Supplementary Conditions of Contest

1. Preamble

Get Active! Singapore Pesta Sukan 2025 (Bridge) is an annual bridge competition organised by Singapore Contract Bridge Association (SCBA) with support from Sport Singapore.

For technical questions on Bridge, The Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge 2017 and the SCBA General Conditions of Contest (GCoC) (available from: www.scba.org.sg) will apply to this competition. These Supplementary Conditions of Contest shall prevail in case of conflict with the SCBA GCoC.

This SCoC will cover the Schedule of Events, specific regulations governing Pairs competitions, specific regulations governing Teams competitions, and other regulations governing all competitions.

English is the official language. During a match the players may converse only in English unless both captains (in team events) or all four players (in pairs events) agree to use some other common language at their own risk. If necessary, each captain is responsible for the provision of an interpreter for translation into English.

The Laws printed in English will be used by the Tournament Directors to adjudicate irregularities. No appeal due to misunderstanding in a language other than English will be heard.

2. Eligibility & Registration

• For Standard and Masters category, all teams and pairs must comprise of least 50% Singaporeans or Permanent Residents (PR). In addition, for Masters, all players must be born in the year of 1971 or earlier (i.e. 54 years or older as of year of competition).
• For Corporate, players must come from legal entities registered with ROS or ACRA, or IHLs, Government Ministries and Statutory Boards. The 50% Singaporeans or PR rule does not apply. A full team of students will play under the School category instead of the Corporate category.
• For Youth, all participants must be 25 or younger on December 31 of the year of the competition. The 50% Singaporean or PR rule applies.
• For School, students come from a legally registered educational institution, such as Junior Colleges, Polytechnics, or Universities. The 50% Singaporeans or PR rule does not apply.
• If a team does not fall under any of the categories mentioned above, it will fall under the International Category, with prices pegged at standard category rates.

• Each pair in the Mixed Pairs must consist of a male and female player according to gender at birth.
• Each Team can register not more than six Players, except for school teams or full youth teams that can register not more than eight Players.
• All members in their school Team must be students who are currently studying in the school they are representing. Random identification checks may be conducted during the event. Non-compliant school Teams will be disqualified and the incident reported to the school.

Registration fees are decided by the organisers of Pesta Sukan.

3. List of Events

The following events will form part of Pesta Sukan:

• Inter Club Socials
• Mixed Pairs
• Open Pairs
• Open Teams

4. Registration

Online registration for all events ends on 14 July 2025. The Teams event will strictly adhere to this deadline.

For the pair events, walk-ins are allowed, especially for Open Pairs since it starts after the Open Teams qualifying. However, online registrations are strongly encouraged in order to secure places.

5. Pairs Competition

1. Format

For the Mixed/Open Pairs, each session will last for about 26/30 boards, with scoring by Matchpoints. The movement can either be a Howell or a Mitchell. For Open Pairs, Barometer will also be used.

For Inter Club Socials, a Swiss movement will be used. There will be seven rounds of 3 boards each if the number of pairs exceeds 16. Otherwise, it will be six rounds of 4 boards each.

For all pair events, no screens will be used. No interim results will be shown for the Mixed Pairs. Interim results will be shown every 5 rounds for the Open Pairs, and every round for Inter Club Socials.

2. Duration of Rounds

The time allowed for completion of a round is based on 8½ minutes per board, including player movement in between rounds. For Swiss pairs, each board will take 7½ minutes with a 5-minute break in between rounds to determine seating lineups for each round.

3. Tie-breaking

By head to head record, else most match points against the highest-ranking pair that all tied pairs played against. Should a tie still exist, the foregoing procedure shall be used with the next highest-ranking pair(s) until the tie is broken. If no comparison is available, it will be broken in favour of the pair which scored the most match points against its highest-ranked opponent.

4. Correction of Scores

Players are advised to agree their scores with opponents after each round. An agreed score that is proven erroneous to the TD’s satisfaction can be corrected up to 30 minutes (20 minutes for Open Pairs) after posting of the scores at the end of the session, following which the scores will be final.

6. Teams Competition

1. Overall Format

The general format is 7 rounds of Swiss Qualifying for the combined field. The top teams in each category will qualify for the Open Team Playoffs - the number of teams to qualify will depend on the initial number of teams in each category. Teams that did not qualify, along with pairs from qualified teams not playing in the Open Team Playoffs, can play in the Open Pairs.

Scoring is by IMPs converted to VP in the Qualifying and Consolations, and IMPs in the Finals.

The above assumes a Swiss Qualifying format of ≥ 14 teams. Should this threshold not be reached, the format shall be a full round robin instead, with an updated schedule given to the Team Captains during the captains’ meeting.

2. Duration of Rounds

Qualifying Rounds (Swiss): 1 hour and 15 minutes for 10 boards

Qualifying Rounds (Round Robin): 7.5 minutes for each board

Playoffs: 16 boards for both Semi-Finals (if applicable) and Finals, ~8.5 minutes for each board

3. Procedure for Swiss Qualifying

All team entries will be placed into a single, combined Swiss Qualifying bracket. Team numbers will be randomly drawn before the event. No Team has seating rights against one another.

All board results must be keyed into the Bridgemate at most five minutes after the end of each Round. The Tournament Director has the right to scrap boards and award slow play penalties for offending Teams.

Any change in the match ups from a score adjustment due to a Tournament Director ruling can only be made up to 10 minutes after the end of each round.

4. Procedure for Playoffs

All teams not playing in the playoffs can register and play in the Open Pairs.

For a four-team playoffs, the Top-placed Team will select their semi-final opponent from the 3rd or 4th-placed Team, with carryover knowledge for all potential matches. No Team has seating rights over one another, and a pairs switch will be conducted at half time by the lower-ranked team. Screens will be used.

Carryover: ½ IMPs for higher-ranked team, ⅓ IMPs for lower-ranked team. Capped at 4 IMPs.

5. Tie-breaking

For the knock-out stages, the tie will be broken in favour of the team which placed higher in the Qualifying.

If both Teams are tied in qualifying, the tie-break will be broken using the following order:

• Head-to-head IMP score during qualifying
• IMP Quotient during qualifying
• Head-to-head Total Points during qualifying
• Total Points Quotient during qualifying.

1. Correction of Scores

Players are advised to agree their scores with opponents after each round. An agreed score that is proven erroneous to the complete satisfaction of the Tournament Director, shall be corrected up to 30 minutes (20 minutes for Open Teams Finals) after the posting of the scores at the end of the session, following which the scores will be final. However, any change in the match ups from the correction of wrong scores can only be made up to 10 minutes after the end of each round.

7. Awards for All Events

1. International Participants

There will be no cash prizes for international participants under any scenario as they fall under the International Category. However, SCBA will still give out medals for the top finishers of each event regardless of their category.

2. Criteria for Pesta Sukan-specific cash and medal prizes

Pesta Sukan-specific prizes will be given out to pairs and teams in the Open, Youth, School, Masters, and Corporate categories.

Prize Money and medals will be awarded to the top three winners of each event with at least eight pairs or teams. For Teams, the winning team will also receive a trophy.

A minimum of eight registrations is required for cash prizes. If there are less than eight pairs or teams, only medals will be awarded.

3. Rules for insufficient participation in any category

If there are more than one but less than four pairs or teams in a category, participants will continue with the competition but will not be eligible for prize money. Medals will be awarded based on the ‘minus 1 rule’. (If there are only 3 participants/teams for the event, only 1st & 2nd will be awarded with medal.)

If there is only one pair or team in a category, SCBA will:

• Collapse the School category into the Youth category if eligible, then
• Collapse any other affected categories into the Open category.

8. Substitutes

Procedure governing substitutes will be handled as per the SCBA GCoC.

9. Punctuality

Any partnership not seated and ready to play at the announced starting time of the

session will be assessed a penalty according to the following scale:

10. Slow Play

Tables are not allowed to start new boards when the timer ends. A slow play penalty will also be assessed automatically, apportioned between both teams/pairs according to their contribution to slow play:

11. Walkover

A walkover will be granted if a Team is unable to play or complete a match or is more than 15 minutes late.

4. Scoring for Walkover in Pairs

The Pair conceding shall score zero match points for that round. Their opponents will receive the best score between: (a) 60% for all the boards in that round, (b) the Pair’s average, or (c) the average score obtained by all the other opponents against the Pair at fault, whichever is greater. If it is, or becomes, necessary also to assign a match point score for tie breaking or carry-over purposes, the pair shall be credited with the average number of match points, rounded up, which earn the assigned % score.

5. Scoring for Walkover in Teams

The Team conceding shall score zero Victory Points and zero IMPs for that match. The Team winning the forfeited match will receive the best score between: (a) 12 VPs using the 20-0 VP scale, (b) the Team’s average, or (c) the average score obtained by all the other opponents against the Team at fault, whichever is greater. If it is, or becomes, necessary also to assign an IMP score for tie breaking or carry-over purposes, the winning Team shall be credited with the average number of IMPs, rounded up, which earn the assigned Victory Points score.

12. Withdrawal from Event

A Pair or Team is deemed to have withdrawn if it concedes more than 1 walkover, whether on consecutive or separate occasions. The offending Team shall provide satisfactory reasons to the Competition Secretary; otherwise, the Team and/or Players may be rejected for participation in the event next year.

All scores of the withdrawn Team/Pair and the complements of these scores shall be cancelled.

13. Systems and conventions policy

1. Permitted Systems

For all events, the World Bridge Federation (WBF) Category 3 Systems Policy shall apply.  HUM (Highly Unusual Methods) and Brown Sticker Conventions as defined by the WBF are not allowed.

2. Full disclosure of System and Convention Cards

Players are required to make a full disclosure of their system, preferably in the form of Convention Cards.  Players must ensure that their Convention Cards are available whenever requested by opponents in any matches.

The onus of disclosure is on the user of the system or convention. Particularly where no convention card is available, players should ensure that opponents are informed of the general system approach and style, strength of 1NT opening, lead and signalling agreements, and special bids that may require defence before the start of play in each segment.

Players are also required to make a full disclosure of the meaning of any call or play in response to a proper question at the table from an opponent.

When there is a claim of damage through inadequate disclosure and no convention card is available, the Tournament Director and the Tournament Appeals Committee will give the benefit of any doubt to the opponents.

3. Alerting policy

APBF Alerting Policy shall apply (APBF adopts the WBF Alerting Policy with the following exception: All doubles (redoubles not included) are NOT alertable, with or without screen).  In the absence of a written convention card, additional pre-alerting and disclosure obligations apply.

4. Psychic Bidding

Psychic bidding is allowed in all matches, as it is specifically permitted by the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge.  All psyches should be reported to the Director.

Understandings whereby from time to time there may be gross violations of the normal meanings of calls, and where the nature or type of violation can be anticipated, must also be disclosed on the convention cards. The understandings may be explicitly agreed or they may have developed from partnership experience or mutually shared knowledge not available to opponents. They must be pre-alerted to opponents and listed on the card amongst the conventions that may call for special defense and the supplementary sheets must give full detail of situations in which these violations may occur and of the relevant partnership practices and expectations. Subject to satisfactory disclosure methods of this kind are permissible.

Explicit agreements in which psychic calls are expected, or providing systemic protection for them, are classified as Brown Sticker and hence disallowed in the league. An artificial adjusted score (+3 imps/- 3 imps) will be awarded on deals where such illegal conventions/agreements have been used. Further procedural penalties may apply.

14. Review Following a Tournament Director’s Ruling

Procedure governing review will be handled as per the SCBA GCoC.

15. Resolution of Ambiguities

Should any matters which are not covered in this SCoC or the SCBA GCoC arise, the Organising Committee’s decision, along with inputs from non-interested parties, shall prevail.