TTK Prestige National Pairs Championship
Priya Balasubramanian
The whistle of the cooker for once drowned out the ambulance. The TTK Prestige National Pairs championship provided a much-needed welcome relief from the pandemic. An escape into an alternate world of Kings and Queens and their courtiers.
158 pairs from all over India are competing in this pressure cooker event.
It would be fair to say that the roster includes the royalty in the Bridge world. You know who you are. Take a bow.
Bridge is the only game where you attend a lecture and find yourself opposing these great players and get the opportunity to use their teachings against them in a tourney. With the best of the best competing, this tourney throws up many such opportunities.
The Real Bridge platform give bridge players a real chance to meet and interact with old friends from all over India. The camaraderie when old friends meet is heart-warming to watch. For newcomers like me it is a chance to watch the bridge greats in action. And also, be privy to the partnership discussion post the deal.
The format is well laid out to give everybody the maximum chance to play. Two sessions of 20 boards each spread over two days to bifurcate the Gold and the Silver players. One more elimination to reach the final.
An interesting deal that came up yesterday is shown below.
In Matchpoints, every overtrick is worth its weight in gold ( or diamonds?). I am reminded of Gordon Gecko whenever I play MPs. He aptly said, “Greed is good, greed is right, greed works!” Micheal Douglas fans may watch this link (https://youtu.be/VVxYOQS6ggk) for some inspiration for tonight.
It is a constant dilemma in MPs for the defender on whether to try and break the contract or work to prevent overtricks.
At most tables South led the ♥ Q with the same being ducked by the declarer. North overtook the Queen with the Ace and returned a heart which declarer won in dummy.
When clubs break favourably, there are 11 tricks on top. The greedy player looks for the 12th. The declarer needs to discard a diamond and retain the heart in order to make 12 tricks.
The heart in the dummy and the ♦J in hand act as threat cards against South creating an automatic squeeze. When declarer runs the spades, watch the magic as South is squeezed tighter than by an anaconda.
Note that if North refrained from taking the ♥A and South found the switch to ♦K, the declarer can be held to 10 tricks.
Good luck for the rest of the event. While being greedy is good, being grateful is better. I sincerely thank the sponsors, BFI and the organisers for this prestigious and exciting event.
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Interestingly, a case of a good overtake being punished. Had South had an entry , North would have made the news paper columns. Sometimes, thoughtful play goes unrewarded.