Bidding and conventions

New minor forcing

Some fits are lost quietly. Partner opens a minor, you bid a five-card major, partner rebids 1NT, and a perfectly good 5-3 major fit disappears, because nobody has any way to ask about it. New minor forcing is the ask.

The fit you cannot see

A 1NT rebid shows a balanced minimum, about 12–14 points. It denies four cards in responder's major — with four, opener would have raised. But it says nothing at all about three, and three is enough.

Opener
♠ A 6
♥ K 8 4
♦ J 9 3
♣ K Q 10 7 2

13 points, balanced, five clubs and exactly three hearts. A textbook 1NT rebid.

Responder
♠ K 7 3
♥ A Q 9 6 5
♦ K 8 4
♣ 9 6

12 points and five hearts. Enough to invite game, but in which strain?

These hands belong in 4♥, an eight-card fit with a ruffing value.

Without a convention responder must guess: raise to 2NT and end in 3NT with the heart fit never found, or rebid 2♥ and get passed in a partscore.

Neither is right, and neither is anybody's fault — the information has no way to travel.

How it works

Responder bids the unbid minor. It is artificial and forcing for one round. Opener then answers in a fixed priority order:

  1. With three-card support for responder's major — bid it. At the two level with a minimum, at the three level or in game with a maximum.
  2. Without support, but with four cards in the other major — bid that major. Responder may hold four of it.
  3. With neither — rebid notrump: 2NT with a minimum, 3NT with a maximum. Or rebid your own suit with six of them.
North asks with the unbid minor, South shows three hearts and a maximum, and the 5-3 fit is found.
West North East South
1♣
Pass 1♥ Pass 1NT
Pass 2♦ Pass 3♥
Pass 4♥ Pass Pass
Pass

Which bid is the ask?

The unbid one, which depends on how the auction started:

  • 1♣ — 1♥ — 1NT: the ask is 2♦.
  • 1♦ — 1♠ — 1NT: the ask is 2♣.

A bid of the opener's minor is natural and shows real length. That distinction is the whole mechanism, so it is worth saying out loud when you agree the convention.

How strong, and two-way variants

Standard new minor forcing shows 11+ points — invitational or better — and opener's answer is calibrated to it: the level opener chooses accepts or declines the invitation.

Many partnerships play two-way new minor forcing, where one minor is invitational and the other game-forcing. More precise, and one more thing to remember.

As with every convention choice, the version you both recall under pressure beats the one that is theoretically better.

Checkback and its relatives

You will hear this idea under several names. Checkback Stayman is the British term, often played as 2♣ whichever minor was opened. XYZ is a more elaborate scheme over one-level auctions.

They differ in mechanics and are identical in purpose: after a limited notrump rebid, give responder a way to ask about three-card major support rather than guess.

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