Pakistan Day bridge event begins in Karachi

Six foreign teams taking part in international championship.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Day international Bridge Championship 2014 began on Friday with six foreign teams taking part in the event being held at the Pearl Continental Hotel, Karachi.

The Pakistan Bridge Federation, in collaboration with the Mind Sport Association of Pakistan, organised the event with players coming from UK, Jordan, Turkey, UAE and two teams from China.

International bridge has returned to Pakistan for the first time after 2007, with the the last mega event taking place in 1998 when players came in from France and Indonesia, among other countries.

On the opening day of the championship, local duo Kemal Shaikh and Khursheed Hadi dominated the first session in North/South pairs’ rankings with 60.28 Match Points (MPs), Shahin Iqbal and Hasan Askari Zaidi stood second, scoring 60.17 MPs while UK’s Brian Senior and Sandra Penfold occupied the third place with 60 MPs.

Meanwhile, A K Bhurgri and M Zubair led the East/West rankings with 61.69 MPs at the end of the first sesson. Aneesur Rehman and Zeenat Azwer scored 61.61 Mps and were in second position while Mubashir Puri and Junaid Said were placed third place in the session with 57.52 MPs.

The tournament, featuring more than 200 pairs in the competition, will continue today with the team championship.

According to organiser Syed Ameer Hasan, all the foreign players expressed satisfaction with the arrangements on the first day.

“The event is being well-received from the players and six foreign teams are competing here,” said Hasan. “Our senior player, Hadi, helped us in inviting the foreign players to Pakistan. Hopefully, the event will improve the image of the country internationally.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2014.

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