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.
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 took place at Golf course NOIDA from April 2 - 4 1999. The tournament was sponsored by Amity Bridge Club of Amity Business School.
Amity Business School intend to introduce Bridge in the curriculum, this is something unheard of in India.
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.
World Wide Simultaneous Pairs Championship scheduled to be held on June 4 & 5, 1999 has been cancelled by WBF.
The tournament ,which is still known by its first sponsors Epson, didn't take place in India in 1998 also due to
non-participation by BFI.
Dehradun holds two state level tournaments every year during this time of the year. This year only one tournament is expected to be held.
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 from evening duplicate bridge in Lucknow.
| Dealer: North Vul: NS Lead:  A | NORTH A Q J 9 8 63 A 8 5 A 9 7 | |
| WEST10 5 4Q J 9 6 5Q 7K 5 3 | EASTKA 10 4 2J 9 6 4 2J 6 4 | |
| SOUTH7 3 2K 8 7K 10 3Q 10 8 2 |
| North | East | South | West |
| 1 | Pass | 2 | Pass |
| 4 | Pass | Pass | Pass |
The evening duplicate bridge at Lucknow can be appalling at times. In the 8 deals that are played in a session, the difference can be of 50 IMPs!!! The obvious consistency is not there. So you may have keen contest on some days and in some sessions but some sessions may be one sided. Usually bad plays outnumber the good ones. But once in while you come across delightful plays.
This week's deal is one such deal.
The bidding is Papa-Momma 1 Spade - 2 Spade - 4 Spade and North is declarer.
The declarer is a retired gentleman. He takes lot of interest in badminton and has happend to play bridge also.
I was West and my partner led Heart Ace and continued with a Heart. Declarer pitched a Club on Dummy's Heart King and paused for while before asking for small Spade from dummy and finessed Spade Queen losing to singleton Spade King. Declarer had a choice of playing Spade Ace ,as some might do, and make ten tricks easily but since he finessed he had to find another way of making the contract.
My partner after winning Spade King continued with a Heart which was ruffed and then the trumps were drawn. East discarded a Heart and a Diamond. Now declarer played Club Ace and followed up with Club 9. When East played low declarer played Club Queen from dummy! Though the club play is irrelevent, queen seems to be better play than ten as any good defender would not go up with King and would try to give a guess to the declarer assuming declarer's 6124 distribution.
I continued with a Heart after winning Club King , if I had played a Diamond Declarer would probably have to guess the actual Diamond position but a good declarer would have anticipated the Diamond layout as my partner didn't lead Diamonds, declarer ruffed and my partner discarded a Diamond and off went a small club from dummy. On declarer's last spade East was squeezed in Diamonds and Clubs.
A very well played deal.
So you see even your seemingly happy go lucky players can come up with such gems.