WBF ALERTING POLICY PREAMBLE The objective is to have a uniform WBF policy which is applied to all WBF events. It is not intended that this should over-ride Alerting Policies developed by the Zone or NBOs. Players who participate in WBF events are expected to protect themselves to a large extent. They are also expected to observe the spirit of the Laws as well as the letter. Full disclosure is vital. The Policy has been made as simple as possible. Players, however, are expected to alert whenever there is doubt. (N.B. Where screens are in use, an alert on one side but not on the other does not necessarily imply an infraction.) POLICY The following classes of calls should be alerted: Conventional bids should be alerted, non-conventional bids should not. (A Convention is a call that serves by partnership agreement to convey a meaning not necessarily related to the denomination named.) Those bids which have special meanings or which are based on or lead to special understandings between the partners. (A player may not make a call or play based on a special partnership understanding unless an opposing pair may reasonably be expected to understand its meaning, or unless his side discloses the use of such call or play in accordance with the regulations of the sponsoring organization). See Law 40(b). Non-forcing jump changes of suit responses to opening bids or overcalls, and non-forcing new suit responses by an unpassed hand to opening bids of one of a suit. The following called should not be alerted (except when screens are in use): All doubles. Any no-trump bid which suggests a balanced or semi-balanced hand, or suggests a no-trump contract. All bids, with the exception of conventional opening suit bids, at the four level or higher. John R. Wignall Chairman, WBF Systems Committee 5 November 1995
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