Welcome back to the central Indian city of Jabalpur, the venue for the 65^th Indian Winter National Championships. The main event of this week-long festival is the Open Teams for the Ruia Trophy. The two teams that reached the final of the Gold Teams are MAVERICKS (Subodh Maskara, Subhash Gupta, Keyzad Anklesaria, Padmanabhan Sridharan, Jaggy Shivdasani and Sapan Desai) and INDIAN RAILWAYS A (Sumit Mukherjee, Debabrata Majumder, Gopinath Manna, Sandip Datta, Sagnik Roy and Sayantan Kushari).

The format is a 56-board match divided into four 14-board stanzas. When we left the final at the midway point, MAVERICKS held a 2-IMP lead, 51-49. Let’s take a look at the highlights from the second half.

As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are West holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

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

What do you bid?

While you mull those over, we start early in the third stanza, with both West players charged with answering the first of the problems above.

Subhash Gupta chose to stay out of the auction on the West hand. North bid both majors and Sumit Mukherjee (left) retreated to 3♣ on the South cards. Debabrata Majumder then decided that he liked his hand enough to force to game via a 4♦ splinter bid.

Gupta got the defence off to the best start by opening a trump. Winning in dummy with the ♣9, Mukherjee led a diamond and rose with the king when East followed low. Winning with the ♦A, Gupta continued with a second trump. Winning with the ♣J, declarer now advanced the ♠K. East won with the ♠A and needs to switch to a heart now to hold declarer to nine tricks. When he instead played the ♦Q, declarer was able to escape for one down. N/S -50.

With the ♥K lead giving the defence five tricks against a no-trump contract, it looks as if the best N/S can do is to score a small plus in a club partial. However…

After the same start to the auction, Sagnik Roy got his side into the auction with a takeout double of spades on the West cards. Keyzad Anklesaria redoubled to show extra values, leaving Sayantan Kushari with a problem in the East seat. He accurately judged that defending 1NT-Redoubled would not be good for his side, so Kushari retreated to 2♦, which was promptly doubled by Padmanabhan Sridharan (right).

Sridharan led his spade, declarer winning with the ace. Declarer could have crossruffed the black suits for seven tricks now, but when he led a heart to the king and ace, Anklesaria accurately switch to his trump, covered by queen, king and ace. Declarer ruffed a club and then played a heart towards dummy, but South ruffed and played a second round of trumps. Now declarer could make only six tricks, N/S +500 and 11 IMPs to MAVERICKS.

North had no convenient way into the auction over West’s 1♦ opening, and Sayantan Kushari’s sub-standard 1♥ response maintained the fiction that the hand belonged to the INDIAN RAILWAYS pair. When Sagnik Roy (left) raised hearts, Anklesaria made a belated entry with a takeout double, but his partner could not envision game with his dull 11-count, so he simply got his side to 3♣ via Lebensohl.

That might have ended matters, but Roy was still under the illusion that his partner had something, so he reopened with a double. Kushari retreated to 3♥ and, with neither opponent realizing that their side had so much strength, he escaped undoubled. 

Not that the failure to double was as costly as it might have been, as the defence was also not optimum. South led the ♠Q and switched to a trump at trick two. Winning in hand, declarer played his diamond. If South rises with the king and continues trumps, the defence would be in position to play three rounds of trump and hold declarer to only six tricks. When Sridharan played low on the diamond, North won but had no trump to play. Anklesaria exited with a low club, getting Sridharan back on lead, and a second round of trumps would have held declarer to seven tricks. When South instead continued with the ♠J, declarer covered. North could cash the ♠10 for one down, but declarer could crossruff the rest of the tricks. N/S +100.

Subhash Gupta’s decision to open 1♥ on the West hand completely changed the nature of the auction. Majumder got in immediately on the North hand with a takeout double, and Maskara raised pre-emptively to 3♥. Despite his balanced shape, Mukherjee decided that he hand enough to complete in clubs at the four-level, and Majumder raised to game.

The 4-1 trump break was a minor inconvenience for declarer but, with the finesses through the opening bidder in both pointed suits working, Mukherjee had no problems taking eleven tricks. N/S +600 and 11 IMPs to INDIAN RAILWAYS A.

Spades were agreed at the two-level, and Roy showed some interest beyond game with a control-showing jump to 4♦. Sayantan Kushari (right) showed some interest with a heart cue-bid, but Roy decided that his hand was not good enough to carry the auction beyond game. Kushari had a minimum opening and thus felt he cold not bid any more.

Declarer came to eleven tricks: E/W +650.

Subodh Maskara (left) was able to open a natural and limited, Precision-style 2♣, showing either 6+♣ or 5+♣ and a four-card major. When Subhash Gupta responded with a natural positive in spades, Maskara raised to game. Gupta rolled out Blackwood and soon installed himself in the slam.

North led the ♥K. Declarer won with the ace, cashed the ♦A, crossed to the ♣A, and pitched his club loser on the ♦K. He then ruffed a club, successfully dividing that suit 3-2. With only one club remaining, it looked safe to play two rounds of trumps ending in dummy, intending to ruff the clubs good. Even if the ♠Q had not come down, declarer would have two trumps in dummy to give him access to the long club winners. It therefore does not seem unreasonable for declarer to cash the ♠K next, but that proved to be a disastrous move when North discarded. There were a number of routes to 12 tricks but, on this unfortunate layout, this was not one of them. Declarer eventually finished two down: E/W -200 and 13 IMPs to INDIAN RAILWAYS A.

INDIAN RAILWAYS won the third stanza 41-15, so they took a 24-IMP lead (90-66) into the last segment of this final. MAVERICKS picked up 8 IMPs on the second board of the set, cutting the deficit by a third. Then both South players had to answer the last of this week’s problems.

Sapan Desai (left) chose to open a heavy 3♣ in third seat. When that got past Mukherjee in the West seat, Desai might have hoped to buy the hand in a contract he could make, but Majumder backed in with a double have initially passed. That landed Mukherjee in a delicate Moysian fit at the three level.

Desai won the club lead and switched to his diamond. Declarer won in his hand and led a trump, but Gupta rose with the ♠A and gave his partner a ruff. A second round of clubs, forcing dummy to ruff, then ensured a truck for North’s ♠J. One down: N/S +50.

Sayantan Kushari went the whole hog and opened a Gambling 3NT in third seat. Had Roy passed on the North cards, Jaggy Shivdasani (right) would have been left with a tricky lead problem. Would you have found the winning start of the ♦A from that West hand? Certainly, passing would have offered N/S the chance of a significant gain with little downside.

Roy chose instead to play game in his partner’s long minor, raising to 4NT to ask his partner to bid his suit. The defence against this game was much less testing, East/West scoring a diamond, a spade and two hearts without breaking sweat. N/S -100 and 4 IMPs to MAVERICKS when it might have been a double-figure swing in the other column.

This deal reduced the margin to just 12 IMPs with 13 boards to play, but that was as close as it was to get. The remainder of the set was very quiet, with few IMPs changing hands. MAVERICKS won the stanza, but only by a score of 15-9. That meant that INDIAN RAILWAYS A won the title by 18 IMPs, 99-81.

Congratulations to INDIAN RAILWAYS A (Sumit Mukherjee, Debabrata Majumder, Gopinath Manna, Sandip Datta, Sagnik Roy and Sayantan Kushari).

We are headed for ‘down under’ to Australia now, for the Summer Festival in Canberra. We’ll see some action from the final of the playoffs to represent Australia in the Women’s Teams at this year’s major championships, and from the latter stages of the National Open Teams.