As 2022 draws to a close, BridgeFromHome was pleased to draw down the curtain on a year which has seen a transition from next to no F2F tournaments to an overdose of them.
This article is being written just as our Welcome 2023 event came to an end. It would be remiss on our part not to recognize the winners, Rahul Khambete and Rajendra Sirohia who had to work really hard to overcome the initial leaders Arvind Vaidya and Dr. Mukund. The irrepressible Vasanti Shah, partnered by Veena Bob achieved a truly impressive 3rd place. The full results can be seen here
As we come into 2023, we cannot help but ponder on the future of the bridge scene.
This January sees a plethora of tournaments. The next weekend itself, we have two major tournaments, one held in Mumbai at the Malabar Hill Club with prize money close to Rs. 2 lakhs and another at Chennai, the Madras Gymkhana Club event for which we unfortunately have no details close at hand. The following weekend sees the Yeshwantrao Holkar Championships at Indore. Two weeks later, we have the Willingdon Club Swiss Pairs in Mumbai.
In February, we have the FNCC event in Hyderabad, followed by the MC Behuria Memorial in Bhubhaneshwar and the Kodaikanal Annual Bridge tournament in... where else but Kodai
The first half of March has the Selection trials with the first week of April having Bhartia.
We have provided hyper links wherever we have them. We invite all organizers to share links with us should you wish us to announce your event as well on your behalf.
So, the question is - Going forward, do we see online events having any relevance in the bridge calendar for the year.
Our opinion, biased as it may be, is that they do have a relevance. In the first place, it is physically impossible to play all these events back to back even if you were in your prime and at your fittest, which most of us are not. Secondly, we have noticed that participation of non sponsored teams has been dropping significantly with the Nationals giving us a rude awakening call.
A lot of us have also been protesting at the costs involved with participation at these events. The Indore teams event, for instance, has an entry fee of Rs. 13,000 for a 6 member team. This is not to say that the entry fee is unreasonable. The organizers, we are sure, have been balancing the tightrope between financial sufficiency and economy while arriving at the figure. Having said the above, the cost is indeed high. Hotel costs have also skyrocketed. A double room, which cost Rs. 3,000 per nigh before the lockdown, costs Rs. 4,500 today. You can look at cheaper hotels, but the increase in price would be similar and, at that level, be even less affordable. Thanks to Russia and Ukraine, flight tickets have also skyrocketed.
On another tack altogether, the threat of Covid resurgence also looms in the background. While we hope that these fears are unfounded, they would also have an impact on the number of people willing to travel.
We are therefore, of the opinion, that a carefully positioned event can be marketed to become a grand success. A case in point was the recently concluded KBA Championship which the Association felt more comfortable doing online rather than physically.
Let us hope that the coming few months allow both forms of the game to come to some sort of equilibrium.
We wish all of you a very happy 2023 with the best of health and an overdose of joy.