Indian Junior Championships with Nachiketa

The Indian Junior National Championships are held at the Gupta Garden in Nashik every year, typically in April and May. This year, the competition started with a teams event, followed by two pairs events.

There were a total of 33 pairs, with each pair playing in their respective age category (U16, U21, U26 and U31). 

The teams event kicked off in the early afternoon on 29 April and consisted of two sessions of 27 boards each, bringing the total to 54 boards.

I was playing with my partner Rashi, and the other pair in the team was Madhav and Tirtharaj. We managed to gain 65.09 VPs by the end of the day, which placed us in 1^st place in the U21 category. 

Senior Indian bridge players including Mr Anil Padhye, a silver medallist in the D’Orsi Cup, and BFI Vice President Mr Keshav Samant, handed over our certificates and congratulated us on our win. 

A second golden trophy in the pairs event

We were sitting East-West, and North opened 3D. My partner (East) doubled, intending to make a rebid to show a hand with more than 18 HCPs. However, South came in with 3S (opponents were playing it as a non-forcing bid that was simple to play), which made it hard for us to reach our contract. After that, I bid 4D as a cue bid to show a strong game-forcing hand. North bid 4S almost instantaneously, after which my partner thought for a while and bid 5H. Once South passed, I was confused at first.

I saw the possibility of a slam making if my partner had a good hand, but at the same time, here her 5 hearts didn’t need an 18+ hand because of my previous bid of 4D. Even though there was almost certainly a double fit (clubs and hearts), I saw a possible loser in spades and in clubs if my partner did not show up with the queen of clubs or the club break was unfavourable. Moreover, since North (the 3D opener) was seated above me, my Kx of diamonds was almost worthless as it could get finessed, and I was nearly sure that we would lose at least 1 diamond trick (probably even 2 if my partner did not have a singleton). Hence, I passed after a long pause. But then, North bid 5S. My partner doubled for penalties and South passed.

I was sure that 5S by North was going down, but it was clearly a sacrificial bid. Moreover, few would find the 5S bid here as 3S typically shows a strong hand and is a forcing bid in most partnership agreements. Now that my partner had voluntarily doubled, the probability of her having a strong hand increased significantly. In addition, given that it was a matchpoint pairs event on the second day, I was sure that 5♠x-1 or -2 would not give us a good score anyway. Due to these reasons, I finally bid 6H as even if it went down, there would only be a marginal reduction in our final percentage score. North even managed to double it and it became the final contract.

South led a diamond, partner played the king from my hand, and North won the first trick with the ace. He returned a spade, which my partner won with the ace of spades. She immediately drew trumps and claimed the rest of the tricks. The auction was crazy, but this 6♥x by East had made our day by giving us a 100% on this board!

On the last day, the event concluded with an IMP pairs event, after which we were shortlisted to participate in a coaching camp led by some of the country’s top coaches. This took place at the tranquil Kensington Club, where I enjoyed evening walks along the banks of the beautiful Godavari River. 

Amidst the training session, we had a practice match. Our team-mates had some interesting boards.

A hand played by the Madhav-Tirtharaj pair

The bidding was as shown above. Madhav (West) bid 5NT after RKCB 1403 as a king-asking bid. Tirtharaj responded 6H, showing the king of hearts or the king of diamonds and clubs. Since Madhav had the king of clubs himself, he knew that Tirtharaj only had the king of hearts. Thus, with a missing king and a possible heart loser, he stopped the auction by bidding 6S.

The jack of clubs was led by North. Madhav could count 11 top tricks in his hand. Although he could have guessed the position of the queen of hearts correctly to make the twelfth trick, he wanted to ensure that the contract would always be made. After covering the jack of clubs with the queen, he played the ace once South played the king from his hand. Then, he drew all of the opponents’ trumps and played the ace and king of diamonds. Next, he played the king of hearts and ruffed the last diamond left in the dummy. 

Finally, to endplay the opponents, he played the 8 of clubs from hand. If North didn’t cover it, the 8 of clubs would become the extra trick. North was therefore forced to cover it with the 10 of clubs. If North returned a heart, Madhav would get a free finesse. Otherwise, if North returned a club or diamond, Madhav would get a ruff and a heart discard from the opponents. Thus, the slam contract was made without any element of luck involved. 

After 4 days of intense practice and fun at the coaching camp, the BFI informed us that, thanks to our positive performance, we had been selected to represent India at the 19^th World Youth Teams Championships in Italy next July! 

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