Kolkata :

The three-day Tollygunge Club Invitational Bridge Tournament 2015, presented by The Times of India, came to a close on Sunday with team Bangur Cement winning the title.

More than 125 people aged between 19 and 90, many of whom were national champions, took part in the competition. The participants included players from Secunderabad, Bangalore, Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Delhi.

Uma Puri, the chairperson of Tollygunge Club bridge sub-committee, said, “A lot of tournaments are being played on. But the unique thing about this one is that it is also a charity drive and we donate a part of the proceedings from the registration fees to an NGO working with cerebral palsy patients.”

Colonel VSM Sharma (90), a native of Hyderabad who is currently settled in the US, was the non-playing captain at the historic 1988 Venice Bridge Olympiad in which India ended as the semi-finalist.

“This is my first time at the Tollygunge Club competition. During 1967-68, I had formed a six-member Army engineers’ team which made quite a ripple at that time.”

“This is a very competitive tournament in a friendly atmosphere,” he told TOI on the Tollygunge Club tourney.

When the final bell rang, the contestants were frowning in concentration. Of 21 teams, the competitors were boiled down to eight. Then it was an open-to-all contest — every team played every team. Bangur Cement, that was leading on Day-II, made good of their form and clinched the title on the final day.

The champion team had champions of their own accord. Sunit Chokshi from Gujarat, whose team Formidables won the last three nationals as well as winter nationals, and also the last summer national, has come back for a second time at the Tollygunge Club competition.

“I shifted to bridge after I figured out I wasn’t cut out for billiards. My seniors used to play bridge and one day they fell short of one player. They included me even though I had no clue about the game. That’s how it began,” Chokshi told TOI. He praised Bengal’s bridge players, saying that the state has produced some international-level players.

Debasish Ray, who has been part of the national champion team four times, had become the youngest bridge champion at 24.

“I was part of the 1988 Olympiad team, and our achievement was the high point of India’s bridge history. This tournament, into its third year, has been incredible,” he said. Ray and Chokshi were part of Bangur Cement that sweeped the finals.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / August 31st, 2015