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.
Winter nationals just concluded at Hyderabad on Dec 14. The event took place in a football stadium. It is after four years that a winter national has taken place in an open space. The previous four nationals took place in indoor stadiums or in indoor halls. It is more difficult to ensure top quality playing conditions in open arena. However, the nationals at Hyderabad were quite decently organized. Players were served hygenic South Indian (Andhra) food and the duplicate schedule only went haywire on day two when the session ended well after 10 PM. 
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 Hyderabad winter nationals and shows that what a gentlemanly conduct is.
| Dealer:West Vul:EW Lead:  K | NORTH A 10 6 3 A 7 4 27 5 3 A 4 | |
| WEST9 4Q J 10 36 4 2K 10 5 3 | EASTJ 5 29A K J 10 9 8Q J 2 | |
| SOUTHK Q 8 7K 8 6 5Q9 8 7 6 |
| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | 1 | 2 | X |
| Pass | 2 | Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
On these pages I've reported some incidents which were unethical and shameless. There is good and bad in every sport though as far as incidents are concerned I've been reporting just the bad part of bridge so far.
Here is an incident from the winter nationals at Hyderabad which would gladden heart of everybody.
This deal occurred in second session of the first elimination of the Holkar trophy.
I was North and after one pass I opened prepared Diamond which showed 12-16 HCP and at least singleton Diamond. My LHO overcalled 2 Diamonds and my parner negaive doubled. I opted for lower major and my 2 Heart bid got passed around.
I received the lead of Diamond King which won the trick and my LHO continued with Diamond Ace which I ruffed in Dummy. Looking at the deal then I was certain to score 9 or 10 tricks depending upon how the suits broke. If ten tricks were making I would have received slightly below average score as some would have bid the game surely but if 9 tricks were making I would have got an above average score for the same reasons. To cater for 4-1 break in Spade suit I decided to enter ino my cards with Club Ace to ruff my last Diamond in dummy.
I ruffed the last Diamond in dummy and played Heart King and another Heart to Ace covering West's Ten. When East showed out I was very happy for an average plus was assured now. Now I had to play Spades and if my LHO didn't have Jack to four Spades I could claim 9 tricks. Accordingly I played Spade King then Queen and continued with Spades. West showed out and instead of ruffing discarded Club ten. I was playing with nine ricks in mind and inadvertantly pulled out Spade 10 insead of Spade Ace. By the ime I had realised it my LHO had played Spade Jack in tempo.
When I realised what I had done all my dreams of an average plus had transformed into a shared bottom.
All my LHO had to do was to shift to Club after which West would cash two top trumps and then the would also score a Club and a Diamond to take contract one down.
But my LHO was a gentleman ,a rare tribe, and to boot he was also a former national champion (a fact I came to know later) so couldn't have been making a defensive mistake. This gentleman at that stage didn't play a club , he simply played a diamond.! He also realised that my Spade ten was inadvertant and decided not to take any advantage of the situation.
I was able to make my contract because of this gentlemanly act and got 14 matchpoints out of a possible 26.
Remember I played inadvertant card in the third seat and even then no advantage was taken. In my bridge book declarer's inadvertant play in fourth seat has no relevance. Perhaps this gentleman would have allowed me to play Spade Ace if I had been in the fourth seat.
May such gentlemanly tribe increase.