Indian Bridge appears to have come of age! For the first time in recent memory, a team comprising only of Indian qualified for the finals of the WBT Masters Tournament at Reykjavik being played from 22-25 January, 2024 after topping the (almost) round robin by a huge margin.
The Mavericks team, comprising of Subodh Maskara - Subhash Gupta, Keyzad Anklesaria - Debabrata Majumder and Jaggy Shivdasani - Rajeshwar Tewari completed the round robin with a lead of 8 VPs over 2nd placed Apres-Bridge Champs to qualify for the finals.
Earlier yesterday morning (before the finals), we had a short conversation with their captain Subodh Maskara who had this to say.
Out of the 16 rounds, we won 12, lost two by 2 imps, one by 5 imps and one more rather badly. This kind of consistent perfomance is what makes good teams. (You can see the Mavericks performance in the Swiss League here).
I feel this is the result of hard work (we practice 2 hours everyday). We have a great coach in Anal Shah (who spends countless hours analysing hands and helping partnerships resolve their issues), and a self belief that we worked upon that we can stand against the world's best. And then, of course, the bridge gods blessed us.
This, augurs well for Indian bridge and other sponsors can also consider taking teams to participate in competitions like these. Apart from other things, it will give Indian players a chance to test themselves against world levels and thereby improve their bridge skills.
On requesting the team for a hand or two, they shared this hand with me.
Sitting East was Rajeshwar Tewari who landed in the contract of 3 No Trumps, and received the lead of ♠2. He played a small spade from dummy which was covered by the ten and won by Tewari with the ♠Q.
Now, he led a ♥ to the King, and pulled the ♦Q covered by the King and Ace. The diamond continuation was won by South. But that was the end of the defence.
Intelligent readers would have spotted that declarer cannot make the contract if North doesn't cover the ♦Q, but it was well played by Tewari nevertheless.
Unfortunately, Mavericks were outclassed by their opponents in the finals by Apres-Bridge Champs, the only team they had not met in the round robin.
But full credit to them for making it there in the first place. And we sincerely hope that other teams take a cue from this heartening performance and increase the Indian participation in international events.
Please do share your comments in the space below.
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.
very well done team Mavericks. such great performance will not only boost confidence to their team but to other bridge players as well. Similar endeavour from other sponsors will certainly give impetus to Indian players to repose faith on their capability.
Great show by Mavericks. Kudos to them. Appreciate the coverage of their performance.