N°48 • April 2024

Apart from various amendments to the Laws of Contract Bridge, the biggest change to the game in recent history came in 1986, when, to stamp out frivolous sacrifices against slam contracts, non-vulnerable penalties were increased. Reporting the news in The New York Times, Alan Truscott opined that ‘The lawmakers, in their zeal to eliminate frivolous bidding, will have turned a rather exciting deal into a dull one’.

One issue that has never been resolved is that during a teams match the players are not aware of the current score (in a Pairs game Barometer scoring means that the players know their exact position throughout the event). In a recent online event one pair bid a dreadful 7 Hearts that went two down. Expecting to lose a lot of points they were overly aggressive on some of the deals that followed, only to discover that their opponents had gone down in 6 Hearts. Modern technology is such that it ought to be possible to find a way to overcome this flaw.

Number 48 – Monthly – April 2024 – Director of publication Olivier Comte – Publisher Éditions de Presse Spécialisée Le Bridgeur – 33 avenue Emile Zola, 92100 Boulogne Billancourt  – France – Executive Director Karine Meyer-Naudan – Editorial Committee Michel Bessis – Muriel Clément – Philippe Cronier – Mark Horton – Vincent Labbé – Norbert Lébely – Karine Meyer-Naudan – Assistant Editor-in Chief Vincent Labbé – Editorial Secretary Muriel Clément – Adverts Bridgerama+ Muriel Clément 01 42 96 25 50  – Subscriptions 01 42 96 25 50 – Art Director Isabelle Le Squer-Fontaine/Maya – mayatom@me.com – Translation Monika Kummel – Legal Deposit april 2024, N°7.680 – Joint Committee – 1118 K 85690 – ISSN 0184-8127.