The 8th All India Shree Cement Bridge Championship is currently underway at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre in Kolkata. The team event has reached the semi-final stage, with four teams qualifying: Mavericks, Formidables, Rampage, and Team Monica Jajoo. Mavericks, comprising three foreign players and three Indian players, dominated their quarter-final match against Team Arun Jain, winning all three rounds with a total score of 104-43 International Match Points (IMPs).
The Formidables, defending champions, also made it to the semi-finals after a hard-fought win against Dhampur Sugar Mills. Despite a strong comeback from Dhampur Sugar in the final round, Formidables won the match with a total score of 68-45 IMPs. Rampage, meanwhile, defeated Chefs Table, winning the first two rounds and ultimately emerging victorious with a score of 78-58 IMPs.
Team Monica Jajoo had to struggle to edge past EA Bridge, winning by a narrow margin of 54-47 IMPs. The semi-final matches are currently underway, with Mavericks facing off against Rampage and Formidables taking on Team Monica Jajoo. After two rounds, Formidables are leading with a score of 72-13 IMPs, while Mavericks are ahead with a score of 48-17 IMPs.
In addition to the team event, the Match Point Pairs event of the championship also commenced, with the top six pairs after the first session being: Pinaki Prasad and Satyabrata Mukherjee, Suvbhajit Chowdhury and Souvik Kar, Abhijit Pal and Kamna Sharma, Partha Sarathi and Subir Majumdar, A.K. Guha and Biplab Dawn, and Bhola Nath Ghosh and Dipak Kumar Paul. The championship is expected to conclude soon, with the winners of the team and pairs events being crowned. The competition is fierce, and the outcome is still uncertain, making for an exciting finish to the tournament.