ReadersDigestAustraliaNewZealand-March2018

March• 2018 | 85

READER’S DIGEST

Ron Schwartz (left) and Lotan Fisher

PHOTO: BOYE BROGELAND

Robert Hartman, the CEO

ofACBL,declinestodiscuss

thespecificsofongoinginves-

tigations but admits that the

processforreviewingcheat-

ingcantakeayearorlongerto

play out.

Fisher and Schwartz aren’t

the only pair suspected of

cheating in recent history, ei-

ther. Fulvio Fantoni and Clau-

dio Nunes of Italy – ranked first

and second in the world in the

2014 European Champion-

ships – were expelled by ACBL

in 2016.

For his part, Brogeland had

no intention of waiting. De-

spite the risks to his career and repu-

tation – not to mention the fact that he

would be challenging rich and pow-

erful interests – he decided to bypass

the official channels and go public.

And so, on August 28, 2015, he went

live with Bridge Cheaters, where he

laid out his evidence.

Cheating investigators were under-

whelmed. Kit Woolsey, a mathe-

matician who has previously done

statistical analyses for the ACBL to

help implicate cheaters, wrote on

Bridge Winners, “His example hands

are an indication of possible wrong-

doing, but I do not believe that by

themselves they are proof of anything.”

BarryGoren,aUSprofessional,

excoriated Brogeland for publicly ac-

cusingthepairwithoutdueprocess.

“Personally,” Goren wrote on Bridge

Winners,“IthinkBoyeshouldbe

thrown out of bridge for the way this

was handled.”

As if in tacit acknowledgement

of how his failure to uncover actual

signalling by Fisher and Schwartz

weakened his case, Brogeland had in-

cluded links to three YouTube videos

of the pair in match play. On August

30, Brogeland’s friend Per-Ola Cul-

lin, a semi-professional bridge player,

watched one of the videos. In it, Fisher

makes a suspicious heart lead.

Cullin noticed that Schwartz set

downthesmallslottedboardthat

holdsthecards.Thiswasnormal.

Buthedidn’tplacetheboardinthe

centreof the table, its usual spot. In-

steadhesliditafewcentimetresto

theright,toonesideoftheopening

in the trapdoor of the anti-cheating