Claudio Nunes


Claudio Nunes is an Italian professional bridge player.
He is a five-time world champion, a World Grand Master of the World Bridge Federation, and the WBF second-ranked player as of April 2011. He is one of 10 players who have won the Triple Crown of Bridge.
Nunes was born in Rome. His regular partner for many years is Fulvio Fantoni, the first-ranked World Grand Master. Fantoni-Nunes are generally regarded as one of the top pairs worldwide. 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.

Emigration to Monaco

Starting in 2011, Fantoni and Nunes were 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 citizens 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.

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.
The players' appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport resulted in a judgment in their favor in January 2018.
Only the ACBL sanction remains in place; all others have been overturned or expired.

Major tournament wins

Awards

Wins

Runners-up

Bridge accomplishments

Awards

Wins

Runners-up