Finals Day 2
Parting Gift played solid bridge to clinically despatch their opponents in the Kr Murli Manohar National Masters Final.
The extent of their supremacy can be seen by the way they won each session (the last one handsomely at that) to overcome a carry over of 12 imps as though it were nothing.
In the play offs for 3rd place Samadhan appeared to have run out of steam, losing the 3rd session by 32 imps and conceding the match thereafter.
Parting Gift set about their business on the first board of yesterday when Rana Roy. After winning the lead of the heart king, he passed the 10 of clubs to the Jack on his left. After conceding a heart and ruffing the continuation, he took a ruffing finesse against the Ace of Clubs. Once that worked, he only had to concede a trump trick.
At the other table, Animesh attempted to steal the club trick at trick two. When that didn't work, he played his RHO for the club Jack and lost control once the trumps broke 4-1. He did manage to throw North in with his last trump but South had the diamond Jack to give the defence the fourth trick.
In the other room, after a precision opening by Animesh with the North hand, the pair subsided quietly in 2 Hearts. The defence opened with a trump to restrict declarer to nine tricks.
This win was given off 3 boards later when Samir and Biswajit over reached to bid a little slam which just wasn't there. And the lead changed hands on the next board when Samir elected to play for the wrong suit to break. After a diamond lead, Samir cashed the spade ace and king. When the suit didn't break, he had to concede a heart and a diamond in addition to the two clubs and spades the defence already had.
At the other table, the defence cashed the Ace and King of clubs before backing a spade. Srini now played a heart to the 8! When this lost to the queen, he won the spade return and now played a heart to the 10. Once that held, he had 9 tricks and, when the hearts broke, he had 10. Note that the second finesse of the hearts is a very safe play. If West had had a possible spade winner, he would have cleared the club suit.
However, the lead lasted only for about 4 boards when Animesh and Uttam ended up in a hopeless 3NT contract when 4 hearts was a safer contract. At the other table, Swarnendu and Rana reached the much safer 4H contract although that too requires careful play.
Srini led a spade which Swarnendu won with the Ace and immediately led a club towards the queen. Once Srini won this with the king all the high cards were pretty much marked. Swarnendu drew trumps, ending in dummy and led a diamond towards his king. After that held, he played another diamond, ruffed the spade return and conceded a second diamond trick to South, who had no more spades.
The third session ended with Parting Gift up 11 imps, still a close match. The same four pairs were playing the fourth session and Rampage opted to change the table opponents for variety. The session started with two dramatic boards. In the first, Animesh bid an aggressive 6 spades inspite of his partner signing off signaling a bare minimum. In the second, Animesh opted to sacrifice in 4 Spades where the pair was doubled for -500. At the other table disaster struck Samir and Abhijeet when Samir elected to pass 3 Clubs doubled. That went for -1400 to bring the match again very close.
However, the rest of the match was a series of bad boards for Rampage with the last two boards just banging shut a well shut coffin.
Match Point Pairs
The match point pairs start today with both Masters and non Masters playing 3 sets of 18 boards each.
In view of the low entries in the non Masters pairs (just 38), the organizers have decided that only 18 non Master Pairs will qualify for the finals which will be held on Sunday
Parting Gift
We are informed that the team (usually named Arun Jain) was renamed so as this was the last event that Joyjit would be playing as part of this team. A beautiful parting gift to both Arun Jain and Joyjit, as it were.
I too regretfully have to say that this is likely to be my last detailed bulletin on events for some time to come. As such this is a parting gift from me as well.