46th World Bridge Championships – Day 6

The open team had another good day at the office, winning all their matches.

Their first match was against hosts Morocco. We won this match by 45 imps to 30

 

The next match was against Israel. This match was expected to be tough and everybody's fingers were crossed as they watched it on BBO.

4 Spades was the contract in both rooms. In the Open Room, Ajay Khare led a passive heart. Declarer won in dummy and led the Spade queen which he ducked. When declarer continued with the Spade Jack (to protect against K9 to 4 spades with East), he won and exited with his last spade. Declarer now played the Club King from hand which Ajay ducked. He ducked the Club continuation too in order to prevent the dummy from enjoying the clubs later. In dummy for the last time, declarer had no option but to try for the Diamond Ace to be right. Unfortunately it wasn't and so declarer was restricted to 9 tricks. In the Closed Room, the Israeli defender started with the Diamond Ace, effectively providing declarer with 10 tricks after trumps were drawn.

This gave the Indian team 12 imps.

On the very next board there was more action.

 

In the Open Room Raju Tolani opened the East hand 1 Club. Ajay bid 1 Diamond presumably showing 4 hearts. Over Raju's 2NT, Ajay bid a quantitative 4NT. Now Raju bid 6 Clubs to show club length and Ajay passed inspite of his shape (or lack thereof). South led the Diamond Queen. Raju won and started drawing trumps which revealed the bad break. Undeterred, Raju cashed the Heart King and finessed the Queen. When that won, he pitched a diamond on the Heart Jack and ruffed the fourth heart. Now he cashed the Diamond King and, having stripped North of diamonds and hearts, threw him in with the fourth trump to score his slam.

In the closed room, East opened the hand 2NT which West simply raised to 6NT. After the declarer found the clubs breaking badly, he exited with the fourth club. North won and backed his remaining diamond which declarer won with the king to set up this ending

Jaggy Shivdasani parted with a spade on the play of the 5th Club which seems the natural thing to do. However, he inadvertently ended up squeezing Sandeep Thakral who also pitched a spade to protect against the 4 hearts in dummy. Fortunately for India, the declarer did not read the situation and opted for a simple spade finesse and went down for 14 imps to India.

India went on to win the match 54-14 which vaulted the team into 4th place.

The final match of the day was against USA2, which had superstars Zia Mahmood and Jeff Meckstroth. Nothing major happened during the match but India had the better of the exchanges in the last 4 boards to win the match 32 imps to 25.

Today, India start off against 2nd placed Poland, followed by 19th placed Egypt and finish with 5th placed Italy. Qualification seems within grasp. Here's wishing them Godspeed!

India's scorecard, as well as their upcoming matches can be seen by clicking here.

The Indian women's team had their best day today after the opening day. They started off against South Africa with a bang, bidding 6 diamonds while their opponents subsided in 5.

The board of the match, however, was the one below

In the Open Room, Asha Sharma, sitting West must have played out of her skin (or aided by friendly defence) to make 4 Hearts doubled. In the Closed Room, East was declarer in 3NT. Bharati Dey led her 4th best spade and managed to unblock spades to take the contract 1 down.

In their next match, India played USA1 and were lucky to have the better of the exchange in this board early in the match.

In the Open Room, Kalpana Gurjar, sitting East, opened the bidding with 2 Hearts. She was doubled and made 3 tricks to concede 1100. In the Closed Room, sKshirsagar and Bharati Dey accurately bid their way up to 6NT to score 1440 and win 8 imps for India.

They secured another 13 imps on this board below

 

 

In the Open Room, North-South played in 3NT, a contract which was doomed from the start with a diamond lead.

Todays matches are all going to be tough versus South Africa, USA1 and Sweden. We wish them all the best. In the Closed Room, Alka Kshirsagar played in 4 Spades and was fortunate not to have a defender as good as Ajay Khare against her. She successfully made the contract for 13 imps.

The team was playing in another zone altogether, matching the US blow for blow. However, USA fought back strongly, winning 20 imps in the last two boards so India won the match only narrowly (36-30). Nevertheless, the victory would be one the team would savor for a long time.

In their last match, India played Sweden. In this match too, they held their own throughout and were leading until the last board when the Indian North South overreached to concede 6 imps and heartbreaking lose the match by 1 imp.

The loss notwithstanding, it was an extremely brilliant performance by India and we hope they continue in the same vein to secure a top 10 finish.

Today's matches are against Brazil, Australia and the UAE. Of the 3, Brazil is placed 10 and is arguably going to be tougher than the other two.

We wish them all the best.

 

India's scorecard, as well as their upcoming matches can be seen by clicking here.

The Indian Seniors after winning the first match against one of the top teams, USA1 (35-27), went on to suffer heavy defeats against Argentina (10-42) and Norway (14-46) to flounder in 18th position.

India's scorecard, as well as their upcoming matches can be seen by clicking here.

The Indian mixed team started the day well beating USA1 54 imps to 24. However, they lost their next two matches to France (34-44) and Colombia (32-34) to end the day in 14th place.

India's scorecard, as well as their upcoming matches can be seen by clicking here.