Cheats throw in their hands as bridge scandal grows
IT is a game where a studied silence and an inscrutable expression can mean one holds all the aces, or none.
But after a month of fevered speculation about cheating at the highest levels of international bridge, two players have finally cracked and laid their cards on the table to admit their guilt.
Three weeks after a fellow professional threatened to name and shame those he believed were cheating, German bridge partners Josef Piekarek and Alex Smirnov have publicly con- fessed to “ethical violations”. In an apparent attempt to jump before they were pushed, the pair even suggested their own punishments, saying in a statement: “We are aware of the “whispers” circulating about our ethical conduct, and we are sorry to say there is some truth to them.
“We have voluntarily agreed never again to play competitive bridge together and to take two years off from playing competitive bridge.”
Quite how the pair bent the rules is not yet known. But it follows a series of extraordinary allegations that have rocked the upper echelons of the nor- mally genteel sport just ahead of this Sunday’s World Bridge Championships in Chennai, India, which will feature 400 players from 40 countries.
The allegations were first made late last month by Boye Brogeland, a Norwegian who is one of the world’s highest-rated bridge players.
He said other players with whom he had won tournaments were no longer playing “clean bridge”. He added that it hurt him to go public with the allegations, but said he was doing it “for the future of our beautiful game”.
Mr Piekarek and Mr Smirnov are the first players to publicly admit to mis- conduct. But they are not the first to be named in connection with allegations of cheating, in which the first suspects were two Israelis, Lotan Fisher and Ron Schwartz. The pair, who deny the allegations, responded by issuing a $1 million (£643,980) claim for damages, although their team withdrew from this week’s World Championships to be replaced by Sweden.
A second pair, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes of Monaco, have yet to respond to allegations against them.
However, a dossier compiled by Mr Brogeland and published on the website bridgewinners.com has alleged that the pair communicated illegally by placing their opening cards either vertically or horizontally, according to whether they held good hands or not. The theory came to light after a Dutch fan brought to Mr Brogeland’s attention footage of Mr Fantoni and Mr Nunes playing 10 different matches.
Knowing the strength of a partner’s hand gives a powerful advantage, according to bridge’s official international rules, which describe using “prearranged methods of communication” as “the gravest possible offence”.
The German Bridge Federation and the World Bridge Federation have yet to respond to the admission by Mr Piekarek and Mr Smirnov, but it is thought that their offer to set their own punishment is unlikely to be accepted.