India’s open, mixed and ladies teams will take part in bridge competitions at the upcoming Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China.
The continental meet runs from September 23 to October 8 but the bridge event starts on September 27 at the Hangzhou Qi-Yuan (Zhili) Chess Hall. The final sessions across all three categories will be held on October 6.
Contract bridge, also known as bridge, is a team sport contested between two teams of two players, where partners sit opposite one another. A session of bridge consists of several deals (also called hands or boards). A hand is dealt, the bidding (or auction) proceeds to a conclusion and then the hand is played. Finally, the hand’s result is scored.
Bridge was introduced at the Asian Games in 2018. The event included six categories – men’s pair, men’s team, women’s pair, mixed team, mixed pair and supermixed team.
At Hangzhou 2023, however, there will only be three categories – open team, ladies team and mixed team.
India’s bridge team picked up three medals at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. Pranab Bardhan and Shibhnath Sarkar picked up a gold medal in the men’s pair, while the men’s and the mixed teams picked up bronze medals in their respective categories.
Asian Games 2023 bridge: Indian team
Open teams: Jaggy Shivdasani, Sandeep Thakral, Rajeshwar Tiwari, Sumit Mukherjee, Raju Tolani and Ajay Khare, Reserve 1: Kaustabh Bendre and Sayantan Kushari; Coach: Mr Joyjit Sensarma
Mixed Team: Kiran Nadar, B Satyanarayana, Himani Khandelwal, Rajeev Khandelwal, Marianne Karmarkar and Sandeep Karmarkar, Reserve 1: Hema Deora and Rana Roy; Coach: Vinay Desai
Ladies Team: Asha Sharma, Puja Batra, Alka Kshirsagar, Bharti Dey, Kalpana Gurjar and Vidya Patel Reserve 1: Richa Shriram and Meenal Thakur; Coach: Anal Shah
The Bridge Federation of India organised selection trials for all three categories – open, mixed and ladies – at the Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence in Greater Noida from March 2 to 18. The teams were announced on March 22.
Sumit Mukherjee, Jaggy Shivdasani and Rajeswar Tiwari, Kiran Nadar, B Satyanarayana, Himani Khandelwal and Rajeev Khandelwal, all medallists from Jakarta 2018, will be in action in Hangzhou as well.