In the last newsletter (September 2017) under the heading Achievements, we congratulated Arnold Fisher for attaining Grand Life Master rank at the Valley Forge Regional.
This was wrong, wrong, wrong.
The rank requirement for Grand Life Master is 10,000 masterpoints. At least two thousand of these points must be silver, red, or gold/platinum, a thousand of which must be gold/platinum, with a minimum of one hundred platinum.
Fisher crossed over years ago, easily, in 1996. He is currently listed second on Unit 141's list of seven Grand Life Masters. This year, in an Open Pairs event, with partner Jane Ball at the Long Island Regional, Fisher passed the 20,000-point mark.
No real fuss was made at this editor's blunder. Jane brought it to our attention, knowing how low-key Fisher is about his achievements. In fact, it has taken some doing to get him to clarify exactly when, where and what all those achievements are, and in the process of sorting the facts, this editor has decided to seize the opportunity to celebrate an extraordinary player in our midst.
I run into Fisher at the tables now and then. He's often seen in the open games around town, and not hard to spot if you know what you're looking for. Arnie (that's what I get to call him now) is in pretty good shape, as bridge players go, particularly for someone who's pushing eighty. Frizzy, slightly cockeyed gray mane and bushy eyebrows. He doesn't talk much -- just
lounges, eyes half closed like a dozing dragon. Quiet -- ominously quiet. (Frankly, it was frightening enough to land at Arnie's table before I knew what I was dealing with. Now, it will be worse.)
Earlier this month we faced off at the final game of STaC week: Raffles. Board 12.
As dealer I have KQxxx in spades, AQxx in hearts, a singleton diamond and Kxx in clubs. I open a spade. Arnie passes smoothly, partner Deb bids 1NT forcing, pass on my right, and I bid my 4-card heart suit. Deb invites in hearts, and, with 17 distributional points, I go confidently to game.
Arnie leads an ambiguous club. Deb's dummy comes down with a doubleton spade, four hearts to the ten, Axx in clubs, and KQJ five times of diamonds. Perfect! I'll finesse a heart from the board through my AQ. All they'll get after that is two aces, and once that's done I'll have two ways to dump my only loser club. I could almost claim right now!
I win the first trick with Deb's club king, proving to Arnie that a second club lead will fail should he win my heart finesse. Then I finesse the heart, which Arnie wins with his king.
Everything stops.
Arnie takes a long, sleepy moment. Dragon eyes flicker maybe slightly. Then, he pulls a card from his hand and lays it gently, almost regretfully, on the table: spade ace.
Foolish of him to do that -- I opened spades after all. Maybe he forgot? Now I know exactly where my loser club is going. Kind of makes me feel bad (not really).
Arnie leads another spade (now that's just silly!) and his partner ruffs -- huh?
She then takes her diamond ace and I'm down, in what I thought was a perfectly makeable contract. Turns out Arnie can count.
Arnold Fisher has won seven (count 'em) national titles, starting with the Keohane North American Swiss Teams in 1996 in San Francisco, and, most recently, the Truscott Senior Swiss in 2003 in Long Beach. He has taken second place in five other NABC events. That's just the North American wins.
He has also played in 13 World Championships. The big wins are in Senior events: 5th in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2009, 4th place twice (Italy 2006, Netherlands 2011); 3rd in Monaco in 2003, and, just a few years ago in 2014, Fisher's team took 2nd in
Sanya, China.
All I can say is, look out for that dragon.
Susan Morse
is an actress and bestselling author of two memoirs. Her third, chronicling a recent headlong dash into duplicate bridge, will be finished if she can just stop playing long enough to write.
