Active Ethics
"A primary objective of the
ACBL is to instill in all players the concept that vigorous
efforts should be made to provide equity in bridge. Every
player should take pains to make sure that the opponents have
in no way been harmed through incomplete or misleading information
as to the meaning of conventional calls and treatments."
What does this mean?
The ACBL is a community of people, united by a love of
duplicate bridge. Duplicate bridge is a contest, a competition
among its members, a game with rules and guidelines designed
to promote the pleasure of playing. When those rules are
obeyed, both in letter and in spirit, the game is FAIR.
| Question: |
"What does
following the spirit of the law mean?" |
| Answer: |
ACTIVE ETHICS |
In a nutshell, a player is required to avoid
any action or inaction which will gain himself or his partner
unathorized information (UI). That means
-
alerting all alertable calls.
-
giving good explanations of alertable
calls when asked to explain, and preferably NOT
just the label of the convention.
- when it's your contract, BEFORE defender leads, explaining
to defenders failure to alert or incorrect explanation of
the alertable call
- when it's their contract, explaining to declarer AT THE
END OF THE HAND, any failure to alert or incorrect explanation.
(You can't do it before declarer plays, for it would give
your PARTNER unauthorized information.) And yes, the Director
may be called to make a ruling.
Let's be real about this. There are other ways of gaining
UI. So, being fair can ALSO mean:
- asking your opponent to hold cards differently instead
of letting him/her continue to hold the hand so you can
see them.
- avoiding discussing any hand when others could hear, even
if they have played the hand at another table.
- notifying the Director if you overhear discussion about
a board you have not played.
After all, what fun is it to win when the playing field is
not level?
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