Kolkata, Dec 2 (IANS): Top Indian players including gold and bronze medallists in the last Asian games in Jakarta will stake their claim for the top honours at the 61st Winter National Bridge Championship to be held in the Netaji Indoor Stadium here between December 8 and 15.

Briefing mediapersons about the forthcoming mega bridge event, organising secretary of the meet which is being conducted by the West Bengal Bridge Association (WBBA), Arijit Guha said that about 1200 players representing nearly two hundred teams from all over the country will join this championship which is being held in the city after seven years. There will be about two hundred women players which would include some all women teams as well.

The Championship consists of an Open Team event for Ruia Trophies and an Open Pair event for Shree Cement Trophies. Beside there would be an event for IMP Pairs, Mixed Pairs and Junior Team also.

Apart from S.N. De Sarkar and Pranab Bardhan, who won the Gold Medal in the Pairs event, Sumit Mukherjee and Debabrata Mazumder, who were part of the Bronze Medal winners in the Team event in the last Asian Games, Subrata Saha and Sukomal Das who were members of the senior team that played at the last world championship in China last August will be seen in action. Other luminaries of Indian bridge including R. Tewari, K. Ankelsaria, Jitu Solanki, Dipak Poddar, Debashish Roy, Pritish Kusari, Kiran Nadar, Monika Jaju and Bharati Dey will also join this tournament.