VIJAYAWADA: Cutting across age and gender, hundreds of bridge lovers gathered at Vijayawada Club to showcase their expertise at the 33rd AP State Bridge championship, which concluded on Sunday.

It was really a sight to relish as players as old as 90 years, with failing vision, were seen holding their cards pondering over the next astute move.

Skilled game

Says Krishna District Bridge Association secretary V. Ramachandra Rao: " Bridge is a skilled card game in which four or groups of four people, play in pairs. In the first case, the game is usually played in a rubber format and the winner is the pair that accumulates the highest number of points," he said.

He said in the second case, or duplicate bridge, the same distribution of cards is played at all the tables and the winning pair is decided by comparing the results from each table.

"Bridge is not a game anymore; it is a fair competition from which luck part has been eliminated," he emphasised.

Mr. Rao said Bridge was considered the most stimulating card game ever conceived.

"It is not gambling. Most people have a wrong opinion about this game. It takes longer to learn it and even longer to master it. The key is practice. Only those who have some knowledge of the skills and intellectual acumen can understand the game," he said.

Akin to chess

Mr. Rao said the game of bridge was more akin to chess, where mind and intuition matters. "The winners are decided as per the points accrued in each round as in chess," he said.

The spectators with less knowledge about bridge, looked aghast as a couple of women were found holding the aces up their sleeves at the venue.

The disinterest among the youngsters in learning the game is what worries the veteran administrators of game in Vijayawada.

"Most of the people running the show in Krishna District are all well above 55 years of age and most of them are retired professors, bank officers, doctors, bureaucrats and businessmen. It is time youngsters mastered the game, which increases the mathematical and analytical skills similar to chess," he pointed out.

Centre of attraction

A veteran in the game, Anne Radha Krishna Murthy (90), the first principal of P.B.Sidhartha College of Arts and Science, was the centre of attraction as he took part in the tournament with unbridled enthusiasm of a teenager. So was S. Balakrishna Rao, Y.V. Subrahmanyam (both octogenarians) who gave a tough time to their rivals.

As a tribute to another veteran bridge player the late Kothuru Sri Rama Murthy, who passed away at the age of 91, the organising committee instituted a rolling shield.

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