Gupta-Shah duo clinches bridge championship

NEW DELHI: One of India's top bridge players, Subhash Gupta and his partner JM Shah won the 33rd edition of the Rama Jain memorial National Bridge Championship that concluded in the Capital on Sunday.
The Delhi-Mumbai combine, with 869.75 points, took away the winner's cheque of Rs 60,000 along with a bonus cash award of Rs 1500 for each session. Kolkata's combine of Manas Mukherjee and Swarnendu Banerjee finished second with 804 points.
"It is a very good tournament which needs to be popularized even more." Gupta told TOI on Sunday after winning the event.
The two-day event, sponsored by The Times of India, carried a total prize purse of Rs 1,65,000, up from last edition's Rs 95,000, with Rs 60,000, 30,000 and 15,000 for the top three finishers respectively. The winner and runner-up of each round were awarded an additional bonus of Rs 1500 and Rs 800, respectively.
The event saw some intense action for the third spot with Vimal Sikka and Marianne Karmakar, representing the sponsors, battling it out with Rana Roy and Sumit Mukherjee. It was Vimal and Marianne who managed to finish ahead with 752.68 points.
The defending champion pair from Kolkata - S Mukherjee and Abhijit Chakraborty - looked out of rhythm as they failed to figure in the top 10. The duo was at the 10th spot at the end of first session but could not cope up with the competition and concluded the tournament at 11th spot.
"This is the only tournament that has been organized for the last 33 years without fail," RK Gupta, secretary of the Delhi Bridge Association, said.
Top 5 finishers: 1. Subhash Gupta & JM Shah 869.75 pts; 2. Manas Mukherjee & Swarnendu Banerjee 804; 3. Vimal Sikka & Marianne Karmakar 752.68; 4. Rana Roy & Sumit Mukherjee 752.41; 5. DN Rastogi & AK Sinha 746.67.