Enlightenment V

AGE OF RENAISSANCE WEEKEND
March 22-24, 2002
Hampton Inn, Hunt Valley, MD

Many thanks to Ken Gutermuth for stepping in to GM the event this year while Don Greenwood was busy elsewhere.

Enlightenment uses a unique scoring system that keeps most players in contention for a prize throughout the weekend rather than being eliminated by a poor showing or relegated to the "losers' table". Every player scores points as a percentage of the winner's score. This provides a real incentive to play against the leader to prevent run-away victories. In subsequent rounds, players are grouped according to their finish in the previous game ... with all round 1 winners paired in round 2, all second-place players together, and so on. The winners compete with each other - earning a bonus point for each other table's winner in that round they best by posting a wider margin of victory. The winner for the weekend will be that player with the highest total for any three of the four rounds.

Slow play is discouraged by penalizing all scores in games that take more than five hours. Use of a similar system in 2001 resulted in nearly all games finishing in under five hours, with some ending in less than four. The scoring was altered in 2002 by penalizing slow play rather than rewarding fast play, but the pace did not slacken much.

1998, 2001
Bill Crenshaw
1999
James Pei   
2000
Tom Taaffe

2002
John Coussis

Enlightenment V took place in Hunt Valley, Maryland on the weekend of March 22-24 during the height of March Madness in the heart of terrapin country drawing 36 Age of Renaissance players to compete in four rounds of mostly six-player games. Fourteen of the top 30 AREA rated players took part in the three-day tournament in which a player's best three scores counted toward the tournament score.

Twenty-four games were played with 34 players playing in all four rounds. Only five games went over the five-hour time schedule as this year penalties were assessed to scores for games lasting more than five hours.

In the first round on Friday evening, John Coussis led the way with a strong victory and defending champion Bill Crenshaw continued his remarkable Enlightenment winning streak with his fifth straight win. Other first round winners included Doug Mercer, strong newcomer Lyman Moquin (pictured at right), Nick Henning, and Jim Standard.

With the 1st round winners meeting on Saturday morning, Bill Crenshaw's streak came to an end as John Coussis once again triumphed and remained atop the leader board after two rounds. Other second round winners included Rob Kircher, Peter Stein, Nicholas Anner, Jim Eliason, and Ted Mullally.

As the third round came to an end Saturday evening, John Coussis finally tasted defeat but recorded a strong 2nd place finish to keep him atop the leader board. Third Round winners included Lyman Moquin and Peter Stein (who joined the two-time winner circle), Nick Smith, Carl Damcke, Ted Simmons, and Tim Kniker.

So the stage was set for an exciting finish in the fourth round on Sunday morning. John Coussis had already posted a three-game score of 297 for people to shoot at. Entering the Sunday round, eight players were still in the running for top wood.

In the fourth round, young Nick Henning (pictured at right) and Nick Smith managed to get their second wins of the weekend while Charles Hickok, Ewan McNay, Harold Siegelman, and Rob Flowers also joined the winner's circle.

When the morning's free donuts were but a memory, John Coussis, with a strong 2nd place finish on Sunday, improved his score to 306 edging out Lyman Moquin by a single point to earn the crown. John also had the best four-game score for the weekend while Lyman showed he understood the scoring system, eliminating the lowest score of the entire weekend to allow him to tightly contest the tournament. Nick Henning, Jim Standard, Charles Hickok, and Rob Kircher also won wood while placing third through sixth respectively.

Nick Smith once again was the player traveling the farthest for the weekend event, although he had company this year as John Coussis joined him in the jump across the Atlantic.

The average opening bid for the weekend was 2.8 with only 13 zero bids in the 24 games. Three individuals managed to buy out all the advances during the weekend. The average winning score was 1514 and eight individuals managied to score more than 2000 points and not win their game. All countries managed a win with Venice leading the way followed by London, Barcelona, Paris, Hamburg, and Genoa. London and Barcelona had the strongest tournament while never ending in last place.

Name Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Total Dropped Score Final Score
1. John Coussis 106 103 88 97 394 88 306
2. Lyman Moquin 104   6 106 95 311    6 305
3. Nick Henning 103 91 84 100 378 84 294
4. Jim Stanard 101 95 93 43 332 43 289
5. Charles Hickok 91 83 98 99 371 83 288
6. Rob Kircher 97 99 22 90 308 22 286
7. Ewan McNay 90 63 88 105 346 63 283
8. Bill Crenshaw 102 95 86 76 359 76 283
9. Nick Smith 48 71 101 104 324 48 276
10. Harold Siegelman 43 76 93 106 318 43 275
11. Carl Damcke 79 88 102 80 349 79 270
12. James Pei 92 96 81 81 350 81 269
13. Peter Stein 64 98 105 58 325 58 267
14. Ted Simmons 72 76 103 82 333 72 261
15. Dennis Nicholson 73 83 57 98 311 57 254
16. Nichokas Anner 89 105 53 58 305 53 252
17. Steve Simmons 78 66 88 86 318 66 252
18. Jim Eliason 51 106 28 93 278 28 250
19. Mark Frueh 77 60 94 78 309 60 249
20. Thomas Browne 90 84 74 47 295 47 248
21. Marvin Birnbaum 31 92 61 93 277 31 246
22. Doug Mercer 105 63 77 59 304 59 245
23. Ted Mullally 70 104 69 55 298 55 243
24. Ken Rothstein 76 53 85 DNP 214 - 214
25. Ken Gutermuth 66 64 81 51 262 51 211
26. Jim Jordan 83 63 62 DNP 208 - 208
27. Tim Kniker 47 61 97 49 254 47 207
28. Kathy Stroh 64 46 54 89 253 46 207
29. Peter Staab 71 37 49 80 237 37 200
30. Rob Flowers 50 44 24 102 220 24 196
31. Mark Neale 36 46 64 79 225 36 189
32. Jason Levine 38 42 66 78 224 38 186
33. Tom Cannon 25 57 89 37 208 25 183
34. Pierre LeBeouf 29 25 74 72 200 25 175
35. Greg Stripes 66 48 61 31 206 31 175
36. Vincent Coppola 44 77 53   9 183   9 174