opening.When we discovered that it was possible to combine two tetchy hand types – the strong notrump and the intermediate minor 5-4 hand – we went on a bit further and added in 16- and 17-point minor 5-4s for no good reason other than we could.
As we now see, not only was this not necessary (they work perfectly okay through 1
) but it also made things a bit of a blur on opener's rebid. Sure, you could distinguish astrong hand from the intermediate minor two-suiter, but in an auction like 1 – 1
; 2, strong responder will often need to know if opener is balanced with four-card support, or 5431 with three-card support. Without special agreements, this was not possible.So the fix is simple: we've taken out those 16- and 17-point minor two-suiters. This leads to simpler words and rules, and much celebration.
While we were at it, I've clarified that the lower end of the minor two-suited option is 11 points – a 10-pointer would not meet the rule of 20. In similar vein, the upper end of a one of a major opening could be 16 if it were a 4441 hand which would not qualify for 1
because of the rule of 25.I've also tweaked the three pages on side suit bidding in a fit auction: previously called 'three of a side suit', 'four of a side suit' and 'five of a side suit', they are now more accurately 'side suit below 3NT', 'side suit above 3NT' and 'side suit after the count' respectively, requiring a small rearrangement of their content.
And in the typo category, I've corrected the previously erroneous description of 1NT in the openings summary, mended a broken link in the NEXT chain and fixed a styling bug that caused lines to be variably spaced when viewed in IE.
I'd like to thank Andrea – a true peperoncino – for pointing out many of these inaccuracies.
Alan Williams
October 2008
The Chilli bidding system is described and defined at chillibidding.org.
