As medals come in, there is a new silver lining in India's bridge room

The recent World Bridge Championships at Salso­maggiore, Italy, was yet another event where Covid-19 reared its corona. Many players tested positive and it was a miracle that the four main events were completed. Amidst all the tension, the Indian team won a silver in the d’Orsi Seniors (for players over 60), losing the final to Poland after beating star-studded favourites, USA and France.

Bridge is the only Olympic-recognised sport where players routinely receive permission to consume banned prescription drugs. Competitors are often in their 70s, and require medication for sundry ailments.

There is a reason why bridge favours experience over youth. Like many other mindgames, bridge demands logic, counting skills, and the ability to make decisions quickly without complete information. But over and above that, bridge requires communication skills.

Partnerships must communicate during bidding, using a vocabulary of 40 words. They must also signal to each other via the order and choice of cards they play. Communi­cation needs years to perfect and even world champions can be thrown off-stride by unfamiliar partners.

The Indian seniors did an incredible job given that two of the three partnerships were ad hoc. One of the original squad had to drop out. Hence, Ashok Goel ended up partnering R Krishnan, who was originally pencilled in as coach and non-playing captain.

Another pair, Anil Padhye and Rajesh Dalal, had not played together for a while. Only the “anchor” pair, Subrata Saha and Sukamal Das, were settled. In effect Dalal-Padhye and Goel-Krishnan had just about a week to brainstorm, and the unfamiliarity nearly resulted in some disasters.

With two boards to play, India was leading in a quarter-final against an American team, which included legends like Jeff Meckstroth and Zia Mahmood. On the second-last board, Dalal forgot an agreed bidding sequence, and Dalal-Padhye ended in a hopeless grand slam. Sud­den­ly, India was behind. But on the very last board, Saha-Das bid brilliantly to take India through.

Goel, who was sitting out that leg, says “I couldn’t bear to watch”. Dalal admits, “I was so relieved — that one deal would have haunted me forever if we had lost.” Das says, “The Americans were incredibly sporting — they congratulated us on our good plays”. Saha concurs, “Zia shook hands and said, ‘You’ve won’ as the last deal ended”.

This isn’t the first time India has done well. There was a gold at the last Asiad, and at the Wuhan World Champ­ionships in 2019, the Indians won bronze. And, way back in 1988, Dalal was part of a team that reached a semi-final. But Das says, “It’s only now India is starting to be taken seriously. We’re not professionals in the generally accep­t­ed sense. Professionals in Europe and America live for bridge — they coach, play, discuss and study 24x7. In India, a professional is just somebody who gets paid to play.”

Saha and Das are Indian-style professionals. Both are members of good teams sponsored by corporate honchos. Saha also coaches regularly, and partners some of his students. One of his trainees, Bindiya Judge, says he’s a patient, good-natured mentor with the honesty and humility to point out his own (very rare) errors.

Goel is the vice-chairman of Dhampur Sugars — one of several corporations that sponsors a team, and supports up-and-coming players. Krishnan is a civil engineer. Dalal is a chartered accountant. Padhye owns a printing business but he’s also involved in coaching and running Bridge Pathsala, a Mumbai academy, which has processed over 650 bridge students in the last few years.

Bridge attracts people with a certain mindset and the skills it inculcates often translate into success in other spheres. There’s a large contingent of quality players with finance and computer science backgrounds, and Warren Buffett-Bill Gates are a frequent partnership in major American events. Buffett is reported to have once said, “I wouldn’t mind going to jail if I had three cellmates who played bridge.”

Before Covid, India was turning into a destination on the global bridge map. There was a world championship in Chennai (2015), and there are several large annual events sponsored by corporate entities like the Bhartias, the HCL group, the Bangurs of Shree Cement and Dhampur Sugar. However, there is relatively little money in the game — sponsors shell out fees to pros in order to bag medals, rather than to pick up prize money.

There’s a large contingent of Indians playing online as well. Without exception, everyone associated with bridge bemoans the lack of youngsters. While the game is popular amongst the civil services and the defence forces, the social stigma of “cards equal gambling” impedes wider acceptance. Stepping past that canard is vital, if new blood is to come in. Maybe the gradual accretion of medals at the world stage will help to change that attitude.

India Inc’s bridge brigade

Several large annual bridge events are sponsored by corporate entities like the Bhartias, the HCL group, the Bangurs of Shree Cement and Dhampur Sugar. HCL also hosts the International Bridge Championship, an annual event started by Kiran Nadar, who is also a keen player. And HDFC’s Deepak Parekh heads the Corporate Bridge Association of India.

In the 1970s and 1980s, bridge was a part of the hostel culture in the IITs and IIMs. The game is taught by various coaches but, unlike in China, Israel and Italy, it isn’t part of regular school curriculum/ extra-curricular activities. Very few coaches focus on teaching the game to children or youngsters.