Rules and Regulations
Announcements and Alerts
Blue Book
The Blue Book is the handbook of of EBU permitted understandings, your first point of reference to find out what you can play in different events.
- Blue Book
- Blue Book (pdf version)
- General Regulations – Rulings & Appeals in Matches Played Privately Online
Skyblue Book
The Skyblue Book was the supplement to the Blue Book and White Book for online bridge, but it has now been absorbed into those two books. The document below provides links to the relevant parts of the Blue Book and White Book for online regulations.
The Laws
The White Book
The White Book is the EBU Tournament Directors Guide. It also has useful information for tournament players.
Best Behaviour @ Bridge
Tournament Directors (TDs)
Articles for TDs
- Board dealing security, by Gordon Rainsford
- Articles about 2017 Laws
- Appeals, by Gordon Rainsford
- Adjudicating Claims, by Gordon Rainsford
- Slow Play, by Gordon Rainsford
- Notes on polling & consulting, by Gordon Rainsford
- Scoring stratified events, by Gordon Rainsford
- Standard EBUScore settings, by Gordon Rainsford
- EBU TD ranks, by Gordon Rainsford
- IT & Scoring EBU events,by Robin Barker
- Recommended scoring methods used in EBU tournaments, by Frances Hinden. Includes a suggested scale for teams-of-eight matches where the four scores are added together.
- Web Mitchell Movements, by Gordon Rainsford
- What is a logical alternative?, by Jeremy Dhondy
- Weighted rulings, by John Pain
- Responding and defending to 1NT, by Max Bavin
- The Neuberg formula, by Max Bavin
- Scoring fouled boards, by Nick Doe
- EBU regulations, clubs and club players, by Jeremy Dhondy
- The EBU and players with disabilities
- Appeal Guidelines
- Bidding Box Regulations
- 2015 WBF Screen Regulations showing changes from previous version
- Uploading results to Pianola
- Forms for Tournament directors
Players
Articles for players
- An index of 'educational' articles from English Bridge 2007 to present
- Defending against artificial systems, by Frances Hinden. Part One - Part Two - Part Three
- Doubling and alerting, by Jeremy Dhondy. Part One - Part Two
- Problems of discipline - call the director!, by David Stevenson
- The general approach - call the director!, by David Stevenson and Ian Spoors
- Pauses at trick one, by David Stevenson and Ian Spoors
Appeals
EBU Appeals Booklets
2016 - 2015 - 2014 - 2013 - 2012 - 2011 - 2010 - 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000
Appeals Focus
Spring 2010; Spring 2011; Winter 2011; Autumn 2012; November 2014; November 2016; July 2018
International
World Bridge Federation Publications
Scoring and points
How to Score
The 70% rule for Master Points
Bridge Movements
- The mathematics of bridge movements, by John Manning
- A table of suggested movements for sessions to comply with the'70% rule'*
- Unusual (but useful) Movements for Clubs by Gordon Rainsford
* The '70% rule', came into effect from 1st January 2016. The regulation states that for a pairs session to be eligible for Master Points each player must play - or be scheduled to play - at least 70% of the boards in play. See here, or rule 3.1.4 in the Master Point & Licensing Handbook for more details.