Chilli is a sound and constructive system based on a small number of rules universally applied. The primary mission is to find our best contract rather than to create mayhem, and this approach is seen throughout most of the system.
The first phase of a Chilli auction tends to be mechanistic – there is usually only one right bid, and you should just make it regardless of what might happen later. Nothing bad will happen so long as you stick to the book.
But in the second phase, you will always have the opportunity to exercise bridge judgement based on the information you have received to date, and bid accordingly. And because of the homogeneous structure of Chilli, the tools you use to exercise that judgement will be the same no matter how you have travelled to date.
We will look first at the types of Chilli auction. However, you may want to have a look at a brief summary of Chilli opening bids to put the early examples in context. In all the examples we are East-West.