I’m not the person who often climbs on the barricades, but sometimes the local rule makers do something which requires one to take action. No, I’m not in the picture above, I’m doing this virtually, with a cup of coffee behind my desk.
Today’s blog is mainly of interest to players in district 7 of the NBB. The district is called "Midden en Oost Gelderland” and covers the region around Arnhem. See the map on the right and if you want to know if your club is in that district, click here.
If you are, read on to see why you should join me on the barricades in order to fix a recent change in the rules that cover the bridge competitions in the area, and what you can do to actually fix this.
If you aren’t, here is a bridge problem, the picture above gives you a hint if you don’t spot the solution. You are in 6NT at matchpoints after an
unrevealing auction, west leds a small diamond. Can you score an overtrick?
Now for the rule change. The district recently introduced this modification to the conditions of contest (CoC) for the competitions in the district, section 5, on allowed systems. The addition is in red.
Section 5, allowed systems and conventions.
Brown Sticker Conventions (BSC) and Highly Unusual Methods (HOM) are not allowed [in any event organized by the district]. Besides that, 1 level opening bids that can be, by agreement, done on less than 10 hcp are not allowed either.
The old text, and the one used by all other districts in the country, do not have the sentence in red. The motivation for this addition was it is hard to defend against natural, light opening bids and players in lower flights should not have to bother with this.
What is the problem with this modification? Well, first of all, it is unclear if the district (as the sponsoring organisation (SO) of an event) is actually allowed to make this rule. The laws state that the SO may make rules about natural bids on hands containing a king less than average, in other words 7 points or less, but not about stronger hands.
If we leave that aside, this rule outlaws, for example, 9-12 point 1NT opening bids. These are becoming increasingly popular lately and are allowed in any and all events in the country.
Except for the Arnhem area that is and this brings up the next problem with this rule. Players in lower flights entering a tournament, a competion in a nearby district, or whatever will have to deal with light opening bids there and thus have to prepare themselves. And defending against light opening bids isn’t that hard, one just has to take into account that opener can be a bit weaker than usual.
Another issue is that it is unclear if the rule is applicable to events jointly organized by the district with neighbouring districts. For the seniors competition, organized jointly with the district Nijmegen, for example, both districts point to their own CoC. But they differ, so which one applies. And more general, the rules of the game are already complex enough, local changes should be avoided.
The solution is, of course, simple: strike the sentence in red above and revert to the rules that apply to all other events in the country. A number of concerned players have submitted a proposal to this effect for the next annual meeting of all clubs in the district, March 17, 2017. All clubs in the district are represented there by (representatives of) their board and there will be vote on this matter.
How can you help? If you support this, talk to the board members of your club and ask them to support this proposal. If the club is not going to be represented at the meeting, either volunteer to represent the club (anybody can do that) or suggest that they give a proxy vote to another club.
Back to the bridge problem. You can, of course, take a heart finesse but there is an alternative. Win the ♦A, cash the ♠A and then run diamonds and clubs, discarding spades from the dummy. If the player holding the ♠K also has ♥Qxx(…), he will be in trouble when the last club is played, diagram on the left. Note that this works regardless who has the ♠K and ♥Qxx, no fancy counting is involved, simply watch for the ♠K to be discarded, if it doesn’t go for the hearts.
And if you haven’t understood the hint: the picture above was painted in 1848, and shows a scene from the spring revolution in Vienna. Cashing the ♠A is called a Vienna coupe.