WBF ALERTING
POLICY
PREAMBLE
- The objective is to have a uniform WBF policy which is applied to all WBF
events.
- It is not intended that this should over-ride Alerting Policies developed
by the Zone or NBOs.
- Players who participate in WBF events are expected to protect themselves to
a large extent. They are also expected to observe the spirit of the Laws as
well as the letter. Full disclosure is vital.
- The Policy has been made as simple as possible. Players, however, are
expected to alert whenever there is doubt. (N.B. Where screens are in use, an
alert on one side but not on the other does not necessarily imply an
infraction.)
POLICY
The following classes of calls should be alerted:
- Conventional bids should be alerted, non-conventional bids should not.
(A Convention is a call that serves by partnership agreement to convey a
meaning not necessarily related to the denomination named.)
- Those bids which have special meanings or which are based on or lead to
special understandings between the partners.
(A player may not make a call or play based on a special partnership
understanding unless an opposing pair may reasonably be expected to understand
its meaning, or unless his side discloses the use of such call or play in
accordance with the regulations of the sponsoring organization). See Law 40(b).
- Non-forcing jump changes of suit responses to opening bids or overcalls,
and non-forcing new suit responses by an unpassed hand to opening bids of one
of a suit.
The following called should not be alerted (except when screens are in use):
- All doubles.
- Any no-trump bid which suggests a balanced or semi-balanced hand, or
suggests a no-trump contract.
- All bids, with the exception of conventional opening suit bids, at the four
level or higher.
John R. Wignall
Chairman, WBF Systems Committee
5 November 1995 |