History
In 1951 Italy won its first European championship (Open teams) and lost to the United States for the second Bermuda Bowl, on home ground in Naples. Chiaradia, Forquet, and Siniscalco were members of that six-man team.
Soon afterward Captain Perroux undertook long-term preparations to win those events, the only major international championships at the time. United States teams were considered the best in the world after the war, and they won two more Bermuda Bowls for North America against Europe. Great Britain, France, and Sweden were also strong, and Europe won the fifth and sixth tournaments with six-man teams from Great Britain and France before Italy won again at the European level.
The breakthrough came in 1956/1957, when the Blue Team defeated Bermuda Bowl champion France in Stockholm and beat a United States team on its home ground, winning the Bermuda Bowl in New York City. The players were now Walter Avarelli, Giorgio Belladonna, Eugenio Chiaradia, Massimo d'Alelio, Pietro Forquet, and Guglielmo Siniscalco. With remarkably stable personnel, the reign of the Blue Team continued until retirement in 1969, broken only by a fifth-place finish in the inaugural, 1960 World Team Olympiad. Twelve world team championships in thirteen years.
A large part of the Blue Team's success lay in new and inventive bidding systems, which were often deemed quite strange, especially by conservative US circles. Losing teams sometimes even complained that the Italians had an unfair advantage using bids that were partly incomprehensible to Americans. Belladonna of Rome and his partners played Roman Club, a "short club" system. Neapolitans Chiaradia and Forquet played Neapolitan Club, a strong club system that the online bridge magazine neapolitan club attributes to Professor Chiaradia. Both systems featured canapé-style openings, and often light opening bids and interventions. When young, inventive and cocky Garozzo joined the team in 1960, he further developed the Neapolitan system into the Blue Club, which gained worldwide popularity in later years.
Denouement. The string of Blue Team wins lasted until 1969, when the members announced their retirement. The American Dallas Aces team finally regained world titles for the USA in the 1970 and 1971 Bermuda Bowls, when the Blue Team was absent. The Blue Team re-formed and captured the 1972 Olympiad and the 1973 and 1974 Bermuda Bowls, each time defeating the Americans. The original Aces disbanded in 1974, and the Italians again beat the USA team in 1975. In 1976, the Bermuda Bowl was won by the USA and the Olympiad by Brazil, marking the end of Italy's dominance in the Open category.
Toward the end of their string of victories the Italians changed their lineup; Forquet, Pabis Ticci and D'Alelio withdrew, while Garozzo and Belladonna paired off, playing a version of Precision Club modified by Garozzo and called "Super Precision". The team was no longer officially called "Blue Team", but it still managed to win.
Read more about this topic: Blue Team (bridge)
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