Changes to Regulations from August 1st 2010

The L&E and the Tournament Committee have met to discuss possible changes to licensing in the wake of comments received about 1 and 1 openings.

The following decisions have been made:

• A revision to the regulations will apply from August 1st 2010 when the updated Orange Book is published.

• There will be two revised levels. Level 4 will be the same as now except that 1 and 1 opening bids must show that suit.

• Level 5 will permit all that was already licensed at this level plus anything already licensed at the current Level 4. The main effect of this will be that 1 and 1 openings that do not show the suit will be permitted at this level only.

• The WBF convention card will be permitted in all Level 5 events and not at any lower level.

• There are no changes below Level 4.

• All county associations and clubs that permit Level 4 can continue exactly as now unless they wish to permit non natural 1/1 openings.

• The events which will be played at Level 5 are the Spring Foursomes, Crockford’s Cup and Plate, The National Swiss Teams Congress, the Ranked Masters (at Life master and above level only) and the Tollemache (both qualifying round and Final ). BGB sets its own regulations for the Gold Cup and Silver Plate but these have traditionally closely followed EBU levels and the Premier League is currently played under Level 5 regulations.

New White Book

The EBU has produced its new White Book (White Book 2010) which applies immediately. It is aimed at tournament directors and may also be useful to clubs and those organising tournaments. It replaces the last version and is a substantial update. Thanks to David Stevenson for doing the work on compiling it and to all the proofreaders for their time spent in thoroughly checking the various drafts.
This version is only produced electronically. One benefit of this is that it will be much easier to update.
Anyone who has comment on the content or indexing is invited to let the Secretary to the L&E know(John@ebu.co.uk)

Tangerine Book

The Tangerine Book is now available for download from this website, at http://www.ebu.co.uk/lawsandethics/articles/tangerine/default.htm. It was written in response to criticism that the current Orange Book, although comprehensive, was too long and too complex for most players. It is intended to be a simple guide mainly to EBU regulations covering bidding agreements - what you are allowed to play, and how you explain to other people what you play.

There's supposed to be nothing new in it by way of what's actually allowed (that's under ongoing discussion by the L&E) rather it is aimed at those people who are reasonably interested in understanding the current rules, but don't want to work through a huge amount of detail. If the TB disagrees with the OB, the OB wins - but they shouldn't do unless the proof-readers have missed a trick somewhere (always possible).

If you can't see the point of it, then please don't tell us. As long as a reasonable number of people find it useful, then it is worth having. Just as not everyone is interested in reading articles on complicated squeezes, there's no reason everything we publish has to be appreciated by everybody.

Together with the TB is an Appendix, which is aimed squarely at people who like to write their own systems, or play unusual (to the UK) methods. It tries to summarise in a set of tables exactly what is permitted at each of Levels 2, 3 and 4. Again, you may not be interested it - but I wish it had been available when I first started writing system!

Welcome to the L&E Blog

Welcome to the first post for the Laws & Ethics Committee blog.

Details of what the L&E does, and the publications can be found on the relevant part of the EBU website - use the links to the right. The official minutes from L&E meetings are also published here, along with minutes from all the other EBU bodies. The minutes can take a while to be agreed, so I shall update the blog after each meeting with anything that seems of general interest.

We try to be responsive to the EBU members, if you want to ask any member of the L&E something, there are lots of ways to get in touch:

• Jeremy Dhondy (jeremy2), David Stevenson (bluejak), David Burn (woubit), Mike Amos (mikeamostd) & Frances Hinden (frances) post regularly on the International Bridge Laws Forum, http://forums.bridgetalk.com and are happy to answer questions on the laws or on any rulings in public or private
• the secretary, John Pain, can be contacted by letter, telephone or email at the EBU. He is extremely helpful himself, and can also pass on messages to anyone you want to get in contact with.

For the time being, I thought I'd explain a couple of things that I sometimes get asked, which seem to be common misunderstandings.

Club System and Alerting Regulations

Individual bridge clubs can decide on any regulations they like for what methods can be played, and/or what alerting and announcing regulations to follow. In practice, most clubs tend to use one of the 'Levels' (2, 3 or 4) defined in the Orange Book, and also use the EBU alerting & announcing regs. However, there's no compulsion to do so - certainly there are a few clubs around who write their own regulations. Two examples I am aware of are a club that plays Level 3 but does not allow the Multi, and a club teams league that allows people to play whatever they like, including highly unusual methods such as forcing pass.

We do think it's a good idea to follow the EBU alerting rules, because otherwise it becomes very difficult both for visitors to the club to know what to expect, or for any club members to play elsewhere without getting confused or causing problems for others. Even if you don't like the rules, I promise that life would become much more difficult if you had to follow different rules depending on where you play!

Disciplinary Actions

When it comes to disciplinary cases, the L&E acts somewhat like the crown prosecution service - we decide whether to go ahead with a case, and we will present the case. However, it is the disciplinary panel who decide if the case is proven or not, and who decide on the appropriate punishment. The panel is drawn from a group of volunteers, who have received some special training.