This is for the first time that GNFC, a regular host for the state-level games, is holding the national level championship.

The Bridge championship is being organised in association with Gujarat Bridge Association (GBA), and has former IAS officer Vijay Ranjan, national level masters, corporate managers and senior citizens, along with six teams from Sri Lanka, participating in it.

General manager, GNFC, S K Banatwala, who is also the organising secretary for the tournament, said, "This year we have 500 participants including six teams from Sri Lanka. The response is not good as we got only 90 teams against the 120 teams that we had expected."

The leading players at the tournament include Kiran Nadar, Pankaj Kapadia, who is also the GBA chief, Vinu Panchal, Parimal Walia, Nitin Patel, teams from Ruiya, Railways, Goenka and Adani, among others.

Participants say Bridge is a mind teasing game, which helps them make new friends as well as remain mentally active.

Ranjan said, while in the past, GBA made some efforts to popularise the game among youngsters by offering coaching at the Ellisbridge Gymkhana in Ahmedabad, now the game is patronised mostly by seniors.

Ranjan who is playing under the Hind Vijay Gujarat Bridge team in a six-member team, said, "It's been 20 years now that I have been playing this game. Gujarat used to have 12 masters but now it has reduced. "Earlier, lots of IAS and IPS officers played Bridge, but, the introduction of other games has lowered its priority now. In fact, in the earlier days, they had the entire cadre play Bridge as a tradition. Former chief secretary HKL Kapoor represented India in France. Mr Kheda, an IPS officer who died last year was also a leading player," he said.