Glossary of Contract Bridge Terms - I

I

Idle

(Said of a card) Available as a discard; not required for purposes such as guarding the opponents' suit or interfering with their communications.

IMP

Acronym for International Match Point.

Impropriety

A breach of ethical conduct or etiquette; an action that violates the Proprieties.

IMPs

The form of duplicate bridge that uses International Match Points (IMPs) as a scoring method, as distinct from a game scored at Matchpoints (MPs).

In back of

A card or holding that is to the left of, or behind, or over another. To say that the ♠A is in back of the ♠K is to say that the ace is to the left of the king, or behind it, or over it; so, the ♠A is in a position to directly capture the ♠K.

Individual

A form of duplicate bridge, scored at matchpoints, in which each player is paired with a different partner on each round.

Informatory double

A double that is intended to convey information rather than to exact a penalty from the opponents. Such doubles include the takeout double, the negative double, the support double, the responsive double and the lead-directing double, although the latter is intended to convey information and to penalize.

In front of

A card or holding that is to the right of or under another. To say that the ♠A is in front of the ♠K is to say that the ace is to the right of the king, or under it, and normally cannot capture the ♠K if it is guarded.

Insufficient bid

A bid that is not higher than the immediately preceding bid, and therefore illegal.

Insult

(Slang) The bonus for making a doubled or redoubled contract is sometimes referred to as the "insult" or as being "for the insult".

Insurance bid

A bid, usually a sacrifice bid, intended to keep the opponents from playing their (presumably optimum) contract. The bidder hopes that insurance premium – the penalty due to the sacrifice bid – will be less than the damage from allowing the opponents to make their contract.

Interference

A call, such as an overcall or an initial preempt, that is intended to make it more difficult for the opponents to bid to their best contract.

Intermediate

1) Nines, eights and sevens are sometimes termed "intermediate cards." See body.

2) A jump overcall that by agreement may be made with a hand of opening bid strength and a long suit is termed an "intermediate jump overcall."

3) An opening two-bid that by agreement may be made with values just short of those required for a game-forcing opening bid is termed an "intermediate two-bid."

International Match Point (IMP)

1) (Noun) A method of scoring in a team match that compares a result on a board to that obtained at the other table and that converts the difference to IMPs using a table defined by WBF. The IMP scale's effect is to reduce the influence of very large differences, thus making it less likely that the outcome of an entire match will depend on one board only.

2) (Verb) To perform the IMP score conversion.

Intra-finesse

A technique that involves successive finesses against both opponents.

Inverted minors

A treatment that uses the single raise of a minor suit as strong, and a double raise as preemptive.

Invitation

A bid which invites the partner to bid on to game or slam if he has extra values. It is a non-forcing bid by definition. Compare semi-forcing bid.

IPBM

International Popular Bridge Monthly, a British bridge magazine.

Iron Duke, Not through the

A hackneyed phrase that describes the play of a high card by a player whose high card holding is led through; or, that player's statement.

Irregularity

A breach of procedure, as described in the Laws and Proprieties, in bidding or play. If one is available, a director should be called to the table to make a ruling.

Isolate

(Said of a menace card) To isolate a menace in squeeze play is to arrange that only one opponent can guard one of declarer's threat suits. The play is conceptually similar to transferring a control.