V N Ramamoorthy
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Everything in life, be it work, industry, sports, politics or governance - depends on information. And one has the "Right" to have access to the right information before you act.
RTI is not exclusive to polity, governance or judiciary. Bridge players have their rights too.
Everything one does on the bridge table - the bidding, card play, signals , leads or defence is largely based on the information one gets!
When asked to explain a bid, one has to honestly explain in unambiguous language.
Some players including experts have a habit of either giving the name of a convention like "Jacoby, Texas, Drury, Lebensohl" etc. Or they use some ambiguous mumbo - jumbo, like " Mixed Raise , Fit showing jump, Unusual NT" et al.
It is all very well to explain like this if the opponent asking a query is also an expert of equal standing. But, this explanation itself is often incomplete. Because the meaning of the bid is specific to the partnership. Just to give an example, explaining a bid of '2 Hearts' as Tartan, is not complete. Some partnerships play this bid to include the spade suit as the other suit. Others don't. The opponents are entitled to a complete explanation of the arrangement.
To be ambiguous about it is definitely unethical. Especially against weak players - beginners or intermediates especially. For the fear of exposing their ignorance, they refrain from asking further!
One TD I know ( foreign not Indian) keeps warning "If you can bid it, you can explain it. And if you don't, I will give far more information to your opponents than you would like " 😂
Moral of the story? If it is your right to bid or play as per your system or covention, it is somebody else's RIGHT to ask for explanation.
All the upcoming bridge players : Be fearless in asking and do not give up till you get satisfied, IT IS YOUR RIGHT TO ASK! 🙂
In online games (like BBO) when you ask, quite often you get back "No explanation available "! This is absolutely callous and unacceptable, you must exercise your RIGHT TO ASK!
Happy bridging,
VNR
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.