2015 World Bridge Championships: Which four would make it past the quarterfinals?

Action from the World Bridge Championships

Hard times have begun for the top eight teams figuring in the knockout rounds on the opening day of the quarterfinal phase of the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and d Órsi trophy events of the HCL-42nd world bridge championship here on Sunday.

Expectedly the going was tough and as it turned out the teams that had the initial lead sustained it till the end of the three rounds of 16 boards each in the Bermuda event. Bulgaria, the most impressive team at the of the league phase, had a carry-over points of 8.5 but found Sweden a hard nut to crack.

Sweden with two double digit swings in points took the early lead (57-10 ) in the first round. Bulgaria tried to bridge the gap, reduced Sweden’s lead to nine points in the next and two in the third. However at the three rounds, Sweden led 123-73.5 points but with three more rounds to go, it could bring a close finish.

China on the other hand sustained on its 16 points c/o and a good first round (77-37) to ward off the spirited effort of USA 2 to catch. At the end of the day, China led 135-110 but the Americans are beginning to rise. England and USA 1 fought the closest. With a c/o of11 points England began with slight advantage but could manage only narrow wins against the fighting US side in the three rounds to make it 101-99. France had a 8 point start and then with wins in the three round made it 127-102 to look the team that was sitting pretty.

In the Venice cup, Denmark continued to impress, and led 118- 112.3, England led USA 1 103-87, Netherland wa s leading Italy 127.7-111 and China again demanded attention with a winning run to lead 121-94 over USA2.

On the seniors front for the d Orsi trophy, Ireland and USA 2 fought it out closely. Ireland’s initial c/o of 11 points stood it in good stead as it could lead just 97-94. As for others, USA 1 was in top gear to gain a 158-88.7 ascendancy over Norway, Poland left England behind 121.5-93 and Australia had a 152-106 advantage with promise of another good show on the morrow.

The day also saw the start of the Transnational team event where in 135 teams were taking part and over 90 of them were from India. At the end of five rounds of 10 boards each, Canada Mixed with 78.47 VPs led the field followed by Zimmerman (77.20) and Netherlands (75.65). Shree Cement of India placed fourth with 74.95. There are ten more rounds to go in this event before the eight teams for knock out are spotted.