Indian Chain
Balarampur Chini East Zone Bridge Championship: Indian Chain clinches team event
Unfancied Indian Chain, represented by Narendra Chitlangia, Sujit Kumar Bhattacharjee, Joy Narayan Roy, Swapan Some, Sourendra Kumar Dutta and Tanmay Mazumder, stunned favourites Formidables to win the team event at the 5th Balarampur Chini East Zone Bridge Championship 2026.
Indian Chain outplayed Formidables 99-25 International Match Points (IMPs) in the final on the concluding day of the championship at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre in New Town here on Sunday.
Deepa Dhar finished third after defeating Lake My Love 68-42 IMPs.
The duo of Swapan Desai and Debabrata Majumder clinched the Match Point Pair Event, while the IMP Event title went to Swarnendu Banerjee and Arun Jain.
Indian Chain pocketed the winners' prize of Rs 1.25 lakh, while runners-up FORMIDABLES received Rs 60,000.
In the final, Indian Chain completely dominated the proceedings against a much stronger opponent that included players who have represented India in several international events and had recently won the U31 Transnational World Bridge Championship in China.
Displaying excellent understanding and accurate bidding, Indian Chain took a commanding lead in the opening round, scoring 63 IMPs against FORMIDABLES' 14.
The second round saw Indian Chain continue its impressive performance, adding 36 IMPs against 11 to extend its overall lead to 74 IMPs. FORMIDABLES subsequently conceded the match with one round still remaining.
Earlier, in the quarter-finals, Indian Chain defeated Alok's IV 53-37 IMPs before overcoming Lake My Love 54-13 IMPs in the semi-final.
Formidables, meanwhile, defeated Delta 35-16 IMPs in the quarter-final before edging past Deepa Dhar by just one IMP, 47-46, in a closely fought semi-final.
In the Match Point Pair Event, Swapan Desai and Debabrata Majumder topped the standings with 3,017.7 Match Points. Rana Roy and Bhabesh Saha finished second, while Binod Kumar Shaw and Sanjit Dey secured third place.
The IMP Event title went to Swarnendu Banerjee and Arun Jain, with Sujalyan Sarkar and Sanjib Ganguly finishing runners-up and Ritabrata Datta and Rajendra Sirohia taking third place.
(Reporting by Manik Banerjee)
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
