Eddie Kantar

Edwin Bruce Kantar (November 9, 1932 – April 8, 2022) was an American bridge player, winner of two open world championships for national teams (Bermuda Bowls), and prolific writer of bridge books and columns. Kantar was from Santa Monica, California.

Biography Kantar was born to a Jewish family in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He learned the game at 11 and started teaching it at the age of 17, first to his friends and later at the University of Minnesota, which he attended. He wrote more than 35 bridge books and was a regular contributor to the ACBL Bridge Bulletin (with two monthly columns), The Bridge World, and Bridge Today. In a survey of bridge writers and players taken in 1994, Complete Defensive Play was among the top 20 of all-time favorite bridge books. Six of his books have won the American Bridge Teachers' Association (ABTA) award for Best Book of the Year.

Kantar wrote at home in California and lectured on bridge cruises. He also taught in the Los Angeles area as well as lectured several times a year in various resort areas in the U.S. and Canada.

Aside from bridge, Eddie played paddle tennis, a sport in which he also garnered several trophies. Eddie was the first person to have played in a World Bridge Championship and a World Table Tennis Championship.

Kantar died on April 8, 2022, at the age of 89.

Bridge accomplishments

Honors ACBL Hall of Fame, 1996

Awards Precision Award (Best Article or Series on a System or Convention) 1981

Wins Bermuda Bowl (2) 1977, 1979 North American Bridge Championships (17) Marcus Cup (2) 1960, 1966 Vanderbilt (3) 1964, 1978, 1988 Spingold (4) 1961, 1962, 1973, 1978 Chicago (now Reisinger) (2) 1962, 1965 Reisinger (2) 1976, 1980 Grand National Teams (2) 1974, 1976 North American Men's Swiss Teams (1) 1987 Life Master Pairs (1) 1983 United States Bridge Championships (3) Open Team Trials (3) 1974, 1977, 1979 Other notable wins: Pan American Invitational Open Teams (1) 1977 1981 Maccabiah Games (1) 1981

Runners-up Bermuda Bowl (1) 1975 North American Bridge Championships (15) Vanderbilt (7) 1961, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1983, 1989 Spingold (1) 1991 Reisinger (3) 1968, 1983, 1992 Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1970 Fall National Open Pairs (1) 1962 Men's Pairs (2) 1962, 1967 United States Bridge Championships (1) Open Team Trials (1) 1973