The Laws of Duplicate Bridge 3

Law 10
Assessment of Rectification
When an irregularity has occurred, the Director alone has the right to determine rectifications. Players do not have the right to determine (or waive) rectifications. The Director may cancel any enforcement or waiver of a rectification made by players without his / her instructions.

Choices After an Irregularity Has Been Confirmed
When the Laws provide an option, the Director must explain all options available.

If a player has an option they cannot consult their partner when deciding which option to take.

When the Laws provide the innocent side with an option, it is appropriate to select the option which best favours them.

After rectification of an infraction it is appropriate for the offenders to make any call or play advantageous to their side even if it appears they have profited from their own infraction. However, the offenders must be careful of breaching Law 16 - Authorised and Unauthorised Information (this will be covered later).

Law 11
Forfeiture of the Right to Rectification
As indicated in Law 10 the right to rectification of an irregularity may be forfeited if either member of the non-offending side takes action before summoning the Director.

Even after the right to rectification has been forfeited the Director may assess whether a procedural penalty is warranted. Procedural penalties are described under Law 90 which we will cover later.

Law 12
Director's Discretionary Powers
There are a lot of words to this Law so I will try and summarise it as best I can!

The Director may award an adjusted score when the Laws empower him to do so. This includes:

1. When he/she judges that the Laws do not provide sufficient recompense to the non-offending side.
2. When the play of a board cannot be completed.
3. When there has been an incorrect rectification of an irregularity.

Objectives of Score Adjustment
1. To redress damage to a non-offending side
2. To prevent the Director from being unduly severe or advantageous to either side.

Awarding an Adjusted Score
1. An adjusted score replaces the score obtained in play
2. If the non-offending side has contributed to its own damage it does not receive relief for such part of the damage as is self-inflicted.
3. In order to be fair the adjusted score may be weighted to reflect the probabilities of a number of potential results. If the possibilities are numerous or not obvious the Director may award an artificial adjusted score. The Director awards an artificial adjusted score according to responsibility for the irregularity as follows:

Average minus (at most 40% of the available matchpoints in (pairs)to a contestant directly at fault, average (50% in pairs) to a contestant only partly at fault, and average plus (at least 60% in pairs)to a contestant in no way at fault.

The Laws go on to describe how adjustments are made in different types of events from Pairs e.g. individual events, knockout play.

Note that the scores awarded to each side need not balance.

Confused yet? Perhaps unsurprisingly the Laws of Bridge are just as complicated as playing the game is!

More next week.

Ross