Shantanu Rastogi's Bridge Page

Bridge Facilities in India

In this section I would be putting together all the information regarding bridge facilities in the various cities in India.The information may be sketchy at present but would be made comprehensive in future.

Tournament News

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.

2nd All India Jagdish Agarwal Memorial Oudh Bridge Championship concluded at Oudh Gymkhana, Lucknow on February 14, 2000. There was a low participation this year with 24 teams taking part in the duplicate event. Pals, Delhi (DK Tewari, PC Gupta, Anand Bhatia,MM Chopra, Ajay Sinha) won the duplicate event defeating Jaguar, Kanpur. DK Tewari & PC Gupta also won pairs event. AK Ganguly's team from Calcutta won board a match event. They were perhaps the strongest team of the championship with Manas Mukherji, Rana Roy & AN Bannerji playing for them but got knocked out in quarter finals to a scratch combination.

Rama Jain memorial pairs event would take place at Delhi on March 4-5, 2000.

Lohia Bridge Tournament would take place at Ganges Club, Kanpur from March 9-12, 2000.

Rossel Tea-Soshen Gupta Bridge Championship would take place at Delhi Gymkhana from March 24-26, 2000.

UP State Summer National selection trials would take place at Kanpur from April 7-9, 2000.

Summer Nationals would take place at Shimla from April 22, 2000 onwards.

WBF World Wide Simultaneous Pairs event (formerly known as EPSON) would take place on June 2 & June 3 , 2000. The scoring of this event would be done on internet.

WBF is organising Mind Sports Organization's Worldwide Simultaneous Pairs on August 22 and August 23, 2000. It would be on the lines of Fifth Friday Championship organised by Herman De Wael. The magnitude of the championship would be higher with about 10000 tables results being compiled together.

Deal of the Week

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 National Pairs at Home which took place simultaneously at many bridge centers in India on 27th February 2000.

Dealer:East Vul:NS Lead:8 NORTH 9 7 6 2 5 4 3 2 K 5 3 10 4 WEST K J 8 3 A J 7 10 7 A K 6 5 EAST A 10 5 K Q 8 6 J 6 2 Q J 7 SOUTH Q 4 10 9 A Q 9 8 4 9 8 3 2

Bidding

East	South	West	North
1	Pass	1	Pass
1 NT	Pass	3 NT	Pass
Pass	Pass

National Pairs at Home just concluded on 27th February, 2000. The general standard of deals were quite good especially those played in second session. There is definitely an improvement in the deals over past few years. There were good mix of deals on bidding, card play and defence without making too much fuss about the complex things of bridge. These were real life problems which occurr in high percentage of deals. There were a few murmurs of protest over the scoring of a few deals in Lucknow and this is one area the organizers should look to improve upon. Some of the deals which stood out were deal number 21 (card play), deal 34 ( bidding), deal 37 (defence), deal 40 (bidding) & deal 48 (card play). I present deal 34 this week.

If you look at this deal, there is nothing in it. A run of the mill deal. 3 NT looks odds on but should you play there ?

Are there good bidding methods which can identify weakness in suit and then push one to Moyasian fit in Majors ?

The booklet says "The contract of 3 NT for EW looks odds on because of high card strength. But if East is declarer, a lead beats the contract. If West is declarer, North may find it difficult to find a lead. How about 4 s which is ice cold! How many pairs have the means to find out weakness and play in Moysian fit ?"

By the way even North should lead because this is where the most help can be provided. Another point is that if are breaking 4-4 then 3 NT would make so should you actually play in Moysian fit ? .

Essentially how good is your bidding system.

When I was bidding why I never thought of Moysian fit was that I thought being a set deal this might be one on overtricks!!!!

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