‘Bridge more tough than chess’

JAKARTA: India’s Asian Games gold medal winners in bridge on Saturday said that their sport should not be treated as gambling for it involves skills and not luck.
Pranab Bardhan and Shibhnath Sarkar on Saturday won the men’s pairs gold in the debut sport of bridge in the Asian Games.
India has also won a bronze each in the men’s team and mixed team events. “It’s game based on logic. It’s a mind game like chess but more challenging. In chess you play one on one. Here you are playing with your partner, with whom you can’t speak during the match. You have to understand each other’s move. You have to judge, what I am thinking with my cards,” Bardhan, 60, said. “It’s definitely not gambling. Everybody gets the same hand (first set of cards), so no luck is involved. It’s up to you to respond to the situation,” said Bardhan who has been playing with Sarkar as a team for the last 20 years. Bardhan said one must love and respect his cards.
“The set that you have in your hand, will not come to you with same combination again. You got to respect what you have. I always say you must love your cards, only then you can develop the game,” he said. Sarkar said it’s a game of young and the perception that only the old people play is wrong. (PTI)