Suhas Vaidya Memorial Bridge Tournament

The Maharashtra Bridge Association(MBA), along with the Poona Region Bridge Association (PRBA) is pleased to host this special event, dedicated to the memory of Suhas Vaidya, one of the best bridge players of Pune and India.

The Suhas Vaidya Memorial Bridge Championship, hosted by PRBA will be conducted online by BridgeFromHome between the 17th and 20th February, 2022 and will consist of the following events

• Swiss Teams Event
  Consisting of a Swiss League and a Super League
• Match Point Pairs – For the Non Qualifiers to the Super League
• IMP Pairs - For a Sunday afternoon, well spent

The entire event will be conducted on the RealBridge platform

Federation Master Points will be awarded for good performance in this event.

If ever anyone deserved to be called “Mr Bridge” of Pune, it was certainly Suhas Vaidya. He was that rare combination—a brilliant organiser of tournaments, motivator of teams, leader of men.... besides being a brilliant player as well!

He was fondly called Bhausaheb. He had many other names as well (e.g. Barkya, Maharaj) which is one measure of his popularity.

Suhas won several National titles in different partnerships (Subash Gupta, Anand Samant, Avinash Gokhale and Kaustubh Bendre to name a few). But his most notable and successful partnership was with his namesake Ashok Vaidya. This duo was one of India’s finest pairs; their most memorable achievement was playing for India in the Bermuda Bowl, the World Championship.

Suhas was a keen cricketer in his younger days was known to have said “I could not play the Ranji Trophy for Maharashtra because of selection politics". Cricket's loss however, was the big gain of Indian bridge.

While Suhas, the bridge player was competitive and very successful, Suhas, the bridge organizer was the epitome of perfection. Everyone waxes eloquent about Suhas Vaidya's exceptional organizational skills and his proficiency as a bridge player at the very top in Indian bridge. He was a stickler for timing. Not only his declarer play, but also in life, his punctuality was legendary, akin to the schedule of the Japanese Bullet Trains.

He was a task master who he dedicated his time, energy and whatever he had to the game. During a tournament you never saw him smile. That notwithstanding, behind his loud voice and aggressive demeanor there was an innate honesty and goodness of heart to Suhas.

He was a person who would not hesitate to speak his mind, yet, at times he believed in the dictum – “Silence is Golden”.

His stand out quality was his entertaining and humorous language. His style of letting fly was unique and extremely funny. He had fine tuned it to an art form. He had a terrific command over language and his choice of words and analogies and the timing would even amuse the people who were at the receiving end of his volleys.

He had promised Ashok Vaidya, his long time partner that he would definitely partner him for the Senior Selection Trials as soon as he became eligible. Unfortunately, life preempted Suhas as he eventually succumbed to his fight with the Big C and hung up his gloves on 7 April 2016. He was 60 years old.

We still miss our 'Barkya', player and organizer par excellence and a gem among human beings.

• The Swiss Teams Event will be conducted from the 17th to the 20th of February
• Teams can have a minimum of 4 and maximum of 8 players in the team.
• There will be 8 rounds of Swiss League
• Each round will be of 8 boards
• After 8 rounds, the top 7 teams, along with the top performing team comprising of players in the Maharashtra region, of which minimum of two should be members of PRBA, will qualify to the super league.
  It may be noted that if two teams satisfying the above criteria have already qualified in the top 7 teams, the 8th spot will be filled on basis of merit i.e. the 8th ranked team will qualify.
• The qualifiers will play 7 rounds of 10 boards each
• Each player has to play a minimum of two rounds in the league to be eligible to participate in the Super Leagueas stated in SCoC.
• The event will be played on RealBridge. Players have to ensure that they have a laptop / desktop, I-pads or PC with Camera & Microphone facility and a good internet connection. This is a mandatory condition and players should ascertain that they are equipped with the required paraphernalia before entering the event. It may please be noted that you can’t play the event on mobile phone.
• Entry Fee: Rs. 2,000 per team
• Entry Deadline: 17th Feb 2022 by 1200 Hrs

Pay Entry Fee and Register

• The event will be conducted on the 19th of February, 2022 over two sessions of 18 boards each.
• The first one will be held at 1430 hours.
• The second one will be held at 1730 hours.
• TRIOS are not allowed
• The event will be played on RealBridge. Players have to ensure that they have a laptop / desktop, I-pads or PC with Camera & Microphone facility and a good internet connection.
• This is a mandatory condition and players should ascertain that they are equipped with the required paraphernalia before entering the event. It may please be noted that you can’t play the event on mobile phone.
• Entry Fee: Rs. 500 per pair
• Entry Deadline: 18th Feb, 2022 - 1900 Hrs
• Giving entry is mandatory. No entries will be accepted on Saturday. Those who qualify will have their entry fee refunded (less handling charges)

Pay Entry Fee and Register

• The event will be conducted on the 20th of February, 2022 over two sessions of 24 boards each.
• The first one will be held at 1430 hours.
• The second one will be held at 1800 hours.
• TRIOS are not allowed
• The event will be played on RealBridge. Players have to ensure that they have a laptop / desktop, I-pads or PC with Camera & Microphone facility and a good internet connection.
• This is a mandatory condition and players should ascertain that they are equipped with the required paraphernalia before entering the event. It may please be noted that you can’t play the event on mobile phone.
• Entry Fee: Rs. 600 per pair
• Entry Deadline: 20th Feb, 2022 - 1200 Hrs

Pay Entry Fee and Register

Swiss League

Super League

Matchpoint Pairs

IMP Pairs: Session 1   Session 2  Combined