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 Delhi Chandigarh Chennai Mumbai Moradabad Jaipur Pune Kanpur Asansol Ghaziabad
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 selection trials to select a team and three pairs from state started on 26th February at Allahabad Gymkhana, Allahabad.In the three years that I've been to the state championship , this year has seen the poorest participation in the championship. In all there were only six teams taking part five of which from Allahabad itself. This has rendered this year's chamiponship as a local event. May be not many teams from state want to visit Mt. Abu. Another fact is the timing of the event which occurs just before Holi which might have dissuaded some teams from participating.UPBA must take more effort towards ensuring decent competition to select a team to represent the state. This also puts a question mark on the importance of summer nationals for UP state championship where only winner is entitled to sponsorship gets more participation inspite of the fact that winter nationals an open event. The technical organization of the pairs event was also questionable. There was an elimination of just 18 deals for 20 pairs to be pruned to 12. In IMP scoring 18 deals are not sufficient. In all only 40 deals were played when organizers had full day in which around 60 deals can be played easily.
This year's Seth Ram Niwas Lohia Championship Which took place at Kanpur from March 11-14, 1999 saw very good participation.
64 teams took part in the duplicate event which should be a record of sorts for any event in UP.It was also nice to see a number
of ladies adding colour to the event.
National Pairs at Home for Ubhaykar and Arun Swamy Trophies would take place on March 28th.
Amity Bridge Championship would be held at Noida from April 2 - 4 1999. The participation in this event is by invitation.
Kunwar Murli Manohar Memorial All India Bridge Tournament would be held from 6th-9th May 1999 at The Claridges-Corbett Hideway-Garjia
(Corbett National Park).This is a leisure cum serious bridge event. The entry is restircted to 28 teams only, the entry fee is Rs.12000/- per team
of four.The entry fee takes care of boarding,lodging,tournament entry fee & entertainment.
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.
The two deals this week show illusion and the lead of King.
| Dealer: North Vul: NS Lead:  A | NORTH A K Q 6 5 4 A K 7 -J 8 3 | |
| WEST9 7Q 4 3 27 6 5 3Q 10 9 | EASTJ 8 3 2J 8 6 5Q 9A 6 4 | |
| SOUTH1010 9A K J 10 8 4 2K 7 2 |
| North | East | South | West |
| 1 | Pass | 2 | Pass |
| 2 | Pass | 3 | Pass |
| 3 | Pass | 4 NT | Pass |
| 5 | Pass | 6 | Pass |
| Pass | X | Pass | Pass |
| 6 | X | Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
Continuing the discussion on illusion, this week's deal show the effect of illusionary bid.
North opened Strong 1 Club (17+ HCP), South's 2 Diamond/3 Diamond were natural bids and so were North's 2 Spade/3 Spade. Over 3 Spade South asks Aces via simple Blackwood and after knowing North's two Aces bids 6 Diamond. This bid gets passed around to East who doubles for penalty! North now runs to 6 Spade which is again doubled by East and becomes the final contract.
In this deal 6 Diamond is scoring but 6 Spades isn't. East knows this and shrewdly doubles the contract expecting North to run to Spades and that is what happens. The double of 6 Diamond creates the much required illusion which probably would work against less experienced opponents.
Double of 6 Diamond was very good but both North and South were at fault. North should have played the contract in 6 Diamond Doubled only because if East is doubling 6 Diamonds then East would also be prepared to double 6 Spades which effectively means both contracts would not make , so why not play in 6 Diamonds only finding less damaging contract is not very correct approach. There was no reason for East to double 6 Spades but if 6 Spades is not doubled then South may work out that 6 Diamond double was only illusionary and hence they may bid 6 NT which is scoring. 6 Spades double clearly indicates that even 6 NT would not score. South could also redouble 6 Diamond double if that is where he would like to play.
So much for illusion! Previous week I presented three deals on King leads, here is another.
| Dealer: North Vul: Both Lead: K | NORTHA K Q 4A K Q 10 410Q 4 2 | |
| WEST8 38 7 5K 7 6 3K 8 7 5 | EASTJ 7 69 6 3 2A 9 8 5 49 | |
| SOUTH10 9 5 2JQ J 2A J 10 6 3 |
| North | East | South | West |
| 1 | Pass | 2 | Pass |
| 2 | Pass | 2 | Pass |
| 3 | Pass | 4 | Pass |
| 4 | Pass | 4 | Pass |
| 4 NT | Pass | 5 | Pass |
| 6 | Pass | Pass | Pass |
This deal is mentioned by Zia Mahmood in his book Bridge My Way. Zia was West on this lead and chose to lead Diamond King , the only lead which defeats the contract.
North has opened Precision Club and NS played in 6 Spades after North asked Aces via Key Card Blackwood and South showed one key card.
Actually leading Diamond King would involve "chess-like" thinking and Zia explains why he led Diamond King.
"...What do we know ? North has at least 5 Hearts and 4 Spades while South has 4 Spades and 5 Clubs.There must be a Key card missing, otherwise North would have tried for seven.North has no more than 5 minor suit cards.His use of Blackwood means that he has a Diamond control, my King of Diamonds confirming that it is Ace or a singleton. It must be right to attack Diamonds before any losers in that suit can be pitched on good Hearts. Can it make any difference which Diamond to lead ? Yes. If North has a singleton and South has a dangerous holding like Diamond A J 10 or Diamond Q J 4, leading a low Diamond to partner's queen or Ace would allow declarer to make an extra trick later by taking a ruffing finesse."
Since I wrote about Michael Rosenberg's King lead previous week , I thought I should write about Zia's deal also as they are partners in the NABC championship which is currently being held at Vancuover where India's Jaggy Shivdasani is also taking part.