alhambre   

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

2013 WBC Report  

  2014 Status: pending 2014 GM commitment

Alan Elkner, NJ

2013 Champion

Event History
2004    Bruce Reiff       69
2005     Nate Hoam       97
2006    Michael Mullins       88
2007     Vassili Kyrkos       84
2008    L. Dan Hoffman       91
2009    Kevin Wojtaszczyk       99
2010    Luke Koleszar     122
2011    Vassili Kyrkos     116
2012    Bruce DuBoff     114
2013    Alan Elkner     144

Euro Quest BPA Event History
2004    Holliday Jones     22

 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Vassili Kyrkos     NY    11     70
   2.  Luke Koleszar      VA    10     58
   3.  Nate Hoam          OH    08     54
   4.  Alan Elkner        NJ    13     40
   5.  Bruce Duboff       NJ    12     40
   6.  Richard Meyer      MA    12     34
   7.  Kevin Wojtaszczyk  NY    09     30
   8.  Legend Dan Hoffman MD    08     30
   9.  Michael Mullins    MA    06     30
  10.  Bruce Reiff        OH    04     30
  11.  Alexandra Henning  PA    13     24
  12.  Thomas Strock      PA    12     24
  13.  Michael Shea       CT    11     24
  14.  Sam Atabaki        CA    10     24
  15.  Matt Calkins       VA    10     22
  16.  Peter Eldridge     uk    13     20
  17.  Holliday Jones     MD    04     20
  18.  Carolyn Strock     PA    09     18
  19.  George Sauer       OH    04     18
  20.  Jay Fox            NJ    11     16
  21.  Michael Wei        FL    10     16
  22.  Jeff Mullet        OH    13     16
  23.  Tom Dunning        NY    05     14
  24.  Ken Gutermuth      NC    13     12
  25.  Rodney Davidson    AZ    12     12
  26.  Eric Freeman       PA    11     12
  27.  Tom Stokes         NJ    10     12
  28.  Robert Drozd       IL    09     12
  29.  Matthew Amitrano   VA    09     12
  30.  Steve Koleszar     VA    08     12
  31.  Brian Kowal        WI    07     12
  32.  Christian Moffa    NJ    06     12
  33.  Ilan Tadmor        NY    05     12
  34.  Josh Cooper        MD    04     12
  35.  Perrianne Lurie    PA    04     12
  36.  Debbie Gutermuth   NC    09      9
  37.  Heather Palenshus  OH    08      9
  38.  Faisal Kassam      ab    07      9
  39.  Jeff Mullet        OH    06      9
  40.  David Buchholz     MI    05      9
  41.  Laurel Stokes      NJ    04      9
  42.  Lynda Shea         CT    12      8
  43.  David Meyaard      NY    10      8
  44.  Davyd Field        SC    08      6
  45.  Peter Putnam       PA    04      6
  46.  Tom Wojke          PA    04      6
  47.  Paul Klayder       KS    13      4
  48.  Tammy Lusk         NJ    11      4
  49.  Jim Vroom          PA    04      4
  50.  Alfred Smith       NC    09      3
  51.  Lisa Gutermuth     FL    08      3
  52.  Robert Kircher     RI    07      3
  53.  John Faella        RI    06      3
  54.  David Gagne        qc    05      3
  55.  Lee Presser        NY    04      3
  56.  Luann Stubbs       PA    04      2

2013 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists:

Alexandra Henning, PA
2nd

Jeff Mullet, OH
3rd

Peter Eldridge, uk
4th

Kem Gutermuth, NC
5th

Paul Klayder, KS
6th


Past Winners

Bruce Reiff, OH
2004

Nate Hoam, OH
2005

Michael Mullins, MA
2006

Vassili Kyrkos, NY
2007, 2011

Legend Dan Hoffman, MD
2008

Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY
2009

Luke Koleszar, VA
2010

Bruce DuBoff, NJ
2012

Alan Elkner, NJ
2013
 

Eric Sokolowsky, Angela Collinson, and Vassili Kyrkos

David Meyaard, Peter Eldridge, Paul Klayder and Rob Drozd

Bigger Than Ever!

Despite having only two qualifying heats, Alhambra shattered its attendance records by a wide margin. The first heat filled 18 tables and the second 20 - all 5-player affairs. Since only 25 can advance, tie-breakers were huge. For those wishing to advance, a win in their first try versus a win in their second attempt as well as the margin of victory were paramount.

First Heat Results:
· Michael Shea won Table 1 with a score of 85. His was the smallest margin of victory in the heat - only one point over Tom Marco. With this many players would it be enough?
· Ken Gutermuth won Table 2 with the next smallest margin of victory in the heat - 2 points over Kevin Shaud.
· Bryan Berkenstock won Table 3 by 4 points over Jess Shea.
· Ashley Worley had the highest overall score of 120 in this heat with a margin of victory of 20% over Thomas Lind. Despite having the highest score, she did not have the highest margin of victory.
· Peter Eldridge, WBC's reigning Sportsman of the Year, had the honor of the highest margin of victory of 29% over Nessa Savarick with a score of 105 to Nessa's 75. This guaranteed his advancement.
· Paul Klayder enjoyed the second highest margin of victory by 27% over chariot master John Jacoby.
· Andrew George scored the third highest margin of victory over Rob Larkins with a score of 110.
· Devon Miller won her Table with a score of 115. In this game Lou Traini had the lowest score of the heat (40) but would redeem himself in the next heat.
· Pete Gathmann won his table with a score of 108 and in the process ended defending champ Bruce DuBoff's title defense.
· Two-time champ Vassili Kyrkos reigned again over Michael Mullins.
· Luke Koleszar, the 2010 Alhambra Champion, pulled out to an early lead to win his table over Pam Gutermuth.
· Bob Laird had 0 points after the first scoring round, but won his table anyway going away 89-81 over GM Debbie Gutermuth.
· Eric Sokolowsky, the Math Trade honcho, won his table 96 - 91over Len Scensny with a score of 91 with the smallest overall wall length of 4. Len had a wall length of 16 in the last round so Eric had to make up at least 12 points elsewhere to cover this difference which was done by securing the lead in both Green and Purple buildings which are the highest paying and hardest to keep building leader.
· Angela Collinson, Alex Henning, Maria Calandrino, Rebecca Hebner, and Richard Fetzer all won their tables to add four ladies to the contenders.

Second Heat:
Since there was an increase in the number of tables in the first round, a player winning in their second heat was not guaranteed advancement, but would need to win a better margin of victory tie-breaker.
· Ashley Worley, Pete Gathmann, Eric Sokolowsky, and Ken Gutermuth all secured advancement by winning again in the second heat.
· Michael Wojke won his table with the lowest margin of victory in the heat by virtue of a tiebreaker over Charles Faella. This was his second heat and with the smallest margin of victory he was on the bubble as the last potential qualifier.
· Laura DeWalt didn't fare much better - having won her second attempt by only 3 points over Grant LaDue.
· Lou Traini's 4-point margin of victory over Yoel Weiss was also in alternate territory, but it was a huge improvement over his first heat low score.
· Alan Elkner, Pete Stein, Robert Drozd, and Theodore Mullally all won with low margin of victories, but since this was their first attempt they placed higher on the qualifier list.
· Jeff Mullet had the honor of the highest margin of victory of 29% over Norwegian Vidar Aas and stamped his ticket to the next round.
· Craig Moffit won with the next highest margin of victory (28%) over Albert Schwartz and the highest overall score (164) in the heat.
· Michael Mullins and David Maynard won their tables with a 9 wall length which was the smallest amongst the winners in this heat.
· The other second heat winners were Rod Davidson, Robert Larkins, John Faella, Nessa Savarick, and Chris Kalmbacher who all won on their second try with fairly average margins of victory which would put them in the middle of second heat winners for possible advancement.

There were 34 different winners from the two heats which could have meant nine would be denied a chance to continue. However, as usually happens, six did not appear, leaving only three individuals who would be disappointed by their tie-breaker standing.
· Table 1 had Ashley Worley, Alex Henning, Devon Miller, Craig Moffit, and Mike Mullins. Ashley had won both her earlier heats to advance and must have used up all her luck in doing so, fading to fourth. Alex won the battle of the ladies to reach the Final.
· Table 2 was contested by Eric Sokolowsky, Angela Collinson, Vassili Kykros, Jeff Mullet, and Rob Larkins. Vassili would not be able to add to his Alhambra titles - coming in last. Eric, who like Ashley had won in both his earlier heats, also ran out of gas. Jeff was able to gain and hold a very large lead over Robert to advance.
· Table 3 was manned by Alan Elkner, Pete Gathmann, Rebecca Hebner, John Faella, and Michael Shea who finished in that order when Alan got out to a large early lead and held on for the win.
· Ken Gutermuth reigned at Table 4 for his third straight win and thus became the only repeating laurelist. Andrew George was second, followed by Bryan Berkenstock, Maria Calandrino, and Nessa Savarick.
· Table 5 proved to be the most closely contested with only a 16-point difference between the lowest and the highest score. Peter Eldridge's sportsmanship karma had not yet worn off as his 87 led Paul Klayder's 84, Robert Drozd's 80, Richard Fetzer's 72 and David Meyaard's 71. He joined Ken as the only finalists with previous ALH Final experience.

Jeff Mullet forged an early lead in the Final with 12 points. It was still anyone's game as Alex Henning, Alan Elkner, and Ken Gutermuth all had 7 points and Peter Eldridge had 6. After the second scoring round, Jeff had still maintained his lead with a score of 44 by having an 11 wall length and having the lead in the highest scoring purple buildings. Alan had also built an 11 wall length and Peter had a 10 wall length which helped both narrow Jeff's lead. At this point, Alan and Peter were tied for second with a score of 35 followed byAlex at 27 and Ken with 21 points and a stunted wall length (3). Before the last scoring round, Peter had obtained a handful of cards and was not purchasing any additional buildings which would pull him down to fourth place. Ken was able to add to his wall and gain the lead in some buildings, but would not be able to make up the gap in scores from the second scoring round and finished in last place. At this point, Jeff was running out of steam. He was able to keep his lead in the purple buildings, but would not add to his walls and did not have much else in scoring. This would leave him in third. So it came down to a battle between Alex and Alan. At the end of the game, Alan had an 18 wall length while Alex had only a 10 wall length. This 8 point gap and the 8 point lead Alan had after the second scoring round would make a 16-point victory for Alan - the new Alhambra champ.

Maria Calandrino and Nessa Savarick help combat the shrinking female minority participation at WBC.

GM Debbie Gutermuth lends her camera to someone else long enough to pose with her finalists.
 GM      Debbie Gutermuth  [10th Year]   NA
   NA    NA 

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