John T. Mitchell


John Templeton Mitchell was born in Scotland in 1854 and emigrated to the USA in 1875, where he settled in Chicago where he found employment as a bank clerk and became a naturalised American citizen. He became interested in duplicate whist at the age of 34, in 1888, when he read of a duplicate match in his native Glasgow and was instrumental in the formation of the Chicago Duplicate Whist Club. His name is synonymous with the Mitchell Movement used in many bridge clubs today.

Whist development

Mitchell became known as the "Father of Duplicate Whist" because of the movements of boards and players he designed for tournaments, a design included in his 1891 book on Duplicate Whist. This relatively simple movement was refined in discussion with others during that decade in an attempt to truly compare skill at cards rather than pure chance. His contemporary, E C Howell, developed a different system of movements for pairs in 1897.
J T Mitchell contributed to the original Whist Reference Book, and much to discussions on tactics of the game and the Laws of Whist.
Mitchell was elected to the post of Treasurer of the American Whist League, at that time representing Chicago, Illinois

Publications

Some books written by Mitchell have been republished in recent years