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Dwight Eisenhower was an accomplished master of the war game. So too was Jawaharlal Nehru, but his heart was set on more than just pulling off a card trick. Bridge was a social engagement that helped him test his instinct.
Many modern-day leaders have honed their acumen at bridge and have learnt a lot about strategy and communication from it. Not surprisingly, there shall be plenty of it going around when some of the leading brains assemble for the 42nd World Bridge Team Championships with some generous support from HCL, the title sponsor.
The competitions will be played from 26th September through 10th October at the ITC Grand Chola in Chennai. The venue is as spectacular as the event is grand, offering three main prizes – the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and the d’Orsi Seniors trophy.
The Indian team will open its campaign against England as the teams play the first matches on Sunday. As many as 21 nations are represented in the battle for the Bermuda Bowl and the Venice Cup, with USA fielding two teams. Each team plays the other 21 teams, with the top eight teams making it to the knockout stages.
The Bermuda Bowl is for men and the Venice Cup for women. The USA team won the Venice Cup in 2013, beating England and Netherlands. The Italians won a mighty 210-126 victory over Monaco to take the Bermuda Bowl in Bali two years ago.
The teams made it to the World Championship through a zonal qualification system. India did not have to qualify as the host, with Jordan and UAE joining them from Zone 4. The knockout stage will begin on 4th October, with the finals ending on 10th October.
The player dealing the cards shuffles a full deck of 52 cards before starting the distribution. It is done one at a time, clockwise, starting with the player seated to the left of the dealer. The game moves clockwise, with the dealer making the first call, sometimes also referred to as bid.
The player making the call usually has one of four options – place a new call, pass the turn, double where the opponents have made the preceding call or redouble a bod that was doubled by the opponents. However, if all four players pass without making a call, the deal is scored as a zero and the cards pass to the next dealer.
Bridge is not for the fainthearted – partners sitting across from each other are not allowed to speak with each other, even as they try and combine based on intuition and understanding. Players are also discouraged from looking at their partners when they are making bids, to avoid veiled communication.
Even as they play with the cards dealt to each of them, the players need a refined understanding of their partner’s game as well as an awareness of the situation of their opponents. “Bridge has got to be the best intellectual exercise out there. You’re seeing through new situations every ten minutes,” said Warren Buffet, one of the greatest ever investors.
“In bridge, you have to behave in a way that gets the best from your partner. And in business, you behave in the way that gets the best from your manager and your employees,” he explained, before adding dramatically that, “Bridge is such a sensational game that I wouldn’t mind being in jail if I had three cellmates who were decent players!”
At the World Championships in Chennai though, the players will be afforded far better conditions inside the Grand Chola, with some of the best international talent for company and competition.
The intriguing game passes through four phases on each deal – the cards are dealt in the first, the auction is made in the second (to establish a contract), the cards are played then before finally scoring the results. A game consists of several deals, with the two teams competing for the right to establish the contract for the deal in play.
The side winning the auction is called the declaring side, having won the right to establish which suit is trumps to win the number of tricks specified by the highest bid. Suit denominations are ranked – no-trump (meaning no suit has been named) considered high, followed by spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs.
Typically, final bids end in no-trump - contracts played without any premium to a single suit. The highest card in the suit that has been led wins the trick. The cards are ranked with high value assigned to an ace. The king, queen, and jack follow in that order. Numbered cards ten through two are called the spot cards and are ranked downwards based on their face value.
Sharpen your minds and buckle up for a crazy ride with Sportskeeda as we bring you exclusive coverage of the event all the way through to the grand finale on the second Saturday of October.
