Fulvio Fantoni (born 9 November 1963)[1] is an Italian international bridge player. He is a six-time world champion, a World Grand Master of the World Bridge Federation (WBF), and the WBF first-ranked player as of December 2011.[2] He is one of 10 players who have won the Triple Crown of Bridge.

Fantoni was born in Grosseto. November 1963, Fantoni says that he has lived "practically since I was born" in Ostia, in the coastal district of Rome. His regular partner for many years is Claudio Nunes, the second-ranked World Grand Master (April 2011). Nunes also lives in Ostia and they see each other socially.[3]

They play "Fantunes", for their surnames, an innovative bidding system characterised by natural but forcing one-level opening bids in all four suits. The pair was implicated in a cheating scandal in 2015 resulting in sanctions against them, only some of which were negated by appeals.

Emigration to Monaco

Since 2011 Fantoni and Nunes are full-time members of a team led and paid by the Swiss real-estate tycoon Pierre Zimmermann, under contract expiring 2016. From 2012 all six members would be residents of Monaco and the team would represent Monaco internationally.[4] The team finished third in the 2010 world championship, not yet full-time, and competed in the 2011 European Bridge League open championship (neither is a national teams event). In the 2012 the team won the European Team Championship and got the second place in the 2014. They were also runner up in Bermuda Bowl 2013 in Bali.

Cheating scandal

In September 2015, Fantoni and Nunes were publicly accused of cheating by orienting a played card to show a missing high honour (Ace, King, Queen) in the led suit at the European Bridge Championship in 2014. Three separate investigations were conducted and they were found guilty.

"the majority of the Panel concludes that the exchange of information through the Code has not been proven to its comfortable satisfaction and rules that the appeal filed by the Players shall be upheld. Such conclusion does not mean that the players are innocent of any wrongdoing, it only means that the EBL did not manage to prove to the comfortable satisfaction of the majority of the Panel that the Players committed an infraction of the EBL Rules."

  • On July 15, 2018, the FIGB's Federal Appellate Court reversed its own decision and all sanctions were canceled.[8]

Only the ACBL sanction remains in place; all others have been overturned.

Subsequent controversy

In the 2021 European championships, Italy included Fantoni on its team. In protest, the remaining national teams refused to play against the Italians and subsequently forfeited their games.[9][10] Several national bridge associations indicated support for the forfeitures.

Major tournament wins

Runners-up

References

  1. ↑ "FANTONI Fulvio". Athlete Information. SportAccord World Mind Games. December 2014. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
  2. ↑ Open Classification Archived 27 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine, World Bridge Federation. Confirmed 2010-11-07.
  3. ↑ Fulvio Fantoni: Claudio Nunes is much stronger than I am!, Interview by Laura Camponeschi, neapolitan club online bridge magazine, 8 Nov 2010. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
  4. ↑ "Helgeness and Fantunes Immigrate to Monaco" Archived 12 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, BridgeTopics.com, 14 December 2010. Originally published in Norwegian: Alf Helge Jensen, "Helgeness skal spille for Monaco", Bridge i Norge (ed. Boye Brogeland), 13 December 2010. Confirmed 2011-08-23.
  5. ↑ "European Bridge League Disciplinary Committee ruling regarding Fantoni and Nunes, July 2016" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 January 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  6. ↑ "Report of the ACBL Ethical Oversight Committee" (PDF). Daily Bulletin. ACBL. 88 (5): 1. 26 July 2016.
  7. ↑ CAS 2016/A/4783 Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes v. European Bridge League (EBL) Retrieved 3 February 2018
  8. ↑ FIGB's Federal Appellate Court decision (It.)
  9. ↑ Sawer, Patrick (26 August 2021). "Teams refuse to face Italy as cheating claims rock European Bridge League". The Telegraph. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  10. ↑ Reyes, Lorenzo (27 August 2021). "European bridge league teams boycotting Italy over cheating claims". USA Today. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  11. ↑ "Wernher Open Pairs Winners" (PDF). American Contract Bridge League. 22 July 2014. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  12. ↑ "Blue Ribbon Winners" (PDF). American Contract Bridge League. 3 December 2013. p. 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  13. 1 2 "Jacoby Open Swiss Previous Winners" (PDF). American Contract Bridge League. 29 March 2014. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  14. ↑ "Mitchell BAM Winners" (PDF). American Contract Bridge League. 1 December 2013. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  15. ↑ "Mixed BAM Previous Winners" (PDF). American Contract Bridge League. 24 July 2014. p. 14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  16. 1 2 "Reisinger Winners" (PDF). American Contract Bridge League. 6 December 2013. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  17. ↑ "Roth Open Swiss Previous Winners" (PDF). American Contract Bridge League. 26 July 2014. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  18. 1 2 "Spingold Previous Winners" (PDF). American Contract Bridge League. 21 July 2014. p. 12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  19. 1 2 World Team Championship Winners
  20. ↑ "Vanderbilt Previous Winners" (PDF). American Contract Bridge League. 24 March 2014. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
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