The 6th day of the 65th Winter Bridge Nationals saw Prasun Mukhopadhyay and Abhijit Chakraborty leading 26 pairs into the finals of the Shree Cement MP Pairs. It also crown Vinay Mohan Lal and KS Samant the champion of the Shree Cement Match Point Pairs Silver finals.
Read about all this and more as BridgeFromHome continues to bring you coverage of the event.
Shree Cement Gold Match Point Pairs, 2nd Elimination
After 5 rounds of 10 boards each, Prasun Mukhopadhyay and Abhijit Chakraborty headed 26 of the 50 participant pairs into the Shree Cement Pairs Gold Final. K R Venkataraman and Swarnendu Banerjee moved up one notch to second place. Koushik Mukherji and Priyaranjan Sinha were in 3rd place.
Amarnath Banerjee, the Battling Hero of the Nationals
Amarnath Banerjee (right) with partner Raghunath Tripathi
We have been reading, over the last several months, the story of Amarnath Banerjee's battle with cancer and the funds needed for his treatment. I have to state that I was pretty surprised to see his name on the roster of a team in Swiss League. That team just missed qualification but, along with his partner, Raghunath Tripathi, he finished first in the first elimination of the Shree Cement Match Point Pairs. Even in the second elimination, the duo finished 5th, no mean feat. We present below, some of the facts concerning his illness and the magnitude of the support required.
For the uninitiated, Amarnath Banerjee has won 29 National Championships (presumably both pairs and teams combined). At the age of 59 years, he could well have a long life ahead of him if his ailment can be controlled.
He is suffering from 4th Stage Retinal Carcinoma and has been battling the disease for four years now. The only treatment to control the disease is immunotherapy. The results so far have been encouraging.
Immunotherapy, like all other cancer treatments, is unfortunately very costly and his family has already spent in excess of Rs. 20 lakhs for the treatment. Further treatment will incur costs to the tune of Rs. 48 lakhs which, as we are all aware, is a figure beyond most of our imagination. The only way this can be gathered is if all of us contribute a little something to his treatment.
We are sharing a link from his funding request on Milaap.org. We humbly request small contributions from as many people who possibly can towards his treatment
Shree Cement Silver Match Point Pairs Finals
K S Samant and V M Lal, Champions of Shree Cements Match Point Pairs (Silver)
After 3 rounds of 18 boards each, K S Samant and V M Lalclinched the Shree Cement Match Point Pairs (Silver) championship with a score of 61.89%. They were followed, in second place, by Rajendra Ray and B N Ghosh. Janak Shah and Jayendu Patel were in 3rd place.
Debraj and Tirtharaj Chowdhury
We have to also congratulate Debraj and Tirtharaj Chowdhury, a father son duo, who secured 7th place in the event. We would like to point out that Tirtharaj is all of 13 years of age!
No event can be successfully conducted without strong control and tremendous support.
The Directors
We had a team of 8 directors headed by Sudhir Agrawal who capably ensured that any disputes that arose between players were sorted out within framework of the laws of Contract Bridge
The Team of Directors (L to R) Narsinga Rao, Sanjay Chakraborty, C S Satheesh, Ranju Bhattacharya, Sudhir Agrawal, MBV Subramanian, Gora Roychowdhury and Ashok Girdhar
In my personal opinion, this team was too 'top heavy'. We had no less than 5 national directors, one assistant national directors and only two junior directors in the forms of Satheesh and Ashok Girdhar. Events like the national championships are great grounds to groom new directors into the fold and it would have been nice to see more more junior directors in this team. I did miss being part of this team (even though the comment about more junior directors did not refer to myself) but then, you would not have had these bulletins!!!
Caddies
(L to R) Asim Paul, Kamal Acharjee, Tushar Dhara, Ranjit Chowdhury, Pijush Kanti Saha, Debasish Ghosh
Friends, I earnestly urge you to remember the names of these caddies who efficiently provide us boards and try to call them by their names instead of shouting 'Volunteer'!!!. They are not volunteers, they are professionals! They are also human beings like you and I and they appreciate being called politely by their names. Try it! You will see a distinct difference in their behavior with you and the smiles on their faces!
Scorers
Scorers - Kaustubh Deodhar and J Srinivasan
No major event is complete without efficient scoring and efficient reporting of the same. The new Tournament Scorer software that Srini has introduced into scoring has revolutionized the way everybody, both at the venue and at home can enjoy the live progress of events conducted with Bridgemates. Indeed, our reporting of the event would have been two notches lower were it not for this software.
We urge him to train others in the use of this software so that he can go on to achieve greater things not just for BFI, but for the country being, as he is, among the best players in the country today!
Dealing boards
Yesterday, we had shown you a short video on how the boards are carried out of the dealing room. Today, we bring you a shorter video on the magnitude of the work that they do. This has been provided by Chetan Rawal.
Today's schedule
Today, we will have the Shree Cements Match Point Pairs Gold Finals with 25 rounds of two boards each.
We will also have the Ashok Ruia Senior IMP Pairs which appears to have 33 participants registered as of now.
I understand there will be a consolation event for the rest of the particpants.
2nd eliminations will be over 5 sets of 10 boards each. The non qualifiers are playing the Shree Cements Silver finals which will be played over 3 sessions of 18 boards each.
In Conclusion
We have picked up a quote by Ms. Vasanti Shah, a very senior player regarding the facilities being offered at the venue.
What an excellent event!
A large comfortable playing arena. Unfortunately only 51 teams, though the venue could have easily managed 70. Several tds, scorers and dealers doing their job efficiently. There was congeniality all around and enough helpful helpers Food from breakfast to high tea adequate Rooms at the venue were bright and cheerful. The staff was extremely polite, efficient, and eager to help.
One of the most comfortable and memorable winter nationals I have attended.
Now the most important facility The organisers have kept on standby an ambulance 24x7 for 9 days at venue with a first aid box and a stock of medicines for normal needs. So thoughtfully covering every eventuality One, my BP shot up and I got terribly ill. I thank my stars that I was here. Dr Anupam Rai immediately sent me in the ambulance to huge Government hospital and college complex
Swift caring action, all tests, and a night at ICU with several doctors constantly monitoring and talking to me.
No amount of thanks are enough to the organizers who have silently and thoughtfully tried to cover every contingency
We hope you have enjoyed our coverage.
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.
our heartfelt thanks to sukrit for such a nice summing up if each day play and events as if he is Sanjay to dhritarastra in kurukhetra super war.
we are grateful that he covered Amarnath Banerjee a true genius of Indian Bridge. Apart from a very good player and analyst, he is great teacher. He is a disciple of Mike Lawrance and runs a WhatsApp club in honour of him. he was authored 2 great book in his credit. Quite good in Indian Standard. He is also very friendly and you can always seek his opinion. he quite often invites you to take part in bridge debates, master solvers. basically he is trying to do all good for Indian bridge in his own way.
He is suffering but spirit is at the tip. we all must try our level best with our prayers and support.
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our heartfelt thanks to sukrit for such a nice summing up if each day play and events as if he is Sanjay to dhritarastra in kurukhetra super war.
we are grateful that he covered Amarnath Banerjee a true genius of Indian Bridge. Apart from a very good player and analyst, he is great teacher. He is a disciple of Mike Lawrance and runs a WhatsApp club in honour of him. he was authored 2 great book in his credit. Quite good in Indian Standard. He is also very friendly and you can always seek his opinion. he quite often invites you to take part in bridge debates, master solvers. basically he is trying to do all good for Indian bridge in his own way.
He is suffering but spirit is at the tip. we all must try our level best with our prayers and support.
thank you sukrit again.
Most welcome my dear friend!