history of the world

Updated Nov. 16, 2015

2015 WBC Report

2016 Status: pending 2016 GM commitment

Mark J. Smith

2015 Champion

Event History

1993 Ben Grimes 53
1994 Gordon Bliss 102
1995 Tim Johnson 105
1996 Keith Levy 102
1997 Bruce Monnin 108
1998 Greg Crowe 72
1999 Jonas Borra 68
2000 Robert Destro 70
2001 Harald Henning 56
2002 Rolinda Collinson 52
2003 Mike Backstrom 49
2004 Haim Hochboim 55
2005 Mark Pitcavage 42
2006 Craig Yope 44
2007 Gregory Kulp 39
2008 Jeff King 32
2009 Henry Dove 45
2010 Jeff King 50
2011 Kevin Youells 46
2012 Joe Collinson 47
2013 Harald Henning 46
2014 Nathan Barhorst 42
2015 Mark J. Smith 45

Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Harald Henning     CT    13    196
  2.  Kevin Youells      FL    15    138
  3.  Jeff King          OH    10    124
  4.  Joe Collinson      MD    12    108
  5.  Mark Smith         KY    15     96
  6.  Rolinda Collinson  MD    05     90
  7.  Jonas Borra        NY    02     84
  8.  Nathan Barhorst    MI    14     80
  9.  Henry Dove         MD    11     80
 10.  Gregory Kulp       NJ    11     74
 11.  Mike Backstrom     MN    03     68
 12.  Christina Hancock  NH    14     60
 13.  Haim Hochboim      il    04     60
 14.  Robert Destro      NJ    00     60
 15.  Dominic Duchesne   qc    12     54
 16.  Ty Hansen          DC    15     50
 17.  Mark Pitcavage     OH    05     50
 18.  Allen Kaplan       NJ    01     48
 19.  Graeme Dandy       au    15     42
 20.  Craig Yope         MI    06     40
 21.  Jamie Tang         MD    06     36
 22.  Peter Busch        OH    04     36
 23.  Tony Cadden        MD    00     36
 24.  Bob Aarhus         NC    99     36
 25.  Jennifer Visocnik  IL    14     34
 26.  Greg Crowe         MD    12     32
 27.  Virginia Harley    VA    13     30
 28.  Patrick Gorman     PA    09     30
 29.  Steve Scarangella  NY    15     24
 30.  TJ Halberstadt     IN    08     24
 31.  Malinda Kyrkos     NY    01     24
 32.  Joe Burch          MD    99     24
 33.  Terry Coleman      CA    04     23
 34.  Bill Boynton       ME    05     20
 35.  Mike Horn          FL    14     18
 36.  John Elliott       MD    10     18
 37.  Paul Bean          MA    00     18
 38.  Chris Hancock      NH    99     18
 39.  Eric Kleist        MD    08     16
 40.  Michael Mullins    MD    07     16
 41.  Jon Anderson       PA    13     15
 42.  Lee Waters         MD    12     15
 43.  Bill Beswick       IN    09     15
 44.  Duane Wagner       NJ    06     14
 45.  Scott A. Smith     PA    10     12
 46.  James D. Long      PA    07     12
 47.  Rachel Power       MI    04     12
 48.  Andrew Kutzy       NY    02     12
 49.  Michael Pacheco    CA    99     12
 50.  Nick Pei           CA    12     10
 51.  Matthew Beach      MD    09     10
 52.  Evan Davis         IN    05     10
 53.  Richard Beyma      MD    08      8
 54.  Chris Trimmer      TX    06      8
 55.  Christina Harley   WA    15      6
 56.  Carl Adamec        NY    14      6
 57.  Keith Altizer      FL    04      6
 58.  Richard Fox        IL    02      6
 59.  Ivan Lawson        MD    01      6
 60.  Paul McCarthy      NY    00      6
 61.  John Rinko         VA    99      6
 62.  Ray Bergeron       NY    11      5
 63.  Scott Bowling      IN    05      5
 64.  Aran Warszawski    il    08      4
 65.  Rachel Harley      VA    07      4
2015 Laurelists Returning Laurelists: 1

Kevin Youells, PA
2nd

Stephen Scarangella, NY
3rd

Graeme Dandy, au
4th

Ty Hansen, DC
5th

Christina Harley, WA
6th

Past Winners

Gordon Bliss, MA
1994

Keith Levy, MD
1996

Bruce Monnin, OH
1997

Greg Crowe, MD
1998

Jonas Borra, NY
1999

Robert Destro, NJ
2000

Harald Henning, CT
2001, 2013

Rolinda Collinson, MD
2002

Mike Backstrom, MN
2003

Haim Hochboim, Israel
2004

Mark Pitcavage, OH
2005

Craig Yope, MI
2006

Gregory Kulp, NJ
2007

Jeff King, ME
2008, 2010

Kevin Youells, PA
2011

Joe Collinson, MD
2012

Nathan Barhorst, MI
2014

Mark Smith, KY
2015

Joe Angiolillo moves on our resident paramedic Rex Lehman.

Roberto Fournier and Carl Adamec contest the Middle East.

The Tides of History ...

The 2015 tournament involved quite a bit of activity months before it even took place. First, nobody was sure who would be GMing the event until the game's original WBC GM (back in the days when the blue box version was used) decided to attend for the first time in five years; then, the semifinal had to be moved from Friday to Thursday to avoid a conflict with the Advanced Civilization Final. This wouldn't be the only conflict, as the Age of Renaissance title game was also inconvenienced. The GM almost had a conflict of his own, with B-17 scheduled to override the semifinal, but the big birds landed early this year.

45 players played at least one heat, with each heat manning six boards, although a few were 5-players. A change in the procedure to advance to the semifinals put an emphasis on finishing place over how close you were to your board's winner, with the top two from each semifinal board advancing.

The Final started with everyone wondering if Mark Smith, the #1 seed after the heats, would appear or opt for the Age of Renaissance Final instead. In the end, he chose History of the World, and managed to draw the Chinese dynasties in each of the first four epochs—a once in every 2,401 games probability—which put him into sixth place after Epoch 2, and kept him there through Epoch 6. Meanwhile, the lead changed hands frequently, with four of the other five finalists—Graeme Dandy, Kevin Youells, Christina Harley, and Stephen Scarangella—taking the lead (and the pre-eminence chit that goes with it) at one time or another. Only Ty Hansen never rose to the top. In the last Epoch, Youells had Russia, played a Civil War, placed three Armies—and watched as his opponent threw 5, 6, 6 to defeat all of them. Still, his five pre-eminence points was good enough to finish ahead of the others—or at least it would have been had Smith not been passed Britain. He turned in a 71-point turn to take the lead, got the 6-point pre-eminence marker, and after being in the "sand" position at the start of the last turn, the only sand he needed to worry about was if it happened to be the color of the Centurion shirt he gets for winning.

The other places were a close affair, with Youells finishing second on 178 (behind Smith's 187), then Scarangella, Dandy, and Hansen on 175, 174, and 173, respectively, with Harley's 161 earning the sand. Scarangella’s third was notable not only for being his first taste of laurels (and wood), but because he had just learned the game at the demo. Fast learner.

GM Don Del Grande (at left) with his six finalist conquerors.
GM Don Del Grande [4th Year] NA
don.delgrande@Att.net NA

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