Introduction

Changes affecting players

Changes affecting directors

Every ten years, or so, the World Bridge Federation redrafts the laws of the game. They don’t do it just to keep players and tournament directors on their toes. There have been many developments in the game over the past ten years and there are no signs that these changes have stopped. So the WBF Drafting Committee has to ensure the laws keep up with the changes.  The new laws give TDs considerably more discretionary powers. There are fewer automatic penalties which have been replaced by the concept of rectification of situations that have unfortunately arisen.  The laws also give more power to the Regulating Authorities to control regulations. In England the Regulating Authority is the EBU and the EBU has made certain decisions where the laws give a choice or where a decision has to be made.

Most players will not notice much change! We do notice, however, that the word Contract has been dropped from the title. A large number of the proprieties have been moved to the section of law they more appropriately deal with. There should be less cross-referencing to laws in different parts of the book. Many laws have been tidied up to prevent possible misinterpretations (and interesting TD questions!)

There are some Regulating Authority (RA) options – which basically means there is a choice that the EBU has to make when interpreting the new laws. These will be listed separately on the EBU website but you should not be alarmed – they nearly all confirm common practice.

There are no changes to the scoring table.

Click the links for details of changes affecting players and tournament directors.