Shantanu Rastogi's Bridge Pageissue 64 (January 10, 2000) |
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.
Organizationally one could point out that there were no vu-graphs but finding commentators to
run vu-graph could be one of the problems facing the organizers. The nationals ended with a prize distribution at Hotel Golcunda where "even" kibitzers were invited. I don't know how many attended but I overheard a director asking Niranjan Ubhayakar for a booze bottle as he didn't feel like attending the ceremony. All in all this national was a testimony of the organizational skills of Mr. Kamalakar Rao , the President of Bridge Federation of India about whom what I've heard is that once he sold his new car to cover the losses in a national that he organised some years back. 
One of the bulletins showed some exemplery sportsmanship where a lot of persons went and corrected the scores wrongfully credit to them. It so happened that playing in the pairs elimination I was checking the scores of the first session and found out that I was wronfully credited with +480 in a deal in which I had scored only eleven tricks which I had recorded on my score sheet. So I went to the computer room where Mr. Kamalakar Rao was sitting. I told him that there is correction in section O as I've been wrongfully credited with a score and could I've a look at the pick up slip. He told me that there were no pick up slips in the computer room and I should contact the section director. I went to the section director and told him the same thing. He told me to go to the computer room as he didn't have the pick up slips. This was funny. I told him my duty of informing him about the correction is over and it is no more my problem as I'm not going to run around all over the place looking for the pick up slips. We started playing the last session and I told my partner that we've got around 10 matchpoint more due to this error. The next morning I went and checked scores of second and third sessions. It so happened now that in a deal where we had restricted our opponents to eleven tricks tweleve tricks were credited to them and we were denied around ten matchpoints due to this error. Again I went to a director and asked for pick up slips after telling him the whole thing. I was again told that there were no pick up slips available. As far as I was concerned neither I gained nor I lost anything so I didn't make any corrections at all. But see how it affected EW pairs
-one EW pair wrongfully gained where as another wrongfully lost matchpoints. And I don't even know whether it was a punching error by computer operator which resulted in this (I have a strong suspicion that this happened otherwise I would not record correctly on my scoresheet) or if I had inadvertantly entered wrong score as I was filling the pick up slips on the table.
Kailash Pat Newatia was CTD in the previous nationals at Delhi. He has a novel way of dealing with corrections. Last year I was playing in pairs event of Jagdish Agarwal memorial bridge championship where his team was doing the scoring. It so happened that my partner before playing had at least three pegs of whisky or Rum. It is another matter that we scored about 70% in that session but he wrote scores all over the place on the pick up slips. When I checked the scores and pointed this out to Mr Newatia. He told me if there is punching error I would apologise and make correction but if the score is wrongfully recorded I will charge Rs. 20 per correction. And in that pairs event I ended up paying Rs. 120 to him for corrections. Mr. Kamalakar Rao are you listening.
In the pairs event at nationals we comfortably qualified but I don't know if a EW pair could not get qualified because correction wasn't made or another qualified because of wrongfully getting more matchpoints. The whole thing was that for me it didn't matter because my partner was going back and it would have not been logically possible for me to play in the next round with a substitute though I decided to check with the CTD as I was not aware of the playing conditions (Because sometimes even the most weirdest things could be incorporated in the playing conditions).
Jagdish Agarwal Memorial Oudh Bridge Championship would take place at Oudh Gymkhana , Lucknow from Feb 10-13, 2000 .
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.
Arvind Ranasaria points out following things in the deal shown in issue 62. North was dealer, Vulnerabilty was Both, Venkatesh opened in the fourth seat and his redouble promised three Spades. He also wanted to know why I haven't named the gentleman in the issue 61. The reason was that I didn't know his name I only knew the fact that he was from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.
This week's deal is from Hyderabad nationals and shows the effect of misinformation.
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| East | South | West | North |
| Pass | Pass | 1  | X |
| 4 | Pass | Pass | 4  |
| X | Pass | Pass | Pass |
This deal occurred in the second session of the first elimination of the Holkar Trophy for matchpoint pairs at Hyderabad nationals. The layout of this deal (especially EW cards) is approximate.
This deal shows effect of misinformation on the bidding.
I was sitting North and doubled West's 1 Heart which was bid after two passes.East now jumped to four Heart which got passed around to me. At my turn I asked West what the East's bid meant and West answered I take it as pre-emptive. Vul against Non Vul I chose to bid 4 Spades and was doubled by East. The contract Went two down.
Do you think East had made pre-emptive raise ? Do you think those who make pre-emptive raises also double a four level contract ?
This is a mockery of bridge.
I had 16 HCP , West had opened the bidding so maximum of around 12 to 13 HCP were outstanding. My partner would have taken some action if he had 8+ HCP. So if it was a preemptive raise my partner could easily had 5 or 6 HCP. I knew that my partner didn't have four Spades for then he has to take an action over a pre-emptive raise as my double was unlimited but he could easily have had three Spades.
Now see the layout of NS cards. I can make 4 Spades if my partner with same layout has a Diamond King also or even Club King if Club Ace is correct or even with Spade Queen in dummy. I do not even need 6 HCP with my partner if he has Heart singleton and has a Diamond King instead of Heart King. So a pre-emptive raise essentially pushes me to bid with the cards that I had.
Now do my actions differ if West had honestly told me something else which for example could be something like - this could be a pre-emptive raise or even simply this is to play which effectively means this can be anything - This is a fair explanation as many pairs in bridge don't distinguish between a pre-emptive raise and a 4 level major bid to play there.
Yes they do. Now probability of finding something with my partner is very low and since it was matchpoints I would have just been happy with a double.
Now the question comes - what if it was supposed to be actually a pre-emptive raise and East has chosen to break the system. If that happens West should take-out to five Hearts as double after pre-emptive raise would not promise more than one or one and a half trick outside Heart suit.
If I had called the director I would have expected this deal to be reverted to 4 Hearts double by West down two. I didn't call the director because there was nothing at stake for us in that pairs event but such EW pairs shouldn't go scotfree.
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