User:Maproom/bridgehist

History of the Laws of Contract Bridge

Scoring of tricks in no trump contracts

In the 1932 Laws of Contract Bridge, no trump tricks bid and made, and undoubled no trump tricks made but not bid, score 30, 40, 30, 40, 30, 40, 30.

In 1935 this became 40, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30.

Scoring of undertricks

	before 1935	1935-1987	after 1987
not vulnerable, not doubled	50 each	50 each	50 each
not vulnerable, doubled	100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350 etc.	100, 200, 200, 200, 200, 200 etc.	100, 200, 200, 300, 300, 300 etc.
vulnerable, not doubled	100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350 etc.	100 each	100 each
vulnerable, doubled	200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700 etc.	200, 300, 300, 300, 300, 300 etc.	200, 300, 300, 300, 300, 300 etc.

Redoubled undertricks have always scored twice as much as the same doubled undertricks.

The 1987 change, to the scoring of the fourth and subsequent non-vulnerable undertricks, was made after a hand in the finals of the 1981 Bermuda Bowl. Munir and Fazli, playing for Pakistan, bid skilfully to reach a vulnerable 7 hearts, which would have scored them 2310. But their non-vulnerable Meckstroth then sacrificed in 7 spades on a weak hand with fives spades to the jack. This went nine off doubled for a score of -1700, a profitable sacrifice. The change of scoring increased the penalty from -1700 to -2300.

Also, the "insult bonus" for making a redoubled contract used to be only 50. This was changed to 100, so that playing 5 of a minor, redoubled, making an overtrick, is always worth more than an undoubled small slam.

8-Level bids

It has always been the intention of every official set of Laws of Contract Bridge to forbid contracts for more than seven tricks. Some versions have stated this more clearly than others, but this intention of the Laws has never changed.

International Match Points

When International Match Points were first introduced in Europe, they were as in this table.

IMP table, 1949

Point difference		IMPs		Point difference		IMPs
from	to			from	to
0	10	0		1000	1240	8
20	40	1		1250	1490	9
70	130	2		1500	1990	10
140	210	3		2000	2490	11
220	340	4		2500	2990	12
350	490	5		3000	3490	13
500	740	6		3500	3990	14
750	990	7		4000 or more		15

On September 1st 1962 they were changed to the table below.

IMP table, 1962

Point difference		IMPs		Point difference		IMPs		Point difference		IMPs
from	to			from	to			from	to
0	10	0		370	420	9		1750	1990	18
20	40	1		430	490	10		2000	2240	19
50	80	2		500	590	11		2250	2490	20
90	120	3		600	740	12		2500	2990	21
130	160	4		750	890	13		3000	3490	22
170	210	5		900	1090	14		3500	3990	23
220	260	6		1100	1290	15		4000 or more		24
270	310	7		1300	1490	16
320	360	8		1500	1740	17

(after 1972, before 2002) they were changed again (FBDis, p. 22, p. 74)