History of the Stayman Convention

If you’ve played bridge for more than a week, you’ve used Stayman. Partner opens 1NT, you bid 2♣ asking for a four-card major, and the auction flows from there. It’s as fundamental to modern bridge as opening leads and finesses. But here’s the thing: Sam Stayman didn’t invent it.

The Stayman Convention carries one of bridge’s most famous misnomers, and the story behind it tells us everything about how bridge innovations spread in the post-war era—through bridge columns, word of mouth, and occasionally, a bit of accidental credit-taking.

The Real Inventor: George Rapée

The convention we call Stayman was actually developed by George Rapée, one of the greatest American players of the 1930s and 1940s. Rapée was a member of the legendary Four Aces team and later the Four Horsemen, winning multiple national championships. He wasn’t just a great player—he was an innovator who constantly experimented with bidding theory.

In the late 1930s, Rapée was working with a weak notrump system (12-14 HCP) and wrestling with a problem every bridge player faced: how do you find a 4-4 major suit fit after a 1NT opening? The standard methods were clumsy. You could bid your major directly, but that showed five cards. You could pass 1NT and miss a 4-4 heart or spade fit. Neither was satisfactory.

Rapée’s solution was elegant: use 2♣ as an artificial asking bid. It didn’t promise clubs—it asked opener to bid a four-card major if he had one. If opener had both majors, he’d bid hearts first. If he had no major, he’d bid 2♦. Simple, effective, and it worked with any hand strong enough to force to the two-level.

Rapée used this method successfully with his partner and shared it within his circle of expert players. But here’s the problem: Rapée never wrote about it. He was a player, not a writer. In the 1940s, if you didn’t publish your methods or write bridge columns, your innovations stayed within your immediate circle.

Enter Sam Stayman

Sam Stayman was a different kind of bridge figure. He was an excellent player—good enough to win national championships—but he was also a publicist, writer, and promoter. He had a bridge column in a New York newspaper and understood how to market ideas to the bridge public.

In the late 1940s, Stayman was playing with a strong notrump system and independently rediscovered Rapée’s method. Some accounts suggest he learned it from Rapée or from someone who’d played against Rapée. Others claim he developed it independently. The historical record is murky, as it often is with bridge innovations that spread through casual discussion at clubs and tournaments.

What’s clear is what happened next: Stayman wrote about it. In 1945, he published the convention in his bridge column and in The Bridge World magazine. He explained it clearly, showed example hands, and advocated for its adoption. The bridge world took notice.

The Name Sticks

Here’s where the story gets interesting. Stayman, to his credit, always acknowledged that Rapée had used the convention before him. In his writings, he called it “Rapée’s 2♣ convention” or gave Rapée credit for the idea. But the bridge public didn’t care about historical accuracy—they knew it as “that thing Stayman writes about.”

By the early 1950s, bridge players everywhere were calling it the Stayman Convention. It appeared in bidding system descriptions as “Stayman.” Tournament announcements referenced “Stayman.” The name had stuck, despite Sam Stayman’s protests.

Rapée, for his part, seemed philosophical about it. He’d gotten credit for plenty of other innovations in bridge theory. And pragmatically, having the convention named after a promoter rather than its inventor probably helped its adoption. Stayman’s advocacy and clear explanations made the convention accessible to average players, not just experts.

Why It Revolutionized Bidding

Before Stayman, finding 4-4 major fits after a 1NT opening was hit-or-miss. Players would pass 1NT with 8-9 HCP and a four-card major, missing game. Or they’d bid 3NT with a 4-4 spade fit that would have been superior. The game was full of these awkward moments where you knew there might be a better contract but had no way to investigate.

Stayman solved this in one bid. Suddenly, responder could check for a major suit fit at a low level without committing to game. If opener had a major, you could play there. If not, you could still retreat to 2NT or bid on to 3NT. The convention was safe, efficient, and applicable to a huge number of hands.

It also opened up more sophisticated bidding sequences. Once you had Stayman, you could develop follow-ups for different hand types. What if you had both majors? What if you had a weak hand with a long major? What if you wanted to invite game but needed to find the right suit first? An entire structure of responses grew up around that simple 2♣ bid.

The Convention Evolves

The basic Stayman Convention—2♣ asks for a four-card major—remained constant, but players developed countless variations over the decades. Some of the major developments:

Crawling Stayman (1950s): With a weak hand and a long major, responder could bid 2♣ and pass opener’s 2♦ response, or pass 2♥ with hearts, or correct 2♥ to 2♠.

Forcing Stayman (1960s): Some partnerships agreed that any Stayman sequence was forcing to game, eliminating weak sequences but making certain hands easier to bid.

Puppet Stayman (1970s): After 2NT openers, this variation specifically asked about five-card majors, improving 5-3 fit detection.

Four-way transfers (1980s): The 2♣ bid evolved to include checking for five-card majors, with transfers handling other suits.

Every variation kept the same core principle: 2♣ after 1NT is artificial and asks about majors. The name stayed the same too, despite ongoing acknowledgment of Rapée’s role.

The Controversy That Wouldn’t Die

Bridge historians and old-timers never let the naming controversy rest entirely. Articles in The Bridge World periodically argued for calling it the “Rapée Convention” or at least the “Rapée-Stayman Convention.” Books on bridge history dutifully noted Rapée’s priority.

But language doesn’t follow logic—it follows usage. By the 1960s, millions of bridge players worldwide knew it as Stayman. The name appeared in every beginner’s book, every bridge column, every system card. Changing it would have been like trying to rename the Blackwood Convention. (Fortunately, Easley Blackwood actually invented that one, so we avoided a second naming controversy.)

Sam Stayman lived until 1993, and throughout his life he maintained that he’d never claimed to invent the convention. He’d simply popularized it. George Rapée passed away in 1999 at age 101, having made countless contributions to bridge theory beyond this one convention. Both men deserve credit—Rapée for the innovation, Stayman for the evangelism.

Legacy: The Convention Everyone Plays

Today, Stayman is ubiquitous. It’s taught in the first lessons on responding to 1NT. It appears in virtually every modern bidding system. Beginners learn it before they learn Blackwood. Advanced players use sophisticated variations but still call it “Stayman.”

The convention fundamentally changed how we think about notrump bidding. It established the principle that artificial bids could safely explore for better contracts at low levels. It proved that a simple asking bid could be more powerful than natural bidding. And it demonstrated that major suit fits were worth searching for, even when notrump looked comfortable.

The naming controversy actually adds to the story. It reminds us that bridge innovations rarely happen in isolation—they spread through communities, get adapted and modified, and eventually become part of the collective knowledge of the game. George Rapée invented a brilliant solution to a real problem. Sam Stayman made sure every bridge player in the world knew about it. Without both contributions, we might all still be passing 1NT with four spades and eight points, hoping for the best.

So the next time you bid 2♣ over partner’s 1NT, take a moment to appreciate both men: the quiet innovator who saw the solution first, and the publicist who made sure it became part of bridge’s permanent toolkit. And if someone pedantically mentions it should be called the Rapée Convention, smile and agree—then call it Stayman anyway, because that’s what everyone understands.

The game’s richer for both of them.