[barmar]

The law says "The opponents should summon the Director immediately if they dispute the fact that unauthorized information might have been conveyed." I don't see how they can be expected to do this if the player reserving their rights doesn't state what occurred in the first place to prompt this.

[blackshoe]

Perhaps unfortunately, the law assumes that people know what it is.

I would be perfectly happy if the "I reserve my rights" bit was changed to "ask the opponents if they agree..." Again unfortunately, it looks like this law will be unchanged in the upcoming edition.

[axman]

Trinidad, on 2017-January-27, 05:07, said:

i strongly disagree. Often starting the auction is the most practical way to stop opponents discussing the previous board.

You can ask them politely to start the next board, and they will ignore you (because you have no business interfering with their "pleasure of the game"). But once you have started the auction, they will know that they are supposed to play bridge. Starting the auction on the new board is a pretty powerful gesture that doesn't lead to ill feelings.

(The actual situation is quite different since it was an opponent starting the chatting, about the score on the previous board.)

Rik

I have extensive experience in this area and my observations cut across all stripes. Consider my observation of a top fifty player over many years. As dealer he is first to remove his cards, glances for a small fraction of a second and passes before anyone has removed their cards. Everyone now has something to think about, actually, a lot to think about…and indeed usually someone(s) does think a long time. Now… dealer has a lot to think about and he takes more than a minute- considerably more. This is not rare- but typical.

On the other hand, this is what I do. Say I am the dealer and the opponents have their meal on the table and they are digging into the fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I wait quietly until they have finished, pull out their cards, make their plan, and act like they are ready to do battle. The board finishes in 9 minutes and the second finishes in 7. If I had started the auction 'normal like' they would have taken 23 minutes. I know because when 'ask them politely' they take 24 minutes.

However counterintuitive it sounds, my experience bears it out.

[Gerardo]

 mycroft, on 2017-January-26, 14:42, said:

*most* of the 1NT non-responders here, who are still firmly in the "why do I have to do this?" camp, 25 years after Announcements got changed to include their precious 15-17

Necroing this one, came from a recent link to this post, just noticed this.
The answer is, of course, there would be some people with different meanings for bidding directly, and asking the bidding; and always tries to prevent this.
Said people could still ask after the announcement, but that would be strange, specially if repeated.

[mycroft]

All I will say about that is that when Announcements came in in 1998 (I think?), and we switched from Alerting our 12-14 NT to Announcing it, our scores improved about 4-5% overnight. I have no idea why. I also have no idea if the same issues exist with people who "have to ask" about the 15-17 NT now, or even if the "why should I have to say something, everybody plays 15-17" people notice how much better their opponents defend.

[pescetom]

mycroft, on 2024-August-15, 17:36, said:

All I will say about that is that when Announcements came in in 1998 (I think?), and we switched from Alerting our 12-14 NT to Announcing it, our scores improved about 4-5% overnight. I have no idea why. I also have no idea if the same issues exist with people who "have to ask" about the 15-17 NT now, or even if the "why should I have to say something, everybody plays 15-17" people notice how much better their opponents defend.

You would love our (since 2019) "Multi" announcement, allowed for any Multicolor agreement with or without a strong option and promising at least 6 HCP (but not punishable with 5 and not necessarily 6 cards, even though almost no Italians play it with less).
If you add in that they are encouraged to Alert instead with any unusual agreement and that there is no penalty for doing the same with a usual agreement, I suspect their scores improved even more overnight.