Back from the World Youth Bridge Championship with Player of the Tournament title, Anshul Bhatt doesn't fear competition
Anshul Bhatt
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The first tournament Bombay Scottish School student Anshul Bhatt played was two years ago at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, where India was playing Denmark.
"There were six members in the under-30 tournament team, and my partner was turning 30 in five days. I was about to turn seven," he says matter-of-factly. But that didn't stop them from communicating ably and winning gold. "On the bridge table, everyone is equal, and it's all about playing your best game. It doesn't matter how old I am."
Anshul Bhatt
Bhatt is just back from having won the Joan Gerard Youth Award at the World Youth Bridge Championships in Lyon, in the under-16 category. He is the youngest ever to have won the honour, which is usually given for aptitude, fair play and good sportsmanship. He started playing bridge at the age of six, which he says, was an organic step up from playing other card games such as rummy and mendicot.
"I used to play with my grandparents and kept winning; they couldn't calculate the cards as well as I could," he says. Slowly, he learnt the tricks of the game and started enjoying it. "The most important thing is how you communicate with your partner and how you count cards. Being good at maths helped," says Bhatt.
The eight-year-old, who also loves playing the piano, is not perturbed by how young he is. In fact, he seems to have a plan ready to take over the world. "I want to be many things when I grow up — a scientist, cricketer, businessman and a bridge player. And yes, I will reinvent the word gamer — I will design board games, and play them too!"
Ask him if it stresses him out, and he gives a practical answer, "Sometimes, yes. After I have played bridge for seven-and-a-half hours over five days, my eyes burn." His father, Mehul interjects here, "Do you feel stress or fatigue?" and Anshul is calm in his reply, trying not to worry him, "Yes, fatigue. But the fatigue is stress." But both father and son assure us that it's quite manageable, raising and being an award-winning bridge player.
"I finish all pending work on weekends. It's okay, I am just in Std IV, and there isn't much to do anyway." Does he ever feel the disappointment, we ask and he surprises us again with a sorted reply. "If I lose in the first round, I say I can do better in the next. And if I lose in the final, I say I can do better in the next competition. That's all."
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