17th HCL international bridge championship concludes

New Delhi, August 10, 2019: HCL, a $8.6 billion leading global conglomerate, announced the successful completion of the 17th HCL International Bridge Championship.
The five-day tournament held at JW Marriot saw participation from over 950 players and 185 teams. The players competed for Rs.1.8 Crore, one of the world’s highest Bridge prize monies. Abhinav Bindra, winner of Gold medal in the 10 metre Air Rifle in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games graced the closing ceremony of the tournament as the Chief Guest.
The tournament which was held from 5th August to 10th August saw participation from India and several other countries including the US, Bulgaria, Argentina, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, South Africa, UK, Sweden, Thailand and Bangladesh.
The championship comprised of ‘Team of Four Gold’, ‘Team of Four Silver’, debutant category ‘Team of Four Bronze’, ‘Open Pairs’, ‘MP Pairs’ and ‘IMP Pairs’. The winner details are as follows:
• The Naresh Tandan Trophy for the winners of Team of Four Gold event and Rs. 30 Lakh prize money – won by Team K1 Plus which included Ivan Nanev, Vladimir Mihov , Rossen Gunev, Julian Stefanov and Marta Nikolava
• The Mohini Tandan Trophy for the winners of Team of Four Silver and Rs. 12 Lakh prize money – won by Team Pradeep that included Sukalyan Sarkar, Rajendra Sirohia , Goutam Pore , Binod Kumar Shaw, Pijus Kanti Baroi and Pradeep Goenka
• The 'HCL Rising Stars’ Trophy for the Winner of Teams of Four Bronze and 1.5 Lakh prize money – won by Team Shiva that comprised S Srinivasan, Abishek Mitra, Abhijit Pal, Arup Kumar Hudait, Animesh Majumder and Ramkumar H
• The Neena Bonarji Trophy for the “Open Pairs” event and Rs. 10 Lakh prize money – won by Sumit Mukherjee and Debabrata Majumdar
• Winners of the IMP Pairs i.e. Goutam Das and Shyama Prasad Chatterjee won a prize money of Rs. 2 lakhs
Speaking on the occasion, Kiran Nadar, Director, HCL Corporation, and an international Bridge player, who led her team to win gold at the 5th Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championship and won Bronze at the 2018 Asian Games as part of the Indian contingent said, “I would like to congratulate all the players for their outstanding performance in this tournament. I am delighted to see that several young players have joined the tournament this year. The future of Bridge in India is dependent on nurturing young talent at the right time and international championships like this happening in the country’s capital gives young players a good chance to test their mettle against the best players around the world.”
HCL International Bridge Championship is an initiative by HCL to improve the ecosystem of the sport and to promote it in India by building a platform for players to hone and nurture their skills.