7C

You should shuffle your cards after the hand before returning them to the board.

16B3

You are still required to agree a hesitation, for example, when it happens and the TD should be summoned if there is any disagreement. The new laws state that the best to time to claim actual damage is at the end of the hand (e.g. rather than on sight of dummy).

20F3

You are now allowed to ask about the meaning of an individual call in the opponents’ auction. But it shouldn’t be done in such a way as to suggest a call or play to partner such as "does that 2H bid show hearts?" – perhaps indicating that the questioner holds hearts.

20G1

Sometimes players ask questions because they do not think their partner has understood. It is illegal to do so.

40B2(b)

41B/C

There is a short period between the final pass and the first card being faced, when questions are asked. This is now called the Clarification Period. Members of the declaring side may consult their own system cards during this time to make sure nothing has been misexplained, for example.

41D

When you put the dummy down you must display it with the lowest ranking cards nearer declarer.

61B2b

Dummy cannot ask a defender whether he has revoked (In 1997 it was in 42B1 and still is but is repeated here). However he can still ask declarer.

61B3

Defenders are allowed to ask one another whether they have revoked. This returns to a situation outlawed in 1987.

65B3

Players are now allowed to point out that a quitted trick card is pointing the wrong way. Declarer can do it at any time; dummy or defenders can do it only until the lead is made to the following trick.

72

It’s now official - the chief object while playing is to obtain a higher score than other contestants!

12C1(c)

The concept of ‘weighted’ adjusted scores becomes the norm in England. It has been in place since 2000 as an option but it now replaces the current law 12C2. 12C1(e) does not apply in England.

Example: Due to an infraction the TD disallows a score of 4 by E/W and puts it back to 4 by N/S. There is a 50/50 chance that N/S will make 10 or 11 tricks, so the TD can award 50% of 4= and 50% of 4+1. See the White Book p27 for full details. An article will follow in a future English Bridge.

25B

In the current (1997) code there is a little known law that allows you to make a call and then ‘change your mind’. It was quite a well kept secret and had a strange penalty where you could play for at most 40% after you had done it. In the new laws that has gone. You can still make a ‘mechanical error’ and be allowed to change it (L25A) but you cannot change your mind. By and large a bid made cannot be changed.

27

This is both complicated to explain and understand and may be difficult to apply. There is a significant change to the insufficient bid law. The scope for allowing an insufficient bid (IB) to be replaced without silencing partner has been extended. The old rule of replacing it at the lowest legal level remains, provided that both bids (the IB and replacement bid) are natural. But there is now an added possibility, which comes if a replacement call can be found which has the same meaning, or a more precise meaning as the IB itself.

Confused? Well, Max Bavin has come up with a useful question that TDs should ask, which might help to make it easier to decide. Would all hands making the replacement call also have made the original call in correct circumstances? If the answer is yes, then the change is allowed.

Here are a few examples:

West	North	East	South
1	1	1

East/West play Precision Club, so 1 shows 16+ HCP and, without interference, 1 shows 0-7 HCP. Can East replace his 1 bid by double if he has 5-7 points? They play that over interference pass shows 0-4 HCP and double 5-7 HCPs.

Would all hands playing Precision Club that would now double also have bid 1 without interference? Yes, so the change can be made and partner can continue bidding. Note that in this case pass would also be okay if East had 0-4 points.

West	North	East	South
(other bids...)
4NT	5	5

4NT was Blackwood, East missed the 5 bid and 5 showed 0 or 4 aces. East/West play DOPI over intervention (double shows no ace, pass shows one ace). Can East replace 5 by double? Yes, all hands that would double to show no ace, would also have bid 5 without the interference.

40

This law confirms a number of things already in EBU regulations. It also confirms that you cannot have any aide-memoires or aids to calculation. So you cannot, for example, during the play take out the bidding card to see what 4xx + 2 will score for you.

64

The criteria for transferring tricks after an established revoke is changed. The TD no longer has to look at whether ‘an additional trick was won by the offending player with a card that could legally have been played to the revoke trick’. Instead he adjudicates either two tricks or one trick as now, and then looks to see whether equity has been served. Deciding whether equity has been served becomes the norm. It always was, but it is now even more important that the TD considers it.

70

The claim laws acknowledge that, even though play should cease after a claim, it often does not and the TD is given help on how to proceed.

70, 71

The claim and concession laws still refer to action that would be careless or inferior for the class of player involved, but the bit about being ‘irrational’ has been removed.

80

The Laws recognize a body called the Tournament Organizer which could be the Club, the County Association, a Congress or Holiday Organizer or the EBU itself and sets out the duties and responsibilities. It replaces the Sponsoring Organisation in the current laws.