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The Maastricht Appeals

Appeal No 8

Open Teams Round 8
Brazil v Croatia

Board 2.
Dealer East .
N/S vul.

Please note: Screen runs from top left to bottom right.

			K Q J 3 2
			9
			A Q 10 6 3
			10 4
	A 9 5	N W E S			8 4
	J 7				A K Q 8 3
	K 5 2				9 8 4
	K 8 6 3 2				A J 7
			10 7 6
			10 6 5 4 2
			J 7
			Q 9 5

West	North	East	South
Diklic	Chagas	Miladin	Branco
...	....	1	Pass
1(1)	2(2)	Dbl	3
Dbl	3	All Pass	...
(1) Relay
(2) Spades + a minor if 1 relay: clubs + diamonds if 1 natural

Result: Seven tricks, N/S -200

The Facts: South did not notice West's alert of 1. East/West argued that similar sequences had occurred three times before.

Ruling: Result Stands.

North/South appealed.

The Players: Brazil said:

South said that he was not alerted and did not know it was a relay, despite the fact other relays had occurred before.

The scorer confirmed the lack of alert and did not write an alert signal on his sheet, again confirming the very strong possibility that the alert was not indeed made.

At the Committee, South said he did not remember previous alerts of the initial response, or possibly one only.

West said there was a lot of excitement the table and so he started alerting in a more low key way. With their relay system, they are continually alerting, and South was nodding each time he did.

Since it was more low key it may have been invisible to the scorer (Dutch, acting for Croatia) who was sitting mainly behind him. He also said he had an earlier discussion with South because they found they both played a 1 response to 1 as relay, which is not usual.

The Committee: Noted that South did not argue when West claimed South had nodded: noted that while the scorer had not noted an alert he had not in several other cases that were alerted.

To alert under the regulations it is important that the alert card be shown to the opponent and an acknowledgement received: that is sufficient. If, despite giving an acknowledgement, the screenmate has not realised there was an alert that is not a failure of the alerter to alert. Furthermore, East/West had used similar sequences, and at this level South would be expected to protect himself in this situation.

The Committee's decision: The 1 response was alerted: no misinformation. Director's ruling upheld.

Relevant Laws: Law 40B.

Deposit: Returned.