February 16, 2026 11:29 pm (IST)
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Bridge Championship
Phoenix Mixed Pairs champions Usha Kabra and Gopinath Manna pose with their trophies alongside West Bengal Bridge Association President Monica Jajoo (centre).

Kolkata/IBNS: Usha Kabra and Gopinath Manna delivered an impressive performance to capture the Phoenix Mixed Pairs title at the ongoing Ashok Ruia Memorial Winter National Bridge Championship, held at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre in New Town.

The pair secured a commanding victory with 82.78 International Match Points (IMPs), topping a competitive field of 55 pairs.

The event, which concluded late last night, saw Deepa Jacob and Prosenjit Manna finish as runners-up with 64.34 IMPs, putting up a strong challenge but ultimately falling short of the leaders’ consistent form.

Several other notable pairs rounded off the top ten positions after the final round. Aditi Javeri and Biswajit Poddar claimed third place, followed by Ramani Menon and Jenish Shah in fourth.

The fifth position went to Monica Jajoo and Sumit Mukherjee, while Soham Sarkar and Kalpana Gurjar finished sixth. Kamna Sharma and Abhijit Pal secured seventh place, just ahead of veteran star Kiran Nadar and her partner Buchiraju Satyanarayana.

Keyzad Anklesaria and Vidhya Patel finished ninth, and the pairing of Madhur (Daisy Singh) and Badal Das completed the top ten.

Meanwhile, the Open Team Event for the Ashok Ruia Memorial Gold Cup—widely regarded as the most prestigious team competition in Indian bridge—kicked off alongside the Silver Cup category for emerging and lower-ranked players.

Out of the 28 elite teams competing for the coveted Gold Cup, Team Mohota has taken an early lead.

Represented by Anurag Mohota, Basant Mohota, Biswajit Poddar, and Sambhunath Ghosh, the team accumulated 56.65 Victory Points (VPs) by the end of the third round.

The tournament will feature eight rounds in total before the top sixteen teams advance to the knockout phase.

With tight contests unfolding in both pairs and team events, the championship continues to showcase top-tier bridge talent from across the country.

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