Portrait: Jean-René Vernes, great theorist of bridge and inventor of Risk

Portrait Jean-René Vernes

Funbridge, in partnership with BeBRIDGE magazine, offers you a special “Portrait” article from the last issue. Have a good reading!

Jean-René Vernes, a very discreet hero

Portrait – Man of letters and statistics, this great theorist of bridge and inventor of the famous board game RISK, who died in 2012, marked his time more than the encyclopedias. Be Bridge has gone back over a hundred years to stroll through the thread of his dense and rich existence.

Sometimes, even when you write dozens of books and invent several board games, the Internet still doesn’t say much about your life. When you type the name of Jean-René Vernes into a search engine, you will quickly realize that there is very little reliable information on the existence of this great theorist of bridge and philosopher with multiple works.

portrait Jean-René Vernes

No precise dates of birth or death. Close to no trace either before 1966 and the publication of his book Modern Bridge Defense, theorizing the law known as “Total Tricks”. Almost nothing on his feats of arms during the Second World War. And even less on a hypothetical descent.

Apart from an imposing bibliography, a passion for bridge and philosophy, what do we really know about Jean-René Vernes? In order to be able to tell his story, we had to mobilize the memories of many people, until we found his first child, Alain Vernes, born in 1940…

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