Reflections on the HCL Bridge Championships

The 20th HCL International Bridge Championships concluded yesterday after hundreds, nay thousands of hard fought, exhilerating, annoying, frustrating (at the same time) boards between close to a thousand contestants.

Here are a few thoughts on the championships (all my own work).

To comment on the performances of the winners and boards etc., we have an official bulletin. Hence the thoughts I am sharing are mostly around the event.

Organization

In the first place, the organization was par excellence. All the events moved like clockwork. Kudos to the entire HCL team for this level of excellence.

The reporting of results was, in particular, of a totally different standard altogether. For the first time, we could see live results of the teams event in both Gold and Silver section. Hats off to J. Srinivasan for this. We wish this level of reporting could be duplicated. However, we understand these results are courtesy Srini's personal investment in the software. We would urge the BFI to consider investing in the same as well.

Notable Performances

In this section, I would like to highlight a few, non prize winning performances that caught my eye.

The first pair I would like to highlight is that of Usha Kabra and Marianne Karmarkar. This pair qualified for the Gold Final pairs, a stupendous achievement in light of the field. While most of us know Marianne and her exploits quite well, it was refreshing to see Usha get there. In fairness to her, she has been consistently doing well in the ladies circuit over the last couple of years. This is, I think, after a long hiatus from competitive bridge.

In the Gold Teams event, the performance of the Mavericks Prodigies team was simply stupendous. In an extremely tough field, this team which had, among others, the young kid, Anshul Bhatt, did very well to not only qualify for the Knock Outs, but also lead their quarterfinal match at the half way stage against a team which had been decimating all opposition before them. We hope to see this team, founded by Subodh Maskara, continue to deliver such performances and hope that Subodh will continue to support the team for a longish period.

The most heartbreaking outing for any team would be that for Sarla Fibers. This team was comprised of Kalpana Gurjar, Vidhya Patel, Nirmal Jain and Vrinda Jhunjhunwala. This team had made Table 1 their home for 7 of the 10 rounds of the Silver Teams Championship. We don't know quite what happened, but disaster struck in the last 3 rounds and they eventually finished 18th. While the first three members of the team are regulars on the circuit, Vrinda Jhunjhunwala is a relative newcomer. We hope she is heartened by this performance and becomes a regular participant in the competitive circuit. She has had a notable performance in an event at Chandigarh previously as well.

There also was this heartwarming pair of Adhiyaman (11,years) and Agilan Zodypache (8 - yes eight) who came all the way from Puducherrry to participate in the tournament. I wished I could have played with them just in order to talk to them. Congratulations to their parents for bringing them to this lovely game. It was also heartening to see Prakash Easwaran playing with his younger son Madhav Prakash. Prakash, of course has been in a very strong partnership with his older son Anirudh previously. (Thanks Arun Bahulkar, for reminding me of this)

Missing Persons

One personality whose absence was noticed was Ms. Puja Batra. When I asked some of her friends, I was told that she has decided to take a few months sabbatical from bridge. As one had also heard that she has resigned from the BFI, we were both anxious and sad.

We hope that she returns to the game and us at the very earliest!

Health Desk

The value of this facility cannot be overstated. To have a doctor in attendance all the time for an increasingly aging population was really a great idea. The desk also provided routine medication for those who had forgotten to bring their dosage for the day (I was a beneficiary of this service and found it extremely touching).

Food and Beverages

I personally found the food quite nice. Given that it was being hosted in a five star hotel, you expect this sort of quality. My only request would be for the event organizers to consider adding a sugar free dessert to the menu. For diabetics like me, missing out on this was particularly painful. Mind you, this request is only made because of the nature and stature of the event. It is not really a complaint.

In Conclusion

6 days of intense bridge went by in a breeze. It was lovely to see and meet a lot of players here whom we wouldn't ordinarily see anywhere else. We have to thank Mrs. Kiran Nadar and the HCL foundation for yet another edition of the tournament.

Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.