The New York Times: After year of ‘rampant’ cheating, elite bridge tries to clean up

The New York Times reports that as the pandemic forced most elite bridge players online, the problem of cheating consumed the game’s highest levels. Top players say a tight-lipped culture is finally changing. Times writer Alan Yuhas spoke with A.J. Stephani, a contract bridge player, who is also co-director of the Weaver Institute for Law and Psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

In interviews, top players, league officials and data analysts described a surge in cheating as the coronavirus pandemic pushed players online, and a subsequent backlog of cases in the game’s byzantine disciplinary system. “It’s a problem. I think anybody who says it’s not a problem is probably naïve,” Stephani, told the Times.

He serves as the chair of the appeals and charges committee — a kind of Supreme Court of bridge — for the American Contract Bridge League, North America’s biggest federation.

Read the full New York Times article.