India’s largest Bridge Championship saw the participation of over 600 players from across the globe
India CSR News Network
NEW DELHI: HCL, a leading global conglomerate, today announced the successful completion of the 14th HCL International Bridge Championship. India’s largest bridge championship witnessed a congregation of over 600 players from India and across the world vying for the world’s second largest prize purse, totalling Rs. 1.2 crores (US$ 180,000). The Championship had begun on October 19 and concluded on October 23, with the participation from internationally renowned players such as Giorgio Duboin from Italy (World Ranked No. 4), Zia Mehmood from USA (World Ranked No. 7) and Norberto Bocchi from Italy (World Ranked No. 9). From India, leading players like Keyzad Anklesaria and Sunit Choksi, who won the Bronze Medal at the recently concluded World Bridge Games, Wroclaw, Poland, also participated at the HCL International Bridge Championship.
The Championship consisted of the, “Team of Four Gold”, “Team of Four Silver” and “Open Pairs” events. The winners included:
The Naresh Tandan Trophy for the winners of Team of Four Gold event with Rs. 20 Lakh prize money – won by Team Lavazzawhich included Zia Mehmood, Norberto Bocchi, Giorgio Duboin and Dennis Bilde
The Mohini Tandan Trophy for the winners of Team of Four Silver with Rs. 8 Lakh prize money – won by Team Six-Pack, which included Vijay Devadass, Nirmal Jain, Sandip Dang, Sanjay Sondhi, Subhranshu Patnaik and Afshar Majeed
The Neena Bonarji Trophy for the ‘Open Pairs’ event with Rs. 6.5 Lakh prize money – won by A.K. Sinha and S.K. Hooda
In Delhi, the closing ceremony was hosted in the presence of Kiran Nadar, Director, HCL Corporation, an internationally renowned Bridge player and Captain of Team Formidables. Noted Bollywood actress Sharmila Tagore and Shiv Nadar, Founder and Chairman of HCL also attended the award ceremony.
The Championship was held under the auspices of the Bridge Federation of India and comes on the heels of the Olympic Committee of Asia announcing the inclusion of Bridge in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.
Winners and Runner-up details appended below:
| Category | Winner (Team Details and Prize money) | 1st Runner up (Team Details and Prize money) |
| Team of Four Gold | Team Lavazza: Zia Mahmood of USA, Norberto Bochhi & Giorgio Duboin of Italy and Dennis Bilde of Denamark Prize money- 20 Lacs | Russian Team: Andrey Gromov (Captain), Aleksandr Dubinin, Georgy Matushko, Evgeny Rudakov, Oleg Kazantsev, Yury Khokhlov Prize Money: 10 Lacs |
| Team of Four Silver | Team Six-Pack: Vijay Devadass, Nirmal Jain, Sandip Dang, Sanjay Sondhi, Subhranshu Patnaik and Afshar Majeed Prize money- 8 Lacs | P.K. Thakur’s VI: Pramod Ranjan Das, M Dey, G Banerjee, J Sarkar, D Paul, B N Ghosh and P K Thakur (Captain) Prize Money: 5 Lacs |
| Open Pairs | AK Sinha and SK Hooda Prize money- Rs. 6.5 Lacs | Jerry Stamatov – Diyan Danailov from Bulgaria Prize money- Rs. 5.50 Lacs |
