thurn & taxis   

Updated 11/17/2011

2011 WBC Report  

   2012 Status: pending 2012 GM commitment

Kyle Smith, PA

2011 Champion

Links:

   
 

Event History
2006    Anne Norton       37
2007    Andy Latto     104
2008    Andy Latto     100
2009    Andy Latto       68
2010    Aran Warszawski       99
2011    Kyle Smith     112

Euro Quest Event History
2006    Rod Spade     41
2007    Rob Kircher     33
2008    Raphael Lehrer     42
2009    Cliff Ackman     47
2010    Rob Kircher     37
2011    Jim Castonguay     45
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Andy Latto         MA    10    108
  2.  Anne Norton        NJ    10     75
  3.  Rob Kircher        RI    11     72
  4.  Jim Castonguay     PA    11     42
  5.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    09     40
  6.  Raphael Lehrer     MD    08     32
  7.  Kyle Smith         PA    11     30
  8.  Aran Warszawski    is    10     30
  9.  Rod Spade          MD    06     30
 10.  Alex Bove          PA    11     27
 11.  Nick Henning       CT    10     27
 12.  David Meyaard      CT    07     24
 13.  Randy Buehler      WA    11     21
 14.  Cliff Ackman       PA    09     20
 15.  Amy Rule           MD    09     20
 16.  Karl Henning       VT    09     18
 17.  Eric Brosius       MA    06     18
 18.  Phil Rennert       MD    06     18
 19.  Michael Thompson   PA    09     16
 20.  Daniel Eppolito    NV    11     15
 21.  Haim Hochboim      is    11     12
 22.  Steven LeWinter    NC    11     12
 23.  Romaine Jacques    qc    10     12
 24.  Sarah Beach        MD    09     12
 25.  Bill Murdock       NY    08     12
 26.  Charlie Kersten    OH    06      9
 27.  Phil Taylor        NJ    06      9
 28.  Ray Pfeifer        MD    07      8
 29.  Cary Morris        NC    11      6
 30.  Mike Turian        WA    10      6
 31.  Arthur Field       SC    10      6
 32.  Tom Stokes         NJ    08      6
 33.  Tom Dunning        NY    08      6
 34.  Larry Loiacono     PA    07      6
 35.  Thomas Browne      PA    06      6
 36.  Sara Hagen         VA    06      6
 37.  Bill Zurn          CA    10      4
 38.  Sean Vessey        VA    08      4
 39.  Ted Bohaczuk       PA    07      4
 40.  Skip Maloney       NY    07      4
 41.  Sceadeau D'Tela    NC    11      3
 42.  Alexandra Henning  PA    11      3
 43.  Chad Weaver        PA    10      3
 44.  Ivan Lawson        MD    09      3
 45.  Jon Gemmell        CT    08      3
 46.  David Gagne        qc    06      3
 47.  Tom McCorry        VA    06      3
 48.  Norman Rule        MD    10      2
 49.  Lee Mewshaw        MD    09      2

2011 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists: 0

Alex Bove, PA
2nd

Steven LeWinter, NC
3rd

Randy Buehler, WA
4th

Cary Morris, NC
5th

Alexandra Henning, PA
6th

Past Champions

Anne Norton, NJ
2006

Andy Latto, MA
2007-09

Aran Warszawski, Israel
2010

Kyle Smith, PA
2011

Perriane Lurie, Cary Morris, Dan Hoffman and Steve LeWinter

David Meyaard and Jefferson Meyer

Changing of the Guard ...

While previous years had seen many familiar faces in the elimination rounds, this was a year of new blood in Thurn and Taxis which was only fitting given the record attendance for the two heats. Only two former semi-finalists, Randy Buehler and Andy Latto, reached the same stage this year. Alexandra Henning was the third member of her family to reach the semi-finals, and fell just one point short of being the third Henning ito ever reach the Final as well.

Randy had to discard a route early in the Final, and was soon out of contention. Kyle played a game of nearly perfect efficiency. The other players saw how well he was doing and united to try to stop him. Kyle did not get a Lodz card the first time through the deck, and needed to get one the second time through to get the all-colors bonus, so Randy, playing before Kyle, fell on his sword and took a Lodz card to keep it out of Kyle's hands. Kyle responded by pulling another from the top of the deck. And so it went. In a game in which he never used the Administrator, Kyle won in a runaway, 15-14-12-25.

Of the 38 4-player games, the first seat won 13. The later three positions won six, eleven, and eight games respectively. Combining this with statistics from the previous two years, we have 32 wins from players going first, 20 from second, 26 from third, and 22 from last. Although both Kyle and three-time champion Andy Latto prefer to go fourth, this is enough of a disparity that I'm considering adding bidding for start position in the elimination rounds next year. Send me an email and let me know what you think!

The tournament has grown to a somewhat awkward size. It's not big enough to have a quarter-final round, since qualifying 64 players would be over half the field. But with only two heats, only a handful of players win two games, and I hate having to exclude first-heat winners just because they didn't win by a sufficient margin. Should I add a third heat on Monday, making it easier for dedicated players to guarantee a semi-final spot by winning twice? Another possibility is to have a quarter-final, but to have 3-player games in the playoff rounds, so that we need qualify only 27 players for the quarter-finals. Since this year 28 players won their first heat, this would come close to my ideal of all and only first-heat winners advancing. In any case, I plan to change the tiebreak rules next year, so that a first and a second will qualify over just a first, or a first and a third. There should be close to 16 players who either win two heats or win their first heat and come in second in their second heat, reducing the importance of margin of victory, and giving someone who narrowly wins their first heat a better chance to make the semi-finals. Again, feedback is welcome!

Alex Henning and Faith Wobbeking

Angela Hoffman, Debbie Gutermuth and Andy Latto

2011 Euro Quest Laurelists

Jim Castonguay, PA
1st

Robert Kircher, RI
2nd

Haim Hochboim, Israel
3rd

Alex Bove, PA
4th

Daniel Eppolito, CA
5th

 GM      Andy Latto (3rd Year)  22 Creighton Ave, Foxborough, MA 02035  
    andy.latto@pobox.com   508-369-4170

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