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 Chandigarh Chennai
A 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 11-14 March 1999.
State selection to represent one team in duplicate and three in pairs at the summer nationals being held at Mt. Abu from April 9-17
would take place at Allahabad Gymkhana, Allahabad from 26-28 Feb 1999. Pairs would take place on 28th morning and duplicate event would
start on 26th afternoon.
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 deal is for rubber bridge aficionados.
| Dealer: East Vul: - Lead:- | NORTH K 3 K Q J 6 A 8 4 2 K Q J | |
| WEST 6 2 4 Q J 10 7 10 9 8 7 5 3 | EAST Q 10 9 7 4 10 9 8 7 5 3 K 9 - | |
| SOUTH A J 8 5 A 2 6 5 3 A 6 4 2 |
| East | South | West | North |
| 3 | Pass | 5 | X |
| Pass | 6 | Pass | Pass |
| Pass | |||
This week's deal is taken from September-October issue of Bridge Today. This deal is reported by Brian Glubok in an article about a Club in London "Where the club manager is the most dangerous member".
Brian Glubok was visiting London and played Rubber bridge at TGR's at 50 pound a hundred.Phew!!! This stake is enough to blow anybody's mind in India. Writes Brian about the stake "...(it is) not quite as much as it sounds but ..... every game contract you blow is a month's rent on a good sized house in the American midwest - or a week's rent on a one bedroom in this trendy neighborhood in New York, or the West End in London ..."
This deal features "...the legendary proprieter of TGR's , Mr. Howard Cohen..." who is a self made millionaire and who has "...to experiment on every third deal just to keep the game interesting..." and about whom Zia Mahmood wrote a column in the London Telegraph. In the column Zia "...compares Howard's bridge game to the mad shower killer in the Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho."
Why shouldn't he for look at the deal which actually first featured in his column in Telegraph.
Howard here was sitting East and opened 3 Diamond with 6-5 in Majors and void in Clubs. You must give some credit to the guy for he could have also opened 3 Clubs also. Some beastial card sense. Look at the effect of the bid! But first I must tell you who his victims were. North was Gunnar Halberg ,"the Swedish superstar", and South was Lionel Wright ,"the New Zealand internationalist". Both world class players.
Lionel as any sane person passed 3 Diamond and Howard's partner leapt to 5 Dimaonds which was naturally doubled by Gunnar sitting North.Now Howard passes "...with the beatific serenity of a Tibetan monk who has renounced wealth to live as ascetic life of spiritual contemplation in the mountains." and "...spotlight falls on Lionel. If he relies on the law of Total Tricks, he will lead a trump and collect biggest penalty of the year;the opponents will manage only three trump tricks;down eight, doubled...". Alas Lionel bids 6 Spades and though "....neither did anything horribly wrong;yet,on a hand where they are cold for six notrump, they found themselves in a 4-2 fit at the six level."
Says Brian that the bid isn't as insane as it appears for "If 5 Dimonds doubled gets passed out, he suffers a big penalty, he loses a few points (2000) but that is against the opponents' cold slam(1440), and since it's only money , what of it?" "But what if the bid should work? What if , as on this deal, poor Lionel , with his three aces and four-card spade suit,should diagnose the "obviously cold" vulnerable slam available to his side, and leap to six spades ? Then you have a story you can dine out on for a decade or longer."
It is story that I also felt compelled to rewrite from Bridge Today.
Mr. Howard Cohen I like your enterprise on rubber bridge table and would always want to be your partner.