Harry and I receive a lot of emails about the competition and we are going to collate the most frequent and important.
Result should be entered using the online form by 10pm or within sixty minutes of the match finishing, whichever is the later. This enables the scorer to update the table and do the draw in a timely manner.
If the score is not entered in time and no request for a ruling has been received, then the winning team will receive a warning (category 'W' in the ranking). For a second offence a yellow card is issued ('Y') and the team is officially notified. For a third offence there will be a 0.5VP fine. Subsequent offences by a winning team will see the fines double.
We hope that no-one is cheating during these events but recognise that this may be an optimistic view. Anyone can have a lucky result, be it a bid, line of play or lead. As Aristotle said, "One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy."
The beauty of BBO is that every action is recorded and if pairs are consistently lucky over an extended period then there will be a record to analyse.
Following updates to the WBF Disciplinary code, Harry and Paul will not be involved in handling any complaints but they will be passed directly to the player's NBO and handled by them.
You can always report suspicions to BBO directly, via abuse@bridgebase.com.
[Update - March 2021] Even though this is not an SBU event, if you are an SBU member and your complaint is about an SBU member, then you are obliged to report your suspicions to the Chair of the Investigation Panel: Iain Taylor (idtkaufer@gmail.com, mobile +44 7821 722195). Other NBOs may have similar regulations following the changes to the WBF Disciplinary Code.
Sadly we occasionally receive allegations of cheating in the Lockdown Swiss Teams, sometimes formally but more often players wanting to warn us about a pair "informally". We do not have the resources to investigate these, as you need far more boards than one match provides, and we do not have the BBO tools available to paying tournaments, so we forward these reports to BBO, the SBU and, where appropriate, the NBOs of the participants.
We cannot stop people from cheating but we can make it more difficult: we have changed the conditions of the contest so that, by default, kibitzers will not be allowed. Matches must not permit kibitzers unless both captains have explicitly agreed to allow them.
It is disappointing to make this decision, but we feel that it is necessary for the integrity of the event.
We also stress that any SBU members are obliged to report allegations to Iain Taylor, Chairman of the SBU Investigatory Panel (idtkaufer@gmail.com, mobile +44 7821 722195), and not to Harry or Paul.
The team captains have the responsibility to try and come to an agreement on any ruling in the match. If they cannot, then they can ask us for a ruling. We will make a final ruling, often in consultation with others. This event is supposed to be fun for us as well as the players and it takes considerable time and effort to provide rulings. If we get too many requests, then the quality of the rulings will certainly decline, so it is in the interest of the team captains to sort it out themselves.
You are not permitted to do this in face to face play in any jurisdiction that I am aware of:
Law 20G3
Except as the Regulating Authority allows, a player may not consult their own system card and notes during the auction period and play [but see Law 40B2(b)].
The situation is less clear in online play. The SBU permits players to consult their system card and notes as long as you do not disrupt the tempo. The EBU explicitly permits players to consult their own system card and notes online, primarily because they believe that it is unenforceable to do otherwise.
We do not believe it is a good idea to consult your system card and notes playing online. At some point we are going to play bridge face-to-face again and you will have to play without the crutch of being able to consult your card or notes.
We are not going to make a rule on this. You should go with your conscience.
This is covered in the BBO rules for the site and any specific undo policy should be established by the team captains before the match.
Our guidance is that this is a friendly event and that undos should only be asked for misclicks in the bidding and the play. We would strongly prefer that they were accepted when it clearly is a misclick. However the BBO rules prevail, and any situation where information from an undo is used will be treated harshly.
There is no specific system policy for these events. You may play any method that you can explain succinctly to the opponents, generally this means systems that are permitted in most national events in the UK. It is not permitted to play a Highly Unusual Method, as defined by the WBF (WBF System Policy - PDF).
The default is two sets of 12 boards with a change of opponents. A player must not play against the same pair in both sets (this means that a pair cannot split up and play in two different partnerships in the second half if the opponents play the pair they've already played). Teams can use more than four players in one match.
You will need to sum the two sessions to enter the final result.