International Bridge Championship draws over 146 teams from nearly 10 countries New Delhi, Delhi, India (NewsVoir) HCL Group, a US $14 billion global conglomerate, today announced the successful completion of the 22nd HCL International Bridge Championship. The prestigious nine-day tournament hosted at The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel in New Delhi attracted impressive participation from over 146 teams. The championship offered a prize purse of Rs. 2.7 Crore (USD 310,000). The tournament continues to solidify its place as one of the most prestigious bridge championships in the world, boasting the largest prize pool in India and the world. This tournament has also been included in World Bridge Tour, as a ‘Category B’ event. This is the highest-rated category after world championship events organised by the World Bridge Federation.

The tournament which was held from 6th October to 14th October brought together players from India and several other countries including the USA, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Lithuanian, Russia, Israel, UAE, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Competitions comprised of ‘Team of Four Gold,’ ‘Team of Four Silver,’ ‘Open Match Point Pairs,’ ‘IMP Pairs’ & ‘Mixed IMP Pairs’.

The winners in each category are: • Team of Four Gold: Team WHAM from Australia won the Naresh Tandan Trophy for the Team of Four Gold event and received a prize money of Rs. 44 Lakh • Team of Four Silver: Nagpur VI won the Mohini Tandan Trophy for Team of Four Silver and received a prize money of Rs. 17 Lakh • Open Pairs-Gold: Christian Bakke - Tor Eivind Grude won the Neena Bonarji Trophy for the “Open Pairs- Gold” event and received a prize money of Rs. 12.8 Lakh • Open Pairs- Silver: Vinay Desai - Raju Tolani won the ‘Open Pairs- Silver’ event and received a prize money of Rs. 2 lakhs.

• Mixed IMP Mixed Pairs: Keyzad Anklesaria - Vidhya Patel won the IMP Pairs and received a prize money of Rs. 2 lakhs.

• IMP Pairs: Tatiana Nokhaeva - Aleksandr Platkov won the IMP Pairs event Speaking on the occasion, Padma Shri Mrs. Kiran Nadar, Chairperson of the Organising Committee of the championship and an acclaimed international Bridge player, Commonwealth Gold medallist and Asian Games Bronze medallist said, “I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the participants for their exceptional performances in this year’s championship. It’s truly encouraging to see a growing number of young players competing at this level. The future of Bridge in India depends on identifying and nurturing talent early, and hosting an international championship of this scale in the nation’s capital offers emerging players a valuable platform to challenge themselves against top global competitors. Events like these are vital to both individual growth and the overall development of Bridge in India.” HCL International Bridge Championship is an initiative by HCL Group and was started in 2003 to provide players with a world class platform.

About HCL Group Founded in 1976 as one of India’s original IT garage start-ups, HCL is a pioneer of modern computing with many firsts to its credit, including the introduction of the 8-bit microprocessor-based computer in 1978 well before its global peers. Today, the HCL enterprise has a presence across varied sectors that include technology, healthcare and talent management solutions and comprises three companies – HCL Infosystems, HCLTech and HCL Healthcare. The enterprise generates annual revenues of over US$14 billion with 226,600 employees operating across 60 countries.

For further information, visit www.hcl.com (Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with Newsvoir and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR PWR