This is our last visit to the Mohanlal Bhartia Memorial Grand Prix in the Indian capital of Delhi. The main team event began with a field of 68 teams. A Swiss qualifying event and three rounds of knockout matches have reduced that to just two. 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. At the end of our last visit, we left the match tied at 74-74 going into the final 12-board stanza.

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are sitting in the South seat with:

Your partner’s 3♦ bid is neutral, saying only that if you had bid a non-forcing 3♦ he would have passed. What do you bid now?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

If you pass, North raises to 4♥, which is passed back to you. Do you take any action then?

While you consider those, we start with the opening deal of the final set. Both South players declared 4♠ on the same defence, but only one found his way home.

Only a diamond lead (or a low trump) legitimately defeats South’s 4♠, but Kaustabh Nandi opened the ♥9. Sagnik Roy won with the ♥A and switched to a club and, when declarer played low, Nandi won with the ♣K and again had a chance to defeat the contract. A diamond switch would now remove a vital entry from dummy whilst the clubs are blocked. To avoid relying on the diamond finesse, declarer would have to win with the ♦A, cross to the ♣A, and then ruff a heart back to dummy in order to pitch his diamond loser on the ♣Q. With dummy’s trumps prematurely shortened, declarer can no longer establish and enjoy dummy’s diamonds. He would, therefore, have to ruff his remaining heart loser in dummy. Doing that enables West to pitch a diamond and declarer eventually runs into a trump promotion when he tries to get back to hand with a third-round diamond ruff.

Rana Roy (left) could have sidestepped this problem by winning the ♣A at trick two and then playing a second round of clubs. If East then switches to diamonds, declarer wins, takes a diamond discard on the ♣Q and ruffs a diamond, bringing down East’s king. A trump then leaves West with no winning option.

That was effectively the position when Nandi returned a club at trick three. Roy won in hand with the ♣A and played a trump. Nandi hopped up with the ace and switched to diamonds, but it was all too late. Roy won in dummy, cashed the ♣Q pitching a diamond, then played the ♦A and ruffed a diamond. With dummy’s diamonds established, Roy drew trumps and claimed the rest. N/S +620.

Binod Shaw overcalled at the two-level, but that failed to slow the opponents down and also directed his partner away from the winning lead. Here, too, the defence began with a heart to the ace, a club switch ducked to the king, and a third round of clubs. At this table, when Sandip Datta played a spade at trick four, Sanjit Dey did not rise with the ace, so declarer won in dummy with the ♠J.

Pitching a diamond on the ♣Q, playing two rounds of diamonds, ruffing out the king, and then playing a trump towards the king would have left Datta in the same unassailable position as declarer in the other room. When he instead continued with the ♠K from dummy, Dey won with the ♠A and exited with a third round of trumps. Now declarer was left relying on the diamond finesse. When that lost, he was one down: N/S -100 and 12 IMPs to TORNATAE.

TORNATAE added to that lead on the very next deal. Both North players had to answer the first of this week’s problems.

Gopinath Manna (right) chose to pass his partner’s 2♣ overcall. Binod Shaw balanced with 2♥ and Datta rebid his clubs. When Dey raised hearts, Manna decided again that his hand was not good enough for a bid, so Shaw was allowed to play his heart partial.

On the surface, declarer seems to have only three losers, one spade, one heart and one club. Making ten tricks (or even nine) proved to be quite a different thing. Datta started with two top clubs, declarer ruffing to play a low spade towards dummy’s queen. Datta won with the ♠K and now switch tacks, leading his singleton diamond. Declarer won with the ♠J and tried a trump to the king, but Manna won and played a second diamond, South ruffing away declarer’s ace. A third round of clubs now forced declarer to ruff with the ♥10, promoting North’s ♥9 into the setting trick. N/S +50.

In the replay, Sukamal Das (right) advanced with 2♦ on the North hand. That was all the encouragement Rana Roy needed and he jumped to 3NT.

Could Nandi find the heart lead needed to beat the contract? He had no reason not to lead his partner’s suit, but the ♠Q was a disastrous start for the defence. Declarer was allowed to win with the ♠K at trick one, and Roy quickly cashed his nine winners. N/S +400 and another 8 IMPs to TORNATAE, ahead by 20 IMPs with 10 boards remaining,

INDIA GLYCOL ate into the deficit with a series of small gains. With just five boards left to play, they had reduced the margin to just 4 IMPs, 90-94. Then came the second of this week’s problems…

The A-Q over East’s spade bid is obviously a good holding, but the void in partner’s suit is a negative in terms of playing strength of the South hand. With no evidence of a fit, Sandip Datta (left) took the low road and, having shown his diamonds on the way, suggested 3NT as a contract. With no fit for his partner’s diamond suit, Manna had no reason to think any alternative would be an improvement.

Datta captured the ♠K with his ace at trick one and advanced the ♦K. East won with the ♦A and continued spades, so declarer finessed and claimed ten tricks via three spades, four hearts, two clubs and one diamond. N/S +630.

By contrast, after an identical start to the auction, Rana Roy liked his hand enough to jump to 6♦. Sagnik Roy led the ♠7 and Sukamal Das put in the queen from dummy. He then crossed to his hand by overtaking the ♥10 and led a diamond up. East won with the ♦A perforce, so declarer had restricted the trump losers to three, but that was small compensation. N/S -200 and 13 IMPs to INDIA GLYCOL, who had fought back to lead by 9 IMPs with four deals remaining.

The very next deal had plenty of scope for chaos.

This is a deal on which the objective for the non-vulnerable E/W pairs is to avoid conceding a really large minus score. Rana Roy’s 3♥ overcall left Kaustabh Nandi (right) with the last of this week’s problems. He might have escaped by bidding really skinny 3♠, but there is no guarantee that would have ended well on this layout. Nandi chose to pass and he must have been pleased when Sukamal Das raised to 4♥. With an ace and K-Q-x of trumps behind the overcaller facing a partner who opened the bidding, can you blame him for doubling? Roy won the opening lead with the ♠A in dummy, pitching the low diamond from his hand. A club went to the king and ace at trick two, and Nandi switched to a diamond. Winning with the ♦A, declarer advanced the ♥J and ran it when it was not covered.

Roy ruffed his club loser with dummy’s low trump and cashed the ♥A. The defenders could make their high trump, but that was all: 4♥-Doubled +1 was N/S +990.

Sandip Datta overcalled only 2♥ in the replay, which allowed Sanjit Dey to raise spades via a 3♥ cue-bid. Manna raised to 4♥ and Shaw continued to 4♠. Even if 4♠-Doubled would have been four down, gone, it was still a cheap save against the result at the other table. When Datta pressed on to the five-level in front of his partner’s double, Dey did very well not to double.

Declarer made the same eleven tricks here, but that was only N/S +650, which meant 8 IMPs to TORNATAE. They had reduced the difference to just 1 IMP with three deals remaining, but that was as close as they were to get. INDIA GLYCOL picked up 6 IMPs on Board 22 and another 7 IMPs on Board 23.

INDIA GLYCOL won an exciting final by 14 IMPs, 116-102. Congratulations to Hemant Jalan, Kaustabh Nandi, Sagnik Roy, Ashish Malhotra, Sandip Datta and Gopinath Manna.

We are headed back to Europe now, where we will be stopping Poland to bring you the best of the action from the final of the team event at the Lodz Twin Towns Tournament.