[blindsey]

Has anyone heard of this man from the very earliest days of Contract Bridge?

He was best known as the best checker player in the US and possibly the world in the 1920s. He won three US championships and other events, including stake matches, but arrangements for him to take on Scotland's Robert Stewart for the world title fell through.

Gonotsky died in 1929 at the age of 27 just weeks after winning his last US title.

Some writeups in checker publications indicate he spent more time on bridge than checkers the last year or two of his life.

In fact his death may have been hastened by the hours he kept - working in an auto plant in Flint, Michigan while playing bridge after hours. He was never a healthy man to start with.

I'm guessing rubber rather than tournament bridge. In checkers he was known for never playing without money at stake (he had to give heavy odds to get a game in club play) and may have been the same way at bridge.