Matthew Backo of Gaithersburg, MD is the new world champion at Blackbeard. Matthew won in less than four hours Sunday morning with Howell Davis, the cunning leader and duelist. Matthew had 800 Net Worth, most of which came from ransoming a hostage he captured aboard a Caribbean prize ship.

DeWayne Curry of South Charleston, WV, took second with 700 Net Worth. Let me take this opportunity to again thank DeWayne for agreeing on Wednesday to be an AGM in this tournament and contributing to this write-up. DeWayne had his pirate, de Lusan, in port with 1700 in booty, but fearful of becoming the world's most notorious pirate, he ended-up waiting two turns too long to sell it.

In that time, Ed Majesky - a veteran brigand from Illinois - lost his second pirate, Christopher Condent, which ended the game. Condent, sailing in the Indian Ocean, fell under attack for being the most notorious pirate. Although able to avoid the initial attempt at Interception, the next card in the Action Deck produced an Automatic Interception.

"I went down in flames," Ed said. "Shot and shell."

Ed's other pirate had been Blackbeard himself but the crew mutinied before Teach could make his name. Known for activating two pirates simultaneously, Majesky rode this strategy past an early draw--where both of his ships sank in the same storm fifteen minutes into the game--and into the final.

With 40 Net Worth, Michael Coomes, a black heart from Ohio, took third. Because of the random turn order, there is always the chance someone will suffer a scarcity of turns, and this was the case here. Michael would prefer to remember his tough semi-final game against long-time and consistently-tough cutthroats, John Emory and Raymond Hall. This game produced a situation I had never seen before: Michael's first pirate reached 90 Notoriety in a three-masted rigger before one of John's
King's Commissioners did enough combat damage to cause a successful mutiny on board. Michael's second pirate assumed control in the middle of the battle but John had to call off the attack because Raymond had more Net Worth. With a new lease on life, Michael's second pirate returned to port, repaired the boat, and went back to work raiding the Moorish coast, quickly
earning enough to put him back in the lead. By then, Raymond's pirate had been chased around the horn of Africa and into the Atlantic, but when the crew came down with scurvy there was nothing Ray or John could do to stave off defeat. The other semi-finalists who found riches in the first round were Carl Sykes, Tim Greene, Tom Wojke, David Weintten, Matt Fagan and Alan Arvold.

For the Sportsman award I nominated Stephen Munchak because he exhibited the attitude and behavior every GM hopes to see from the people in their event at the WBC. Stephen brought a copy of his game, used it, accepted someone who never played before at his table and helped them along in a game where that's not much fun. Afterwards, when he saw I didn't know what to do with the thirteen people remaining for the second round, he volunteered to drop out and round the field.

My apologies to the semi-finalists; I had no idea when I picked my time-slot, space and table requirements that we would end-up in the same room as Slapshot. My apologies also to anyone who didn't participate in the tournament because of the format or timing. I should have found a way to make it more clear that when the program read "three four-hour rounds"
starting at 5 p.m. that the final was scheduled for Sunday morning. Rookie mistakes.

Congratulations to Matthew and the other finalists and thanks to all 28 participants in the Blackbeard 2000 tournament for making the event an enjoyable one for everyone involved. For those of you who have never played Blackbeard, the object is to
generate 100 points of Notoriety, which is extremely difficult, or possess the most Net Worth when someone else loses their second pirate. The game demands the player to take deadly risks that will most likely result in the need for recovery time expressed in turns, which themselves are determined at random rather than doled out in order as in most games. Even recovering has its dangers as players are free to attack each other in duels. Players in the lead are not only hunted as in most
games but can do some hunting themselves. It really does give you a sense of the pirate's life. Anyone who has any suggestions about how the Blackbeard tournament might work better next year should feel free to send me an E-mail.