This is our second and last visit to the central Indian city of Indore, which is consistently ranked as India’s cleanest city. We are here at the 19^th Yeshwant Rao Holkar Bridge Championships for the final of the Open Teams for the Kalani Trophy.

The two teams that have survived from the original field of 52 are INDIAN CHAIN (Narendra Chitlangia, Subir Kumar Majumder, Badal Das, Pranab Bardhan, Aniruddha Bhattacharya and Partha Mukherjee) and MAVERICKS (Subodh Maskara, Subhash Gupta, Jaggy Shivdasani, Sandeep Thakral, Keyzad Anklesaria and Debabrata Majumder).

On our previous visit, we saw the highlights from the first half of the match plus the opening boards of the third stanza. With 22 board remaining, MAVERICKS hold a 14-IMP advantage, the largest margin of the match so far.

As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are North holding:

What action do you take?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the West with:

What do you bid?

That 14-IMP advantage did not make it through the next deal. One pair walked blindly into the abyss…

With no opposition bidding, Sandeep Thakral followed a normal route to game in the 4-4 heart fit.

The defenders’ cards did not lie well for declarer. Although West led away from his ♠A, around to declarer’s king at trick one. That had the effect of opening up the spade suit for the defence, which meant that declarer could never afford to draw trumps. With trumps 5-0, there was simply too much work for declarer to do, and Jaggy Shivdasani (left) finished one down. N/S -50.

At this table, Keyzad Anklesaria came in with a 2♦ overcall after North’s Stayman 2♣. South showed his hearts but Lalta realized that four diamonds was likely to be a bad holding in a heart contract, as West was very likely to hold a singleton. He therefore advanced with a 3♦ cue-bid and passed when Chandu showed a diamond stopper with 3NT.

Now the spotlight fell on Debabrata Majumder (right). Would he lead the singleton in his partner’s suit or attack in his own five-card suit? Looking at all four hands, you can see that a spade lead would hand declarer his ninth trick with the ♠K.

Majumder did his part for the defence by opening the ♦8. Could Anklesaria find the winning play of rising with the ♦A and switching to the ♠Q?

No, he put in the ♦10 at trick one. Declarer won with the ♦K and led a club to the ten. When the finesse won, declarer had nine tricks. N/S +400 and 10 IMPs to INDIAN CHAIN. The deficit was now just 4 IMPs, and INDIAN CHAIN took a 6-IMP lead when they gained a further 10 IMPs on the next deal by making a 4♠ contract that failed at the other table.

Those watching live on BBO VuGraph did not have to wait long for the next big swing to come along.

North agreed diamonds with a raise to the three-level and then showed his slam interest with a 4♣ cue-bid over his partner’s 3NT. Chandu advanced with a 4♥ cue-bid, at which point Lalta decided that he had heard enough and jumped to the small slam. There were 13 easy tricks: N/S +1390.

In the replay, Sandeep Thakral (left) got across the whole message in one go, his jump to 4♣ both agreeing diamonds and showing a club control. Appreciating the value of the ♠K, Shivdasani did not mess around but immediately rolled out Blackwood. Finding all of the key cards present, he continued with 5NT. Showing good appreciation for the playing strength of his hand, Thakral responded by showing a second-round club control. That was enough for Shivdasani, who now jumped to the grand slam. Well bid!

Declarer had five trump tricks, five spade tricks, and two side suit aces. A club ruff in the short trump hand brought his tally to 13. N/S +2140 and 13 IMPs to MAVERICKS, moving them back ahead by 7 IMPs.

After a frantic opening to the third stanza in which 52 IMPs changed hands on the opening five deals, things calmed down a bit. MAVERICKS eventually won the stanza 42-35 and thus took a 16-IMP advantage (86-70) into the final 12-board stanza. There was plenty of action for the kibitzers to enjoy in this final set, and it began immediately. Both West players had to decide how to respond on the second of this week’s problem hands.

The East/West pair for MAVERICKS conducted a controlled auction to what looks to be the normal contract.

North led a club to the queen, king and ace. With eight top winners, it looks as if declarer simply has to guess which major-suit finesse to take for his ninth trick, but Debabrata Majumder set out to gather as much information as possible before committing himself.

He began by cashing four rounds of diamonds, South throwing a heart and North releasing a heart and a club. Majumder then exited with his club. When South cashed his winners in the suit, North had to find two discards, and he pitched two spades. South exited with a heart at trick ten, but declarer had not come this far to get it wrong now. He rose with the ♥A and played a spade. The appearance of North’s queen enabled Majumder to claim. Nicely played. E/W +400.

It seems a shame that declarer’s fine play ended up counting for almost nothing. At the other table, the East/West pair followed a path of what is commonly known as ‘bidding the spots off the cards’.

Chotan started the madness by elevating his hand into a game force with his 2♥ response. Badal Das (right) understandably reversed into diamonds, and Chotan gave preference to spades. Das now leaped to 4NT – Blackwood for spades or a natural, quantitative no-trump bid? I would guess the latter, so quite where Choton found the extra values to accept the slam invitation, I cannot imagine. Did he borrow my rose-tinted glasses, by any chance?

Whilst 6♠ is hardly a thing of beauty, we should perhaps remember the wise words of Robert D Hamman, who once observed that any slam that makes is a good slam.

The play began with a more than useful (for declarer) club lead, which ran around to the queen. Now the contract was odds-on, with declarer just needing to find one of the major-suit finesses working. When trumps came in for no loser, Das had twelve tricks: A spectacular E/W +980 and 11 IMPs to INDIAN CHAIN. The deficit was now just 5 IMPs with 11 boards to play.

At this point, MAVERICKS shifted into top gear, gaining 26 IMPs in partscore swings over the next four deals. That gave them the biggest lead of the match, and then came the final nail in the coffin.

I suppose one cannot argue that West’s 3NT rebid is likely to fare okay most of the time, but that doesn’t make it the right bid. You certainly would not find that West hand as an example of 3NT in any textbook (well, certainly not one that I had written). If you want to treat the hand as 18-19 balanced, rebid 2NT. How often is partner going to pass that when you are cold for game? A 3NT rebid in this auction should show a hand too strong for a non-forcing 3♦ rebid, so a good six-card suit and upwards of 17 HCP. Opposite that hand type, East should surely look for slam in diamonds.

I also don’t think much of the 1♦ opening either – this auction demonstrates how you go down in 3NT with 6♣ cold opposite something like xx/Axxx/Ax/109xxx.

At the table, West got away with a normal result. North led a spade and dummy’s jack won, giving declarer nine easy tricks just by knocking out the ♣A. E/W +600.

If you thought I didn’t like the auction at this table, take a look at the one in the replay…

Whilst working on my latest books, the two-volume World Class – 21^st Century set, I discussed with a number of star players the question of partnership style. More than one of those experts commented that players need to adapt their style depending on that of their partner. If one of you tends to be very aggressive, then the other needs to be somewhat more restrained. A couple of the disasters that the players recalled occurred when both members of the partnership took, shall we say, an optimistic view of their hand. That is what happened to the INDIAN CHAIN North/South pair on this deal.

I can live with South’s weak two opening. It would be automatic in first seat at green, but it is a matter of partnership style whether this hand falls within the parameters for a weak two opening in second seat. If it does, then North simply cannot start messing around on the sort of hand he holds here. I don’t want to be rude, so I will leave you to choose your own adjective to describe North’s raise to 3♥! Although he may not have expressed them out loud, I suspect that South silently made a few choice comments when dummy appeared in 3♥-X.

Declarer dropped one trick in the play, making only the ♥A-K and the ♣A. Six down meant E/W +1400 and another 13 IMPs to MAVERICKS. That gave them a 44-IMP lead with just six deals remaining. MAVERICKS won the final set 47-23 and the match by 40 IMPs (133-93).

Congratulations to the MAVERICKS team, Subodh Maskara, Subhash Gupta, Jaggy Shivdasani, Sandeep Thakral, Keyzad Anklesaria and Debabrata Majumder.

I have one more stop to make before the midnight chimes of Big Ben usher in 2024. That is in France to bring you the highlights of the French Cup final.