This week we have skipped across to Nagpur in central India for the final of the Tolani Open National Masters team event. The two teams that have made it to the final this year are two of the country’s most successful teams of the 21^st Century, so we are expecting a battle royale. It is FORMIDABLES (Sumit Mukherjee, Rajeshwar Tewari, Kaustabh Bendre, Sayantan Kushari, Kaustabh Nandi and Sagnik Roy) against MAVERICKS (Jaggy Shivdasani, Subodh Maskara, Subhash Gupta, Keyzad Anklesaria, Debabrata Majumder and Sandeep Thakral).

When we visit the finals of Indian team events, it is rare to not find one of these two teams in action. For some reason, they seldom seem to both make it to the very end. Those watching live on BBO VuGraph expected a close match, and they weren’t to be disappointed.

The format is a 48-board match divided into three 16-board segments, and MAVERICKS start with a 3.5-IMP carryforward advantage from earlier in the competition.

As usual, we begin with some problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are East holding:

What do you open?

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

What do you bid?

Finally, with only your opponents vulnerable, you hold in the South seat:

What do you bid?

While you mull those over, we start midway through the first stanza, with both East players charged with deciding what to open on the first of the problems above.

A member of the Indian Junior team at the 1997 World Youth Championships, Sandeep Thakral (left) made his debut in India’s Open team at the 2022 Bermuda Bowl in Salsomaggiore.

Thakral opted to start with a 20-21 2NT opening. Jaggy Shivdasani transferred to hearts and then offered his partner a choice of game. Thakral chose hearts, advancing with a club cue-bid just in case his partner was close to a slam try, but Shivdasani had no interest.

Kaustabh Bendre led his singleton diamond, picking up that suit for declarer. When the trumps behaved, declarer had all 13 tricks. E/W +710. Which pair do you think was happiest with that result?

Sagnik Roy (right) made his international debut as a member of the Indian Schools team at the 2016 World Youth Teams. In 2023, he won a bronze medal representing his county in the Under-31 Teams at the World Youth Team Championships in Veldhoven. In partnership with a member of the opposition team in this match, Sayantan Kushari, Roy achieved India’s best ever result by winning the World Under-31 Pairs in 2022.

Roy opened with 1♦ on the East cards, but Kaustabh Nandi’s 1♥ response then left him with an awkward rebid problem. Too good for a non-forcing 3♦ and not enough hearts to raise his partner’s suit, Roy had a choice between 3NT (usually a hand too strong for 3♦), which risks losing a potential heart fit, or inventing a forcing bid. Roy opted for the latter, and he chose a jump to 2♠, game forcing and ostensibly natural. Nandi advanced with 2NT, which was bad news in a way for Roy’s hand, as he now knew his partner had wasted club values. Should Roy now show his good diamonds or his heart fit? He opted for 3♦ and, when Nandi waited with 3♠, he then bid 4♥.

Nandi was clearly expecting a different hand opposite. Indeed, give Roy the ♠A rather than the ♣A (which is perhaps what you might expect on the auction), and don’t you want to play in slam? Blackwood confirmed that there was only one key-card missing, so Nandi took a shot at slam.

Now the spotlight fell on Subhash Gupta. Could he find the spade lead to defeat the contract out of hand? No, he opened the ♣6, giving declarer hope. The trumps behaved and declarer now just needed diamonds to break. Of course, declarer was never going to take the winning finesse and, when South discarded on the second round, that was curtains for Nandi. He finished two down: E/W -200 and an exciting 14 IMPs to MAVERICKS.

At the end of a low-scoring first stanza, MAVERICKS led by 8 IMPs, 26-18. The Great Dealer put more effort into the production of the second set of boards. The action began early in the set.

Despite the vulnerability, Roy got into the auction over Shivdasani’s strong 2♣ opening, and Kaustabh Nandi (left) joined in by upping the ante after Thakral had shown values with his Pass. However, spades were soon agreed and Blackwood rolled out. Both players then made grand slam tries at the six-level, but neither felt quite able to pull the trigger.

The hands fit like a glove and there were 13 easy tricks: E/W +1460.

N/S did not interfere here, but the auction effectively followed the same line as it had at the first table. When Sumit Mukherjee made two grand slam tries, Rajeshwar Tewari (right) not unreasonably decided that he had whatever his partner was seeking. Quite right he was too. E/W +2210 and 13 IMPs to FORMIDABLES.

It was not long before the same two pairs were presented with another potential slam deal.

Jaggy Shivdasani (left) is one of India’s most experienced international players, having made his debut in the country’s Open team at the 1984 World Team Olympiad. He was a member of the most successful Indian team ever, winning bronze medals at the 1988 Olympiad in Venice.

Shivdasani rebid a 11-14 1NT here. His partner forced to game and then agreed spades at the three-level, leaving him with the second of this week’s problems. Having already shown a balanced, minimum opening bid, how do you evaluate this West collection?

To my mind, it has decent controls and excellent impletion, so it is certainly not a hand of which to be ashamed. Partner has shown some slam interest with his 3♠ bid, so I think Shivdasani’s raise to 4♠ undervalues the hand. A 4♣ cue-bid is one option, but that would leave you rather awkwardly placed if partner advances with 4♥, holding the ♦A but not wanting to go beyond game unilaterally. I think a better option is a waiting 3NT, which will then allow you to cue-bid in diamonds if partner can show a club control. Having shown both interest and your first-round control, you can then leave things up to partner. Thakral would surely have driven to slam on this East hand.

Played from the West side, with the diamond holding protected from the opening lead, slam is better than the diamond finesse. A 3-3 heart break will enable you to pitch two diamonds and a club from hand. A club ruff will then give you 12 tricks.

With the ♦K onside, 12 tricks were also comfortable. E/W +480.

Sumit Mukherjee (right) rebid 1♠, which is a style that I think is fundamentally flawed. I am a strong believer that balanced hands either open no-trumps or rebid no-trumps unless raising responder’s suit. As we have already seen from the auction at the other table, a spade fit will not get lost if partner has a decent hand. In my view, knowing the nature of partner’s hand makes judgement much easier in the later auction. (Rant over)

Things were easier for East here, as the 2NT bid meant that Tewari knew his partner had something in diamonds. He moved on with Blackwood and duly bid the slam. The diamond lead around to the nine was hardly a dagger to declarer’s heart, and Mukherjee was soon claiming 12 tricks. E/W +980 and 11 IMPs to FORMIDABLES.

Despite those two slam swings, the set was still close, FORMIDABLES winning it, but only by a score of 46-44. They therefore trailed by 6 IMPs, 64-70, going into the final 16 boards. Surprising no one, this match between the two teams who have dominated Indian tournament events for many years went right down to the wire.

Over the first 15 boards of a very tight set, FORMIDABLES outscored their opponents 15-12. This meant that with one board remaining, the actual match score was tied at 79-79, but  MAVERICKS still led by their 3-IMP carryforward advantage. Could FORMIDABLES pick up the 4 IMPs needed to wrest the title from their biggest rivals on the final deal?

On the crucial final deal, both South players had to answer the last of this week’s problems.

After Shivdasani’s weak 2♠ opening, Sayantan Kushari (left) came in with a 4♦ Leaping Michaels overcall, showing a strong hand with both red suits. Kaustabh Bendre understandably looked no further than game in the nine-card major-suit fit.

The auction began the same way in the replay.

Just needing to flatten the board, Keyzad Anklesaria (right) could have ensured the title for MAVERICKS by duplicating the 4♥ bid made at the first table. When he instead jumped to slam, it was again everything to play for.

Now the spotlight fell on Sumit Mukherjee in the West seat. With his partner holding a certain trump winner, the defence needed only to make their spade trick to defeat the contract and score a remarkable come-from-behind victory on the very last deal of the event.

When Mukherjee chose to lead a club, declarer was in with a chance. It looked as if he would need an against-the-odds 2-2 trump split to make his slam. When he cashed the high trumps and West discarded, his contract appeared all but doomed. There was just one small chance left. He needed to be able to cash five diamonds winners. However, a 3-3 diamond split was not good enough, as East would then be able to ruff in before declarer had disposed of all of his spades. Anklesaria needed East to follow to four rounds of diamonds, and he also needed him not to hold the ♦J!

So, needing West to hold precisely ♦J-x doubleton, declarer began cashing dummy’s diamonds. Lo and behold, down came West’s jack on the second round. Poor Tewari had to follow to four rounds of diamonds as declarer disposed of three spade losers. He could ruff in with his trump winner when the fifth diamond winner was played from dummy, but Anklesaria threw his last spade on that trick and claimed. A highly unlikely N/S +980 meant 11 IMPs to MAVERICKS.

MAVERICKS won the stanza 23-15 and the match by 14 IMPs, 93-79. It may look like a fairly comfortable margin of victory, but it was anything but. Everyone who watched this enthralling match will be on the lookout for the next meeting between these two teams. It should be well worth waiting for.

Commiserations to FORMIDABLES, but I am sure they will be back in another final before long. Congratulations to MAVERICKS, Jaggy Shivdasani, Subodh Maskara, Subhash Gupta, Keyzad Anklesaria, Debabrata Majumder and Sandeep Thakral.

We will be jumping around a lot over the next couple of weeks, bringing you the best of the action from a number of upcoming events including the final of the Dutch Premier League, the Lederer Trophy from London, the Open Teams final from the Gold Coast in Australia, and beginning with the English Premier Grand Masters Pairs.