Bhartia Grand Prix 2025 – Reflections

The Bhartia Grand Prix, 2025 concluded successfully on the 1st of April. Sharing a few thoughts on the event. It has been a long time since I have written about anything and I have to say that this post has been motivated by an event which was heartwarming.

These thoughts are more observations about the goings on. Needless to say, a la Busybee, this is all my own work


  What went well

The food, in my opinion, was an improvement over the past year. This is, of course, a very subjective opinion but I will mention it nevertheless.

If I am not mistaken, the snafu that took place last year about two top teams sitting in the same direction in the last round did not recur. It could have been due to better diligence on the part of both players as well as directors, but it was certainly good that no such mishaps occurred.

What could have gone better

The display of scores did leave something to be desired.

A part of this was due to the limitations of the software (Magic Contest) that was being used. After getting used to the facility provided by the Tournament Calculator software in terms of currency of updates, team rosters, an individual team's performance etc., this display left the viewer feeling a bit sad. It would not be really fair to fault the organizers for the above, but the sense of disappointment was keen.

Another thing which could have been improved was the timing of display of the pairs scores on the website. Pairs scores, I am told, were only posted to the website after the completion of the correction period. In my personal opinion, providing them after play completes serves to allow most of the field to check their personal score cards for accuracy of data entry. To be fair, I have not checked the rationale for this move. Having said that, this is the first time I have seen something like this.

Heartwarming performances

I have to say that it was nice to see a few veterans like Dipak Poddar (Poddar Housing) and V M Lal (Shri Radhey) among the qualifiers.

It was also nice (speaking personally) to see Vikrant Mehta winning the pairs event with Sandeep Thakral. He has certainly been performing remarkably since pairing up with Sandeep and I hope to see him do a lot for both himself as well as the country in the future

But the performance which moved me the most (and indeed prompted this article) was the play on the board given below

A number of pairs succeed in scoring 3NT from the West hand. As is obvious, it goes down on a diamond lead, but many Norths preferred to try their luck with the heart suit which, of course, was disastrous for their side.

One pair, who played in 5♣ by West received the lead of the ♥Q. The young declarer (would be barely in her teens) told Marianne Karmarkar and myself after the end of the second session how she scored the contract.

To quote almost verbatim "I knew that I could score the contract if I got the ♠Q right. However, I did not want to take the spade finesse, so I drew trumps, cashed the ♥A and ♥K, ruffed  a heart and exited with a diamond. Whoever won the trick could cash another diamond but then would have to either play a spade, eliminating the need to guess the queen, or give me a ruff and discard with a red suit.

  To see a teenager plan the play on a hand and actually execute a strip and throw in was really very impressive and I went around telling anybody who would listen about this. Take a bow, Ananya Mehta. We hope to see you go really far in bridge along with a brilliant career in whatever field you choose to pursue.  

In Conclusion

I will take your leave with a small bridge puzzle which was shared to a class of  not much more than beginners. You are declaring with the West Hand in 7♠. The opening lead is ♥K. Plan the play


There is nothing exotic required in terms of solutions. Just careful planning and execution should give you the solution. I hope you enjoyed this problem. Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.