APPEAL no. 47 |

Appeals Committee
Chairman | Bobby Wolff | USA
Members | Herman De Wael John Lenart John Wignall David Stevenson | BEL NZD NZD GBR
Scribe | David Stevenson | GBR

Event
1998 World Championships
Senior Pairs | Qualifying
Countries
Italy | v | Germany
Players
NS | Longinotti | Resta
EW | Schneider | Gromöller
Board
Board 10. Dealer East. Game All
| ª | 10 5 |
© | Q J 3 2
¨ | 10 4 3
§ | A K J 2
ª | J 8 7 2 |  | ª | Q 6 3
© | 10 7 6 | © | K 9 8
¨ | K 8 6 | ¨ | A J 7 5 2
§ | Q 8 3 | § | 9 6
| ª | A K 9 4 |
© | A 5 4
¨ | Q 9
§ | 10 7 5 4
West |  | North |  | East |  | South
|  |  |  | Pass |  | 1¨
Pass |  | 1© |  | Pass |  | 1ª
Pass |  | 1NT |  | All Pass |  |
Result
1NT=: +90
Facts
Play: Trick 1: ª3, 4, J, 5 Trick 2: ¨6, 3, A, 9 Trick 3: ¨2, Q, K, 4 Trick 4: ¨8, 10, J The Director was called by East after West had won the ªJ at trick one. East wished to reserve his rights. The flap was not put down and East's comments were audible to West. North/South play Precision Club.
TD's Decision
1NT plus one, N/S +120. West had unauthorised information from East's reservation of rights, so the diamond return was disallowed: this would have given North/South nine tricks. However, the alert was not acknowledged, so the actual ruling was also based on misinformation, and an assigned score based on an opening diamond lead leading to eight tricks.

Appellants
E/W
Players' Comments
East called the Director because there were only two diamonds in the dummy and he wished to reserve his rights because he would have led a diamond if he had been alerted. He had seen the convention card but had not looked at the diamond length. North claimed he had alerted East but the alert had not been acknowledged. He showed his convention card to East. West claimed his diamond switch was obvious.

Committee's Comments
The Committee made clear that when there is extraneous information available to a partnership and certain actions may have been affected by this information the Committee has to give the benefit of any doubt to the other side. This does not indicate that anyone has deliberately used the information. When summoning the Director players would do well avoid giving unauthorised information as much as possible, for example by dropping the flap or waiting to the end of the hand. General CoC 16.2. '… the alerted player must acknowledge by returning the Alert Card to his opponent'. The Committee reminds everyone that an alert is not made until it has been acknowledged.
Committee's Decision
Director's ruling upheld
Relevant Laws
—
Deposit
Returned | X
Forfeited |

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