for the people [Updated October 2006]  

2006 WBC Report    

 2007 Status: pending 2007 GM commitment

James Pei, TX

2001-06 Champion

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Event History
1999    James Pei     22
2000    Trevor Bender     21
2001    James Pei     22
2002    James Pei     29
2003    James Pei     32
2004     James Pei     35
2005    James Pei     24
2006     James Pei     27

PBeM Event History
1999    James Pei     24
2002    Stefan Mecay     46

WAM Event History
2003    James Pei      8
2004     James Pei     12
2005    James Pei     17
2006    James Pei     11

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  James Pei          VA    06    426
  2.  David Dockter      MN    06    147
  3.  Mark Giddings      NY    06     93
  4.  Trevor Bender      CA    03     62
  5.  Stefan Mecay       TX    02     60
  6.  Mike Mitchell      GA    05     47
  7.  Nicholas Pei       CA    06     38
  8.  Baron August       PA    02     36
  9.  Peter Reese        VA    04     28
 10.  Tim Miller         GA    04     24
 11.  Rob Winslow        NY    05     21
 12.  Dan Hoffman        NC    02     19
 13.  Hank Burkhalter    GA    02     18
 14.  Doug Whatley       MD    00     18
 15.  Tom Drueding       TX    99     18
 16.  Bill Pettus        NJ    05     16
 17.  Tim Miller         GA    05     12
 18.  George Young       VT    03     12
 19.  Paul Risner        TN    02     12
 20.  Tim Hughes         UK    02     12
 21.  Taylor Golding     ON    04     12
 22.  Bob Sohn           PA    05     11
 23.  Bill Thoet         VA    03     10
 24.  Steve Bucey        OH    99      9
 25.  Chris Byrd         CT    06      8
 26.  Doug Mercer        MD    05      7
 27.  Kevin McCarthy     OH    99      6
 28.  Keith Butler       CA    03      5
 29   Tom Thorsen        NY    06      4
 30.  Henry Russell      PA    06      4
 31.  Don Chappell       TX    05      4
 32.  John Firer         WI    01      4
 33.  Chris Byrd         CT    06      3
 34.  Mike Welker        OH    99      3
 35.  Jon Gautier        NY    06      2

2006 Laurelists

David Dockter, MN
2nd

Nicholas Pei, CA
3rd

Mark Giddings, NY
4th

Chris Byrd, CT
5th

Tom Thornsen, NY
6th


Past Winners

James Pei, TX
1999, 2001-2005

Trevor Bender, CA
2000


 Chris Byrd (left) and George Young, a pair of accomplished CDW champs in their own right, lead the challengers to the slaughter in the first round of Pei's re-coronation.

 In a rite of passage as regular as the swallows returning to Capistrano, Dave Dockter (left) can be found losing to James Pei in the FTP Final every August.

Ho-Hum, Pei Again ...

The eighth rendition of the tournament, was one of the toughest fields ever despite being scheduled opposite the big draw in the CDW field this year: Twilight Struggle. Of the 27 participants all but four had competed in three or more years in this war for the Union. As has been the case in the past the box score results continue to show no bias for side (e.g., Union or Confederate), unless James Pei is playing, in which case what ever side he plays is strongly biased to win. Reminiscent of the famous K versus K chess championships (Karpov versus Kasparov), James won his 7th FTP championship in another D versus P (Dockter versus Pei) Final matchup.

One of the exciting things about WBC is it causes more year round competition, which means that popular competitive games get played and by definition CDG games seem to foster competitive play. Games like For The People have now been around and continuously played, so like chess, strategic theory and tactics have reached a very high level over the last eight years. Here is a brief summary of some of the tournament's highlights:

1. Dockter in the Final asked the GM to roll the die to determine the sides between himself and Pei hoping that the GM would give him better luck in getting the CSA. The GM rolled a '4', which was Union. There was a huge roar in unison by the small crowd gathering around the table. The look on David's face was priceless, as James is deadly with the South.

2. Foreign Intervention was achieved twice. One was by Bob Sohn in his Round 1 match against Carl Copeland. The other was by Pei in the Final. This event card is such a rare occurrence that many people have never actually seen it played.

3. Greg Schmittgens used the Monitor card as an event to remove the Virginia ironclad in Aquia Creek in his Round 2 match against Pei. Pei had DC bottled up in the Potomac, preventing the Union from doing any naval adventures. Greg's card play came just in time too as Rebel forces were threatening to cut DC supply.

4. Mark Giddings, in his Round 3 match against David Dockter, survived several gut-wrenching moments when DC was open with two CSA armies maneuvering nearby. At one point, four armies were operating at close quarters in Pennsylvania with DC empty of any garrison. Giddings saved that situation, but eventually fell to Dockter's daring and risky tactics.

5. Tom Thorensen, in the Round 3 match against Nick Pei (younger brother of James), survived another critical moment when Nick's Rebels almost doubled the Union SW late in 1862. Through judicious and deliberate play, Tom mounted a comeback 1863, but the Union eventually fell when CSA doubled the SW early '64.

6. Chris Byrd, a card shark on the rise, used a combination of Draft Riots, Forward to Richmond, and a Major Campaign to resuscitate the lost Rebel cause by capturing DC from James Pei's Union forces. Chris has won championships in We The People and Hannibal, and now is eyeing For The People . His CSA forces were reeling on all fronts against the onslaught of the Union's anaconda strategy. The timely play of those event combos gave him a glimmer of hope. But in late '62, he resigned due to the rapid collapse of the Confederacy and the imminent arrival of Unconditional Surrender Grant.

7. David Dockter survived two consecutive turns of hair-raising card plays in the Final. His Union forces successfully fought against Bobby Lee's Army, and rolled back the Rebel incursion into Ohio. He weathered the play of a Major Campaign and Choctaw Indians cards by James that saw the destruction of the Army of the Cumberland under Little Mac. Moreover, DC was saved and never lost due to the excellent defensive tactics that David employed. However, David made several crucial errors in his placement of leaders and forces that gave James enough time to gain the upper hand and eventually the championship.

See you all next year for the ninth running of the For The People tournament.


2002 PBeM Tournament

Stefan Mecay of Texas proved the best of a field of 46 in winning the second BPA PBeM tournament of For The People. Other laurelists were:

2nd: Baron August, PA

3rd: James Pei, VA

4th: Mark Giddings, NY

5th: Tim Hughes, UK

6th: Paul Risner, FL

 GM      Mark Herman  [4th Year]   NA
    markherman@aol.com    NA

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