Tornatae take lead as Vidarbha and Spartans stay in top 16 race in Bridge Nationals

Nagpur: The opening day of the All India Open National Ranking Point Bridge Tournament brought fluctuating fortunes for the 10 participating Nagpur teams at the Institution of Engineers Hall on Thursday.The four-day national bridge tournament, carrying prize money as high as Rs 10,35,000, is organised by the Vidarbha Bridge Association (VBA) under the aegis of the Bridge Federation of India (BFI).
A total of 37 teams are vying for honours in the Manohar Tarkunde Cup, a team-of-four Swiss event, where eight rounds will be played to identify the top 16 teams for the pre-quarterfinals. On the opening day, six rounds of 10 boards each were played. At the end of the sixth round, Team Tornatae, comprising Prasad Keni, Srinivasan, Animesh Raj, Sapan Desai and Uttam Gupta, took the lead, garnering 88.89 points.Hinganghat's father-son duo of Basant Kumar Mohota and Anurag, who recently lifted the 67th Ashok Ruia Gold Trophy during the Winter National Bridge Championship in Kolkata, held the fort in 4th position. Representing Team Mohota, the father-son duo, along with their Kolkata partners Biswajit Poddar and Shambhu Nath Ghosh, ended the day collecting 80.33 points.Among the city teams, Vidarbha and Spartans managed to stay in the top 16 race. The Vidarbha outfit of VJ Puranik, RP Deshpande, MM Luley, MN Dutta and RV Saboo was in 6th position, collecting 78.47 points.With a total of 78.47 points, the Spartans outfit, consisting of Jai Kanoria, D Mandpe, A Das, V Patki, A Nandanwar and S Khanzode, was also in the race for the pre-quarterfinals in 14th position.The tournament favourites Nagpur VI, however, had a bad day in office. With a lowly score of 52.03 points, Nagpur VI was at the 25th spot. With just two rounds remaining, things looked difficult for the Nagpur VI outfit to manage to reach the top 16.Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by former Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Sancheti. On the occasion, Rajshree Tarkunde, BFI president Prasad Keni, BFI secretary Debrata Roy, VBA president S Hastak, VBA secretary Anilkumar Mohota, Rajeev Khandelwal and Anil Goenka, chairman of the organising committee, shared the dais.Top 16 teams after 6 roundsTornatae (88.89 points), SD Associates (81.37), EISK (81.05), Mohota (80.33), Rampage (79.20), Vidarbha (78.47), Kanha (74.05), Bangur Cement (73.87), Dhampur Sugar Mill (73.68), EA Bridge (73.12), Team Burzen (67.22), Sarlafibers (67.08), Manthani (66.69), Spartans (65.75), Amanora (64.90), Deepadhaar (64.29).