mexica [Updated October 2004]  

 2004 WBC Report  

 2005 Status: pending December Membership Century Vote

Mario Lanza, PA

2004 Champion

2nd: Daniel Broh-Kahn, MD

3rd: Arthur Field, SC

4th: Jon Jaeger, VA

5th: Allyson Field, SC

6th: Jonathan Fox, IL

Event History
2002    John Weber     23
2003    Arthur Field     29
2004    Mario Lanza     23


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 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Mario Lanza

PA

04
34
 2. Arthur Field

SC

04
28
 3.  Daniel Broh-Kahn

MD

04
12
 4. Allyson Field

SC

04
10
 5. John Weber

MD

02
10
 6. Dan Farrow

PA

03
  8
 7. Jon Jaeger

VA

04
  6
 8. Jeff Bakalchuck

NY

02
  6
 9. David Wenstrup

SC

03
  4
10. Sean Vessey

VA

02
  4
11. Bruce Bernard

PA

02
  3
12. Jonathan Fox

IL

04
  2
13. Gary Noe

FL

03
  2
14. Barb Flaxington

NJ

02
  1

Past Winners

John Weber - MD
2002

Arthur Field - SC
2003
 


Still learning the ropes ...

There is a delicious irony at work in the candid photo of this year's Mexica final. There are five of us seated at the table; Arthur Field in the lower left, Mario Lanza in the upper left, me at the center, Jack Jaeger in the upper right and Daniel Broh-Kahn in the lower right. You'll notice that Arthur and Jack are shaking hands diagonally across the table, smiling as though they've been buddies since grade school. Daniel and myself are adding a similar smile to the proceedings. Only Mario, the eventual winner, is all business, glaring down at the board and preparing to make a move. The irony involved is that the hand-shakers were more or less at each othe's throats all game; trading pointed remarks, akin to "Your mother wears Army boots." There were actually a few remarks spread out over the course of that final game that were considerably more heated than that, but it was all (I was told by the combatants) in good fun.

This was, if nothing else, a hard fought battle, featuring the same "mano a mano" struggle between last year's first (Arthur) and second-place (Mario) finishers. It was a final characterized by defense. Each competitor was keenly aware of their opponents' abilities and moved as much to block and frustrate opponents' moves as they did in solidifying their own positions. With his victory from last year painting the target on his back, Arthur had to contend with three players who were more or less playing first, to beat him, and then, to win the game. Mario's 103 victory, though demonstrating his obvious skill at this game, owed a lot to Dan and Jack's (and his own) added effort to block Arthur. Daniel Broh-Kahn (Tikal's GM) finished in 2nd place with 95. Arthur had to settle for third with 93. Jack Jaeger finished with 85.

The event played host to 23 players, down slightly from last year's 29. In all, there were 13 games played (16 last year), nine in three preliminary heats, three in the semi-finals and, of course, the one final.

The average score, among the 49 recorded was 91, with a high of 132 (Charles Davis, who was unavailable for play in the semi-finals or the finals) and a low of 45 (scored, I'm embarrassed to admit, by me; long story, involving an "out of the box" strategy that backfired). The average winning score was the same as Mario,'s winning score in the final - 103. The lowest score recorded in a victory was 91 points (Sybil Buckwalter in Round 3; the average score in that game was 83 points.). Second-place finishers scored 95 points, on average, while all of the losing scores combined averaged out to 86 points. Oddly enough, that losers' average matched the scoring average of the "final four's" matches, indicating that as the competition heated up, the overall scoring went down. The average climbed eight points in the finals, to 94, but that was still nine behind the average winning score of 103. The average lowest score in the 13 games was 79 points (if you drop my low score out of that mix, the average jumps to 82).

The average score of the winners (103), set against the overall average of scores (91) and the average of all losing scores (86) was indicative of a broad range of skills competing in this year's tournament. It was, in other words, not all about high caliber players at work in the stratosphere of Mexica strategy and tactics. It was also about people like me, who averaged 72 points a game.

It was also, I am delighted to report, about families in competition with each other. There were the Broh-Kahns with dad Dan, son Kevin and daughter, Rebecca, who faced off against each other in the second round. . There were the Foxes with dad Richard and sons, Michael and Jonathan. And, of course, the ubiquitous Fields, represented by dad Arthur and daughter, Allyson, who, though determined to beat her dad this year after being beaten by him in last year's final, fell a little short.

My thanks to Arthur Field for assisting me with my GM duties; pointing me in the right direction when necessary and tolerant of my occasional ,"unfocused" moments. My thanks, as well, to Dan Broh-Kahn, who, as GM for Tikal, was cooperative in a schedule shift that allowed two of his Tikal finalists and himself to play in the Mexica finals. At the close of Mexica's semi-final matches, near midnight on Saturday, the finalists were facing a 9 o'clock start for both Tikal and Mexica. They chose, among a number of options, to play at 7 a.m. on Sunday. Dan brought the coffee, a big thermos of it, for which we were all eternally grateful. With such an early start, the Mexica finalists decided to play their game in an unscheduled location, which ultimately bumped into the finals for Puerto Rico and San Juan. The table on which the Mexica final was being played had to be physically moved, board and all, into another room before it concluded. At that point, Arthur and Jon (the "at each other's throats" couple) settled into the Tikal finals, full of joy and camaraderie at the prospect of facing each other across yet another gaming table. Don't know how that one turned out, but I'll bet it was fun to watch.

We'd like to see Mexica's numbers grow in the year ahead. It is certainly deserving of more competitors than the 52 that have played over the past two years. Anyone with ideas about how to help accomplish this should feel free to touch base with me. Maybe a 60-second commercial on World News Tonight?

 GM      Skip Maloney [2nd Year]   NA
    SkipM624@netscape.net   NA

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