Boris Schapiro
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Boris Schapiro (22 August/9 August old style 1909 - 1 December 2002) was a prominent British bridge player.
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[edit] Early life
Schapiro was born in Riga, Latvia (part of Imperial Russia at that time) into a rich family which left at the time of the Russian Revolution when he was eight years old, and soon settled in England. [1]
He was educated at school in England and at various universities, including the Sorbonne in Paris.
[edit] Bridge career
At the age of ten, Schapiro started playing bridge for money while at school.
[edit] Tournament success
He later won many tournaments, the first being Britain's Gold Cup in 1945. He also won the World Senior Pairs title (partnered by Irving Gordon) at the World Pairs Olympiad in 1998 at the remarkable age of 89. (The World Senior Pairs is an event restricted to people 55 years and older.)
Schapiro competed as part of the British team in the Bermuda Bowl, the pinnacle of all international bridge competitions, in 1955 and 1965. The British team won in 1955, but Schapiro's 1965 experience was altogether different.
[edit] 1965 Bermuda Bowl accusation
Schapiro was accused of cheating in the 1965 Bermuda Bowl in Buenos Aires. He and his British team partner Terence Reese were said to have been signalling to each other the contents of their hands — illegal by the rules of the game.
American players Dorothy Hayden and B. Jay Becker observed that the British pair were holding their cards with their fingers arranged in unusual ways. They conferred with Alan Truscott (the bridge editor of the New York Times) and arranged for the three of them to observe Reese and Schapiro whilst taking written notes indicating how many fingers were visible when each held their cards in each hand.
Subsequent comparisons of the official hand records to the notes (by Hayden, Becker, and Truscott) revealed that the fingers displayed indicated the number of hearts held. One finger meant one heart was held; two fingers together meant two hearts, while two fingers divided in a "V" shape meant five hearts; three fingers together meant three, with three fingers spread denoting six; four fingers together meant four, and four fingers spread meant seven hearts were held. No signal for a hand with a heart void was ever decoded.
Several other eyewitnesses, including Ralph Swimer (captain of the British team) also observed Reese and Schapiro and took notes on their finger signals. Later comparisons with hand records confirmed that the code remained consistent when Reese and Schapiro were partners, but disappeared when they played with other partners -- in other partnerships, both players always displayed four fingers together. The matter was then reported to World Bridge Federation (WBF) officials for adjudication.
The WBF, in hearings held at Buenos Aires, decided that Reese and Schapiro were guilty, banned them from the remainder of the Bermuda Bowl, and negotiated an agreement with the British team captain to officially forfeit all matches previously won during the tournament. The WBF then referred the matter to the British Bridge League (BBL) for consideration of what further punishment, if any, was appropriate.
At that time Schapiro averred that he would never again compete internationally. Eventually he would reverse this position.
The BBL convened their own enquiry into the matter under the direction of Sir John Foster. After many months and taking testimony from a number of eyewitnesses, bridge analysts, and character witnesses, the "Foster Enquiry", as it was called, concluded that Reese and Schapiro had not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and therefore acquitted them. In part, their decision was based on the opinion that Reese and Schapiro had not played especially well in Buenos Aires, which conflicted with Foster's assumption that a cheating pair must necessarily gain superior results.
(In 1966, Reese published a book on the Buenos Aires scandal entitled The Story of an Accusation. Truscott described the affair from his perspective in his 1967 book The Great Bridge Scandal.)
[edit] Bridge writing
Schapiro was bridge correspondent of The Sunday Times of London from 1968 until his death in 2002.
[edit] References
- Truscott, Alan (2004): The Great Bridge Scandal: the Most Famous Cheating Case in the History of the Game (second edition). Toronto: Master Point Press, ISBN 1-894154-67-3.
