Fulvio Fantoni is an Italian international bridge player. He is a six-time world champion, a World Grand Master of the World Bridge Federation After Pedro, and the WBF first-ranked player as of December 2011. 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. Nunes also lives in Ostia and they see each other socially. 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.
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. The team finished third in the 2010 world championship, not yet full-time, and competed in the 2011 European Bridge League open championship. 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 in the led suit at the European Bridge Championship in 2014. Three separate investigations were conducted and they were found guilty.
On March 19, 2016, the FIGB banned the pair for three years.
On July 18, 2016, the European Bridge League banned each from play for five years and as a partnership for life.
On January 10, 2018, The Court of Arbitration of Sport reversed the decision of the EBL and all sanctions were canceled.
On July 15, 2018, The FIGB's Federal Appellate Court reversed its own decision and all sanctions were canceled.
The ACBL sanction remains in place. The appeal has not been expired yet. All others have been overturned.
The players' appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport resulted in a judgement in their favour in January 2018. Only the ACBL sanction remains in place; all others have been overturned.
