The Indian youth bridge team will participate in the World Youth Championship to be held in Philadelphia in October. The six-member team, comprising Vinoth Kumar Raghavan, Guthi Rajasekhar, B.V.S. Prajwal, Mohit Agarwal, Anurag Mohota and Raghavendra Rajkumar, will compete in the 18-nation, seven-day team event for the Ortiz-Patino Trophy. N. R. Kirubakaramoorthy will be the team's non-playing captain.
“We're expecting good things from them,” said Sherien Ryan of the Tamil Nadu Bridge Association. Guthi, Vinoth and Mohit were part of the team in the 2008 edition in Beijing, where they were up against immensely tough opponents in the qualifiers. “We hope for a better performance this time. This is the second time India is sponsoring a team, which is happening after a long time,” said Vinoth.
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Guthi, elaborating on the selection procedure for the Championship, said, “Performances in the junior nationals were taken into consideration. There were 12 probables out of which the six of us were selected. That aside, a player's performance and consistency throughout the year are taken into account.”
The team is being trained by the country's top players such as B. Sathyanarayana, K.R. Venkataraman, B. Sridhar, S. Sundar Ram and B. Prabhakar. “Eric Kokish, who is regarded as one of the best coaches in the world, works with some of our best players. The expertise that he brings to the game is being passed on to these youngsters by our national players,” said Sherien.
“There is also a big bridge community online, so we get a lot of practice playing online with players from across the world,” said Guthi.
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While a strong finish in the World Championship is the primary goal, promoting the sport is something the players and the association have been continually working towards. Vinoth and Guthi, who spent their time in IIT-Madras playing bridge and encouraging students to join the bridge club, hoped more youngsters would be in the fray for future tournaments.
Creating awareness
“By participating in such tournaments, we're hoping to create more awareness and attract more youngsters to the sport. Bridge is a challenging sport. There's a lot of mathematics involved and you never play the same hand twice,” said Vinoth.
“Bridge has helped me academically. It helps you improve your analytical skills, mental stamina and concentration, and helps you develop a longer attention span,” said Guthi.
The learning curve for the sport is steep, but eventually satisfying, they all claim. “We are finding more people interested in the sport now, and they're all enjoying the experience. The coaching camps conducted regularly by Mylapore Club have been very successful in generating response,” said Sherien. “As always, our goal is to change the image of bridge as just a card game. It is so much more than that.”