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 Ghaziabad Kanpur Moradabad Delhi Chandigarh Jaipur Mumbai Pune Asansol Bangalore Chennai
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.
HINDALCO bridge tournament is taking place at HINDALCO,Renukoot from July 30-Aug 1, 1999.
K.N. Modi bridge tournament is taking place at Boat House Club, Nainital from Sept 30-Oct 3, 1999.
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 silly.
| Dealer:West Vul: None Lead:  J | NORTH K 9 8 5 3 Q 10K Q 6 A Q 3 | |
| WESTA 67 3A 10 9 8 4 3K 9 2 | EASTQ 4A J 9 5 2J 2J 10 7 5 | |
| SOUTHJ 10 7 2K 8 6 47 58 6 4 |
| West | North | East | South |
| 1 | 1 | X | Pass |
| 2 | 2 | Pass | 3 |
| Pass | 3 NT | Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
Sometimes one must mention silly deals which when everyone looks at says -how is this possible ?
This week's deal just about makes it to that category.
West opens prepared 1 Diamond and North in line with modern bidding overcalls 1 Spade. In traditional methods North should double with 16 HCP. East negative doubles showing limited HCP and South passes. Now West shows the Diamond suit by bidding Diamonds at two level and North shows better cards by bidding 2 Spades. East passes and South raises North to 3 level in Spades. North bids an optimistic 3 NT.
East leads Diamond Jack and the dummy comes down.
It is certain that North would need a kind lie of cards in Spades to make this 3 NT.
Accordingly at trick two, after winning the first trick with Queen of Diamonds, North plays King of Spades. The objective of this card was to pin singleton Queen of Spades which would enable 4 tricks in Spade suit. Playing for singleton queen is the correct play as any other play concedes two tricks in the suit.
But look at what happened!
West actually ducked the Spade King and explained later that he wanted to preserve Spade Ace as an entry for his Diamonds and decided to duck Spade King taking it from King Queen combination.
So a legitimate play resulted in giving defender an impression of cards which were not there.
Now the contract was smooth sailing. North scored 4 tricks in Spades, 2 each in Clubs and Diamonds and One in Heart to make the 3 NT.
If West doesn't duck Spade Ace the contract would not make and the ducking really is not necessary.
But would you really call this silly ?