A Credo

My credo vis-a-vis partnership relations is short and sweet: let's be tolerant of those mistakes and misguesses that are simply not easy to ferret out looking at a fourth of the cards (during the bidding) and half of the cards during play. At the same time, let's not be so prissy that we cannot listen to a critique when we had sufficient information if we'd only used our noggin.

To me this makes sense. The former is commonly based on hindsight, which I've discussed as an abomination elsewhere (though not always, of course), and the latter, it seems to me is necessary for a general (albeit slow-moving) improvement in our competitiveness.

Now, I don't have the slightest presumption that even if you find a partner who says, Oh, that makes sense, you're out of the woods. I'm mindful of the amusing anecdote of a married pair who decided to say "I'm sorry" when the partner made a goof. This would seemingly have a bank shot off a direct hit on one making an error, and indeed, worked for a couple of weeks until . . . . One of the partners, the husband, I believe, said "I'm sorry" when he thought his wife'd made an error, and she replied, aghast, "You're sorry!"

Regardless of what the opponents were hearing, "I'm sorry" soon becomes a plain and simple, "You goofed there, my dear." And when there's a disagreement, there's a disagreement.

So with my credo above. I'm under no illusion that a partner and I would agree on whether an error, a costly error, let us say, falls into the category of an excusable error anyone but a top-notch expert would have avoided, or into the category of those that allow for a critique. That is, I think it impossible that we'd always agree and very unlikely that we would commonly agree. If we got to the 50% mark, I'd be surprised.

Nevertheless, I offer it as a viable credo in this game where we are so highly dependent on a partner for a winning game.

So the bottom line is, do you enjoy being partnered with this person? If so, I'd strongly advise keeping your mouth shut. If your partner is of the same mind vis-a-vis you, you might last decades, as one pair -- count 'em, one -- has done so well.

I have one other comment to make in this regard, a comment you'll probably disagree with initially, but over time might see the wisdom of, to wit: their errors aren't your concern! Wow! How can that be? Well, of course, unlike chess, you're tied to a partner whose competence you're highly dependent on if coming in high in the standings is important to you. But your task is to get your bidding and your play right, period. The rest is out of your hands