victorious matches against the American ladies team.
However, it was Rixi's partnership with Fritzi Gordon
in the European championships of 1955 (Amsterdam
) that led to her dominance of the female game in Europe. Excitable and voluble, their post-mortems could often be heard many tables away. She was the same in partnership with the great male players such as Boris Schapiro
and Giorgio Belladonna
, but her friends knew her to be generous and loyal. In her autobiography Markus made her attitude to Gordon clear:
Victor Mollo
wrote of their partnership: "Where Rixi Markus is fiery, Fritzi Gordon is icy cold. Where Rixi takes her contracts by storm, Fritzi makes hers through merciless efficiency..."
Markus was captain of the winning team at Monte Carlo
in 1954 against formidable opposition from all over the world: her team-mates were Konstam
, Dodds
, Reese
, Schapiro
and 'Plum' Meredith
. After their victory, Reese and Konstam decided to ask the British selectors to include Markus in their team for the European championships at Montreux that year, but the selectors did not choose her for either the Open or Ladies teams (the reasons are not known). The Open team played with the lesser player Jordanis Pavlides
in her place, because their other regular team members such as Pedro Juan were not available. That team won the European and later the Bermuda Bowl
trophies. In effect, a bizarre decision by the selectors cost her the European and World teams championships in the Open category. She had other disappointments; this was not the only time she was dropped from the Ladies' team, often when her results were quite outstanding.
Markus was for many years the bridge correspondent of The Guardian
and after 1975 the London Evening Standard
, and wrote a dozen bridge books, including her autobiography. Generally recognized as the top Europe
an woman player, she was the first woman to become a WBF World Grand Master and was the leading woman in the WBF master point rankings from their inception in 1974 until 1980. She was named International Bridge Press Association Personality of the Year in 1974, and was appointed MBE
for contributions to bridge a year later. For many years she organized an annual match between the two Houses of Parliament.
She died of a heart attack on 4 April 1992 at the age of 81.
World runners up
European championships
Other
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
international contract bridge
Contract bridge
Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...
player. She won five world titles, and was the first woman to become a World Grand Master within the World Bridge Federation
World Bridge Federation
The World Bridge Federation is the world governing body of contract bridge. The WBF is responsible for world championship competition, most of which is conducted at a few multi-event meets on a four-year cycle...
. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(MBE) for contributions to bridge in 1974.
Life
Markus was born as Erika (Rixi) Scharfstein into a prosperous AustrianAustrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
Jewish family in Gura Humorului
Gura Humorului
Gura Humorului is a town located in northern Romania, Suceava County in southern Bukovina. Until 1918 it was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and formed a shtetl...
, Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
(now in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
).
In 1916, her family fled, ahead of the Russian advance, settling in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. After finishing school
Finishing school
A finishing school is "a private school for girls that emphasises training in cultural and social activities." The name reflects that it follows on from ordinary school and is intended to complete the educational experience, with classes primarily on etiquette...
in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
she returned to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, where she first made her name at the bridge table. Married young, and disastrously, she devoted herself almost entirely to bridge.
In 1938, she fled Austria after German forces entered Vienna (the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
). Rixi then made her home in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where she remained for the rest of her life. She worked as a translator for the Red Cross during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and became a naturalised British citizen in 1950.
Rixi's husband also came to London. He fought her efforts to gain independence in every way he could, and fought her for custody of their daughter Margo.
Divorce was not simple in those days, but Rixi obtained a judicial separation and a subsequent divorce in 1947. She described in her autobiography three subsequent long-term relationships with men: first Standish Booker, a leading bridge player, then Wash Carr (Walter Copley Carr) of the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
, and lastly Harold Lever (Lord Lever), a senior Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
politician.
Bridge career and personality
At the Vienna Bridge Club she became the protégée of Dr. Paul Stern
Paul Stern
Dr Paul Stern , lawyer and diplomat, was an Austrian international bridge player who fled to London in 1938. He was a bidding theorist and administrator who contributed to the early growth of the game...
, inventor of the Vienna System of bidding
Bidding system
A bidding system in contract bridge is the set of agreements and understandings assigned to calls and sequences of calls used by a partnership, and includes a full description of the meaning of each treatment and convention...
and leader of Austria's European champion teams. Soon she was one of the best women players, a 1935–1937 member of the Austria Ladies team that won three European and one world teams championship.
After the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
of Germany and Austria, both Rixi and Stern escaped to London (separately).
In 1950 Markus qualified to play for Britain by virtue of her naturalisation. Her first partnership was with Lady Doris Rhodes
Doris Rhodes
Lady Doris Rhodes was Britain's leading female bridge player until the arrival of Rixi Markus.- Life in bridge :With her husband, Sir John Rhodes, and a Mrs Bosworth, she started a school for contract bridge in 1931; it was called the Lady Rhodes Bridge School, in Tite Street, Chelsea...
, a good player who had played on 'Pops' Beasley's
Henry Beasley
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mountifort Beasley DSO , known as 'Pops', was a British Army officer and a leading contract bridge personality in the early days of the game.-Life:...
British team in its 1933 match with the Culbertson
Ely Culbertson
Ely Culbertson was an entreprenurial American contract bridge personality dominant during the Thirties and Forties. He played a major role in the early popularization of the game, and was widely regarded as "the man who made contract bridge"...
team. Markus–Rhodes played together in the "Ladies" flight of the European teams championships in 1951 (Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
) and 1952 (Dun Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...
or Dunleary), winning both times, and in a 1953 tour of the United States where they played in two victorious matches against the American ladies team.
However, it was Rixi's partnership with Fritzi Gordon
Fritzi Gordon
Fritzi Gordon was one half of the most famous and tempestuous female partnership in bridge. She was the second woman to attain the rank of World Grand Master, her partner Rixi Markus being the first. She won four world titles, seven European championships and numerous other tournament victories...
in the European championships of 1955 (Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
) that led to her dominance of the female game in Europe. Excitable and voluble, their post-mortems could often be heard many tables away. She was the same in partnership with the great male players such as Boris Schapiro
Boris Schapiro
Boris Schapiro was a British international bridge player. He was a Grandmaster of the World Bridge Federation, and the only player to have won both the Bermuda Bowl and the World Senior Pairs championship...
and Giorgio Belladonna
Giorgio Belladonna
Giorgio Belladonna was an Italian bridge player, one of the most famous in bridge history. He won 16 World championship titles with the Blue Team, playing with Walter Avarelli and Benito Garozzo...
, but her friends knew her to be generous and loyal. In her autobiography Markus made her attitude to Gordon clear:
- "As early as 1945 Paul Stern pointed out Fritzi Gordon to me, saying 'There is the partner for you.' I was not enthusiastic. For one thing, I already had a more than satisfactory partner in Doris Rhodes, a good friend, and for another I suspected that Mrs. Gordon and I would not hit it off socially, whatever we did at the table. My opinion did not change when she played at the Hamilton Club and I got to know her better. [But] as far as bridge is concerned, I have not a word of complaint about Fritzi Gordon, for she was a wonderful player and an excellent partner, who contributed greatly to my own success."
Victor Mollo
Victor Mollo
Victor Mollo was a British bridge journalist and writer. He is most famous for his "Bridge in the Menagerie" series of books, depicting vivid characters of bridge players with animal names through a series of exciting and entertaining deals, bridge fables of a sort.-Biography:Mollo was born in St....
wrote of their partnership: "Where Rixi Markus is fiery, Fritzi Gordon is icy cold. Where Rixi takes her contracts by storm, Fritzi makes hers through merciless efficiency..."
Markus was captain of the winning team at Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
in 1954 against formidable opposition from all over the world: her team-mates were Konstam
Kenneth Konstam
Kenneth W. Konstam , often known as 'Konnie', was an English international bridge player, and in 1955 was one of the only British team to win the Bermuda Bowl. He won more European Open teams championships than any other British player.Konstam, educated at Oundle School, was employed for a time in...
, Dodds
Leslie Dodds
Leslie William Dodds was an English international bridge player and, by profession, an import-export merchant. He was a member of the British team which won the Bermuda Bowl in 1955...
, Reese
Terence Reese
John Terence Reese was a British bridge player and writer, regarded as one of the finest of all time in both fields...
, Schapiro
Boris Schapiro
Boris Schapiro was a British international bridge player. He was a Grandmaster of the World Bridge Federation, and the only player to have won both the Bermuda Bowl and the World Senior Pairs championship...
and 'Plum' Meredith
Adam Meredith
Adam 'Plum' Meredith was a British professional bridge player. His origin was in County Down, Ireland. He was a key member of the British team which won the Bermuda Bowl in 1955. He won the European Championship in 1949 and 1954, and also played in 1955, 1957 and 1959...
. After their victory, Reese and Konstam decided to ask the British selectors to include Markus in their team for the European championships at Montreux that year, but the selectors did not choose her for either the Open or Ladies teams (the reasons are not known). The Open team played with the lesser player Jordanis Pavlides
Jordanis Pavlides
Jordanis T. Pavlides was a British contract bridge player who won the British Bridge League Master Pairs in 1948, the Gold Cup in 1949, the European championship in 1954, and the Bermuda Bowl in 1955. He also represented Britain in the European championships of 1955...
in her place, because their other regular team members such as Pedro Juan were not available. That team won the European and later the Bermuda Bowl
Bermuda Bowl
The Bermuda Bowl is a trophy awarded to the winners of the Open series in the World Team Championship in contract bridge and is named for the site of the inaugural tournament held in 1950...
trophies. In effect, a bizarre decision by the selectors cost her the European and World teams championships in the Open category. She had other disappointments; this was not the only time she was dropped from the Ladies' team, often when her results were quite outstanding.
- "In 1969 we were robbed of victory in Oslo [European championships] by the inefficient and ludicrous handling of a technical offence. After we had been declared winners and the results posted on the notice-board a protest about late play early in the match was made. The event ended in complete confusion, but in 1970 the official program listed France as the 1969 champions."
Markus was for many years the bridge correspondent of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and after 1975 the London Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
, and wrote a dozen bridge books, including her autobiography. Generally recognized as the top Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an woman player, she was the first woman to become a WBF World Grand Master and was the leading woman in the WBF master point rankings from their inception in 1974 until 1980. She was named International Bridge Press Association Personality of the Year in 1974, and was appointed MBE
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
for contributions to bridge a year later. For many years she organized an annual match between the two Houses of Parliament.
She died of a heart attack on 4 April 1992 at the age of 81.
Player record
World championships- 1937 Ladies Teams (Austria)
- 1962 Mixed Teams (Great Britain), 1st Pairs Olympiad
- 1962 Women Pairs, 1st Pairs Olympiad
- 1964 Women Teams (Great Britain), 2nd Olympiad
- 1974 Women Pairs, 4th Pairs Olympiad
World runners up
- 1970 Women Pairs, 3rd Pairs Olympiad
- 1970 Mixed Pairs, 3rd Pairs Olympiad
- 1976 Women Teams (Great Britain), 2nd Venice CupVenice CupThe World Teams Championship in contract bridge for women players only is also known as the Venice Cup, because the first edition was held in Venice, Italy in 1974.It is held every two years, in parallel to the Open World Teams Championship, the Bermuda Bowl....
- 1976 Women Teams (Great Britain), 5th Olympiad
European championships
- Women Teams: 1935, 1936, 1937 (Austria), 1951, 1952, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1966, 1975 (Great Britain)
Other
- 1957 Master Pairs
- 1961 Gold Cup
Publications
- Aces and Places
- Better bridge for club players (with Terence Reese)
- Bid boldly, play safe
- Bridge around the world
- Bridge table tales
- Bridge with Rixi
- Common-sense bridge
- Improve your bridge
- Play better bridge
- The Rixi Markus Book of bridge
- More deadly than the male
- A Vulnerable Game: the memoirs of Rixi Markus (with David Mountfield). Collins, London 1988.
External links
- Rixi Markus obituary at the English Bridge UnionEnglish Bridge UnionThe English Bridge Union or EBU is a player-funded organisation that promotes and organises the card game of duplicate bridge in England. It has an office in Aylesbury with a staff of more than twenty people...
- Women Stars at the World Bridge Federation — with biography