Dear Bridge Lovers,
Yesterday's post drew a lot of reactions in various WhatsApp groups and raised a few questions about the upcoming Summer National Championships. I am therefore focusing this post on this event. As usual, the emphasis will be on facts. I am sure organizing an event of this scale is quite difficult. Nevertheless, it will provide a guideline for future events, we fervently hope.
The run up to the crystallization of the dates and the title sponsor was dotted with a lot of drama where again, the conduct of the BFI officials left much to be desired. Nevertheless, since I am not aware of all the details and the pushes and pulls involved in this, I will refrain from airing my thoughts on the same. It would be nice, however, if the BFI could clarify the situation so that it could be transparent to all its constituents.
The Brochure
The brochure for the summer nationals was released 3 or 4 times. The first edition had the Dr. K K Bhatnagar Memorial Trophy being announced for the ladies pairs. A couple of editions later, the number of qualifiers was reduced from 16 to 8 with the number of qualifying rounds being reduced to 8. As a consequence, the number of boards per match was increased to 14.
I was engaged in a hilarious (were it not so tragic) scenario, debating with my team mates the actual schedule of the event because some of them were referring to one document and I to another.
Any brochure is best placed on a website with any updates being made by replacing the document on the website. But ooooopppps.... The website isn't working.
The schedule for Ladies Pairs and Mixed Pairs events
Once again, there was a small brouhaha about the way both events are scheduled. While all the players are convinced that the finals are too short, nobody seems to have listened to them about it.
It is possible that the Technical Committee would have had their constraints while drawing up the schedule, but does a finals comprising of just 26 boards make any sense for any major, ranking points event?
Payment while registering
In the previous summer nationals, held in Bangalore, it was possible to register and pay entry fees online. That facility was not available in Jaipur. Nor is it available in Goa this time.
On yesterday's post, Mr. Ravi Raman mentioned that the advantages of ensuring online registration in advance had several advantages like
- Getting an advance idea of the number of committed teams. This helps manage logistics better
- Moving around with so much cash in one's pocket is always a pain, to say nothing of the security issues involved
Yesterday, KSBA offered their services to provide this facility. BridgeFromHome has been doing it for the last several years. If BFI were to approach us, I don't see us refuse the facility to them.
Integrating Payment Gateways with Bridgewebs is a challenge that has not yet been overcome. But BFI could surely host this on their website but ooops..... No website.
Directors
If one goes through the list of directors, one sees all the regular, familiar faces. However, the BFI could surely have taken on one junior director, who would benefit from the experience. For clarity, the word junior refers to directors with far less exposure to tournaments of this nature and not junior in age.
A question in parting
Yesterday, one junior called me and said he is yet to receive his prize from the Junior Nationals. Is that correct? Is he an isolated example or is it that none of them have received their prizes?
Sukrit Vijayakar
Hi. I would like to place on record that there is no official representation for women in BFI. Neither for information nor for grievances.
When I suggested that BFI should have an official womens watsapp group, so all information could be shared regarding the ladies and mixed events, I was told to start one myself. I hold no official post with BFI. It also seems like a few players are privileged and have information ahead of time. Therefore ladies events are held at small places, the rooms get booked out before we even get the information of the event.
Sad to say but its true, most of us ladies from the South have little or no information regards tourneys and dates. when we get info get some ribs and rabs, we are forced to make calls to find out more. This should never be the case. The information should be available to all at the same time.
In the recent ladies event, no results were published during the tournament and everyone was left guessing. Since it comes under BFI, shouldn’t one person be given the responsibility and be held accountable.
Lastly all ladies ranking points events should be limited to only those eligible to compete. If not the 1st 8 ranks, barring those who are not eligible should be awarded ranking points. There is no logic in not assigning ranking points to those eligible.
Also, since most ladies travel alone, for ladies events, we suggest the last day finishing by 4 pm so those who take a flight out, dont have to travel home alone and late at night. The number of boards should definitely be increased to eliminate the element of luck and ranking point events should be held over a minimum of 2 days if not more.
Hope to see more defined representation for women in the BFI.
I am rather new to the organized game of bridge that we have in India. I love the game, came back to playing it in 2017 after having to leave it for a few decades. I imagined many wonderful things that our organization in India is doing for the game, after connecting with a few players I knew way back in 1974. Sadly. I found that over the last few years, the Bridge Organization in India lives on rumors and not on real information. I am totally disappointed ……..
1. I find that there is no information forthcoming about various issues such as BFI website, tournament schedules, Master Points etc. The RTI Committee has only one member and several calls and messages to him are unanswered.
2. I discovered that the Indian Team Selection Committee is shown as Chairman and unknown members – this is probably a typo on the website, but this kind of a typo on India’s National Bridge Website is shameful, to say the least.
3. I was shocked to see that the BFI website is ridiculous and absurd – almost non-functional since 2019 – there was a brief period in 2022, when some news items were posted but generally, the website has been of no use to the bridge playing fraternity.
4. Can you imagine, that in India, the Annual Bridge Calendar does not exist – this seems to indicate that tournaments are being held on an ad-hoc basis
5. For years , Players Master Points is not posted on public forums – you have to go through complex channels to discover your Master Points – this should be a transparent mechanism to check and verify your master points – you have paid money for this and you have played well to have earned these master points – these belong to you.
6. Financial Statement clearly showing revenues and expenses incurred on heads such as website, players travel, officials travel, entrance fees is not available for the members of this august body.
I do believe Bridge Lovers in India will see better days very soon and the august committee will soon rectify these ……….
Also no masterpoint updating since last summer national.. difficult for player to find he is eligible to play silver or not with his national Master partner.