The 18th HCL International Bridge Championship started yesterday. There are 130 teams (54 Teams in the GOLD, 67 teams in the SILVER & 9 teams in the Bronze event) participating in the championship.
The Swiss league for Gold & Silver events which will be played for 2 days constitutes of 10 rounds (each of 10 board matches), after which the top 16 teams in GOLD & SILVER events will qualify to the knock-out pre-quarter final stage of the tournament. In the Bronze event, the 9 teams are playing an all-play-all round robin of 8 board matches.
After completion of 5 rounds of Swiss league at the end of day-1 on Saturday, team MONICA JAJOO comprising of Monica Jajoo (Captain), Somesh Bhattacharya, Soumya Das, Sabyasachi Sadhukhan, Ayan Chatterjee, MJR Vasudevan & S. Vijayraghavan with a score of 88.67 VPs are leading in the Gold event. They scored 20, 12.51, 14, 8.86 & 17.68 Vps in their 5 rounds. They are followed closely by team ARUN JAIN with a score of 71.63 VPs. The other teams in the top 6 positions are – AAA (69.35 VPs), RUSSIA (68.36 VPs), FORMIDABLES (67.18 VPs) & DHAMPUR SUGAR MILLS (66.09 VPs).
Team MG SPORTS comprising of Pullak Garga (Captain), C.P. Agarwal, Sarika Mittal, S. Krishnamoorthy, VK Mutreja, JN Pandey, Ajay Tankha & Subodh Jain with a score of 76.51 VPs lead in the SILVER event. Team PRAYAS with 75.48 VPs & SPARTANS with 70.26 VPs are in the 2nd & 3rd positions respectively.
5 more rounds will be played today, after which the TOP 16 teams in Gold & Silver event will qualify for the knock-out last-16 stage.
In the Bronze event, Team URBANE GAMING (Abhishek Sarkar, Akash Saha, Soham Chakraborty & Sanjay Chakravarty) with a score of 88.67 VPs are leading after 6 rounds. Team CRACKERJAX with a score of 85.43 & VAGABONDS with 80.98 VPs are in the 2nd and 3rd positions respectively.
In Bronze event, 3 more rounds of round-robin will be played today morning. The top 2 teams will play the final (3 sessions of 8 boards each) in the afternoon.
By T.C. Pant