NEW DELHI: Indian tech major HCL Tuesday announced the winners of the 18th HCL International Bridge Championship.
The nine-day tournament, held from September 18th to 26th, was hosted virtually on the Real Bridge platform. It witnessed participation from over 1100 players from 14 countries, who competed for the prize purse of Rs 2 million. A total of 130 international players at the Championship represented countries including UK, Russia, Indonesia, Singapore, Bangladesh, UAE, Malaysia, Argentina, and Thailand. From India, players from 22 states participated in the Championship with 300 players from West Bengal, 180 from Maharashtra, 130 from Delhi, 90 from Karnataka, and 60 from Tamil Nadu.
The closing virtual ceremony was hosted in the presence of Shiv Nadar, founder of HCL Group and Mrs Kiran Nadar, director, HCL Corporation, an internationally renowned bridge player, a 2018 Asian Games medallist and captain of Team Formidables.
Like every year, the championship was held under the auspices of the Bridge Federation of India.
Speaking during the virtual ceremony, Mrs Kiran Nadar said: “Many congratulations to all the players for their outstanding performance in this Championship. While several sports came to a halt during the pandemic, bridge witnessed a resurgence with players across geographies connecting online. Several youngsters also took to the sport online, finding in it a sense of motivation and inspiration during these tough times. We witnessed a similar response to the HCL International Bridge Championship with over 1100 participants. The championship was organized with the best global standards and I want to thank the core organizing team including Mr TC Pant, Mr Sudhir Aggarwal, Mr Sandeep Thakral for making it a success. Given the encouraging response to the virtual format, we hope to host smaller championships at different points during the year.”
Highlights
Team Texan Aces emerged as the winner of the Team of Four Gold
Team Dr. SSMC won the Team of Four Silver
Team Urbane Gaming won the Team of Four Bronze
The pair of Rajeshwar Tewari – Keyzad Anklesaria won the Open Pairs Gold event
