India started yesterday against Poland, one of the top teams in the event and a tough match was always no the cards.
Unfortunately for India disaster struck on Board 3 when Ajay Khare and Raju Tolani got themselves doubled in a 2 Clubs contract when the opponents had a game going for them. They went for 1100 and 12 imps to Poland.
Fortunately for India, they managed to recover this deficit on the very next board which was as below.
In the Open Room, the Polish North opened 1 Club which, as per Polish Club, could be one of three types of hands. South bid 1 Diamond (presumably a negation) and Ajay Khare chipped in with 1 Heart. North doubled again, presumably to show the strong version of 1 Club. South with a near yarborough, bid 2C and that ended the auction. The defense took 6 tricks to gain 100 points.
The auction in the closed room was vastly different. The Polish West opened 2 Clubs, presumably weak in both majors. Rajeshwar Tewari doubled. East bid 3 spades to jam the auction and Tewari closed the auction with 3 NT. East led a spade won by the Queen in dummy. Tewari cashed three diamonds ending in dummy and took the club finesse which lost. East cleared the spade suit. Tewari then cashed his remaining diamonds and, when the club jack fell on his ace, happily claimed 10 tricks for 12 imps.
The next big gain for India was on board 9 below
In the Open Room, the Polish North opened a Polish 1 Club. Raju Tolani bid a natural 2 Clubs and the auction proceeded
West North East South
1C* 2C P
2D P 3C P
3H P 3NT A
We are not sure whether 2D was the start of a reversal or was intended to show long hearts. South led a diamond and Raju tried the 9. North played the 10 and backed a diamond which went to the King and Ace on which Raju pitched a spade. He then cashed his clubs pitching a diamond and 6 hearts from dummy to come to this position
Now Raju simply played a heart from hand, throwing North in and forcing him to concede two tricks in spades. Well played Raju!
At the other table, Tewari opened 1 Diamond. and the auction proceeded as below
West North East South
1D 2C 2D
X P 3D X
3H P 4C P
4D P 5C A
Sumit Mukherjee led his 3rd best diamond which declarer won with the Ace. He then proceeded to draw trumps and led a heart to the ten and queen leading to this position
Rajeshwar Tewari could now see the hearts getting set up for possible discards with the spade ace as an entry. He brilliantly backed the Spade King to take out dummy's entry! This gave the declarer two spades but then he perforce had to concede a heart and a spade to go one down.
A brilliant execution of the Merrimac Coup at the highest level of the game! Well done Tewari.
The teams were fairly well matched till the end when disaster struck again on the last board.
In the Closed Room, Tewari opened a Multi 2D. East doubled and Sumit preempted 3H to give Tewari a choice of contracts. This unfortunately, backfired as East double again and West with such a long heart suit was happy to pass against a strong hand. This contract went for 500. It was still a potentially good result for India as there are 9 tricks to be scored in no trumps.
In the other room the bidding went
West North East South
P P 1C 1S
X P 3NT 4S
P P 5C A
The Polish South, with his fairly solid Spade suit and long diamonds had no problem bidding 4S given the vulnerability. This contract, on correct defence, goes two down, but Ajay Khare decided to bid on to 5C which had no chance once the trumps broke 3-0. Hard luck to India, but it cost them 12 imps and we lost the match by 11 imps (33-44)
Their next match was against Egypt. This was a low ranked team and India was expected to win the match easily, but the Egyptians had other ideas. They racked up 30 imps in the first 3 boards and added 11 more in board 9. It took some determined rearguard action to bring the score to a somewhat respectable difference of 28 imps to 41.
Their final match was against Italy, another strong team.
There is not much to be said about this match. India were unlucky to lose the match basis this one board below.
In the Open Room, Raju Tolani opened 1 diamond after two passes and South overcalled 1NT. North transferred to Spades and when South super accepted with 3 Diamonds, North bid 3NT. West led a heart and now North could count 9 tricks after the heart AK were cashed. He went on to make 10 to score +630.
In the closed room the Italian East opened 1NT with 14 HCP! Since NS presumably don't play double to show equal or better strength, Jaggy Shivdasani didn't have a bid. West transferred to Clubs and they duly made 9 tricks to score 12 imps which was the margin of defeat (23-35).
India has now slipped to 9th place and has to play top Australia and top ranked Norway. Going by the scores of the 8th ranked team, we expect a score of 276 being the minimum required to qualify i.e. India require at least 25 VPs from the last two rounds.
We wish them all the very best and are keeping our fingers crossed for a good result.
India's scorecard, as well as their upcoming matches can be seen by clicking here.
The Indian team continued to give some solid performances yesterday as well. They can be summarized as below.
In Round 19, India faced Brazil. Apart from two big boards which were exchanged, India had the better of the exchanges in the rest of the match to win it 27 imps to 18
In the next round India faced Australia and were trailing 34-41 after 12 boards when one of the Australian players in the open room had some sort of stroke. We hope that she is not too badly affected and wish her a speedy recovery.
In the last round of the day, India again played extremely strong bridge to hammer UAE by 89 imps to 31.
At the end of the day, they were in 12th place. A top 10 finish seems highly improbable given that they are more than 20 VPs adrift of 10th place.
We however, wish them all the best for their two matches today against Germany and Israel, both of which are expected to be tough.
India's scorecard, as well as their upcoming matches can be seen by clicking here.