The
Precision Club Bidding System was invented by CC Wei, a
Chinese businessman, in the late 1960s and was first used on the international
stage by the Taiwan national team in 1970. Following their success using the system
in the 1970 and 1971 Bermuda Bowls, Precision exploded onto the world stage when
the legendary Italian Blue Team adopted and refined it as Super-Precision. The Blue Team's
successes during the 1970's using Precision brought the system prominence and prestige. Although its
global popularity will never rival that of Standard American, 2-Over-1 or ACOL, it is generally
reckoned to be more efficient that any of them and is the foremost Strong Club system
in use today. Many modern experts, including multiple World Champions Jeff Meckstroff
and Eric Rodwell use it as the basis of their system. The number of other Strong Club
systems that have come into existence since 1970 and that use Precision as their basis are a
further compliment to its power and effectiveness.
Precision gains its biggest advantage by restricting the range of its intermediate
opening bids to 11-15 points and reserving the One Club opening for
any
hand containing 16 or more points. This contrasts with the huge range for opening bids
found in most other systems of 11-20 points. The much smaller range of intermediate
openings makes it much easier for Precision users to know immediately whether they are
in part-score, game, or slam territory and reduces the strain on responder to keep the
bidding alive in case partner has a rock-crushingly strong hand.
The main features of Standard Precision are as follows:
- 13-15 Opening 1NT Bid
- Artificial 1♣
Bid to show any 16+ Hand
- 1♥,
1♠
& 2♣
Natural showing at least a 5-card suit and 11-15 HCP
- Forcing 1NT Response to 1♥
or 1♠ Openings
- 1♦
shows 11-15 and not suitable for one of the other openings.
- 2♦
Opening shows 11-15, and exactly 4414 shape with a diamond shortage
- Weak 2♥ &
2♠ Openings.
- Asking Bids to facilitate efficient exploration for Slams (The Asking Bids an optional extra).
Beyond these features, Precision users are pretty much free to bolt on whatever other features they
like. Although, for example, standard Precision uses 2-way Stayman rather than transfers, many Precision
users opt for the latter and this can be done without affecting other areas of the system. Similarly, many
Precision Pairs opt for a non-standard scheme of Openings from 2 ♦
upwards, but these kinds of changes do affect other areas of the system
such as the 1♦ Opening.
Asking Bids are an area
that some users of the system do not touch, choosing to rely on more conventional tools such as cue-bids
and Roman Key-Card Blackwood. Precision specifies little or nothing where defensive bidding is concerned.
One of Precision's great strengths is the extent to which you can adapt and extend it. It is undoubtedly
one of the main reasons why it has become so popular. The successes of Precision on the world stage are
a testament to its effectiveness. Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell, certainly one of the greatest Bridge partnerships
of recent times, have shown how far you can extend Precision whilst still keeping its essence intact.
The Precision Club sessions I hold in BIL take place each Saturday at 8pm UK time. This is normally 4 or 5
hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, depending on Daylight Saving. All members of BIL are very welcome to
attend. Some of the sessions are very Precision-specific, but others (eg sessions on 1NT sequences, Lebensohl,
Trial Bids etc) are potentially applicable to any system. These notes are intended to be an accompaniment to
those sessions rather than a complete description of the Precision System that I teach.
The IAC Teaching Sessions that will be starting on 17th September 2008 will follow much the same
program as the BIL Sessions. I will be hoping to get into some of the more advanced aspects of each
topic, however, and will definitely be covering the Complex version of the system towards the end of the course.
The Precision System that I teach in BIL owes much to the Super-Precision system I developed with Jason
Hackett in the 1980's. That in turn was a development of a system I first developed with Bob Bradbury in the
1970's. The parts of that system that are not included are the
1♦ responses and the Opening bids from
2♦ up to 3♠
inclusive, most of which were subject of restricted or experimental licences and are not suitable for use in Pairs
events or short Teams matches. The parts of that system that are included are the extensive use of Lebensohl
and Lebensohl-style extensions in natural bidding sequences, the extensive use of Asking Bids when one or both
hands is strong, and a preference for 4-way transfers and some specialised sequences over 1NT and strong
balanced openings. There are now a number of pairings amongst our group who regular play the whole Complex version
of the System as Jason and I used to play it.
This system gave Jason and me considerable success during the 1980's and was enormous fun to play. Besides
Pairs events around the UK we also played successfully as a team of four with Jason's brother Justin and their father
Paul Hackett. Jason is the UK's youngest Grandmaster ever and the only person to attain that rank as a Junior. Jason and
Justin have won the European and World Junior Championships and remain the youngest ever partnership to play at the
World Olympiad (Miami at age 16). Unfortunately Jason and Justin do not play Precision <grin>.
The system is almost continually being refined and tweaked. Recently we have added an additional Asking Bid,
Sigma, to our arsenal. Sigma allows us to check on trump solidity after a positive response to the Alpha ask. We have
also extended the idea of relay Betas first introduced over the Forcing No Trump Gamma sequences, so now a Relay
Gamma is available over any Asking Bid response that agrees a suit as trumps.
Navigating the Site
The site is completely accessible from any of the pages, and the links at the top of the page or on the
left-hand side give access to all the main sections of the site. Within each page, extensive example hands
are available, some taken from live tournament play. These open up in separate windows. If you are unsure of
anything you find on this site, please
feel free to email me. I am always happy to spend
time doing one-to-one sessions for BILlies or IAC Members who want to study Precision in slightly more depth than
I am able to go into during the sessions I hold. There is now a core of about 20 players on BBO who regularly use the
system. Besides the Teaching sessions I conduct, we also hold regular practice sessions on BBO on Thursday,
Friday and Sunday evenings at 11pm UK time (6pm EDT). These are sometimes just an ad hoc practice, sometimes a
Teams Match, and sometimes a tutorial on one particular aspect of the system or bidding/play generally.
