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There are a number of competing theories regarding the origin of Bridge, but it’s widely held to be a development of Whist, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Bridge is the English pronunciation of a game called Biritch, which was also known as Russian Whist.

Apparently developed in the eastern Mediterranean region where it was known as Khedive, Biritch became popular in Greece, Egypt and the French Riviera at the end of the 19th century. The name Biritch is of obscure origin, and had been corrupted to ‘Bridge’ by the 1880s. The oldest known Biritch rule book also dates from this period and documents many significant Bridge-like developments from whist, including the dealer choosing the trump suit, or nominating his partner to do so; there was a call of no trumps; and the dealer's partner's hand became the dummy. This new game gained great popularity in Britain and America, and had soon eclipsed the widely-played Whist.

From the late 1890s to around 1910, a second step in the evolution took place. Auction Bridge (also known as Royal Auction Bridge) was developed, in which the players bid in a competitive auction to decide the contract and declarer. The object became to make at least as many tricks as were contracted for and penalties were introduced for failing to do so.

The modern game of Contract Bridge however, was the result of innovations to the scoring of Auction Bridge made by, notably, American industrialist and inventor Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, (who, you might also be interested to know, won the America’s Cup three times). The most significant change was that only the tricks contracted for were scored below the line toward game or a slam bonus, a change that resulted in bidding becoming much more challenging and interesting. Also new was the concept of vulnerability, making sacrifices to protect the lead in a rubber more expensive, and the various scores were adjusted to produce a more balanced game. Vanderbilt set out his rules in 1925, and within a few years contract bridge had so supplanted other forms of the game that ‘Bridge’ became synonymous with ‘Contract Bridge’.

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