What a weekend!! WBC 2000 will go Into the history books as one of the greatest Diplomacy events ever. As hosts to World DipCon X and DipCon XXXIII, my associates Edi Birsan, Dan Mathias, and I pulled out all the stops in an effort to make it worthy of the name. With a total of 141 players involved in 58 games It was one of the largest Dip events ever In North America. In addition to players from all over the US and Canada there were 18 players from overseas representing Australlia,
New Zealand, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and Israel. The quality of the play was absolutely unprecedented. The combined attraction of WBC/WDC/DC reached across time as well as distance. John Smythe, the first person to ever win a Diplomacy tournament (I970), and Mike Rocamora -- one of the greats from the early 70's, were in
attendance. To add the icing and candles to the cake, Allan Calhamer, the inventor of THE game joined us to speak to us about his new book and to play some Dip. Diplomacy at this year's WBC was way over the top.

As In past years, we gave out our array of special awards, beginning with 'The Hammered Award. It is given to the player who, in the opinion of the GM, showed the greatest amount of courage and fortitude despite getting "hammered" round after round. This year the Award went to Tim Miller. In Round 1 as Austria, he went from five centers to three in '03 and was eliminated ln '04. In Round 2 playing England, he was one of the victims of this year's Golden Blade recipient, losing his final two centers in '05. On Saturday morning in Round 3 he drew Turkey, a position known for its defensive qualities. Nevertheless, he was eliminated by '03. After all that, he was there ready to play at 8:OOAM Sunday. His dedication was rewarded by getting to play through 1907, when his last two English supply centers fell.

This year's "Golden Blade Award" winner was Chris Kulander. Playing Russia on the #1 board in Round 2, he stabbed three of his neighbors at the same time, aquiring a total of six supply centers In 1906. Impressive as that is, consider that prior to the stab he had only seven centers. With this one move, he almost doubled the size of his position.

The WBC 2000 Best Country Awards went to:
                          

Vick Hall	Simon Buton	Brian Dennehy	Sean Cable	Yarden Livnat	Nathen Cockrill	M. Franceschini
Austria	England	France	Germany	Italy	Russia	Turkey
2w9	W 18	W 18	W 18	3w13	W 17	2w15

Simon Buton from the UK scoring a 3w-12 as Russia in Round 1, an 18 center win as England in Round 2, a 3w-14 as Turkey in Round 3, and a 2w-13 in the final round as Italy for a total of 123 points is the WBC 2000/WDCX/DCXXXIII Champion. Thanks to David Norman we have a victim's eye view of the Champion's all important English win:

The players were :

England : Simon Bouton
France : Ken Mathias
Germany : Ray Setzer
Italy : Jimmy Levay
Austria : Jim-Bob Burgess
Russia : David Norman
Turkey : Adam Silverman

The game started with France and Germany planning to attack England. But then England told Germany that he didn't feel happy, and was opening the Channel. Germany reconsidered, and decided to attack France in the Fall. England and France bounced in ENG.

In F1901, Austria and Turkey kept me out of Rum, and showed that they were also intending to work together. And so the initial alliances were set, with little Jimmy not doing much in between. England and Germany were making good progress against France, while I was slowly being pushed back by Austria and Turkey. My line of A(Mos) s A(Ukr), A(War) s A(Ukr) held them back for a while, but eventually Austria moved up into Sil and then took War.

At this point, Turkey decided to stab Austria, and I was only too happy to have the pressure relieved. With Turkey doing well and having no fleets in the South, my only choice was to join him on the attack of Austria. Meanwhile in the North, France had been eliminated, and England had turned on Germany. He was starting to look rather threatening. So once Austria was out, with me holding my home centers and Rumania, and Turkey holding the rest, we started to talk about stalemate lines. We initially included Italy in the line, but Turkey decided he could hold England off in the Med without Italy's help, and so took him out. With England only having two fleets in the Med at this point, it looked a fairly safe bet, but it did mean that England got Tunis.

I started to draw diagrams of where lines could be formed, and worked out who could hold which centers. The most likely line was one with me on four centers (Mos, War, Sev and Rum), holding Northern Russia and Prussia, Germany holding Ber and Mun, and Turkey holding the Med and providing the support Germany needed in Munich.

And so with the game heading to a 16-12-4-2, E-T-R-G, Turkey decided he wanted a two-way draw rather than a three-way, and so stabbed Germany for Munich, and me for Sev and Rum. He and England now had the 29 centres required to call a two-way, but he hadn't realised that there is something else you need for a two-way, and that is for neither power to have a forced solo. Turkey didn't have nearly enough armies to hold the line by himself, and in case it wasn't clear enough already, Germany and I turned round to stop him taking the rest of our centers, rather than defend against England. Without the support to keep Munich, England had taken it that Fall, and with Munich gone, Berlin was the 18th the following year, and was forced.

Turkey made a last attempt to salvage something from the game, and publicly said that if England was going to win, then he was going to try to get the other 16. So I asked Germany across the table to support me in Warsaw, to which he agreed, and
then asked England not to cut the support, to which he also agreed, and Turkey just looked like we had knocked the last bit of fight out of him. So Simon walked away with an 18-15-1 win and ,as it turns out, the Championship.

We had 19 - four-player teams entered for this event which was run congruent to the Saturday round. The winning team with 71 points was the "Best Asians" nominally from the UK. Oihon Bodaranalbe spearheaded the team's winning effort with a three-way -15 center England for 26 points. Simon Buton, the Individual champion, chipped In 24 points with 14 centers in a three-way as Turkey. Chelan Radia added 12 points with a four-way - 8 center Austria, while Vick Hall finished wilh 6
centers In a four-way as Russia for 10 points.

There is really good news and not so good news regarding this attempt to introduce this two-player Dip varient at WBC. The really good news was that those who played it, all reported it is a blast. The not so good news is that only nine players tried it out. Based on his two five-point wins, John Quarto is the Escalation champion. Brian Ecton came in second.

Mike Hall, Canada -
My comments about WBC/WDC would have to center on the great turn out from people from all over the World. You were able to draw a huge crowd of overseas people and put on a great tourney, WELL DONE. I think the best part of the whole
event (other then that great wine you shared with me Saturday night!! ) was the chats people had before and after the gaming, either late into the night in the bar talking about Diplomacy or other topics like kids, family and travels. Or over breakfast in
the morning trying to get something into you before another round. This made the whole experience a well rounded thing. Most of us had only seen a name on a computer screen but until WBC/WDC we never got to meet FTF. Names like Brandon
Clarke, David Norman and that whole crew from Ireland/UK what a bunch!! You host Yanks were a real friendly group to say the least. I had a great time and I am sure everyone else did as well.

Edi Birsan, California -
I go to the World DipCon to meet players from all over the world. This year I was greatly pleased to meet again those players who I had seen on their home turf in Europe and Australia now on mine. The gathering at Baltimore was the greatest collection of world class star players ever assembled with national and regional champions from as far away as New Zealand and Belgium. The diviersity in players was excellent in all categories with John Smythe (the first person to ever win a Diplomacy Tournament (1970) and young Jimmy Levay making his second tournament appearance having started as a pre-teen terror. Having the game's inventor, Allan Calhamer present and playing was a great bonus and gave the hobby a chance to thank him in person for the fine gift his creation has given to all of us. I particularly enjoyed playing with him on the final round where he steadfastly went on a binge of center grabbing regardless of diplomatic consequences and got away with it. The number of players in the multiple rounds was greater than any North American Tournament for the last 20 years. Having been to many of the tournaments over the last 33 years, this was one of the most memorable of the events in which I had the pleasure to participate .

1991 champ Bruce Reiff (left) plots against designer Allan Calhammer (center).

Brandon Clarke, New Zealand -
I was playing with Allan Calhamer in Baltimore. I'm not sure if it was in the Gunboat game or in Round 4. Anyway, Al commented to me that when he made the game he envisaged the Army blocks being stood on their ends (as is the common practice the world over for indicating a unit supporting) and thought people would tip them on their long sides to indicate a supporting unit (as most people lay them on their long sides normally). He said he never even considered that people wouldn't stand them on their short ends, and when he first saw this practice he was quite stunned.

... and the big picture from Buz Eddy, Washington State -
The Garden Room at Hunt Valley Inn is fairly good sized, there were about a dozen banquet round tables set up plus three or four 8' straight banquet tables. When the board assignments were read, it seemed jammed and very, very crowded. TD Jim Yerkey then made his welcoming remarks and shared the happy news that six additional tables were available out in the hallway.

My board assignment had me with six people I had not met, and only one familiar name from my rating list. I drew France and Al Ugaz drew England. I knew he had done fairly decently before. The game was E/F and R/T taking out the three in the middle and declaring a great four-way draw. Oh well, I had three eliminations in Columbus (by the record), and a single draw in Chapel Hill. I can't do worse than my prior best.

I started finding people I had known about for years but met for the first time. Jim Burgess, may actually be younger than my own age 60, but it seems like he's been around as long as I have. He is responsible for a publication called The Abysinian Prince, a quality piece of work. In the postal hobby 7/8th or more of the publications call themselves zines, but Jim to his dying breath will insist that he publishes a szine.

Phil Reynolds is a fellow that likes to write as much as I do. In one issue of the Postal Publication commentary Zine Register, Phil and I provided nearly 2/3 of the reviews. We spent some time talking about when Postal Dip was healthier than it is today.

Mike Barno is a name that was most active in the 1980s. But Edi Birsan has prevailed upon him to serve as webmaster for the Diplomatic Corps that is attempting to provide some structure to international Diplomacy. In the spirit of true postal diplomats, Mike and I spent time debating whether the current hoax (revelation) was true or not. Is Sara Reichart a man named Harry?? I think some of Sara's postal victims would feel better if she were a he.

When I first started my attempts at rating Diplomacy results the first name that popped to the top of the postal list was John Smythe. He was winning consistently through the 1960s. I have not seen John's name active in any form of Diplomacy for two decades, but he put up a solo against a board that included Steve Koehler and John Quarto. Koehler is a veteran tournament player with considerable success, and Quarto was the top rated player on my list at year end last year. Its good to see that us senior citizens still have a little of what it takes. John placed 8th.

In Round 2, I met two people that I had previously only heard about. Carl Willner was Italy, and Yarden Livnat was Turkey. Willner is an attorney that I think has as many games as anyone in my rating records. The name Livnat came to my attention earlier in the year as the runnerup at Denver. I learned that Yarden was a post doctoral student at the University of Utah, and an Israeli national.I also learned he was a powerhouse, take charge Diplomat. I'm Russia, he's Turkey. OK he says, open Sev - Arm, I'll po it in the fall, retreat OTB and build an Army. I sort of like R/T, and hearing nothing from the Austrian said OK, sure, why not? I was ready to go, and be the unimaginitive rock of an ally, but so was Italy, Carl Willner, and Yarden found me most expendable. I smiled when I showed up later to learn that Italy had also become expendable. Livnat finished sixth. He's about 200 points off the pace for the 2000 Grand Prix.

I play some e-mail on AOL and found some of my online acquaintances. I knew Scott Morris and Eric Grinell from Chapel Hill, where Eric brought some homemade beer that was high octane stuff. I met Monte Carlisle and Adam Silverman. I'm currently in a game with Adam. The one player that I have played with in AOL that I didn't meet was
Don Scheifler. He's been good consistently on AOL and managed a ninth place finish.

My third round game was probably the one I enjoyed the most. As Italy, I have Vick Hall in Russia, he's a Brit with a good powerful style and finished 7th , Mike McMillie and Jim Yerkey in Germany and England. This was Jim's only game, he was
needed as a fill-in. The round was a major board assignment headache, as the team competition required no two of the four-
person teams to be on the same board. The Austrian was named William Fuller. He told me I and A can't fight or neither survives. Then opened Tri - Ven. It took me a long time to exorcize this demon possession, at this point Eric Momsen in Turkey was helping himself to Balkan dots. I finished the ethnic clensing of Italy by convoying the last Austrian unit to Syria. where it died. Turkey and I sailed west, Constans Thibald had fought a "glorious war against Mike McMillie in Germany and when we ripped the south, it was E/G solid in the west. Turkey started nibbling at Russian holdings, but Vick Hall broke off
his fight with E/G and defended well enough. France wound up with two units and I had four when the bell rang. I ran afoul of Jim's 29 votes declares a result. If France and I stuck together we could make it a seven-way draw, which meant nothing in the tournament, but is the difference between a draw and a loss which is important in my rating system. He said he was voting to exclude me because Germany asked him to, and it had been a "glorious" war. My four units lose, Mike's five units win. Hey, thems the rules.

I missed the meetings, because I had to run to the airport to replace a lost "paper" ticket. The tales of the procedings that I heard suggested it may have been worth not being there. But it did mean that the Articles and By-Laws of the Federation had to wait for another time.

The Saturday morning round was 9AM. Somehow ,I missed that the Sunday morning round was earlier. I was sitting in the restaurant for about 30 minutes and walked to the Garden room to check in only to learn I was too late. I made a few attempts to recruit a board, but didn't really get close. Larry Peery didn't care to, Dan Mathias didn't care to, they would have to fill it out, but not their first choice.

So I went to work. First I got the Origins recorsds from Dan Mathias. I produce the tournament cross-table, and made copies for Bruce Reiff and Dan Mathias. That was truly fortunate, because I left my copy in Baltimore, and Bruce was able to provide me one to rate and post the results when I got back to Seattle. I began to recap the WDC. Folks came by and saw I was working with the Tournament cards, but they respected Jim's request that the information remain secret until play was complete. I met one of the top rated Tea and Knife fellows, Hudson Defoe. He finished 13th. I said a lot of you Tea and Knife guys do well -- you must sharpen each other. He smiled, doubled his fist, and said yeah we sharpen each other a lot.

Tom Kobrin came by. Tom has been near or at the top of my ratings for ten years. He was commenting on the fact that he was listening to people look at my display rating compilation and find themselves and take an interest. Tom also told me that in one game the fact that he was top rated was used against him to try to organize opposition. That made me happy, I think real championship play is performed by those that flourish in the spotlight. Tom, Chris Martin, David Hood, and Mark Franceschini come to mind.

What did I think most impressive about 2000 WDC? The pre-tournament publicity and organization. The organization of fund-raising to host the foreign players, the continual stream of announcements from Edi Birsan, and Dan Mathias, and Jim Yerkey, and the headlining of this event in the BPA news releases. There was a sense of "this is the place to be". Which
resulted in 141 players. There is a legend that the first Origins in Baltimore had 200 players, but I've never seen a player list,
or Board count, or anything but an unsupported statement to that effect. So unless there is really some evidence developed otherwise, I'm content to label this the all-time biggest and most successful Diplomacy event in North American history. Thanks to all that helped make it happen.

For me personally, there were many things which stood out. I had to fill a board on Saturday and got to play against Vick Hall and Thiboult Constans, two of Europe's best. I got to meet with many of the overseas players and compare notes with them about running Dip tournaments. The return of Mike Rocamora, who 20+ years ago taught me some tough lessons on how to win, was a treat. Foremost among all these was the presence of Mr Calhamer. Meeting him, talking with him, and having him play at WBC was quite an honor. To those who have not been captured by the "art" of Diplomacy this is probably not something which is understandable. To us "Diplomats" it was a magic moment .

There are many people I need to thank for helping put this event together. In no particular order: Don Greenwood and everyone at BPA who were so patient and helpful, and my associates; Edi Birsan, who put so much effort into advertising and contacting Dip players all over the world and getting them to attend; the folks at Hasbro for their support; David Hood, who, despite being a threat to take the WDC championship home with him, sat out a round because we had an uneven number of players; David Norman, without whom the paper work would never have gotten done; my friend Mark Franceschini who filled in and helped out where ever he was needed; and, of course, my friend Don Mathias, who went way above and beyond the call of duty to coordinate housing and transportation for the overseas players, and who also sat out a round. To everyone involved, winners and victims alike, give yourselves a pat on the back (assuming the stab wounds have healed). This was your success as well.

One final note, we play great Dip at WBC every year. We would love for everyone to come back. Particularly all of you first timers from the Mid-Atlantic area. If you had a good time, join us again next year