As the biggest tourney in the country kicked off today, I couldn't help but feel amazed at the seascape of the participation and the movement of the results through each session. It motivated me to pen down a few thoughts.
This is not intended to be the start of an unofficial HCL bulletin really. Rather it is just a reflection on the goings on in Indian Bridge.
The first thought of course is on the extent of the participation. 102 pairs! Amazing. A large part of this population is driven by more and more ladies foraying into the game and opting to pair up with a top player. Arguably, a pro am scenario.
The next thought was about the presence of a few Under 16 junior pairs who have not been active on the bridge circuit until this year. I could identify Prakhar Bansal and Viha Gahrotra and Agastya Khanna and Rashee Mohanka. There was also Jashith Narang who paired with Kunal Mehta, perhaps the father of her partner Ananya in the juniors. I do think kudos is due to the BFI for encouraging them to participate in this event. Any assistance that they may have been given in the form of waiver of entry fees or subsidy / sponsorship is also extremely laudable. Let us hope that they develop in the manner of a Vidya and Kalpana or a Subashree Basu and grow to become formidable names.
Another observation was the participation of Sandeep Thakral in the mixed pairs. As a person who had eschewed this event since he believed it detracted from his efforts in the open event, it is good to see him participate in the mixed pairs.
As far as the results go, congratulations to Andrey and Meenal for finishing this event on top! It was nice to see non regular names like Rohit Gupta and Deepika Mehta, and Beneeta Chandra and Ranji Dhawan feature in the top 10 ranks.
A thought that must be going on in the minds of people would be which of the two pairs who finished 26th, viz. Kiran Nadar and B. Satya; and Fernanda Soares and Ashish Pan would progress to the gold final. As per my information, Kiran and Satya were far ahead of Fernanda and Ashish on the application of tie breaker rules and they would be playing the gold.
Well, I do hope, dear readers, that you have found this article of interest. Do share your comments on the article itself. It would give the author a lot of encouragement.
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.
very interesting observation about the event and participants. please continue such articles on a very regular basis. I love to read article on Bridge. Thanks Sukrit