Editors: Sukrit Vijayakar Bulletin No. 1 S. Vijayraghavan Saturday, 16th Jan - 21

R. Raghavendra

Bridge Federation of India (BFI) is pleased to bring you the 62nd National Bridge Championships in an

Online Format as its pioneer national event post the lockdown period. This championship will consist of all the regular featured events with an addition of “Senior Pairs” from this year. The federation will award Ranking Points for the RUIA Gold Trophy and Shree Cement Match Point Pairs Event which will announced soon.

The Covid – 19 pandemic has led to all physical tournaments from March 2020 onwards at a standstill and live bridge seemed to be a far distant outlook. And yet, almost like a phoenix rising from the ashes, this cataclysmic event led to the birth of organized online bridge on BBO with due support by the federation on a routine basis.

A flurry of online events started emerging regularly leading to active participation of players all over India along with some big-ticket events once a month on a larger scale. A glossary of the major online events conducted under the aegis of BFI during the lockdown period were: • Bhartia Memorial Grand Prix 2020 • National Masters Bridge Championships 2020 • HCL Year End 2020 (with HCL) With the urgent need to sense the live bridge environment and to tap the security issues of online bridge, a new development in online bridge also took birth. RealBridge, presented players with a platform where it was possible to see and talk to opponents. Rapid technological advances in their software also saw the deployment of ‘screens’ which made the experience even closer to live bridge.

The federation has also implemented the Masterpoint Policy 2020 bringing significant improvement in the scale with the current arena of tournaments and participation of the players. Along with it, it has successfully managed to clean the masterpoint database of the various affiliated states in order to depict the current strength of active players as well for the formation of an unique Masterpoint ID scheme in future

Hence, as we are not far away from resuming the live bridge activities with the introduction of vaccine, the federation has positively moved forward its first online National Championship as a combination of events being played on both platforms.

Bulletin # 1 62nd Winter National Bridge Championships 2020 Page 1 of 6

My Dear Bridge Friends,

The year 2020 has been one of the worst for humanity. The people of India have also suffered immensely. However, the bridge playing community were fortunate to have online bridge unlike other sports where we could carry on with playing this beautiful game through several online platforms. The BFI had worked on the facilities to have variety of online tournaments catering to majority of interests of Indian bridge fraternity. Online bridge has also matured and we are in a position to organize major events with the BFI technical team. To provide an ambience with similarities to a national level tournament, we are pleased to conduct the 62nd Winter National Bridge Championships.

On this note, I would personally like to thank Shri.Atul Ruia (son of Late Shri. Ashok Ruia) for their continued support towards the Winter National Championships as well to Shri. H.M. Bangur for the coveted Shree Cement Matchpoint Pairs Trophy.

There are various side events along with these major national titles for the players to enjoy each day of this championship. We have also introduced a new feature i.e. “Senior Pairs” as a separate event for all players above 60 years.

BFI has successfully conducted the elections for the next term. My other colleagues in BFI and I will endeavour very hard in the next two years to ensure that all players of the country have every rightful opportunity to pursue their game vigorously.

I am happy to inform that Bridge has been included in the 19th Asian Games, 2022 at Hangzhou, China as an official sport. We also hope the WBF Championship Events will commence by this year end. We will continue to have a transparent selection policy to ensure that the best teams represent India in every event in the Asian Games and other international events.

Ranking points Policy has been in force for evaluation of players since 2019 and a dedicated committee has been constituted to advise on the future policies and will include Winter Nationals 2020.

I do hope that bridge players in large numbers will participate in the Winter Nationals. I wish this event every success and hopefully 2021 will be better for us compared to previous years.

S. Sundareshan BFI President

Bulletin # 1 62nd Winter National Bridge Championships 2020 Page 2 of 6

TOURNAMENT COMMITTEE REVIEW COMMITTEE Chairman: Shri. S Sundareshan, Members: R. Venkatesh, Vinay Desai Convenor: Shri. C.M. Kulkarni, Members: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT Shri. Arijit Guha, Shri. Sarthak Behuria, The federation has constituted Selection and Shri. Hemant Pande, Shri. Sudhir Aggarwal, Ranking Policy committee for its recommendations towards the federation live and online events Shri. Maneesh Bahuguna, Shri. DB Chaudhary, henceforth for the years 2021-22 as an Shri. Krishan Goyal, Smt. Monica Jajoo addendum to the BFI National Ranking Policy 2019-22 TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT

Chairman Shri. Anand (K.S.) Samant

Head of Technical Shri. T.C. Pant Management

Chief of Directors Shri. Sudhir Aggarwal Management

Scoring & Website Shri. Srinivasan Iyengar Management

Event Coordinators and Shri. Sukrit Vijayakar, Shri. Vijay Raghavan & Shri. Stanley Playing Platform Nazareth Administrators

Event Publicity Shri. Vijay Raghavan & Shri. Stanley Nazareth

Chief Tournament Shri. Sudhir Aggarwal Director

Tournament Directors Shri. MBV Subrahmanyam, Shri. Ranju Bhattacharya, Shri. V.K. Sharma, Shri. Sanjay Chakraborty, Shri. Narsinga Rao, Shri. K.S. Swaminathan, Shri. Sukrit Vijayakar, Shri. Satheesh Kumar, Shri. Suresh

Bulletin Editor: Shri. Sukrit Vijayakar, Shri. Vijay Raghavan, Shri. R. Raghavendra & Shri. Srinivasan

BBO-Match Setters & Shri. Pramod Samant and team Broadcasters EVENT PRIZES

RUIA Gold Trophy Shree Cement Gold Pairs Trophy Winner Rs. 50,000 Total Prizes: Rs. 37,000 Runner-up Rs. 25,000

Third Rs. 12,500 Mixed and Ladies Pairs Event Fourth Rs. 10,000 Total Prizes: Rs. 17,500 each 5th to 8th Rs. 6,000 each

Bulletin # 1 62nd Winter National Bridge Championships 2020 Page 3 of 6

Winter Nationals 2019 – Flashback

The Ruia was lifted by Team Formidables, represented by Kiran Nadar, Bachiraju Satyanarayana, Rajesh Tewari, Keyzad Anklesaria, Jaggy Shivdasani and Sandeep Thakral. They beat Team Maharaja, represented by the veteran, Sudhir Ganguly along with Subir Majumdar, Abhijit Chakraborty and Satyabrata Mukherjee.

The Ruia Silver Cup was won by Team Baneet, represented by Baneet Malhotra, Ashish Malhotra, Navneet Swaika, Sunil Sinha, Ajay Ghosh and Rajesh Jain. They beat Team Talluri, represented by Nageswara Rao, Rao Ks, Srinivasa Rao, Gollakotta S, Murlikrishnan D and Sudhakar Rao.

Bulletin # 1 62nd Winter National Bridge Championships 2020 Page 4 of 6

Winners of Pair Championships, 2019 Shree Cement Gold Pairs 1 Sumit Mukherjee Debabrata Majumdar 2 Shibhnath Dey Sarkar Pranab Bardhan 3 Kaustabh Nandi Kaustubh Bendre Shree Cement Silver Pairs 1 Santanu Chakraborty Tanmoy Majumdar 2 AB Chakrabarty HS Bajoria 3 AK Sinha Nikita Kamal Swiss Pairs 1 Bhabesh Saha Shambhu Ghosh 2 R Krishnan R Raghavendra 3 Suvankar Basu Sanjoy Banerjee

Daily Bulletins & Results 62nd Winter National Online Bridge Championship 2020 @ http://www.bridgewebs.com/winternationals/ You can also access the site through the “Winter Nationals” quick link on the www.bfi.net.in

Today's Schedule RUIA GOLD Trophy - On Realbridge Date Time Activity SWISS LEAGUE OF GOLD TEAMS – 10 Rounds of 10 Boards Each 1000 Hrs Round – 1 - Pre-determined Draw 1145 Hrs Round – 2 – Actual Draw LUNCH BREAK 16th Jan 2021, Saturday 1415 Hrs Round – 3– Actual Draw 1600 Hrs Round – 4– Actual Draw 1745 Hrs Round – 5– Actual Draw RUIA Silver Trophy - On BBO Date Time Activity SWISS LEAGUE OF SILVER TEAMS – 10 Rounds of 10 Boards Each 1000 Hrs Round – 1– Pre-determined Draw 1200 Hrs Round - 2– Pre-determined Draw LUNCH BREAK 16th Jan 2021, Saturday 1430 Hrs Round – 3 – Draw based on R-1 1630 Hrs Round – 4 – Draw based on R-2 1830 Hrs Round – 5 – Draw based on R-3

Bulletin # 1 62nd Winter National Bridge Championships 2020 Page 5 of 6

Deals to Ponder – by R. Raghavendra

The Blind 10-Spot This deal was played in the Ashok Kapur Swiss IMPs A Q 6 2 pairs event. North, in a misguided fervour, raised None Vul Q 9 8 South’s 1N to 3N. On the lead of the 8, K 3 South counted a mere five top tricks. He also 8 5 3 2 counted this deal as penance for sins in a past life, but quickly turned to the play of the hand.

10 3 Given East’s opening bid, West can have at most A K 10 4 3 one ace or king, and South chose well to lead a 3 NT South A Q 7 heart to the queen at trick two. When this held, Lead: 5 K 6 4 South took a second diamond , cashed the A, and exited with a heart. East pitched a discouraging 9 on this as West won the 10. South is 3N after South opens a West cashed the K, on which both East and and West 1 . On the 5 lead, RHO South discarded spades, leaving this position: discards a diamond. You seem to have 9 tricks by way of 5 hearts, 3 diamonds, and 1 spade, 9 8 7 but there seems to be a problem of insufficient - hand entries. What are your chances of making A 6 this contract? Q 3 10 5 4 A Q J The contract is 100% if you win trick one with - - the 10. You can take a heart finesse at trick - - two, and enter hand later with a diamond to J 7 4 2 K 5 enjoy the AK. As such, the deal is situated in K 3 many a declarer’s blind spot. - K Buy One Get One Free A 10 8 6

IMPs 9 8 7 Had West played a spade now (or before E-W Vul Q 8 7 3 cashing the last heart), the contract could be A 6 5 3 defeated. However, he switched to a low club Q 3 and the contract was now cold.

10 5 4 A Q J 6 Declarer played low from dummy, and East K 10 9 5 J 4 defended strongly by withholding his king. Three 8 7 Q 9 4 2 more rounds of clubs followed, won by the ace, J 7 4 2 K 9 5 jack, and 10 respectively. The final club squeezed East and declared made the contract by cashing the K, and exiting a spade to East K 3 2 as a stepping-stone to scoring the final trick to A 6 2 dummy’s A. 3 NT South K J 10 Lead: 8 A 10 8 6 South was lucky to have made this contract. East-West, although unlucky on this deal, went on to win both the match and the entire event.

I count North the luckiest in this story: because West North East South 3NT scored, I have been permitted to live to tell 1 1 NT this tale. Pass 3 NT! Pass Pass Pass

Bulletin # 1 62nd Winter National Bridge Championshi ps 2020 Page 6 of 6