The 54th contest of the Silodor Open Pairs concludes later this evening at the Memphis NABC. Named in his honor, this event was the last that Sidney Silodor won. Playing with Norman Kay they took the title just a few months before Silodor’s death in 1963.
Silodor trained as a lawyer, but happily for the game of bridge he was also a lecturer, writer and instructor in addition to being one of the world’s top players in that era.
Silodor was a member of the North American team that won the world championship in the first Bermuda Bowl in 1950. He got three more shots at the world championship by representing North America in the Bermuda Bowl in 1958 and 1961 and in the Olympiad in 1960.
Silodor wrote a newspaper column and many articles for The Bridge World magazine. His books included Silodor Says, Contract Bridge According to Silodor and Tierney and The Complete Book of Duplicate Bridge.
Silodor’s talent as a player was well established by his victories in 31 national-level contests, including six Reisinger wins, three in the Spingold and eight in the Vanderbilt. A winner of the McKenney (now the Barry Crane Top 500) race, Silodor was one of the early lifetime leaders in number of masterpoints earned.
Sidney Silodor, Sylvia Stein and Norman Kay