fa1

I enjoy playing on BBO, particularly tournaments without robots. One frequent problem I have to face is an opponent claiming without providing a line of play, when there are lines of play that would lead to loosing one or more tricks. I reject those claims. But this does not seem to help much. Invariably, my opponent insist in claiming again with no explanation! She/he may insist in claiming a number of times, I had a case when she/he insisted 8 times! By then the time allotted expires and the director adjust the hand invariably allowing the claim. This is because the director does not know the claimer to be confused and assume she/he would play the best line. I think there is an easy technological solution to the problem of incorrect claiming: first, of all only one claim should be allow; second, after a rejected claim without explanation the defender rejecting will be allowed to play the cards of each players according to the Law of bridge; third, when a line of play has been provided, the director is call at the table to supervise the correct application of the line of play of the claimer, which is going to be carry over by the rejector, which of course has the right to make it fit her/his interest at will. This simple solution is in agreement with the law of bridge and it would cause not much trouble. In fact, the change in the BBO program can be simply implemented by any low level programmer; also, in my experience most claims are without explanation and hence the director intervention would not be required. Some hands will require the Director intervention right were it is most needed and will mark interesting table situations. Overall it should greatly improve the claiming experience. What do you think?