Once he embraced the charms of the game he never looked back and took giant strides to baffle even the best world renowned players in the field by dint of his card sense more than the intricate academics of the game.
Masood Saleem's bridge career is an interesting piece of study for many players to emulate to find out how much ingrained talent dwells in them and how much to acquire by hard work to achieve sophistication of the game to command international respect.
The bridge stalwarts and great luminaries paid rich tributes to Masood Saleem for his unassuming and yet skillful handling of cards with unmatched accuracy. As a fierce competitor and calculative strategist of the game he was deeply admired by Bob Hamman, Bobby Wolff, Mike Passel, Omer Sharif, Giargo Belladonna, Zia Mahmood, Gabriel Chagas and Benito Gorrozzo and many other internationally acknowledged bridge players of high caliber.
Born in 1940 in a well to do middle class business family of Chiniot, Masood Saleem's boyhood revolved around primary education and playing football and hockey with the boys of his age. He was being groomed by his parents to enter family business, but he was less inclined towards cumbersome business activities.
Soon after his early education at his town he moved over to Karachi in 1952 for its glamour and cosmopolitan surroundings. There he pursued studies to get a degree of Bachelor of Commerce at a local college and also carried out part time trading.
Masood Saleem gave an exclusive interview to Business Recorder about his career in bridge.
BR. When did you start playing bridge ?
MS. The game of bridge was Greek and Latin to me until the age of 23. I was trying to be a good snooker player and I started playing at the YMCA Club. In the meanwhile I saw some people playing bridge there with an air of pride for playing it. Once or twice I joined them in the game almost knowing nothing about the game.
The organisers of the YMCA entrusted me with the task of organising bridge tournament, which I managed to their satisfaction. Yearly bridge tournaments were held there in 1963, 64 and 65, with the participation of about 60 teams a year. I took fancy to the game for its popularity and challenging overtones of bridge and I decided to learn the game with intent.
My learning process started in the company of Waheed Bux Qauderi, S.R. Haider, (Rajju Bhai) and Sharif Chaudhry at the K.M.C Club.
The game suited me best for my temperament and bent of mind. But before I actually started to play I wanted to study the game as it was played by other senior regular members for which I used to visit Karachi Club for nearly six months to watch the game played by Jan-e-Alam, Sherali Mundrawala and Maqbool Aziz and others. Later I started playing the game with some confidence.
BR. Was there any bridge coach or teacher to you or did you study playing technique from any book?
MS. I did not have any teacher nor I made any serious studies of the game. I only closely observed the game being played by very good players. My guide is my own instinct. But I am grateful to Agha Azeem for his encouragement and briefing on Precision System of bridge, which has been a great help in understanding the intricacies of the game.
BR. How did you become a partner of Zia Mahmood ?
MS. Agha Azeem used to play the game in partnership with Zia, but he strongly recommended to Zia to play in partnership with me for my bidding and playing techniques of high standard. From that time myself and Zia Mahmood became regular partners with successful record here and abroad. I played the first international bridge tournament in partnership with Zia in Manila in the Zonal Championship of World Bridge Federation in 1974. Pakistani squad comprised Zia Mahmood, Khurshid Hadi, Waheed Bux Quadri, Riaz Mahmood and Rafiq Chinoy. Subsequently we played as partners in most of the national and international tournaments with success. Particularly we won the Zonal Championship of Asia and Middle East four times and once we reached the finals of Bermuda Bowl, and finished runners up.
BR. You have won quite a number of international awards for bridge?
MS. Yes, I have won Romex Award for best bid hand for the year 1983, Journalist Award in 1985 and Pride of Performance Award of Pakistan in 2001.
BR. Can you recall one of the good hands that you played ?
MS. There are many. But I remember a hand that I played against Indonesian team in Bermuda Bowl in 1981.
THE DECLARER HAS TO PLAN THE PLAY FROM THE FIRST TRICK OF THE GAME. THE COMPLETE BIDDING AND PLAY HAS GONE THROUGH AS INDICATED BELOW:
WEST KING OF HEARTS:
Masood Saleem took a long pause before planning the play. He won the trick in the dummy with the ace of heart and played a small diamond from dummy and when the East played low he won the jack and played the queen of spades on which the West discarded a club. The East won the ace of spades and played the king of spades and small of spades.
The West was terribly squeezed and discarded another club. Having won the trick in hand Masood played back a diamond, the West played 10 of diamond. Masood Saleem ducked and played small from dummy which the East won with the ace.
At this point the East moved a heart which the South ruffed in hand and ruffed a club in dummy.
Now the dummy played the king and queen of diamonds on which the East had no safe discard. Therefore Masood ruffed two clubs in dummy and one heart in hand and another heart was discarded on king of clubs to make the contract.
This deal was published in Chicago Tribune with comments and admiration for spectacular line of play by Masood Saleem.
VULNERABLE BOTH SIDES:
DEALER SOUTH:
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North West East South
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S 97654 S ------- S AK 3 S QJ 1082
H A 1096 H KQJ 8 H 7652 H 3
D KQ 54 D 10973 D A 8 D J 62
C ------- C A 8642 C QJ 103 C K 975
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THE BIDDING:
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South West North East
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M Saleem Z Mahmood -
Pass Pass Pass 1 C
Pass 1 H D b 1 2 H
2 S 3 H 3 S Pass
Pass 4 H 4 S Db1
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GOLDEN TIPS:
The bridge players gifted with natural card sense have an edge over those who acquire it by hard work and practice.