web of power [Updated October 2004]  

2004 WBC Report  

 2005 Status: pending December Membership Century Vote

Andrew Greene, VA

2004 Champion

2nd: Steve Simmons, NJ

3rd: Travis St. Denis, ONT

4th: Ray Pfeifer, MD

5th: Jason Matthews, VA

6th: Roderick Lee, CA

Event History
2004    Andrew Greene     32


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 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Andrew Greene

VA

04
30
 2. Steve Simmons

NJ

04
18
 3. Travis St Denis

ONT

04
12
 4. Ray Pfeifer

MD

04
  9
 5. Jason Mathews

VA

04
  6
 6. Roderick Lee

CA

04
  3

Quick Diplomacy

Web of Power started life as Kardinal & Konig. It was designed by Michael Schacht and was published in 2000 by the German publisher Goldsieber. The English edition was published by Jay Tummelson and Rio Grande Games. (Thanks, Jay!) It has been a favorite of mine since I first played it early on at a Gathering of Friends, and I have wanted it to be a WBC tournament since that time. So I signed up as a volunteer GM before the December window for voting in new Century games, hoping that enough others would share my interest. Alas, WOP was only able to garner enough votes to gain 18th place in the 2004 Century voting results. But then WOP was granted a reprieve when GMT Games, in the person of BPA Board member Andy Lewis, sponsor ed it as a trial tournament. (Thanks, Andy!)

The tournament was run in two three-hour heats, allowing enough time to play three games in succession per heat. To advance to the semi-final, players had to win two games out of the six opportunities to play. Alternates would be the players who had won one game, and would be ranked according to their percentage of board's total points for their win. And it would be a "B" tournament, with a demo session to be held at Café Jay's. The demo was held in the earliest possible slot (6:00 PM Tuesday), and was attended by four newbies and one veteran who wanted a refresher.

The first heat started at 9:00 PM that night, and was attended by 25 players. There were six games played in the first set. Ray Pfeifer won at his table with 47 points, which was the lowest winning score in the entire tournament. David Gantt won in the tightest bunching of all the four-player games in the tournament with only nine points separating 1st and 4th. In the second set of games David Gantt and Jason Matthews became the first two to qualify for the semi-final by each getting their second wins. In the third set of games Andy Lewis and Roderick Lee each got their second wins, with Roderick winning his game with the highest total points (71) in all the four-player games and the largest lead over the runner-up (22 points) of all the games in the tournament. So at the end of the first heat there were four qualifiers for the semifinals, with Ray Pfeifer and John Kerr as the leading alternates.

The second heat took place on Saturday at 9:00 AM, and was attended by 11 players, four of whom had also played in the first heat. In the first set, Bill Beckman got his second win in the game that had the most total points scored (221). In the second set, Bill got his third win in the 3-player game with the tightest bunching at five points between 1st and 3rd places. And in the third set, Steve Simmons and Ray became the final two qualifiers by each winning their second game. At the end of the second heat there were a total of seven qualifiers and ten alternates.

Six qualifiers and four alternates posted for the semi-final. After deciding to take nine of the ten players for three three-player games, and crunching the winning percentages, I determined that I (whose Team Tournament game was WOP) was the one alternate who would not get to play! At one board, Travis St-Denis was able to come back from a poor showing in the 2nd round cloister scoring to win with a huge score in advisors to win over Jason and Bill. Andrew Greene beat Ray and John by holding off a surge of advisor points by Ray to win by one point. And Steve led Roderick and Andy throughout their game to win with 74 points, the highest total of all the games in the tournament.

In the final, Steve and Andrew were tied at 14 points and Travis had seven after the first scoring of cloisters. During the second half, Andrew concentrated nearly exclusively on cloisters and led Steve by 47 to 35 after the second scoring of cloisters. Andrew was the only one to score any cloister chains; scoring three for four points each. And though Travis scored 24 points (for a total of 51) and Steve scored 18 points (for a total of 53) to Andrew's zero points in advisors, neither total was enough to beat Andrew's total of 59 points to take the first ever WOP plaque.

Looking at the comparison of seating position to finishing position for the 16 four-player games played, the first seat finished first or third five times each and second only twice. The second seat finished first six times and last only once. The third seat finished last six times and first four times. And the player starting last only won once, but finished second six times and last five times. The results for the 13 three-player games were even more interesting: The first seat had the most wins (6), the second seat had the most seconds (6), and the third seat had the most thirds (7).

Although Web of Power may be offered at WBC in 2005 as a Continuing Trial, I hope that everyone interested in playing this game next year will remember to register for BPA before December 31st and vote to help raise it up to Century status. Thanks to all who took the time to attend, and thanks to Don and the Board for putting on such a great convention. See you next year in Lancaster!

 GM      Tom DeMarco  [1st Year]   720 Wood Lane, Cinnaminson, NJ 08077-3976 
   TomAnneTim@Comcast.net   NA

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