Charles Goren Biography, Life, Interesting Facts

Early Years and Education

Charles Henry Goren was born 4th March 1901, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

In 1923, Goren graduated from McGill University with a law degree. While studying at university, Goren learned how to play bridge.

Early Career

After graduating, Charles Henry Goren passed the Pennsylvania bar, and he practiced law for the next 13 years.

During this same period, Ely Culbertson became very widely known as a bridge player. Culbertson popularized the game of bridge.

Due to Culbertson's popularity, Goren decided to leave law and concentrate on playing in bridge competitions. He soon came to Milton Work's attention. Work gave Goren work assisting with writing articles about bridge. At a later stage, Goren became a ghostwriter for Work.

Work made a name for himself as a lecturer on bridge, and a writer about bridge. Charles Henry Goren teamed up with Work's principal assistant, Olive Peterson, as a partnership.

By the end of the 1920s, Goren became Work's technical assistant.

In 1937, Charles Henry Goren had his breakthrough as a player, winning the Board-a-Match Teams Championship.

Shortly after, Culbertson moved to a different newspaper syndicate. This meant the Chicago Tribune and the Daily News (New York), both turned to Goren to write for them.

Bridge Career

Works died in 1934. Charles Henry Goren stepped up and began a career writing about bridge. He published his first book, Winning Bridge Made Easy, in 1936.

In a short space of time, Goren became extremely popular. He began to lecture on bridge, as well as instruct on how to play the game.

In 1950, Charles Henry Goren was crowned World Champion at the Bermuda Bowl.

Eight years later, his daily bridge column appeared in nearly 200 newspapers across America. He also wrote a weekly column for Sports Illustrated and a monthly column for McCalls.

Goren had his television program that aired from 1959 to 1964 on the ABC network. It was called Championship Bridge with Charles Goren.

Charles Henry Goren's most famous partner was Omar Sharif, who also wrote several introductions to Goren's books.

Goren further developed Work's point count system. This enabled beginners and intermediate players to find instant improvement in their games.

He also pioneered the Precision bidding method.

Charles Henry Goren published nearly 40 books on bridge and was the leading bridge master during the 1950s and 1960s. His books have sold over ten million copies.

Goren died on 3rd April 1991.

Awards and Honors

Charles Henry Goren's awards and honors include:

1964: Admitted to the ACBL Hall of Fame
1974: Precision Award

He also won the McKenney Trophy eight times, as well as over 30 other titles.