Wednesday Wonders 18 Aug 2021
Subir Majumdar & Sourendra Coomer Dutt are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Sridhar & Gowrisankar finished in second place, followed by Rana Roy & Hema Deora in third place.
Wednesday Wonders 11 Aug 2021
J B Sengupta & Deepak Kumar Tewari are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Siddhartha Ghosh & Indranath Chatterjee finished in second place, followed by Priyotosh Sarkar and Saurendranath Chakrabarti in third place.
Wednesday Wonders 04 Aug 2021
Sagar Bhuiya & Tanmay Mazumdar are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders.
Arvind Vaidya & Vivek Band finished in second place, followed by Priyotosh Sarkar
and Saurendranath Chakrabarti in third place.
Wednesday Wonders 30 Jun 2021
Devi Bhatnagar & Andrey Purushottam are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Indira Sonawala & Jitu Solani finished in second place, followed by Kajal Das & Sowmik Das in third place.
Wednesday Wonders 16 Jun 2021
Pankaj Doshi & Ian Concessio are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Prakash Bhandari & S M Moin finished in second place, followed by Sabyasachi Sadhukhan & Ayan Chatterjee in third place.
Wednesday Wonders 09 Jun 2021
Badal Das & Sowmik Das are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Raju Tolani & Dilip Tanna finished in second place, followed by Prakash Bhandari & Sanat Kumar Saha in third place.
Wednesday Wonders 02 Jun 2021
Samir Basak & Somesh Bhattacharya are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Tilakraj & Debraj Chowdhury finished in second place, followed by Dipak Poddar & Jitendra Solani in third place.
Wednesday Wonders 26 May 2021
Ian Concession & Pankaj Doshi are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Pankaj Gautam Mukherji & Abdi Naffar finished in second place, followed by Manas Mukherjee & Sowmik Das in third place.
Wednesday Wonders 19 May 2021
Rana Roy & Baneet Kumar Malhotra are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Pankaj Doshi & Ian Concessio finished in second place, followed by Samir Basak & Somesh Bhattacharya in third place.
Monday Musings 03 May 2021
Arvind Vaidya and Tilakraj Chowdhury won this week's Monday Musings. Priyotosh Sarkar and Saurendranath Chakrabarti were second, with Krishnan Venkatram and Derrick Rego finishing third.
Click here for detailed Results.
Wednesday Wonders 28 Apr 2021
Andrey Purushottam and Devi Muthu Bhatnagar, last week's runners up, are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Gopinath Manna and Hema Deora finished in second place, followed by Atul Rai and Partho Banerjee in third place.
Monday Musings 26 Apr 2021
Arun Puranik and Jesal Dabriwala won this week's Monday Musings. Balkrishna Parasrampuria and Andrey Purushottam were second, while Binod Shaw and Sanjit Dey finished third.
Click here for detailed Results.
Wednesday Wonders 21 Apr 2021
Rima Anand and Arvind Vaidya are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Andrey Purushottam and Devi Bhatnagar finished in second place, followed by S P Khanolkar and Narendra Shinda in third place.
Click here for detailed results
Monday Musings 19 Apr 2021
Atul Rai and Devi Bhatnagar won this week's Monday Musings. Sourendra Coomer Dutt and Dipak Santra were second, while Binod Shaw and Sanjit Dey finished third.
Click here for detailed Results.
Wednesday Wonders 14 Apr 2021
Hermione and Girish Bijoor are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Pankaj Doshi and Ian Concessio finished in second place, followed by P Hota and Ashis Pan in third place.
Click here for detailed results
Monday Musings 12 Apr 2021
Dipak Santra and Sourendra Coomer Dutt won this week's Monday Musings. Binod Shaw and Sanjit Dey were second again this week. R. Venkatesh and Prashanth Sriram finished third.
Click here for detailed Results.
Wednesday Wonders 07 Apr 2021
VM Lal and Saurabh Mittal are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Pankaj Doshi and Ian Concessio finished in second place, followed by Rajendra Sirohia and Somesh Bhattacharya in third place.
Click here for detailed results
Wednesday Wonders 31 Mar 2021
Dipak Poddar and Jitu Solani are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Moti Thadani and Sheelu Thadani finished in second place, followed by Dipak Santra and Prakash Bhandari in third place.
Click here for detailed results
Monday Musings 29 Mar 2021
Rajeev Khandelwal and Himani Khandelwal won this week's Monday Musings. Gopinath Manna and Hema Deora were second, with Anupam Ghosh and Dipak Santra third.
Wednesday Wonders 17-Mar-21
Prakash Bhandari and Dipak Santra are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Dashu and Joy finished in second place, followed by Rajeev Khandelwal and Himani Khandelwal in third place.
Click here for detailed results
Monday Musings 15 Mar 2021
Monica Jajoo and Sumit Mukherjee won this week's Monday Musings. Rana Roy and Baneet, last week's winners, were runners up this time. Tapas Mukherjee and Kingshuk Bhattacharjee finished third.
Wednesday Wonders 10-Mar-21
Dipak Poddar and Jitendra Solani are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. VM Lal and Saurabh Mittal finished in second place, followed by Tilakraj Chowdhury and Debraj Chowdhury in third place.
Click here for detailed results
Monday Musings 08 Mar 2021
Rana Roy and Baneet won this week's Monday Musings. Arnab Kumar Ghosh and Saurav Sil finished in second place followed by Andrey Purushottam and Sukrit Vijayakar in third place.
Nikita Kamal - Asha Sharma and Alka Jain - Tara Laroia were tied for fourth place.
Wednesday Wonders 03-Mar-21
Binod Shaw and Sanjit Dey are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Ivan Alphonso and Jeroo Mango finished in second place, followed by Rajeev Khandelwal and Himani Khandelwal in third place.
Click here for detailed results
Monday Musings 22 Feb 2021
Tilakraj Chowdhury and Debraj Chowdhury won this week's Monday Musings. Finishing in second place were Manas Mukherjee and Prasun Mukhopadhyay. Abdi Naffar and Ashok Sardiwal finished in third place.
Click here for the detailed result
Young Tilakraj declared 3NT as North. The first trick went ♠2-♠5-♠9-♠Q. He cashed the ♦Q dropping West's ten and led another diamond. When East played the ♦3, he backed his judgment and finessed the ♦7! Picking up the diamond suit, he made eleven tricks losing only two aces for a top board. Well played!
His play in the diamond suit was not the "book play"; the principle of restricted choice does not tilt the odds in favor of the finesse, as West may have ♦J10 or ♦J108. Books, however, are no substitute for table presence.
As at most tables, South opened and played 1NT and West led the ♦Q. Not eager to play spades yet, South led the ♣10 from hand, won by Tilak with the queen. His diamond return was won by declarer's ace, and a club was played to the ♣J and ♣A, West discarding a spade. Tilak then switched to the ♥9, the choice of the nine being unimportant on this deal but good technique. The nine was covered by the jack and West won the ace. West cashed one diamond, East discarding a heart (not best), and switched back to hearts, leading the ten. East carefully overtook with the queen, unblocking the suit as well as avoiding getting thrown in on the next trick. Declarer won the ♥K and persisted in trying to avoid misguessing spades; he exited a heart to West, who then cashed another heart and a diamond. A spade to East's Ace finally endplayed him into leading into South's ♣K7. Down two was good for 75% to East-West.
Wednesday Wonders 17-Feb-21
Asha Sharma and Abhijit Chakraborty
Abhijit Chakraborty and Asha Sharma are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Andrey Purushottam and Sukrit Vijayakar finished in second place, followed by V M Lal and Dipak Poddar.
Click here for detailed results
3NT by North-South on this deal is a race between declarer and defence. Declarer tries to get to nine tricks with 4 hearts, 2 diamonds, the ♣A and the ♠Q-J. The defense tries to get 2 clubs, ♠A-K and the ♦A.
Abhijit got the ♣ lead, which got him to his eighth trick but no closer to his ninth. If he crosses to dummy with a heart to start on spades, West can win the ♠K to attack clubs, setting up East's long club. When West gets in with the ♠A, he can cross to partner's ♦A to cash the long club.
Abhijit led a diamond at trick two, which gave the defense no chance. East ducked the diamond (as good as anything). With an extra club trick in the bag, one diamond trick is enough for declarer. Having cut the link to the East hand, Abhijit switched to spades. When West won and led a club, declarer ducked, and the defense could not come to more than 2 spades, a diamond and a club. Well played!
Monday Musings 15 Feb 2021
Sumit Saha and Swapan Sardar won this week's Monday Musings. In a virtual tie with the winners, but finishing in second place were Tilakraj Chowdhury and Debraj Chowdhury. Monica Jajoo and Sumit Mukherjee finished in third place.
The difference between first and second place was 0.1 MPs or 1⁄120 of a single board! The fractions of MPs arose out of artificial assigned scores on boards which could not be completed due to connection issues.
Click here for the detailed result
The winners exhibited their scientific bidding prowess as they bid to the top spot on this board.
2♦ - Weak with hearts OR strong with spades OR 20-21 BAL
2♥ - Relay
2N - 20-21
3♦ - Stayman
3N - No 4-card major
4♣ - Optional key card ask; 4N response = no fit
5♣ - Three key cards
Wednesday Wonders 10-Feb-21
Badal Das and Sowmik Das are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Indranil Chakraborty and Samir Basak finished in second place, followed by Binod Shaw and Sanjit Dey.
Monday Musings 08 Feb 2021
Binod Shaw and Sanjit Dey won this week's Monday Musings in a very close finish, just a third of a board ahead of fourth place. Aniruddha Sanzigiru and Satish Diwanji were runners-up, and Anoop Dhawan and Shambhu Nath Ghosh finished in third place.
Click here for the detailed result
Binod Shaw was doubled in 3C on this deal. The contract is cold even if North could lead three round of clubs exhausting dummy’s ruffing potential. The transfer auction meant that South was on lead, which made the contract even easier. Binod could not make an overtrick when he (reasonably) guessed to play North for more than one heart. Was +470 a top board? Just Ave+! Two South players got excited when North bid diamonds and tried for game with outcomes: 3NX down 4 and 5DX down 2. At another table, East got to 4CX (also on a transfer auction) and made the contract.
Monday Musings 08 Feb 2021
Binod Shaw and Sanjit Dey won this week's Monday Musings in a very close finish, just a third of a board ahead of fourth place. Aniruddha Sanzigiru and Satish Diwanji were runners-up, and Anoop Dhawan and Shambhu Nath Ghosh finished in third place.
Click here for the detailed result
Binod Shaw was doubled in 3C on this deal. The contract is cold even if North could lead three round of clubs exhausting dummy’s ruffing potential. The transfer auction meant that South was on lead, which made the contract even easier. Binod could not make an overtrick when he (reasonably) guessed to play North for more than one heart. Was +470 a top board? Just Ave+! Two South players got excited when North bid diamonds and tried for game with outcomes: 3NX down 4 and 5DX down 2. At another table, East got to 4CX (also on a transfer auction) and made the contract.
Wednesday Wonders 03-Feb-21
Abdi Naffar & Gautam Mukherji
Gautam Mukherji and Abdi Naffar are the winners of this week's Wednesday Wonders. Ivan Alphonso and Jeroo Mango finished in second place, followed by Raju Tolani and Dilip Tanna in third place.
Click here for detailed results
The winners gained heavily on this deal when they rested in 4SX by West, cold on the diamond four lead. Only a heart lead followed by a diamond underlead(!) defeats 4S.
One East-West pair played in 3S, but no others managed to even get spades into the auction.
Monday Musings 01-Feb-21
The results and the winners below
Hema Deora and Gopinath Manna won this week's Monday Musings just 1 Match Point ahead of the runners up R Venkatesh and Ram Sarangan. In third place were Indranath Chatterjee and Arnab Ghosh.
While there are four prizes, RV and partner had declared themselves as non-competitive since RV's partner didn't have a camera. So the 2nd prize goes to the third ranked player and so on.
The winners started rather disastrously scoring just 6% on the first board. But thereafter they played some really strong bridge and scored above 80% in 6 of the last 8 boards to secure the top spot.
One board which may have given them satisfaction is that played against the runners up who, till that point, looked like comfortably winning.
We discussed this auction with the partnership and have the following information.
2NT opening shows 21-22. 3C was Stayman. 4C was a cue agreeing spades. As was 4D. Now 4NT was RKC in spades which showed 3 Key Cards.
In the words of Manna, "From the time I heard the opening bid, I had decided we were going to play a grand slam. Since he had no idea about partner's diamonds, he could not bid the superior (albeit less scoring) diamond slam.
Congratulations to the toppers.
Wednesday Wonders 27 Jan
The results and the winners below
In today's Wednesday Wonders, the winners C R Ravi and S Duraiswamy put in another impressive performance to win this time around after their third place last week.
They came ahead of Rana Roy and Hema Deora in second place and Pinaki Khan and Moloy Mandal in third place.
The champions were given a great gift from former champions Debraj and Tilak who had an inexplicable communication error to finish in 4H when everybody was in 4S. Could have been a misclick too as the pair is quite a regular one.
They maintained their lead throughout the session and finished extremely strongly in the last two rounds to put the result beyond doubt. We congratulate them.
Click here for the detailed result
At most tables, the contract was 3NT by West, going down two when the defence ran the first six club tricks.
The winners were poised to rest in 2D, which would win the board for them. In a twist of fate, South bid to 3NT. This contract went two down on the DK lead for 5.45 IMPs to the winners.
The date for the next edition of Wednesday Wonders will be 3rd February. We request all of you to participate in large numbers as usual
Wednesday Wonders 20 Jan
The results and the winners below
First timers to RealBridge K N Shamsunder and Rammohan Kini won this week's Wednesday Wonders ahead of Bidyutt Bhattacharjee and Saurendranath Chakrabarti. In third place were another pair of first timers, C R Ravi and S Duraiswami.
The first placed pair had an impressive outing, losing IMPs on just two out of the 18 boards played. Below you can see a hand where they achieved one of their best results. The prizes for yesterday are displayed alongside
Congratulations to the winners!
Click here for the detailed result
The bidding on this board was innocuous. The lead of a small diamond too was fairly unspectacular. However, North chose to play a small diamond when declarer played a small diamond from dummy!
Declarer then went to dummy with the spade king and took the club finesse. Once the queen dropped, 12 tricks were fairly routine.
Surprising as it may seem, this board was worth 7 imps to the champions as one pair inexplicably went 3 down in the same contract.
The date for the next edition of Wednesday Wonders will be 27th January. We request all of you to participate in large numbers as usual
Wednesday Wonders 13 Jan
The results and the winners below
The father son duo of Debraj and Tilakraj Chowdhury won this week's Wednesday Wonders ahead of Binod Shaw and Gautam Pore. In third place were Dipak Poddar and V M Lal. Tilak is a junior with a lot of promise in him. To win this sort of event with his father at the tender age of 16 years portends well for the future of Indian bridge.
Bridge From Home would earnestly request the top players of bridge in India to consider taking him under their wing and mentor him in a formal manner. We would be happy to be the conduit between you and the boy should you approach us.
We present below a grand slam bid by the duo in the game yesterday. Yesterday's prizes are listed alongside.
Congratulations to the winners!
Click here for the detailed result
This grand slam was was one of the boards which rewarded the champions handsomely for their efforts. 3 Diamonds was a game force after the reverse which South doubled for reasons best known to him.
The interesting feature of the bidding sequence was using 4 Spades as RKC. The technique of using bids other than 4NT as RKC is slowly catching on. We know a partnership which would use 3NT as RKC after the suit was agreed upon.
After South led his singleton spade declarer immediately went for finessing trumps leading the 10 of hearts. After a small card appeared, we he played the queen (a technically superior choice under the conditions, we are told). Once it held, 13 tricks came rolling home.
Only two other pairs bid the grand slam, both of whom chose the 4-4 spade fit. Both contracts depend on the same distribution of the heart suit.
The date for the next edition of Wednesday Wonders will be declared soon
Monday Musings 11-Jan-21
The results and the winners below
Rana Roy and Sayantan Kushari won this week's Monday Musings ahead of Hema Deora and Gopinath Manna. In third place were V M Lal and Anand Samant. If you look at yesterday's game, it looks like a thorough test of skill within a set of range bound hands. There was only one slam bid in the whole event. We will present the auction on that board for the reader's perusal below. Yesterday's prizes are listed alongside.
Congratulations to the winners!
This was the only slam that was bid in yesterday's event. A really bold slam bid on just 25 points between the two hands. Took a lot of good fortune to bring home but, as the old adage goes, fortune favors the brave.
After receiving the requested heart lead, the declarer must have put her heart in her mouth while taking the anti-percentage club finesse. After that, once the spade finesse worked, 12 tricks rolled in to bring an absolute top for East West.
For the losers, it must be even more heartbreaking to realize that East West could have done with an average score on this board without it affecting their second place!!!!
06-Jan-21
The results and the winners below
Ayan Mandal and RV won this week's Wednesday Wonders brushing off a spirited challenge from the second placed Prakash Bhandari and Dipak Santra. The pair, who were convincing leaders for most of the event, were briefly overtaken by the runners up in the last few rounds. However, they had a bad last round, losing around 4.5 imps while the winners gained 12 +
In third place were Col. Satish Diwanji and Aniruddha Sanzgiri. Yesterday's prizes are listed alongside.
Congratulations to the winners!
04-Jan-21
The results and the winners below
Vasanti Shah and Pinaki Khan won the first Monday Musings convincingly, finish 5% ahead of second placed Ajay Khare and Raju Tolani. Those who had been observing the results during the game would have noticed that both pairs were extremely close for the last few rounds. However, Vasanti and Pinaki and a scintillating last round scoring 91.7% and 100% on the last two boards to achieve this convincing win.
In third place, not very far behind Ajay and Raju were the young pair of Jibak and Tanmoy. Yesterday's prizes are listed alongside.
Congratulations to the winners!
Wednesday Wonders
The results and the winners below
The father son duo of Debraj and Tilakraj Chowdhury won this week's Monday Musings ahead of Binod Shaw and Gautam Pore. In third place were Dipak Poddar and V M Lal. Tilak is a junior with a lot of promise in him. To win this sort of event with his father at the tender age of 16 years portends well for the future of Indian bridge.
Bridge From Home would earnestly request the top players of bridge in India to consider taking him under their wing and mentor him in a formal manner. We would be happy to be the conduit between you and the boy should you approach us.
We present below a grand slam bid by the duo in the game yesterday. Yesterday's prizes are listed alongside.
Congratulations to the winners!
Click here for the detailed result
This grand slam was was one of the boards which rewarded the champions handsomely for their efforts. 3 Diamonds was a game force after the reverse which South doubled for reasons best known to him.
The interesting feature of the bidding sequence was using 4 Spades as RKC. The technique of using bids other than 4NT as RKC is slowly catching on. We know a partnership which would use 3NT as RKC after the suit was agreed upon.
After South led his singleton spade declarer immediately went for finessing trumps leading the 10 of hearts. After a small card appeared, we he played the queen (a technically superior choice under the conditions, we are told). Once it held, 13 tricks came rolling home.
Only two other pairs bid the grand slam, both of whom chose the 4-4 spade fit. Both contracts depend on the same distribution of the heart suit.
The date for the next edition of Wednesday Wonders will be declared soon