caylus  

Updated 11/30/2009

2009 WBC Report  

 2010 Status: pending 2010 GM commitment

Peter Putnam, PA

2009 Champion

Offsite Links

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 Laurels Laurels

Event History
2006    Jeremy Spencer     72
2007    Andrew Gerb     44
2008    Sam Atabaki     43
2009     Peter Putnam     45

Euro Quest Event History
2006    Peter Putnam     20
2007     Peter Putnam     25
2008     Sam Atabaki     20

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Peter Putnam       MD    09     97
  2.  Andrew Gerb        MD    09     74
  3.  Sam Atabaki        CA    09     64
  4.  Jeremy Spencer     NC    06     40
  5.  Rich Meyer         MA    09     33
  6.  Michael Kaltman    PA    09     32
  7.  Rod Spade          PA    07     22
  8.  Jeff Meyer         MA    09     18
  9.  Raphael Lehrer     MD    07     12
 10.  Chris Trimmer      TX    07     12
 11.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    06     12
 12.  Christine Frattali WA    06     12
 13.  Tom Browne         PA    06     10
 14.  Marc Berenbach     MA    07      9
 15.  Alex Bove          PA    08      8
 16.  Ken Rothstein      NY    06      8
 17.  Kevin Walsh        NY    08      8
 18.  Jim Castonguay     PA    08      6
 19.  Alfred Smith       NC    07      6
 20.  Lance Slitka       MD    06      4
 21.  Louis Gehring      IN    08      3
 22.  Jack Jaeger        VA    06      2
 23.  Bill Zurn          CA    08      2

2009 Laurelists                               Repeating Laurelists:

Andrew Gerb, MD
2nd

Sam Atabaki, CA
3rd

Jeff Meyer, MA
4th

Mike Kaltman, PA
5th

Rich Meyer, MA
6th


Past Champions

Jeremy Spencer, NC
2006

Andrew Gerb, MD
2007

Sam Atabaki, CA
2008

Peter Putnam, PA
2009

GM Michael Kaltman (center) gets in some playing time.

The job isn't finished till the paper work is done.

Familiar Faces ...

The fourth year of Caylus at WBC featured it's fourth GM in as many years, but 2009 greatly resembled 2008 both in format and results.  Once again, two 3-hour heats were run; most games finished in two hours with the 4-player format (with 3-player games filling out the heats).  A notable exception was the 3-plus hour marathon match in Heat 1, won by defending champion Sam Atabaki, who edged last year's Caesar recipient Raphael Lehrer by four points.  Former champion Andy Gerb faced a similar test in Heat 1, bowing to Rich Meyer by a scant point.

In total, 34 players competed on nine boards on Tuesday night for Heat 1, with 11 new players joining eight from the previous heat to contest five boards on Thursday afternoon.  The 45 total players who attended slightly eclipsed last year's 43.  As is often the case, conflicts with other Euros likely kept the figures from being higher; the GM himself had to leave his duties for the second Heat to his assistant, the very capable Ken Horan (who was also notable for being the only player to win games in both heats), due to a conflict with the El Grande Final.

Due to an odd number of attendees among the winners and top alternates, exactly 14 players advanced to the semi-finals, with two 3-player and two 4-player games held.  The 3-player games were won by a pair of finalists from a year ago: Jeff Meyer (edging Ryan Sturm by 6) and Sam Atabaki (who dominated his table, winning by 26).  The remaining finalists from a year ago lost incredibly close contests to former champions: Rich Meyer fell to Andy Gerb (who won his second heat) by four points, earning 6th place, while new GM and 2008 runner-up Mike Kaltman lost by a single point to last year's GM, Peter Putnam to take 5th place laurels.

The Final was notable for its incredible uniqueness.  No castle builds or wood buildings were made in the first two turns as all players hoarded resources and cash.  Two players, Sam and Andy, actually scored ZERO points for the entire Dungeon Phase, while Jeff contributed one castle batch and erected the double-cloth wood building, and Peter made two batches just before the end of the first third (building the wood peddler for his favors).  Score at this point: 14-9-0-0, with Peter in the lead and Jeff with the only other points.

Three players hit the building-favor track, with Peter erecting two of the three stone production buildings (Workshop and Park) and Andy grabbing the stone Farm.  (The wood Mason, by comparison, would not appear until after the goldmine space, and was only used once by Jeff, who went for the point track instead.)  Peter maintained his lead, despite Andy winning a castle favor in a round where all four players hit the castle.  The score after the Wall Phase was Peter 31, Andy 26, Jeff 21, Sam 17.  The baliff was actually one spot before the 'end of phase' space when the round ended.

The Tower Phase would only take three rounds before the 14 requisite batches would be accepted.  Nine of those batches occurred in the second of those rounds from only two opponents, with Sam's five batches trumping Peter's four.  Andy took advantage of the situation (helped by the stables) to get the remaining four batches on the next round, ending the game.  All 17 wood and stone buildings were built, but only one residence (by Andy, who had no gold), and so no Prestige buildings.  As a result, the Final was also the lowest scoring game of the tourney.  Peter edged Andy by a point, 65-64, with Sam getting third with 58 and Jeff (who was shut out of the castle in that final phase) fourth with 39.

To sum up: last year's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place winners finished, in order: 3rd, 5th, 6th, 4th, and 2nd  and this year's 1st was last year's GM.

* * * *

Regarding my experience as a first-time GM, I was grateful for all the assistance I received regarding all the questions I had at the outset.  I thought the demo went well (though I had to scramble to make the first heat), and had a pretty smooth event straight through the Final table (which was a thrill for me to behold).  Overall I had a great experience with my duties, and look forward to being the first two-time GM for the event.

Special thanks again to Ken Horan for assisting.

See everyone next year for WBC 2010!

Richard Meyer, Pete Staab, Rob Barnes and Andrew Gerb have at it.

 Our finalists go for the gold. Three champs populate the final four.


2008 Euro Quest Laurelists

Sam Atabaki, CA
1st

Andrew Gerb, MD
2nd

Alex Bove, PA
3rd

Jim Castonguay, PA
4th

Kevin Walsh, NY
5th

 GM      Mike Kaltman (1st Year)  NA  
   coyote44@aol.com   215-876-7897

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