A tainted title is a bridge title or event rank won with one or more players who were subsequently convicted of cheating.

Bridge Organizations (BOs) have different rules on how they treat the title, rank, masterpoints, seeding points of the team and the subsequently convicted cheating player(s). BOs have different rules on moving teams up in rank. Some BOs have different rules based on how long ago the tainted title was won and who is affected.

After various public cheating allegations were made against top players in summer 2015, and before any hearings were held, the ACBL changed its rule in November 2015 so that the convicted player(s) would lose all their masterpoints, titles and ranks. For any event within 4 years of the conviction, the entire team would lose all masterpoints and rank. The current ACBL rules are:

"4.1.8 Forfeiture of Masterpoints/Titles for Unethical Behavior.

(a) Any participant(s) in an ACBL sanctioned event convicted of premeditated or collusive cheating or any participant(s) who admits to such action or actions shall forfeit all masterpoints, titles and ACBL status ranks or other ACBL related awards theretofore earned by said participants through participation in all ACBL events.

The partners and teammates of said participant(s) shall forfeit all masterpoints, titles and status ranks earned while playing with said participant(s) during the four years preceding the admission or finding of guilt."[1]

If a title or place is vacated, ACBL do not move teams up. The ACBL CDR states

"4.1.8 (d) Titles forfeited in CDR 4.1.8 (a), (b) or (c) shall remain vacant and there shall be no change in rankings or awarding of masterpoints for other contestants."

This creates three different categories for titles or ranks with a cheating player:

  1. Titles within last 4 years.
  2. Titles > 4 years old by a cheating player
  3. Titles > 4 years old by a team with a cheating player

At a hearing in November, 2016, the ACBL decided that for all offenses prior to the rule change of November 2015, a cheating pair would lose all titles, but the teams would keep their titles unless there was proof of cheating at that event. There was only video proof of cheating at the 2015 Spingold by Fantoni/Nunes and Fisher/Schwartz.

Fantoni/Nunes tainted titles

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Fantoni/Nunes were convicted by ACBL of collusive cheating on July 24, 2016. [2]

Fantoni/Nunes wins in ACBL competitions are:

Fantoni/Nunes second place finishes in ACBL competitions are:

Some of these occurred within 4 years of the sentence, some are more than four years ago.

Fisher/Schwartz tainted titles

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Fisher/Schwartz were convicted by ACBL of collusive cheating on July 27, 2016. [2]

Fisher/Schwartz wins in ACBL competitions are:

All of these occurred within 4 years of the sentence, therefore the titles are vacated.

Piekarek/Smirnov tainted titles

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Piekarek/Smirnov were suspended by ACBL on June 14, 2016. [2]

Piekarek/Smirnov wins in ACBL events are:

Piekarek/Smirnov second place finishes in ACBL events are:

Spingold

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This section shows the impact of tainted titles on one of the main ACBL events.

This table shows the winners prior to the July 2016 convictions of collusive cheating of Fantoni/Nunes and Fisher/Schwartz.

Spingold Trophy teams-of-four, 2006 to present (prior to July 2016)
Year Winners Runners-up
2006 Nick Nickell, Richard Freeman, Bob Hamman, Paul Soloway, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell James Cayne, Michael Seamon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Lorenzo Lauria, Alfredo Versace
2007 Nick Nickell, Hemant Lall, Bob Hamman, Paul Soloway, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell Alexander Dubinin, Andrei Gromov, Cezary Balicki, Adam Żmudziński
2008 Alexander Dubinin, Andrei Gromov, Cezary Balicki, Adam Żmudziński Roy Welland, Brian Glubok, Steve Garner, Howard Weinstein, Billy Cohen, Ron Smith
2009 Jan Jansma, Louk Verhees, Ricco Van Prooijen, Russell Ekeblad, Matt Granovetter, Ron Rubin Rose Meltzer, Kyle Larsen, Alan Sontag, David Berkowitz, Larry N. Cohen, Tor Helness
2010 Eric Greco, John Diamond, Geoff Hampson, Brian Platnick, Brad Moss, Fred Gitelman Rose Meltzer, Kyle Larsen, Alan Sontag, David Berkowitz, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes
2011 Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Tor Helness, Geir Helgemo Nick Nickell, Ralph Katz, Bob Hamman, Zia Mahmood, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell
2012 Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Tor Helness, Geir Helgemo Nick Nickell, Ralph Katz, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell, Bobby Levin, Steve Weinstein
2013 Wojciech Gawel, Rafal Jagniewski, Jacek Kalita, Michal Nowosadzki Leslie Amoils, Peter Bertheau, Thomas Bessis, Joe Grue, Jacob Morgan, Brad Moss
2014 Richard Schwartz, Allan Graves, Lotan Fisher, Ron Schwartz, Boye Brogeland, Espen Lindqvist Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Tor Helness, Geir Helgemo
2015 James Cayne, Ron Schwartz, Lotan Fisher, Michael Seamon, Lorenzo Lauria, Alfredo Versace Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Tor Helness, Geir Helgemo

This table shows the winners after the July 2016 convictions of collusive cheating of Fantoni/Nunes and Fisher/Schwartz. Players stripped of their places because there was a cheating player on the team are shown in strike-through.

Spingold Trophy teams-of-four, 2006 to present (after collusive cheating convictions in July 2016)
Year Winners Runners-up
2006 Nick Nickell, Richard Freeman, Bob Hamman, Paul Soloway, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell Awards for Fantoni/Nunes forfeited for collusive cheating.

James Cayne, Michael Seamon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Lorenzo Lauria, Alfredo Versace.

2007 Nick Nickell, Hemant Lall, Bob Hamman, Paul Soloway, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell Alexander Dubinin, Andrei Gromov, Cezary Balicki, Adam Żmudziński
2008 Alexander Dubinin, Andrei Gromov, Cezary Balicki, Adam Żmudziński Roy Welland, Brian Glubok, Steve Garner, Howard Weinstein, Billy Cohen, Ron Smith
2009 Jan Jansma, Louk Verhees, Ricco Van Prooijen, Russell Ekeblad, Matt Granovetter, Ron Rubin Rose Meltzer, Kyle Larsen, Alan Sontag, David Berkowitz, Larry N. Cohen, Tor Helness
2010 Eric Greco, John Diamond, Geoff Hampson, Brian Platnick, Brad Moss, Fred Gitelman Awards for Fantoni/Nunes forfeited for collusive cheating.

Rose Meltzer, Kyle Larsen, Alan Sontag, David Berkowitz, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes

2011 Awards for Fantoni/Nunes forfeited for collusive cheating.

Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Tor Helness, Geir Helgemo

Nick Nickell, Ralph Katz, Bob Hamman, Zia Mahmood, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell
2012 Title forfeited for collusive cheating by Fantoni/Nunes.

Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Tor Helness, Geir Helgemo

Nick Nickell, Ralph Katz, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell, Bobby Levin, Steve Weinstein
2013 Wojciech Gawel, Rafal Jagniewski, Jacek Kalita, Michal Nowosadzki Leslie Amoils, Peter Bertheau, Thomas Bessis, Joe Grue, Jacob Morgan, Brad Moss
2014 Title forfeited for collusive cheating by Fisher/Schwartz.

Richard Schwartz, Allan Graves, Lotan Fisher, Ron Schwartz, Boye Brogeland, Espen Lindqvist

Place forfeited for collusive cheating by Fantoni/Nunes.

Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Tor Helness, Geir Helgemo|-

2015 Title forfeited for collusive cheating by Fisher/Schwartz.

James Cayne, Ron Schwartz, Lotan Fisher, Michael Seamon, Lorenzo Lauria, Alfredo Versace

Place forfeited for collusive cheating by Fantoni/Nunes.

Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Fulvio Fantoni, Claudio Nunes, Tor Helness, Geir Helgemo

The EBL convicted Fisher/Schwartz, Fantoni/Nunes, Piekarek/Smirnov of collusive cheating but did not remove any titles.

The IBF convicted Fisher/Schwartz of collusive cheating and has renounced titles won with the pair,

"With this in mind, following the verdict returned and independently of the sentence to be given later, the IBF has decided to inform the European Bridge League that it is renouncing the European titles won by Israeli teams which included the pair Fisher-Schwartz. 1. European Junior Teams Championship, Bulgaria 2011 2. European Open Teams Championship, Croatia 2014"[12]

The EBL has yet to respond if it is accepting the revocation of these titles.

In 2002, a member of the second place USA team refused to take a drug test after USA won the silver medal.[13] The WBF kept the second place for USA, and gave a silver medal to other members of the USA team but stripped the player who refused to take a drug test.

In 2013, in the finals of the Senior Bowl in Bali, the USA team accused two players of the winning German team of coughing to signal information about the hand. The accusation was filed with the WBF during the final. The WBF awarded the gold medal to the German team and started an investigation. Over a year later, the WBF stripped the gold medal from Germany and awarded the gold medal to USA.

The Italian Bridge Federation (FIGB) investigation of Fantoni/Nunes included allegations that Fantoni/Nunes were cheating while representing Monaco and playing against Italy in the final of the Bermuda Bowl in 2013. Italy won the event and Monaco placed second. FIGB found Fantoni/Nunes guilty. Fantoni/Nunes have appealed this sentence. The WBF have yet to act on the FIGB findings.

Test of WP:1RR

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How does WP:0RR and WP:1RR work


References

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  1. ^ "ACBL Code of Disciplinary Regulations (CDR)" (PDF). ACBL. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  2. ^ a b c "ACBL Disciplinary Actions". ACBL. Retrieved 2016-07-31. Cite error: The named reference "ACBL Disciplinary Actions" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c d "Jacoby Open Swiss Previous Winners". ACBL. Retrieved 2016-07-31. Cite error: The named reference "Jacoby Open Swiss Previous Winners" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Blue Ribbon Winners". ACBL. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  5. ^ a b "Mitchell BAM Winners". ACBL. Retrieved 2016-07-31. Cite error: The named reference "Mitchell BAM Winners" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Mixed BAM Previous Winners". ACBL. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  7. ^ "NABC+ Open Swiss Previous Winners". ACBL. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  8. ^ a b c "Reisinger Winners". ACBL. Retrieved 2016-07-31. Cite error: The named reference "Reisinger Winners" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b c "Spingold Previous Winners". ACBL. Retrieved 2016-07-31. Cite error: The named reference "Spingold Previous Winners" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  10. ^ "Wernher Open Pairs Winners". ACBL. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  11. ^ "Vanderbilt Previous Winners". ACBL. Retrieved 2016-07-31.
  12. ^ IBF. "IBF statement". Hanan Sher. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  13. ^ Jourdain, Patrick (September 2, 2002). "CN QU: Bridge Player Is Stripped Of Medal For Refusing Drug". The Daily Telegraph. reprint: Media Awareness Project (mapinc.org). Retrieved 2015-01-13.