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richard.hills | 2 Jul 2012 00:54
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Duplicate Bridge Law 2017 Law 81 + footnotes [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

Hypothetical 2017 Law 81 - The Director

A. Official Status

The Director is the official representative of the
Tournament Organizer.

B. Restrictions and Responsibilities

1. The Director is responsible for the on-site
technical management of the tournament. The
Director has powers to remedy any omissions of
the Tournament Organizer.*

2. The Director applies, and is bound by, these
Laws and supplementary regulations announced
under authority given in these Laws.

C. Director's Duties and Powers

The Director (not the players) has the sole
responsibility for rectifying irregularities and
redressing damage. The Director's duties and
powers normally include also the following:

1. to maintain discipline and to ensure the orderly
progress of the game.

2. to administer and interpret these Laws and to
relevantly** advise the players of their rights and
responsibilities thereunder.

3. to rectify an error or irregularity of which the
Director becomes aware (but not necessarily as
soon as the Director becomes aware***) in any
manner, within the correction period established
in accordance with Law 79C.

4. to assess rectification when applicable and to
exercise the powers given in Laws 90 and 91.

5. to waive rectification for cause****, in the
Director's discretion, upon the request of the non-
offending side.

6. to adjust disputes.

7. to refer any matter to an appropriate committee
and/or appropriate person (for example, the
official Recorder).

8. to report results for the official record if the
Tournament Organizer requires it and to deal with
any other matters delegated to him by the
Tournament Organizer.

D. Delegation of Duties

The Director in charge may delegate any duties
to assistant directors, but the Director in charge is
not thereby relieved of responsibility for the
correct performance of those delegated duties by
those assistant directors.*****

[Footnotes]

* The Tournament Organizer must publish
Conditions of Contest in advance, but the
Director is permitted, if necessary, to create ex
post facto Conditions of Contest. For example,
the Director shall create an ex post facto tie-
break Condition of Contest if the Tournament
Organizer has forgotten to do so.

** The Director confines such advice to the
rights and responsibilities of the players that are
relevant to the situation that the Director is
dealing with. For example, a player is not entitled
to request the Director to recite the IMP table
which is embedded in Law 78B.

*** For example, the Director may become aware
of an established revoke during the play of a deal,
but the non-offending side may be blissfully
unaware of the established revoke. In that case
the Director should delay drawing attention to the
established revoke until only Law 64C (Director
Responsible for Equity) is applicable. An earlier
intervention by the Director during the play could
well unfairly disadvantage the offending side, due
to them being unfairly outnumbered in the play by
three to two.

A second example is the Director observing an
an opening lead out of turn, but none of the
players drawing attention to that infraction. The
Director should not intervene immediately, thus
the Director should let declarer unintentionally
become dummy. But at the end of play the
Director should consider whether to use Law 23
to adjust the score.

**** An example of insufficient cause would be,
"The opponents are my friends, and we have no
chance of winning but they do."

***** In particular the Director in charge should
review an assistant director's ruling which may be
appealed. The Director in charge should ease
the squeeze on the appeals committee by
reversing an incorrect ruling by an assistant
director immediately, rather than waste the
appeals committee's time by instead requiring
them to do so.


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Nigel Guthrie | 2 Jul 2012 01:49

Re: Duplicate Bridge Law 2017 Law 81 + footnotes [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

[Richard’s law]
C. Director's Duties and Powers The Director (not the players) has the sole 
responsibility for rectifying irregularities and redressing damage. The 
Director's duties and powers normally include also the following:
[Nigel]
IMO this should simply say "The directors duties are". Otherwise you risk 
the interpretation: "these [few things] are duties. The rest are powers that 
the director may exercise if he feels like doing so.

[Richard's law]
* The Tournament Organizer must publish Conditions of Contest in advance, 
but the Director is permitted, if necessary, to create ex post facto 
Conditions of Contest. For example, the Director shall create an ex post 
facto tie-break Condition of Contest if the Tournament Organizer has 
forgotten to do so.
[Nigel]
IMO this law should stipulate that when local regulations omit to cater for 
a contingency, then WBF rules apply. Of course WBF rules would have to be 
made more comprehensive, so that less escapes the net. Then, with any luck, 
eventually, sensible local regulators wouldn't bother to concoct local 
variants and  just use global rules instead.

[Richard's law]
*** For example, the Director may become aware of an established revoke 
during the play of a deal, but the non-offending side may be blissfully 
unaware of the established revoke. In that case the Director should delay 
drawing attention to the established revoke until only Law 64C (Director 
Responsible for Equity) is applicable. An earlier intervention by the 
Director during the play could well unfairly disadvantage the offending 
side, due to them being unfairly outnumbered in the play by three to two.
[Nigel]
I understand the reason for this footnote. Traditionally, directors have 
been reluctant to interfere when they witness law-breaking. Such directors 
argue "Why should I bother to prevent law-breaking at this table just 
because I'm watching. At another tables, the same infraction may occur. 
Unless the victim notices and reports the infraction,  the other law-breaker 
will get away Scott-free."

This "two of wrongs make a right" fudge seems morally wrong to me. 
Controversially, I think directors should be actively looking out for 
irregularities (other duties permitting). 

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richard.hills | 2 Jul 2012 08:13
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Re: Duplicate Bridge Law 2017 Law 81 + footnotes [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

Macquarie Dictionary:

normally, adverb. as a rule; regularly; according
to rule, general custom, etc.

Law 81C prologue, second sentence:

The Director's duties and powers ++normally++
include also the following:

Nigel Guthrie:

>IMO this should simply say "The director's
>duties are". Otherwise you risk the
>interpretation: "these [few things] are duties.
>The rest are powers that the director may
>exercise if he feels like doing so.

Richard Hills:

My $0.02 worth is that the Drafting Committee
carefully chose the flexible "normally" instead of
Nigel's rigid "are" so that a Regulating Authority
or a Tournament Organizer could add and/or
subtract duties and powers from the Director's
++normal++ duties and powers as required by
the particular needs for a particular tournament.

Law 80 footnote:

* It is ++normal++ in some jurisdictions for the
Director to assume responsibility for some or all
of the tasks that the Tournament Organizer is
here required to arrange.


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richard.hills | 3 Jul 2012 00:27
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Re: Duplicate Bridge Law 2017 Law 81 + footnotes [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

Burn's Third Law:

"You cannot make 3NT on a cross-ruff."

David Burn also wrote an extremely entertaining
article about partnership agreements (or lack
thereof) on conventions, with particular reference
to the notorious Ghestem convention:

http://blakjak.org/brx_brn0.htm

David Burn, 10th February 2008:

[DALB]

Directing an event the other day, I observed
dummy putting the spade suit down on her left.
Since I knew that the contract was 4S, I told her to
put the spades down on her right. "Are we
playing in spades?" said declarer. "I thought the
contract was 3NT."

How would the Chief Tournament Director rule?

[DALB, continued]

That is, how should the CTD rule when the
defending side complains that had I not reminded
declarer that the contract was 4S, she made it by
ruffing a loser in dummy when she would almost
certainly not have followed this line in 3NT? (see
Burn's Third Law in "Larry who?" for details).

It seems to me that the deep and underlying
problem is this: the Laws of Duplicate Contract
Bridge operate in an environment where most of
them don't matter. That is, they operate only
where experts play against other experts,
preferably with screens. They don't work all that
well even then, but at least they stand a chance.

As Eric Landau has pointed out time after time,
these Laws and the opinions attached thereto
simply cause chaos when attempts are made to
apply them to bridge at the local club, or to any
face-to-face game without screens among non-
experts.

Players do not know what to do when in
possession of UI - most of them do not know
whether or not they have UI in the first place.

Players do not know what to do when it comes to
informing the opponents of their "methods" in
positions where they may or may not have any
methods, or where they may or may not have
remembered the methods that they may or may
not have. Even the dWS [the now-repealed De
Wael School] is an honest attempt to establish
how players should behave in everyday positions
that confront them at the table, and neither the
Laws nor the WBF interpretations provide them
with anything by way of meaningful guidance.

That's not the players' fault. That's the Lawmakers'
fault, if it's anyone's.

Larry Bennett, a gentleman I don't know and
whose surname I might have misspelled (in
which case I apologise) asked the other day
whether anything we said on BLML had anything
to do with the game he'd loved playing for a
number of years.

The answer is: yes it does, because at least here
we're trying to sort out what the rules actually are,
and we have to guide us some of the people who
are the fons et origo of the rules as they actually
are in 2008.

But the answer also is: no it doesn't, because the
rules as they actually are apply to a game that is
not actually played by about 90% of the people
who play duplicate bridge around the world.

I don't have any easy answers. I don't even have
any difficult ones. I just thought I'd state the
problem.

David Burn
London, England


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richard.hills | 3 Jul 2012 01:24
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Re: Duplicate Bridge Law 2017 Law 81 + footnotes [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

David Burn, 10th February 2008:

>Directing an event the other day, I observed
>dummy putting the spade suit down on her left.
>Since I knew that the contract was 4S, I told her
>to put the spades down on her right. "Are we
>playing in spades?" said declarer. "I thought the
>contract was 3NT."
[snip]
>Players do not know what to do when in
>possession of UI - most of them do not know
>whether or not they have UI in the first place.
>
>Players do not know what to do when it comes
>to informing the opponents of their "methods" in
>positions where they may or may not have any
>methods, or where they may or may not have
>remembered the methods that they may or may
>not have.
[snip]
>not the players' fault. That's the Lawmakers'
>fault, if it's anyone's.
[snip]
>the rules as they actually are apply to a game
>that is not actually played by about 90% of the
>people who play duplicate bridge around the
>world.
>
>I don't have any easy answers. I don't even
>have any difficult ones. I just thought I'd state the
>problem.
>
>David Burn
>London, England 

Richard Hills, 3rd July 2012:

In my youth I read Stephen Covey's philosophical
tome (marketed as a self-help book) The Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey used the
metaphor of the map versus the compass.

A map of a city, analogous to adding about 10
pages to The Fabulous Law Book, is useless if
navigating in a different city. But a compass
pointing north, analogous to guiding principles
(and indicative examples) subtracting about 10
pages from The Fabulous Law Book, is useful if
navigating any city.

So my two guiding principle for a Director
applying Law 81C3 are:

(a) "No windfalls for an inattentive non-offending
side". The Director intervenes at the moment
when an inattentive NOS will gain mere equity,
not the more-than-equity that an attentive NOS
might have gained (e.g. an attentive NOS might
make 7H missing the ace of trumps due to a trivial
revoke; an inattentive NOS should not receive
such a windfall because of assistance from the
Director),

and,

(b) "No windfalls for the offending side". That is
my solution to the above "3NT on a cross-ruff"
hypothetical Law 81C3 problem that David Burn
posed in February 2008. The Director should not
correct dummy's Law 41D error, which could be
a windfall for the offending declaring side. Instead,
if the defending side is eventually damaged then
the Director adjusts the score at the end of play. If
the declaring side is so-called "damaged" (which
is not the Law 12 definition of damage) due to its
own Law 41D error then the score stands.

What's the problem?

The problem is that a fundamental rewrite of The
Fabulous Law Book from details-based rules to
principles-based (with indicative examples) rules
will be a Sisyphean task for the Lawmakers.

Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942):

Integrity has no need of rules.


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richard.hills | 5 Jul 2012 06:58
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Re: Duplicate Bridge Law 2017 Law 81 + footnotes [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

2007 Lawbook Preface, fourth paragraph:

Over the years there has been a marked
increase in the expertise and experience of
Directors, which has been recognized in the
new Code by the increased responsibilities
given to them.

An experienced Director, 5th July 2012:

Yes, I was aware of the preface. I think it may
overlook a problem or perhaps usefully point
to this problem. Is TFLB only written for
experienced TDs? Are club TDs ignored?
[snip]
The level of the TDs in many of the clubs in
which I have played has been abysmal. (I
even had the pleasure of playing in a club in
which there was no TFLB. The TD (who was
the owner of the club) had lost her copy and
did not bother to replace it. She felt that a
replacement was unnecessary because she
never used the TFLB anyway. In many clubs,
in my experience, the TDs are only vaguely
and cursorily acquainted with the TFLB.
[snip]

Richard Hills, 5th July 2012:

I am only vaguely and cursorily acquainted
with the plethora of detail in TFLB.

But...

In my youth as a Taswegian novice player I
was usefully trained in the much-easier-to-
remember ethics of duplicate bridge by the
late great Taswegian Director Roger Penny.

So...

If the 2017 version of TFLB was collapsed to
describe merely duplicate bridge ethics and
duplicate bridge guiding principles, even the
novice / club Directors could provide broadly
reasonable rulings.

For example...

Richard Hills, 27th July 2004:

[snip]
Rather, pre-alerting merely needs a good
faith warning of *key* and *probable* unusual
agreements. The fact that I unusually (for
Australia) play a *rare* 4NT opening bid as
Acol Blackwood is something that I have
never pre-alerted.

Ron Johnson, 28th July 2004:

Right, There's no particular point in pre-
alerting something that:

a) never rates to come up (I've never had a
Blackwood opener -- though my partner did
have a hand that would have been suitable.
I'd already opened a strong NT in first seat
though)

b) Doesn't require defensive measures.

By contrast I note that a few pairs in the
recent US trials included important notes
about style.

When I played in New York with my father
we used to pre-alert the fact that we played
4 card majors and ACOL 2s. (even though
pre-alerts didn't exist when we first started
to do this)

We started to do this after a good player
doubled on the auction. What sounded to
her like a desperate struggle to game was
in fact a slam try auction, and she wasn't
over the big hand as she thought.

Nothing in the auction was alertable, but it
left me with a bad taste.


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Robert Frick | 2 Jul 2012 03:42
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Re: Duplicate Bridge Law 2017 Law 81 + footnotes [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

On Sun, 01 Jul 2012 18:54:48 -0400, <richard.hills <at> immi.gov.au> wrote:

>
> Hypothetical 2017 Law 81 - The Director
>
> A. Official Status
>
> The Director is the official representative of the
> Tournament Organizer.
>
> B. Restrictions and Responsibilities
>
> 1. The Director is responsible for the on-site
> technical management of the tournament. The
> Director has powers to remedy any omissions of
> the Tournament Organizer.*
>
> 2. The Director applies, and is bound by, these
> Laws and supplementary regulations announced
> under authority given in these Laws.
>
> C. Director's Duties and Powers
>
> The Director (not the players) has the sole
> responsibility for rectifying irregularities and
> redressing damage. The Director's duties and
> powers normally include also the following:
>
> 1. to maintain discipline and to ensure the orderly
> progress of the game.
>
> 2. to administer and interpret these Laws and to
> relevantly** advise the players of their rights and
> responsibilities thereunder.
>
> 3. to rectify an error or irregularity of which the
> Director becomes aware (but not necessarily as
> soon as the Director becomes aware***) in any
> manner, within the correction period established
> in accordance with Law 79C.

If you are thinking of this as a power, then I am not sure the  
parenthetical stuff is needed. Directors now feel comfortable delaying  
their intervention.

If you are thinking of this as a duty, then you are leaving it unsaid when  
the director intervenes -- sometimes the director has the duy to intervene  
right away and sometimes he doesn't. You might as well just leave that  
part as a power.

>
> 4. to assess rectification when applicable and to
> exercise the powers given in Laws 90 and 91.
>
> 5. to waive rectification for cause****, in the
> Director's discretion, upon the request of the non-
> offending side.
>
> 6. to adjust disputes.
>
> 7. to refer any matter to an appropriate committee
> and/or appropriate person (for example, the
> official Recorder).
>
> 8. to report results for the official record if the
> Tournament Organizer requires it and to deal with
> any other matters delegated to him by the
> Tournament Organizer.
>
> D. Delegation of Duties
>
> The Director in charge may delegate any duties
> to assistant directors, but the Director in charge is
> not thereby relieved of responsibility for the
> correct performance of those delegated duties by
> those assistant directors.*****
>
> [Footnotes]
>
> * The Tournament Organizer must publish
> Conditions of Contest in advance, but the
> Director is permitted, if necessary, to create ex
> post facto Conditions of Contest. For example,
> the Director shall create an ex post facto tie-
> break Condition of Contest if the Tournament
> Organizer has forgotten to do so.
>
> ** The Director confines such advice to the
> rights and responsibilities of the players that are
> relevant to the situation that the Director is
> dealing with. For example, a player is not entitled
> to request the Director to recite the IMP table
> which is embedded in Law 78B.
>
> *** For example, the Director may become aware
> of an established revoke during the play of a deal,
> but the non-offending side may be blissfully
> unaware of the established revoke. In that case
> the Director should delay drawing attention to the
> established revoke until only Law 64C (Director
> Responsible for Equity) is applicable. An earlier
> intervention by the Director during the play could
> well unfairly disadvantage the offending side, due
> to them being unfairly outnumbered in the play by
> three to two.
>
> A second example is the Director observing an
> an opening lead out of turn, but none of the
> players drawing attention to that infraction. The
> Director should not intervene immediately, thus
> the Director should let declarer unintentionally
> become dummy. But at the end of play the
> Director should consider whether to use Law 23
> to adjust the score.
>
> **** An example of insufficient cause would be,
> "The opponents are my friends, and we have no
> chance of winning but they do."
>
> ***** In particular the Director in charge should
> review an assistant director's ruling which may be
> appealed. The Director in charge should ease
> the squeeze on the appeals committee by
> reversing an incorrect ruling by an assistant
> director immediately, rather than waste the
> appeals committee's time by instead requiring
> them to do so.
>
>
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> advise
> the sender and delete the message and attachments immediately.  This  
> email,
> including attachments, may contain confidential, sensitive, legally  
> privileged
> and/or copyright information.  Any review, retransmission, dissemination
> or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the
> intended recipient is prohibited.  DIAC respects your privacy and has
> obligations under the Privacy Act 1988.  The official departmental  
> privacy
> policy can be viewed on the department's website at www.immi.gov.au.   
> See:
> http://www.immi.gov.au/functional/privacy.htm
>
>
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