This week we are in Pune, a city of some 7.5 million people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Located near to the Arabian Sea on India’s western coast, Pune is about 730 miles south of the national capital, Delhi. After four days of competition, the final of the Open Teams at these championships will be contested by DELHI A and INDIAN RAILWAYS. The format is a 48-board match split into four 12-board stanzas. 

As usual, we begin with a couple of problems for you to consider. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are East holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

While you mull those over, we join the action on the second board of the opening set.

The square shape of the South hand persuaded Sandip Datta (right) not to look for a spade fit, so she simply jumped game in no-trumps.  

Puja Batra, a regular member of the Indian Women’s team since 2015, duly led the ♦4 against 3NT. She then overtook the ♦J to cash five tricks in the suit. N/S -50 and perhaps a let-off for N/S, as 4♠ would be making if the ♣K was onside, but 3NT would still be losing the first five tricks.

However, with East holding a fairly obvious diamond lead and the club finesse wrong, 4♠ looks equally doomed. So, this is just one of those dull, flat deals on which everyone goes down in some game or other. Or is it?

In the replay, Sayantan put the cat amongst the pigeons with a third-seat 3♥ opening. Sandeep got his side into the auction with a double, and Rajeshwar Tewari, with no guarantee of an eight-card spade fit, understandably opted for the nine-trick game. 

Things were trickier for the defence with South as declarer, and Sayantan opened proceedings with the ♥J. Declarer rose with dummy’s king, crossed to hand with the ♠A, and ran the ♣J. Winning with the ♣K, it is far from clear which red suit to return. Should Pranab play his partner for his actual hand, or for ♥AJ10xxx? When he returned a heart, declarer was home: N/S +430 and 13 IMPs to DELHI A.

INDIAN RAILWAYS struck back on the very next deal, when both East players had to answer the first of this week’s bidding problems.

East has three alternatives, each of them flawed in their own way. Do you make a takeout double, theoretically showing the two unbid suits, despite holding only a doubleton spade? Alternatively, do you bid 1NT, showing a balanced hand of around 16-18 with stoppers in the suits bid by the opponents, despite your less-than-robust heart holding? Puja Batra did not like either of those options, so she elected to pass, and then pass again when South’s 1NT rebid came back to her. 

The defenders led clubs, Datta taking the third round. Declarer can make five tricks by leading a low heart to the king, a diamond to the ten, and then ducking the second round of hearts to score a second trick in that suit. When Datta played the ♥Q at trick four, the defenders then had a second heart trick, giving them nine. At only 50 a trick, though, it looked like no big deal: E/W +150.

In the replay, Pranab preferred to describe the general nature of his hand, the lack of a real heart stopper notwithstanding, so he came in with a sandwich-position 1NT. Sayantan advanced with Stayman and, when he failed to find a spade fit, jumped to 3NT.

Rajeshwar Tewari led the ♥2 and declarer played low from dummy. Expecting declarer to hold the ♥Q, it is not unreasonable for North to play low too, hoping that the ♥K will be an entry on the third round of the suit. However, on this layout it was fatal, as the heart trick declarer now scored with the ten was his ninth trick (4♣, 2♥, 2♠ and 1♦). E/W +600 and 10 IMPs to INDIAN RAILWAYS.

If North rises with the ♥K and returns the suit, South can cash the ♥Q when he regains the lead with his ♣K. As long as South then pitches a spade and not a diamond on the fifth round of clubs, declarer can make only the eight obvious tricks.

The rest of the stanza was quiet, and INDIAN RAILWAY led 17-13 at the first break. They gained another 10 IMPs on the first deal of the second segment, but thereafter it was all one-way traffic and, by the end of the set, the match had effectively been decided. The DELHI A pairs did well in both rooms on this deal:

Rajeshwar Tewari (right) made his debut in India’s Open team at the 1992 Olympiad, and he has now been a regular fixture in that team for three decades. In 2009, he was a member of an all-Indian sextet that collected bronze medals from the Open Teams at the European Transnational Championships.

His 15-17 1NT opening would not have been everyone’s choice on this West hand, but it worked out remarkably well. East transferred to spades, leaving Sumit Daftuar to solve the last of this week’s problems. With short hearts and only 5-4 in the minors, there is no obvious way for South to get into the auction, so he passed. Tewari broke the transfer to show his fit and a maximum, and Thakaral judged well to raise to game after re-transferring the declaration to his partner. Not only had they reached game, but they had done so in the safe 5-4 major-suit fit. (4♥ can go one or two down on spade ruffs but, with North having no entry, there is no defence to game in spades.)

North led a club and the defenders took their two tricks in that suit. Declarer ruffed the third round of clubs, drew trumps, knocked out the ♥A, and claimed his contract. E/W +620.

We have talked before in these pages about raising immediately when you have support for partner’s suit. There are two very basic objectives of bidding: firstly, to decide which strain to play and, secondly, to determine how high to bid. The sooner you can achieve the first of these objectives, the more space you have to devote to the second. To my mind, bidding 1♠ on this East hand is at best a distraction: you have already found a 9-card or bigger fit in a major, so what is the point of introducing alternatives strains? (True, spades plays better than hearts on this particular layout, but the opposite could just as easily be the case too.) 

On this deal, East paid the price for not simply raising to the appropriate number of hearts as his 1♠ bid gave Maneesh Bahuuna a cheap and easy way into the auction. Yes, if you raise to, say, 3♥, South might still double, but North will not know that his partner’s hand is so minor-suit oriented and that a singleton spade is a good holding, information that was to prove critical later in the auction here.  

East/West duly bid to their game in spades, but now North’s knowledge about his partner’s hand came into play. When East’s raise to 4♠ came around to him, Subhash Kamath backed in with 4NT, inviting his partner to choose a minor. Bahuuna picked 5♦ and Sayantan understandably doubled. With the ♣Q coming down, though, this was the best type of sacrifice, a making one. That was just icing on the cake, though: even without the favourable club position, N/S would have found a cheap (-100) save against their opponents’ vulnerable game. As the cards lie, the defenders could make no more than their two aces: E/W -550 and a massive 15 IMPs to DELHI A. 

DELHI A won the set 55-12 to take a 39-IMP (68-29) lead in the match. It was to be a lead that they would never relinquish. There was not a lot in the third stanza, DELHI A winning it 24-19 to extend their advantage to 44 IMPs with 12 boards remaining. The final set did not start well for the trailing team and, once again, the fault lie with this strange reluctance to support partner’s suit.

Yes, the West hand is balanced, but it has three-card support for partner’s Major so I don’t really understand the 2♦ bid. I am even more mystified by 2♠, when partner has rebid his hearts. West’s failure to even offer hearts (which could easily be a nine-card fit) as an option over 2NT just seems to break all the basic principles of bidding. I am, therefore, glad to report that West’s bidding on this hand got exactly what it deserved.

South led a spade around to the king. Declarer led the ♣Q, covered by king and ace, then thoughtfully cashed the ♥A, just in case South had been dealt a singleton king. When that failed to materialize, Manna fell back on the diamond suit, playing the ace and finessing the jack. Bahuuna won with the ♦Q and cashed his five spade winners and the ♥K to put what was always a very poor contract three down. E/W -150.

Tewari’s 2♠ cue-bid, showing an invitational or better three-card heart raise, seems much nearer the mark to me. Thakaral showed a minimum opening bid and Tewari raised to game. Although hardly cast-iron, the heart game at least needed far less than the alternative tried at the first table.

South opened the ♠A, dropping declarer’s king. Not liking any of the alternatives, Sumit Daftaur simply wanted to avoid giving a trick away, so the switch to his low trump at trick two was not at all unreasonable. On this layout, though, playing either black suit would have been safe, whereas opening trumps suited declarer’s cause just fine. Declarer captured North’s ♥J with the queen, drew the rest of the trumps and took a couple of minor-suit finesses. The ♦Q provided the defence with their second trick, but that was their lot: E/W +450 and 12 IMPs to DELHI A.

DELHI A won the final stanza 25-24 and the match 118-73. As so often happens in lengthy matches, one big set had decided the outcome. 

Next week, we return to Europe to see the best of the action from the first weekend in Division 1 of the French Premier League.