Alan (Fraser) Truscott

Bridge player and writer, born in London, UK. He won several Oxford University chess titles and was European bridge champion (1961). Named bridge editor of the New York Times in 1964, he became the only US newspaper columnist to regularly cover events as well as provide instruction. He also wrote 13 books and edited the first three editions of the Encyclopedia of Bridge. He became famous for his involvement in the scandal surrounding the world bridge championships in Buenos Aires in 1965, when he denounced the British team for cheating.

Alan Fraser Truscott (16 April 1925 – 4 September 2005) was a bridge player, author and columnist. He wrote the daily bridge column for The New York Times for 41 years, from 1964 to 2005.

Truscott was born in Brixton, London, and showed early prowess at chess as well as bridge. He studied at the University of Oxford from 1947, playing for the university at both chess and bridge. He was a member of the British team (along with Terence Reese and Boris Schapiro) that won a bronze medal at the European bridge championships in 1951, aged only 26. A pair of British players (Reese and Schapiro) were accused of using their fingers to pass information about their cards by an American pair (B. Truscott believed the British pair were guilty, although they were cleared by an inquiry set up by the British Bridge League.

He wrote 13 books on bridge, and was executive editor of the first three editions of The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge. He married his second wife, Dorothy Hayden, an American mathematician and international bridge player, in 1972.