Welcome to Jabalpur, a city about the size of Dallas, Texas in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Perhaps most notable as the reputed birthplace of the game of snooker, Jabalpur is the venue for the 65th Indian Winter National Championships. The main event of this week-long festival is the Open Teams for the Ruia Trophy, which was first contested in 1959 and is widely considered as a symbol of bridge supremacy in India.

These days, the Open Teams event is divided into two flights, gold and silver. The 2024 Ruia Gold event attracted an entry of 23 teams. After a two-day Swiss qualifying competition of eight 14-board matches, eight teams advanced to the knockout stage. Perhaps a reflection of the increasing standard overall in recent years, a couple of perennial contenders in Indian team events, notably FORMIDABLES and DHAMPUR SUGAR MILLS, failed even to make it into the top eight.

The team that led the field at the end of the Swiss stage of the event also made it through two knockout rounds to reach the final. That team was MAVERICKS (Subodh Maskara, Subhash Gupta, Keyzad Anklesaria, Padmanabhan Sridharan, Jaggy Shivdasani and Sapan Desai). Their opponents in the final, who had finished third in the Swiss, were INDIAN RAILWAYS A (Sumit Mukherjee, Debabrata Majumder, Gopinath Manna, Sandip Datta, Sagnik Roy and Sayantan Kushari). With plenty of familiar names and a wealth of international experience on both teams, it promised to be a close contest. The format is a 56-board match divided into four 14-board stanzas.

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with only your opponents vulnerable, you are sitting in the North seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you mull those over, we start early in the opening stanza, with both North players confronted by the first of the problems above.

The best way to keep all three of your long suits in play with this shape is to start with 1♣, but both South players here chose to open 1♦. Both Norths bid their hearts twice and then had to decide what to do when their partner advanced with 2NT. For MAVERICKS, Keyzad Anklesaria showed his partial diamond fit. Jaggy Shivdasani offered hearts as an alternative, and Anklesaria settled for a partial in his long suit. How would you play 3♥ on the lead of the ♣3?

Anklesaria chose to take the club finesse and the defenders soon demonstrated why that was a losing option. Winning with the ♣K, Sandip Datta (left) found the excellent switch to the ♦K. A diamond to the ace and a diamond ruff quickly followed. The ♥A was then the fifth trick for the defence. One down: N/S -50.

The winning line of play is to rise with the ♣A and play three rounds of spades discarding the second club from declarer’s hand. When declarer then plays trumps, the defence can win with the ♥A, take two top diamonds and a ruff, but that is their lot.

After an identical start to the auction, Sayantan Kushari (right) chose to pass on the North cards.

West led the ♣2, dummy’s ten winning and Sagnik Roy played a diamond to the queen. West won with the♦K and, with nothing looking particularly attractive, switched to a spade. Declarer won with the ♠10 and advanced the ♥J. When West won with the ♥A and continued spades, declarer had the rest. N/S +210 and 7 IMPs to INDIAN RAILWAYS A.

The defenders could have restricted the number of overtricks, but they could never stop declarer making nine tricks. Did you find the raise to 3NT on the North cards?

The INDIA RAILWAYS A pair conducted a fairly normal auction to what looks like a routine game, and Sapan Desai led the ♣10.

Winning in dummy, Sagnik Roy (left) played a spade to the ten and West’s king. After winning the club continuation with the queen, declarer had nine tricks (four spades, three clubs and two aces). Roy took the heart finesse for an overtrick, and had to settle for nine tricks when West won with the ♥K and returned the ♥10, removing the last entry to his hand. N/S +400.

Shivdasani did not open the South hand, so Anklesaria kicked things off with 1♠ in fourth seat. Bearing in mind that South had not opened a weak two, and thus probably did not hold six hearts, Anklesaria’s decision to raise the 2♥ response to game is a particularly strange one.

The ♣10 was also led here and, while game in no-trumps and either major can all be made, the play is much more testing in hearts. When Shivdasani played a heart to the jack, queen and king at trick two, he could no longer make his contract. West switched to a diamond, ducked to East’s queen and a second round of clubs came back. West’s ♥10-8 are bound to take two tricks now and, in fact, declarer finished two down. N/S -200 and 12 IMPs to INDIA RAILWAYS A.

A winning line of play is to cash dummy’s second club winner, then cross to the ♥A. After cashing the ♣A, declarer then plays three rounds of spades, discarding a diamond from his hand. A second diamond is then discarded on the fourth round of spades, which West ruffs. Declarer can now win the diamond return and ruff a diamond to score a low trump. Exiting with a trump in the three-card ending then forces West to win. Declarer must score the ♥Q at the end for his tenth trick.

MAVERICKS began with a 3-IMP carry-forward advantage for winning the Swiss qualifier, but INDIA RAILWAYS A won the first stanza 30-16, so they led by 11 IMPs at the end of the first stanza. It did not take the favourites long to wipe out the deficit.

The percentage play in a single suit is not always the best line in the context of the whole deal. The East players both reached the same slam and received the same opening lead on the second board of the set.

East/West bid efficiently to 6♠ and Subhash Gupta (right) led the ♦2. How would you play?

The question is, of course, how to play the trumps for one loser. Debabrata Majumder started by leading the ♠Q, and running it when South followed with a low card. Taking the spades in isolation, taking two finesses does indeed maximize declarer’s chances of avoiding two losers in the suit. Unfortunately, on this layout, North won with the ♠K and returned a diamond for his partner to ruff. One down: E/W -100.

After the same start, Keyzad Anklesaria (left) advanced with 3♥ over his partner 2NT rebid (perhaps a transfer showing a fifth spade?) He then offered his partner a choice of slams, and Padmanabhan Sridharan chose the suit contract.

South here also led the ♦2. I am sure that Anklesaria, an experienced international player, knows the technical way to play this spade suit, but it looks as if he sniffed out South’s lead as a singleton, and thus appreciated the danger of the double finesse. He led a spade to the ace at trick two, and continued with a second round of trumps from dummy. North followed with a second low card, but Anklesaria rose with the ♠Q, felling South’s jack. With the clubs producing three tricks, declarer had now to lose only to North’s ♠K. A spectacular E/W +1430 and a massive 17 IMPs to MAVERICKS, who moved ahead for the first time since Board 2 of the match.

High level competitive bidding decisions are all about guessing when it is right to jump off of the merry-go-round. On this deal, both sides could make ten tricks, N/S in hearts and E/W in clubs. Having opened with a pre-empt, perhaps former Indian junior international Sapan Desai (right) should simply have left the opponents play in 5♣. On this layout, doing so would have produced a small plus score.

When he backed in with a double, Subhash Gupta had to decide whether to defend (with his five low trumps) or to support his partner (with K-J-x in his long suit). He opted to bid, and Sumit Mukherjee closed the brief auction with a red card.

East led a club and declarer ruffed, but the lead did not matter on this layout. Declarer had to lose two diamonds and a slow spade. One down: E/W +100.

Gopinath Manna (left) made his first appearance representing India in a major championship at the 2015 Bermuda Bowl on home soil in Chennai.

Manna also opened 4♥ on the North hand. At this table, Anklesaria responded to his partner’s takeout double with 4NT, showing both minors. Sandip Datta bid 5♥ on the South cards, leaving Padmanabhan Sridharan with the first problem. His bold 6♦ bid put his side in serious jeopardy but foisted the second of this week’s problems onto Manna in the North seat.

Looking at all four hands, you can see that N/S can get +800 (two spades, a heart and a club ruff) by doubling 6♦. When Manna carried on to 6♥, he had swapped that huge plus score for a minus. Same three losers here as at the first table: E/W +300 and an exciting 5 IMPs to MAVERICKS.

MAVERICKS won the second stanza 32-19 and thus led by 2 IMPs (51-49) at the midway point of the match,

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