There were 31 entrants who congregated 9:00 p.m. on Saturday evening for a battle of wits as the event's smallest turnout in '99 was followed by its biggest in 2000. Go figure. The tournament questions were prechosen by a Russian/German translator, Terry Telger, who was unable to attend this year's convention but owns wood dating back to 1992. GM Chuck Foster, made the Rail Baron finals in the room nextdoor so he appointed Debbie Otto as the assistant G.M. who facilitated the tournament. Ken Rothstein, Greg Mayer and Steve Cameron also assisted.

The first-round scores were extremely high, much to the delight of the contestants. Questions were generally easier than past years which was demonstrated by twelve perfect rounds of 250 points. Several years ago, the top scorer in the semi-finals by Eric Olin was 880 points. This year, all six finalists had scores above that. The six finalists were Randy Cox (1032), James Hopkin (988), Pitt Crandlemire (988), Steve Cameron (950), Donna Balkan (908) and Debbie Bell (904).

An interesting moment during the first round occurred when the category "American Presidents" was announced. Greg Mayer commented as he left the room, "Don't forget Ben Franklin!" Several contestants, under the pressure of time, actually used his name. Don't underestimate the power of suggestion!

The finals ran similar to the first round with high scores. All finalists scored over 200 points on the following categories: words associated with money, famous duos, cartoon characters, movie titles, horror/sciencefiction/fantasy and languages, with the letters H, Y, W, N and * (any letter). Five perfect rounds of 250 points were scored. Donna Balkan had two rounds of 232 points. However, Randy Cox, on the strength of his final round, took the championship.