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 Mumbai Moradabad Jaipur Pune Kanpur Asansol Ghaziabad Bangalore
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.
UP state selection trials to select a team and three pairs from state started on 26th February at Allahabad Gymkhana, Allahabad.In the three years that I've been to the state championship , this year has seen the poorest participation in the championship. In all there were only six teams taking part five of which from Allahabad itself. This has rendered this year's chamiponship as a local event. May be not many teams from state want to visit Mt. Abu. Another fact is the timing of the event which occurs just before Holi which might have dissuaded some teams from participating.UPBA must take more effort towards ensuring decent competition to select a team to represent the state. This also puts a question mark on the importance of summer nationals for UP state championship where only winner is entitled to sponsorship gets more participation inspite of the fact that winter nationals an open event. The technical organization of the pairs event was also questionable. There was an elimination of just 18 deals for 20 pairs to be pruned to 12. In IMP scoring 18 deals are not sufficient. In all only 40 deals were played when organizers had full day in which around 60 deals can be played easily.
This year's Seth Ram Niwas Lohia Championship Which took place at Kanpur from March 11-14, 1999 saw very good participation.
64 teams took part in the duplicate event which should be a record of sorts for any event in UP.It was also nice to see a number
of ladies adding colour to the event.
Amity Bridge Championship would be held at Noida from April 2 - 4 1999. The participation in this event is by invitation.
Kunwar Murli Manohar Memorial All India Bridge Tournament would be held from 6th-9th May 1999 at The Claridges-Corbett Hideway-Garjia
(Corbett National Park).This is a leisure cum serious bridge event. The entry is restircted to 28 teams only, the entry fee is Rs.12000/- per team
of four.The entry fee takes care of boarding,lodging,tournament entry fee & entertainment.
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 on Jaggy Shivdasani's team-mates in the Spring North American Bridge Championship (NABC) which took place at Vancouver recently.EW cards are figment of my imagination, Dealer and Vulnerabilty are also invented. The deal was reported in Bridge Today.
| Dealer: North Vul: NS Lead:  A | NORTH K Q 7 6 A K 6 3K Q 4 3 2 | |
| WEST10 9 25 4 27 6 5 210 7 5 | EASTA 5 4 3J 10 8 7A J 10 84 | |
| SOUTHJ 8Q 99 3A K Q J 9 8 6 |
| North | East | South | West |
| 1 NT | Pass | 4 NT | Pass |
| 5 NT | Pass | 6 NT | Pass |
| Pass | X | Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
Previous week I made a passing reference to Jaggy Shivdasani. Jaggy argubly is the best bridge player in India currently.He has won everything which is to be won in India. His international accomplishments include Semi Final appearance in World Championship and a Reisinger Board A Match win in NABC in late 80's. Presently trying his luck in the tough NABC field, he reached quarter finals of Vanderbilt Knockout team championship at the Vancouver Spring NABC which is quite a good achievement as he missed a Semi Final place by a whisker. His team mates were Sam Lev, Micheal Polowon, Barnet Shenkin and Ravindra Murthy. I haven't followed NABC's very closely but it is nice to note that a naturalised Indian American (Ravindra Murthy) playing big league bridge in America.
This week's deal is on Jaggy's team-mates Barnet Shenkin and Sam Lev.
Shenkin and Lev have started playing together recently. Sam has made this team. In bridge ,everyone knows this, if you want a fast track career and you can put in some money then you should make a team with accomlished players. Now you needn't be as accomplished as your team-mates as they are supposed to carry your weight. Shenkin is a Scottish international who has now settled in USA. This deal ocurred when Sam Lev and Shenkin were playing together for the first time in US selection trials. Jaggy wasn't part of team then.
When Shenkin and Lev formed a partnership , Shenkin tried to make Sam play his bidding sending him 60 pages of bidding notes. Sam returned 6 pages of what he plays along with 2 pages on Roman Key Card Blackwood. This information on RKCB is very significant on the deal I have presented.
Before tournament begun Zia Mahmood told Shenkin that "Lev is a great player, but you must keep things simple - None of your Scottish complicated rubbish." But accomplished players find it difficult to shred their habits.
I'm not trying to be disparaging but dear Barnet why did you commit the 4 NT atrocity on Sam!
In this deal Shekin bid 6 NT with two Aces out.When Sam has discussed RKCB with you and both of you were playing 1 NT- 4 NT as quantitaive I would find it difficult to believe that both of you were not playing Gerber. Why couldn't you simply ask Aces via Gerber and signed off in 5 Clubs instead of bidding 4 NT.
Does this deal require any complicated auction as you write in Bridge Today. I'm sure no.Even accomplished players need to play things simple but some times all of us get carried away.