The Tricon Infotech 2025 Championships were held on 5th-6th April 2025. As I happened to be in Bangalore on those dates, I ended up participating.
The whole experience was extremely enjoyable which prompted me to write this post. Even though I had to travel for over an hour to reach the venue (though that is typical for Bangalore 😜)
Since not much information was available on the event online I am posting images of the winners, kindly provided by Kunal Jaiswal and Hema Shriram
Pradeep Kulkarni, Shamsunder, Girish Bijoor, Uttam Gupta
Ashok Rangan and Pratap
Srinivas Makala and Guna Pemaraju
What went well
It was nice to see 28 teams participating. It was even nicer to have a venue where they didn't have to rub elbows with other competitor teams while playing. I was particularly amused to see 4 accredited directors (Swaminathan, Ashok Girdhar, Sumathi Iyer and yours truly) participating. The pairs event had 25 tables and the BAM, had 27 teams.
It was really nice to see 2 directors of yore, N. Nagarajan and K. S. Nagarajan conducting the event. While both of them have retired from active tournament direction for some time, they conducted the event smoothly and in a timely fashion.
Given that there was no computer draw, the facility with which they handled the teams event was remarkable. Their control over the room was impeccable and they managed to rule without raising their voice, a quality which all of us junior directors strive to obtain.
In terms of meals, I really enjoyed the breakfast and the afternoon snacks.
What could have gone better
The display of scores left a lot to be desired. I had volunteered to provide electronic scoring for both teams and pairs, but the directors insisted that they could hand 28 teams manually. They did that efficiently, but that was not the point of electronic scoring.
Electronic scoring allows scores to be displayed on a website and then disseminated to all who have an interest. An event which generates this much interest in Bengaluru should not be scored manually (even if anybody were charging for their services). Further, the scores can be stored easily for posterity and easy reference.
Once we have electronic scoring we could have probably used Bridgemates as well.
Would request the organizers to implement electronic scoring for future editions (as also other events in Bengaluru).
Another issue, I felt, was the scheduling of events. As per the given schedule everybody could participate in the BAM, but the qualifiers could not participate in the pairs. I could be wrong, but most players would rather participate in pairs than in a BAM. Having said the above, it is entirely a personal opinion.
Another issue I felt could have been improved upon was the usage of 2 board rounds rather than single board rounds. This gives a lot more leeway to players and reduces the time pressure on the event. The flip side, of course, is that one plays fewer opponents. So, it is a difficult issue and open to debate.
What was unacceptable
That this is really unfortunate and, perhaps, even understandable, but to my mind should have been avoided. With the BAM attracting 27 teams, the organizers, in a bout of enthusiasm, decided to conduct an all play all session of 26 boards (1 board rounds).
This resulted in the end time of the session being pushed to as late as 6:15 pm. Many participants, particularly outstation people, had scheduled their calendar basis a published prize distribution time of 5:30 pm. I know of at least one pair who had to withdraw because of travel schedules.
In Conclusion
All in all, I would reiterate that the event was extremely enjoyable. While some of my thoughts have been critical, please rest assured that any criticism is constructive.
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.