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 Durgapur
Bangalore
Chennai
Ranchi
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 Championship is taking place at Bareilly from Oct 29 -31, 1999.
All India Jagdish Agarwal memorial Oudh bridge championship is taking place at Oudh Gymkhana, Lucknow from Nov 11 -14, 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 from 44th Genereli European Championship which took place in Malta in June 1999 and shows how good your card play is if you can drop singleton honours.
| Dealer:South Vul:Both Lead:  J | NORTH A Q J 10 A Q 8 6K 8 4 8 2 | |
| WEST9 7 4 210 7 5 4 210 94 3 | EASTK 6 5KA Q J 3 2J 7 6 5 | |
| SOUTH8 3J 9 37 6 5A K Q 10 9 |
| South | West | North | East |
| Pass | Pass | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Pass | 2 | Pass |
| 2 | Pass | 2 NT | Pass |
| 3 | Pass | 3 NT | Pass |
| Pass | Pass |
In the European Championship same deals were played across the different matches which were played simultaneously. This week's deal shows the card play by a German player Splettstoesser, a Danish player Soren Godtfredsen and how computer played the same deal.
The bidding is shown from Germany's match. After two passes North opens Precision Club. East overcalls 1 Diamond which shows good Diamond suit or bad Heart suit, South's 2 Club now shows Club suit and 8 + HCP. North's 2 Diamond was a relay and South's 2 Spade showed 5332 pattern. North's 2 NT asked if doubleton was with an honour and South's 3 Club showed good Club suit. North finally plays in 3 NT. This is what the modern Precision bidding is. There are various ways of reaching 3 NT.Where Danish player was playing South opened Standard 1 Club and NS played in 3NT. Some North may open strong 1 NT and the contract still would be 3 NT.
So everybody played contract in 3NT but only two were able to score this contract at European Championship. So the card play has to be something special.
Looking at NS cards on Diamond lead the best declarer can hope for is five Club tricks, one Diamond trick, two major Aces and a throw in with Diamond to obtain the ninth trick.
Splettstoesser ducked Diamond Jack and East continued with small Diamond which was won with King. Now he tried cashing Clubs and received the bad news when West showed out. What would you think at that stage ? It is very important.
East has shown five Diamonds and four Clubs. If East has 2254 or 4-54/-454 the contract is impossible to make, try any combination in major. So East has to have 1354/3154 distribution.
The key is to realise that East can have singleton honour. Splettstoesser splendidly realised this and guess what he discarded on the third Club. A Diamond!
Why a Diamond , so that he can test both Majors for singleton honours. If Spade King is Singleton he would get four Spade ricks to make 9 tricks and If Heart King is singleton he would get four Heart tricks for Nine tricks. Actually he played Heart 9 from dummy to Ace and when King fell singleton he could enter dummy with Heart Jack ,could finesse Heart 8 to make his nine tricks. Excellent!
Danish player Godfredtsen tried slightly lower probability play. He assumed Heart King to be singleton and hence discarded a Spade on third Club. Now he played the Heart the same way and picked an overtrick by throwing East with a Diamond. But he could have gone down if Spade King had been Singleton.
But best was the way the computer played this deal!
It finessed Club 10 to secure five Club tricks.