We have arrived in Delhi in northern India, the venue for the Mohanlal Bhartia Memorial Grand Prix. The main team event began with a field of 68 teams, but a Swiss qualifying event knocked that down to 16. After three rounds of knockout, two teams have claimed their place in the final. They are TORNATAE (Prasad Keni, Sujit Bhattacharya, Sanjit Dey, Binod Shaw, Rana Roy and Sukamal Das) and INDIA GLYCOL (Hemant Jalan, Kaustabh Nandi, Sagnik Roy, Ashish Malhotra, Sandip Datta and Gopinath Manna).

The format of the final is a 48-board match split into four 12-board stanzas. TORNATAE begin the final with an 8-IMP carry-forward advantage from earlier in the competition.

Only one problem this week. With only your side vulnerable, you are South holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

We start with the second deal of the match, on which both South players had to answer the problem above.

The auction began normally, with Gopinath Manna overcalling 1♠ on the North hand and East showing some values and a spade stopper having passed initially. That left Sandip Datta (left) to decide whether to take action on the South cards. His pass was followed by two more, and thus Prasad Keni was left to play peacefully in 1NT.

Declarer won the second round of hearts and advanced the ♦Q. South covered, so declarer quickly claimed four diamond tricks and two top clubs: N/S -90.

After the same start, it seems that Kaustabh Nandi was influenced by his partner’s failure to make a negative double. Looking at just two low hearts, he did not like the prospects in 1NT, so he rebid his chunky four-card club suit. This persuaded Binod Shaw to take a second bid on the North hand. With his partner showing interest in hearts, Sanjit Dey’s hand had suddenly become much more interesting, and he jumped all the way to game.

Nandi began with the ♣A. To beat the contract, he must find a trump switch at trick two, getting his partner in to lead a diamond through declarer’s king. However, Nandi read his partner’s ♣4 as a suit-preference signal, so he switched to a low diamond around to declarer’s king.

Dey now tabled the ♣Q, covered with the ace and ruffed with dummy’s low trump. The ♠A-K came next, declarer shedding his diamond loser. A diamond ruff back to hand enabled Dey to cash the ♣J and ruff his last club in dummy. The defenders had to make the ♥A, but that was all: a spectacular N/S +650 and 12 IMPs to TORNATAE.

Late in the set, both North players declared 4♠ on a trump lead…

Only leading a heart or the ♦A legitimately defeats 4♠, but declarer has to guess very well to score ten tricks even on a trump lead.

Binod Shaw won the spade lead in hand and immediately handed the initiative back to the defence by playing the ♥J to queen and ace. A club to the jack then lost to East’s queen. Sagnik Roy (right) has a number of ways to beat the contract from here, and a second round of trumps was one of those. Declarer won cheaply in his hand and played a second round of hearts, but Kaustabh Nandi won with the ♥K and switched to his singleton diamond. The ensuing ruff then put the contract one down. N/S -50.

The first two tricks were the same here, but Gopinath Manna (left) played a diamond to his king at trick three. Had Prasad Keni divined the diamond position and given his partner a ruff, the ♥K, a club to East and a second diamond ruff would have beaten the contract by two.

When Keni instead played a second heart, he gave his partner a losing option. To beat the contract, Sujit Bhattacharya needs to put his partner in with a club to get a diamond ruff. When he played a third round of hearts, declarer was in control. Manna ruffed high, drew the remaining trumps, and crossed back to dummy in diamonds. Two of declarer’s clubs then went away on dummy’s heart winners. N/S +420 and 10 IMPs to INDIA GLYCOL.

INDIA GLYCOL won a low-scoring opening stanza 21-15, which wiped out most of TORNATAE’s carry-forward and left them with only a 2-IMP advantage, 23-21.

Early in the second stanza, both West players had to negotiate a tricky 4♥ contract…

Binod Shaw led the ♠K against 4♥. With the diamond finesse working and the club honours split, this looks easy at first glance, and then you notice the distinct lack of entries to dummy.

Hemant Jalan (right) won with the ♠A and played a low club to the nine. South won with the ♣K and returned a spade, declarer ruffing. After cashing the ♣A, Jalan continued with the ♣J, making the key play of discarding a spade from dummy when North did not cover. Sanjit Dey could ruff this trick, but it was with his natural trump winner. Dey returned a diamond and declarer finessed. Jalan then played two rounds of trumps ending in dummy and repeated the successful diamond hook. He still had a trump in dummy with which to ruff his remaining club, so that was 11 tricks. E/W +450.

Sagnik Roy did not overcall on the North hand, but Sukamal Das dredged up a response, so the same game was also reached at this table.

Here, too, the ♠K was led and declarer played a club to the nine and king at trick two. Kaustabh Nandi (left) returned a club from the South hand, declarer winning with the ace. Rana also played the ♣J, not covered, but he elected to ruff in dummy. When South overruffed and exited with a spade, declarer was in trouble. Roy ruffed, crossed to the ♥K and successfully took the diamond finesse. However, when he then attempted to ruff his remaining club in dummy, Nandi again overruffed and exited with a spade. Declarer had lost a club and two trumps already and, with no entry to dummy, he still had to lose a trick to the ♦K at the end. E/W -50 and 11 IMPs to INDIA GLYCOL.

Midway through the set came a deal requiring accurate bidding judgement…

Sagnik Roy started with a jump to 3♦, showing some kind of Bergen-style limit raise in spades. It looks as it Kaustabh Nandi’s 3♥ suggested a hand too good to sign off in 3♠ but not good enough to commit to game. Roy’s 3♠ showed that his hand was minimum for his original bid, and Nandi decided that he had nothing extra.

Rana Roy led a club, declarer ducking to East’s king. The heart suit is frozen, meaning that whichever side opens the suit gives away a possible extra trick. When Sukamal Das returned a heart at trick two, declarer guessed right, playing low to force the ♥A from West. Declarer still had to lose two diamonds later: N/S +140. Although it appears to give away a trick, playing a heart at trick two (and declarer misguessing) is the only chance for the defence to hold declarer to eight tricks. If the defence does not attack hearts, declarer will eventually be able to discard a heart from dummy on the thirteenth diamonds.

Binod Shaw also started with a Bergen-type spade raise and, here too, South advanced with a non-committal bid in a red suit. It is unclear whether Shaw thought his partner’s 3♦ was a cue-bid and a slam try, or whether he just decided his hand was worth game and that he would show his club control on the way just in case his partner was very strong. Either way, the partnership was now committed to game.

Jalan led a trump and declarer drew a second round. A diamond to the queen won at trick three, and now declarer tried a heart to the king. Now the defenders had two tricks in each red suit with a club to come at the end too. N/S -100 and 6 IMPs to INDIA GLYCOL.

INDIA GLYCOL won another low-scoring set, 19-9, wiping out the rest of their opponents’ carry-forward advantage. At the midway point of this final, INDIA GLYCOL lead by 8 IMPs, 40-32. Sill everything to play for!

We will be back soon with the best of the action from the second half of this final.