Games: Five-Finger Exercise

For days there had been an enormous amount of mysterious scurrying about at Buenos Aires' Plaza Hotel. It was most unusual, for the Plaza was the scene of a particularly staid and cerebral gathering: the 13th World Bridge Championship, among whose participants were some of the game's most polished players. They are normally a reserved and polite group. But there was reason for their excitability, and last week it came out in a terse, oblique communique from the World Bridge Federation.

"Certain irregularities," said the officials, had been reported and investigated. "The captain of the British squad . . . very sportingly conceded the matches to the United States and Argentina." In plain words, Britain's crack bridge team, which had been leading in a match with the U.S. for second place, conceded that match as well as the one it had won from the Argentines. The tournament ended with Italy's team the winner, the U.S. second, Argentina third, and Britain last.

In plainer words, the incredible fact was that the two leading members of Britain's team had been accused of systematically cheating. One was Terence Reese, 51, a saturnine, abrasive Oxford chap, inventor of an esoteric, seldom-used artificial bidding convention known as the "Little Major." He was also England's most brilliant writer on bridge (author of twelve books, columnist for the Observer and London's Evening News), and one of the two or three best players in the world. The other man was Boris Schapiro, 53, a gregarious ex-wholesale-butcher, now a

London baccarat dealer, and a longtime (25 years) partner of Reese's.

Peculiar Position. It was U.S. Player B. Jay Becker who, on the third day of the tournament, first spotted "something highly improper." Playing against Reese and Schapiro, Becker noticed that his opponents were holding their cards in a peculiar fashion: both Britons kept varying the position of their fingers; sometimes only one finger showed at the back of the fan of cards, sometimes there were two, or three—bunched together or splayed. Later, Becker watched Reese and Schapiro play against other teams. At first, he could not believe his eyes; it was inconceivable that two such highly regarded professionals should be so stupid as to cheat at all, let alone risk their standing with such juvenile self-indulgence.

Becker confided in Teammate and Partner Dorothy Hayden. She watched the Englishmen too, and agreed with Becker. Still uncertain, they passed their suspicions on to New York Times Bridge Columnist Alan Truscott and to non-playing U.S. Team Captain John Gerber. All four observed Reese and Schapiro closely; all concurred.