2017 Law changes

Here are key points regarding some of the changes

Law 7: This law has been amended slightly to reinforce the fact that boards must remain in the centre of the table correctly orientated during play.

Law 9: Dummy may now attempt to prevent an irregularity by any player.  Dummy must not, however, ask a Defender if they have revoked or draw attention to an irregularity which has occurred, until play concludes, except for correction of a mistaken explanation by partner (Declarer).

Law 23: This is a significant change in the Laws and introduces the concept of a Comparable Call. This is defined in the Laws as follows:

A call that replaces a withdrawn call is a comparable call, if it:

1. has the same or similar meaning as that attributed to the withdrawn call, or
2. defines a subset of the possible meanings attributable to the withdrawn call, or
3. has the same purpose (eg an asking bid or a relay) as that attributable to the withdrawn call

Please click on this link to read more.  There are good examples here to demonstrate what a comparable bid is

Law 66: Players can now look at (but not expose) the card they played to their last trick, before they or their partner has played to the next trick.

Law 68: A hand can now be played out following a claim but only if a member of the non-claiming or non-conceding side requests the hand to be played out AND all 4 players (including Dummy) agree.  NB: If dummy is not at the table then they are deemed to have concurred.

Law 75: It is now an infraction to state there is a partnership agreement when there isn’t one.  Therefore by stating an opinion as if it were an agreement, or stating “I am taking that as...”, is an infraction.  Please just state that you have no agreement.  This is a common error and may take players a while to stop doing this, so please try to take great care about this one.