I have read your “Collateral Damage” & the Wolff’s blogs on cheating with horrified fascination and sometimes open-mouthed disbelief!

May I pose the following questions, please?

1) The world is not always fair. There will always be cheats and maybe the good guys are not perfect. I think the Bermuda Bowl can hardly be classed as an open world championship and is heavily slanted in favour of the US team?

2)The Patino book seems to be mythical even if written publication outside of the US would risk massive libel suits?

3)When attacking others do not American so-called experts observe any standards of morality? Why present unsubstantiated claims as truth?

4)Can you really expect the ACBL etc to do more than require screens etc? They exist to

administer not to pursue personal vendettas?

5)Alan Sontag’s autobio is brutally honest and surprisingly self-accusing but do you have any real right to expect him to subscribe to your personal code of ethics?

I am offering you this comment because your approach seems balanced so please forgive me if I come over as critical

Thanks

Ian Graham

Ian,

You are certainly entitled to ask whatever you want. As for your questions, with brevity I will answer.

1) The world is not always fair. There will always be cheats and maybe the good guys are not perfect. I think the Bermuda Bowl can hardly be classed as an open world championship and is heavily slanted in favour of the US team?

No, the world is not always fair. I am sure some feel the Bermuda Bowl is “heavily slanted in favour of the US” but I would not pretend to know.

2)The Patino book seems to be mythical even if written publication outside of the US would risk massive libel suits?

I have not read the Patino book so I cannot comment with accuracy. Certainly libel laws vary from country to country. I recall the wonderful movie Absence of Malice with Paul Newman dealing with libel in America.

3)When attacking others do not American so-called experts observe any standards of morality? Why present unsubstantiated claims as

truth?

I I don’t think American experts are any more or less ethical than any other nation. I do think the vast majority of experts regardless of terre natal are ethical. I am unclear as to which unsubstantiated claims” you are referring. Certainly some do, and I would hope (as I have tried to do) to note for the reader that this passage is speculative or a matter of opinion, not fact. Sometimes the reader must judge that for himself.

4)Can you really expect the ACBL etc to do more than require screens etc? They exist to

administer not to pursue personal vendettas?

As the administrative body, the have a duty to their members to provide a level playing field, where anyone has a chance however remote to win. The fix can’t be in. The Superbowl, World Series or World Cup (soccer) would lose its integrity and fan base if the winner was predetermined by unlawful means.

No, they are not in the business of vendettas. Perhaps you know someone who has a vendetta, I merely call upon them to do what is right. If you were the prosecutors and had signed confessions and eye-witness testimonies

let the criminal walk, you would be fired or at the very least called upon to justify your actions.

5)Alan Sontag’s autobio is brutally honest and surprisingly self-accusing but do you have any real right to expect him to subscribe to your personal code of ethics?

I loved the Bridge Bum by Sontag. No I don’t expect him to subscribe to any code of ethics other than his own.

This is the same person who in a famous match against the Italians allowed a redeal (not in the laws) when Forquet bid out of turn on the first deal. He said – “I did not want to win on a technicality.”

I applauded that. It won him IBPA sportsman of the year. Good for him.

I also asked if winning with team mates cheating at the other table was better or worse than winning on a technically.

Every expert I asked from Grant Baze to Paul Soloway (lots of still living ones too, who prefer not to be named) said they would eagerly divest themselves of an unlawfully won title. Why don’t you ask Sontag why he clings to it like a barnacle to the side of a listing ship?

Please email me if you wish further details.

c.jfrench@rogers.com

Cheers,

C

I am offering you this comment because your approach seems balanced so please forgive me if I come over as critical

Thanks

Ian Graham