Roger Trézel

Who was Roger Trézel?

Roger Trézel was a French bridge player and writer. He and his long-time regular partner Pierre Jaïs were the first two of ten players who have won the Triple Crown of Bridge. Their achievement was unique for more than twenty years and they accomplished it on the earliest occasion possible. Having played on the France team that won the 1956 Bermuda Bowl representing Europe against the United States, they won the inaugural renditions of both premier World Bridge Federation quadrennial events, the 1960 World Team Olympiad and the 1962 World Open Pairs Championship.

Trézel and Jaïs also won the Sunday Times Invitational pairs tournament in 1963.

They used a canapé system, generally bidding the second-longest suit first, and their becoming one of the world's strongest pairs "demonstrated the effectiveness" of the style. Their partnership was terminated only by Trézel's late 1986 death in France. Alan Truscott then called it "one of the greatest partnerships in the history of the game" and two years later asserted that many Europeans "cognoscenti" of 30 years earlier would have called them the "world's greatest partnership".