KSBA conducted the 42nd edition of Canara Union State ranking tourney at the club premises. This is one of the longest running tournaments in Indian bridge.

The tournament kicked off with 10 teams participating in BAM for Canara Union trophy on 22nd evening.

Gupta’s team consisting of A.S Gupta, M.K Shankarnarayanan, Dr Vasantha and T.T Chari won the event.Indian Ladies team (for First Mind Sports Games at Beijing in Oct) comprising of Ms Subhadra Rao, Ms Satyavathi Vasantha, Ms Sherien Ryan and Ms Lakshmi Chari came 2nd Meena Kotwal’s team comprising of S.K Iyengar, Ms Meena, Ms Vanaja Matten and Ms Vimala Rao finished 3rd.

We had a 2 session Pairs event for Ms Padmini Hattikuddur trophy with first session on 23rd morning and second session on 24th afternoon.

26 pairs participated in the first session which got reduced to 20 pairs in the second session. Total of 44 boards was played. R.Venkatesh and D. Vijay won the Pairs events edging out Ms Lakshmi Chari and Ms Sherien Ryan after score correction. C.M. Kulkarni and B.N Jamkhandi finished 3rd ahead of V.S Rajamani and C.K. Krishna in 4th place.

The main event for NP Ubhayakar and Ragade Raghuveer trophy started on 23rd afternoon. 14 teams played 4 rounds of 10 board Swiss league to determine the 4 qualifiers for finals RR.

Subrajit’s team topped the league with 77 VPs followed by Indian Ladies with 74 VPs. There was a 4 way tie for the last 2 qualifying spots. Manoj’s team (B.Krishnan, N. NIngaiah, M.D Rao, BPS Pai, Subransu Patnaik and Manoj Kr Nair) and FIDO DIDO (Godwin Jayasheelan, C. Krishna, R.Venkatesh and D.Vijay) lost out in the VP product based tie-breaker to Gupta’s and Meena Kotwal’s.

Gupta’s -A.S Gupta, M.K Shankarnarayanan, Dr Vasantha and T.T Chari won the Main event with 56 VPs to cap a double crown.Subrajit’s-Subrajit Mukhopadyaya, Dinakar Sirsi, Kaushik Mukherjee and S.L Sharma narrowly finished 2nd with 54 VPs.Indian Ladies-Ms Subhadra Rao, Ms Satyavathi Vasantha, Ms Sherien Ryan and Ms Lakshmi Chari came 3rd with 37 VPs Meena Kotwal’s-S.K Iyengar, Ms Meena, Ms Vanaja Matten and Ms Vimala Rao finished 4th with 37 VPs (lost direct match to Indian Ladies).

N.Nagaraj directed the tournament efficiently in spite of last minute format change for the Pairs event. Canara Union hosted the lunch on 23rd and provided tea/coffee and snacks on both sides.

Many of the participants missed B.K.Satyen’s presence and his show-piece event “2 session Barometric Pairs finals with set hands”. We fervently hope that the organizers take note of this and ensure that normal service is restored next year.