| Dealer: East Vul: NS Lead:- | NORTH J 6 3 A 5 2 J 5 4 3 10 8 4 | |
| WEST 10 5 J 10 Q 8 7 2 K Q 6 5 3 | EAST Q 7 4 9 8 6 4 3 K 10 9 9 2 | |
| SOUTH A K 9 8 2 K Q 7 A 6 A J 7 |
In this section I would be putting together all the information regarding bridge facilites in the various cities in India.The information may be sketchy at present but would be made comprehensive in future.
Lucknow Allahabad Varanasi Meerut Dehradun Delhi ChandigarhA convention card editor fills, edits and prints convention cards on computer. Lee Edwards of Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA has designed this very convenient convention card editor for various convention cards. The convention cards which can be filled by this editor are ACBL, SAYC, WBF, WBF(England), EBU, BBL, French, Dutch, Belgian, Sweedish, Italian, Austrian, Ireland, Israeli, Indian & Australian. You can download this software which is freeware from the link mentioned above. Those of you who want to send your comments to Lee Edwards can do so at ledwards@bellsouth.net
For Indian bridge players,lovers & enthusiasts the good news is that the convention card designed by Bridge Federation of India (BFI) appears on this convention card editor. So for those of you who have computers the convention card filling in India is a lot more easier job now.
Lee has been constantly updating the software. The latest version he informs is 6.0.1 with enhanced printing features.The software now supports 21 formats and the convention cards of Germany and South Africa are in offing.
In this section I would cover tournaments happening in India and more so the tournaments happening in Northern part of India and in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Winter Nationals started in Delhi on 7th November.There were widespread protests against the organizers on first playing day. Participants complained of lack of food & water and were unhappy with the lodging arrangements. The play was heldup for about three hours.Though the organizers have pooled in Four Square Sports Gear as sponsors for the event the organization was decidedly poor.
Lohia bridge championship would be held at Kanpur in March.
In this section I would cover one good deal which appeared in the Weekly Bridge Tournaments at Lucknow or in a recent tournament with explanations.
This Week's deals are taken from 13th Cap Gemini tournament.There are three deals presented here. In each of the three deals the bidding side has to choose between 3 NT and 4 of Major contract. These deals are merely illustrative san any fireworks.
| Dealer: East Vul: NS Lead:- | NORTH J 6 3 A 5 2 J 5 4 3 10 8 4 | |
| WEST 10 5 J 10 Q 8 7 2 K Q 6 5 3 | EAST Q 7 4 9 8 6 4 3 K 10 9 9 2 | |
| SOUTH A K 9 8 2 K Q 7 A 6 A J 7 |
| North | East | South | West |
13 th Cap Gemini World Top tournament took place at Hotel Des Indes ,The Hague,Netherlands from January 14-17, 1999.
16 of the big names in the bridge took part in the event. To name some :there were Geir Helegmo & Tor Helness (Norway), Gabriel Chagas & Marcelo Branco (Brazil), Paul Chemla & Alain Levy (France), Enri Leufkens & Berry Westra (Netherlands), Lorenzo Lauria & Alfredo Versace (Italy), Zia Mahmood (USA) & Tony Forrester (England), David Berkowitz & Larry Cohen (USA) playing in this event. The event scoring was done on IMP scale with each pair playing 10 boards against each pair. The deals presented this week are from first two rounds of the event. The deals were reported at BridgePlaza Website.The detailed bidding was not reported and neither reported was the bidding system used by each pair.In an event played by top pairs the contract played on each deals should serve as guideline for everybody as that is the sort of bidding expected in a tough field.
In the first deal shown above South has 21 HCP and 5 cards of Spades with 5332 pattern. North has 6 HCP, 3 Card fair support in Spades with 4333 pattern. The choice is between playing 3 NT and 4 Spades. In the 8 tables this deal was played 6 bid 3 NT and 2 bid 4 Spades. 3NT makes 9,10 or 11 tricks but 4 Spades just makes four provided Spade suit is tackled well ,in fact in actual play 4 Spades went down one on both the tables.
It would be interesting to find out how 3 NT was reached had detailed bidding been provided. It appears that at least some would have opened 2 NT with South cards. Playing strong Clubs systems 4 Spades is a odds on contract so in such bidding methods South must bid 2 NT or 3 NT also.
Now lets look at the next deal.
| Dealer: South Vul: Both Lead:- | NORTH A J 6 8 7 3 A K K Q 8 7 6 | |
| WEST K Q 9 5 K 6 5 2 Q J 9 8 9 | EAST 10 9 4 3 4 10 5 3 A 10 5 4 3 | |
| SOUTH 7 2 A Q J 10 9 7 6 4 2 J 2 |
| North | East | South | West |
Here North holds 17 HCP with 5332 pattern while South holds 8 HCP with 5422 pattern and 5 cards good Heart suit. North has 3 spots in Hearts but at 6 tables 4 Hearts was played which doesn't make. Strangely at 5 tables the 4 Heart contract got made putting in Shade one very good 3 NT bid. So if your bidding methods make you play in 3 NT you would gain over most of these top pairs and if you bid 4 Heart you don't lose much. Note the surprising fact that logically if in first deal popular contract is 3 NT then it should also be the same with this deal.
Now look at the last deal.
| Dealer: North Vul: Both Lead:- | NORTH 7 6 10 9 5 4 5 2 J 8 7 3 2 | |
| WEST A 10 9 5 4 J 7 2 A J A Q 10 | EAST Q 3 2 A 6 K 10 6 3 K 9 6 4 | |
| SOUTH K J 8 K Q 8 3 Q 9 8 7 4 5 |
| North | East | South | West |
This is an innocuous deal as both 4 Spades and 3 NT score easily. But again it is possible to score 11 tricks with NT contract. Here also 5332 pattern of West is played with 4432 pattern of East.West has 16 HCP and East has 12 HCP.This deal was played 4 times in 4 Spades and 4 times in 3 NT in the actual play. Again note the fact that 3 NT is not the unanimous choice.
Should I conclude that bidding 3 NT would pay in such a field. May be!!