KOCHI: Two sets of players sit over a table, raking their brains. There has to be an innate understanding of the situation on the table and the thinking of the partner. Well, they are playing Bridge.
The Lotus Club in Kochi was the venue where 12 teams were engrossed in a mental battle in the 60th National Level Bridge Tournament organised by the Club under the auspices of the Kerala Bridge Association and the Ernakulam District Bridge Association. The competition brought together bridge enthusiasts from major centres in South India like Chennai, Bangalore and Coimbatore.
The 60th edition of the oldest uninterrupted Duplicate Bridge tournament in the country was titled the Shashtiabdhapurthi Championship.
“The Lotus Club itself was established to play bridge,” says Robins Jacob, tournament convener, alluding to the fact that the club was founded by Gertrude Bristow in 1931 to pursue her pastime of playing bridge. The game is played in three formats at the annual tournament - the Duplicate, the Board-a-Match and the Pairs.
The teams, including a team of five children aged between 12 and 14 participating on behalf of the Salem Steel Plant Sports Board, put their heads together to outwit their opponents over five rounds of the Swiss League in the Duplicate format which is regarded as the most interesting.
In the system, the teams with the highest aggregate of points at the end of every round compete in the subsequent rounds and the best teams qualify for the final. It is called Duplicate as the same set of cards dealt with by one team is allowed to be played by their opponents, a pair of whom is playing at another table. What it means is that there are two pairs of players in each team.
“It provides a level playing field where luck is totally irrelevant. What matters is the player’s analytical skill and planning,” says Afar Padiyath, former treasurer of KBA. “It is a great mind sport which should be encouraged,” says Narayana Iyer of Chennai who competed in the tournament.“It improves analytical thinking, planning and concentration. It is learnt that the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, puts their students through a routine of bridge to keep their minds sharp,” he said.
The field also included a former junior international, Kochiite Afshar Majeed, who represented the country at the World Youth Bridge Championship held in Toronto, Canada, in 1999, where India finished sixth after beating eventual winners Norway in the group stage. “Indians are at par with the best in the world. If there is a greater awareness, especially among youngsters, about the immense benefits of playing bridge, the results could be terrific,” he said.
Balamurugan, assistant manager at the Salem Steel Plant, who is accompanying the children, is willing to provide free coaching to any school in the city that is game for a round of Bridge.
“Within a year, the youngsters of the Salem team have picked up so much,” he says. The organisers too are rooting for the young. “We want bridge to be taken up by more and more youngsters. That’s the reason we have given an opportunity to these young boys from Salem,” said Jacob, joint secretary, the Bridge Federation of India.
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