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.
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 simple card play.
| Dealer:West Vul:NS Lead:  J | NORTH A 5 3K 10 5 4 2 Q A J 10 5 | |
| WESTJ 8 4Q 8 7 69 8K 8 6 2 | EASTK Q 9 7 2JJ 7 6 5 4Q 4 | |
| SOUTH10 6A 9 3A K 10 3 29 7 3 |
| South | West | North | East |
| Pass | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Pass | 2 NT | Pass | 3 |
| Pass | 4 | Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
You would always score he four Heart contract shown in this weeks deal if you play your cards well. I mean you don't have to be an expert to make this contract but sometimes even good players go wrong. So have a look at this deal.
North is playing in 4 Hearts after a natural auction and receives a lead of Heart Jack. How would you plan the play ?
The Heart Jack lead is likely to be singleton until unless East has decided to lead from doubleton Jack thinking that dummy is likely to ruff thereby giving up a likely trump trick. It is possible that East may have made a lead from QJx but that only an expert can do and if Easts at your table make such leads you must compliment them. So a count of tricks reveal that you have tricks - 4 Heart, 3 Diamond and two Aces and you can give up wo Club tricks to score another Club trick which would be the tenth and if you can find Club honour doubleton (with Club Eight if Jack Diamond doesn't fall in three cards) with West you score eleven tricks.
So with this plan if you win lead with Heart King , cash Diamond Queen enter the dummy with Heart Ace and try to pitch two spades on two Diamond winners the contract would go down on the layout shown. For you would have to lose a Spade, a Heart and two Clubs.
There is nothing wrong in this line of play if you are trying this at matchpoint pairs event where his deal actually took place as you have chosen to play for a favourable disribution in Diamonds (4-3 break) and for a bad break in Clubs (Both Club honours being offside).
In the layout shown ,however, Diamonds don't break but Club honours are split between EW. So correct line of play is to plan for a Spade ruff in dummy and take a Club finesse early. Now his guarantees ten tricks but gives up a chance for an overtrick.
So which line of play you think is correct ?