AREA Ratings

GM: Ray Pfeiffer

Past Winners
Ray Pfeiffer - MD 1991, 1996, 1999 1992: Terry Tegler - TX 1995: Beth Bernard - PA Tom DeMarco - NJ 1993 Ralph May - SC 1994 Thomas Stokes - NJ 1997 Mark Geary - OH 1998 Richard Irving - CA 2000 John Pack - CO 2001

And Other Equally Unpronounceable Stuff ... In the first round, each entrant plays four games, scoring points for their finishing position (1st=5 points, 2nd=4, 3rd=3, 4th=2, 5th=1). The ten entrants with the highest point totals advance to the semifinal. In the semifinal, each player plays two games. The four winners and the best runnerup advance to a single winner-take-all final. 24 new (at least since 1999) players and 23 returnees signed up for the first round, playing at ten boards. 35 hung in through all four games. Out of a maximum of 20 points, Benjamin Foy, Anne M. Norton, and Chuck Foster each ended up with 18, with Benjamin and Anne each having three wins. Eric Wrobel, '93 champ Tom DeMarco, and returning champ John Pack finished with 17, Frank Cunliffe and Thomas Browne gathered 16, while Thomas McCorry, '95 champ Beth Bernard, and three-time champ Ray Pfeifer each scored 15 points. Eric dropped out, leaving ten semifinalists. In the first two semifinal games, Benjamin beat Frank, Chuck, Thomas M., and Anne while John bested Beth, Ray, Thomas B., and Tom D.. In the last two semifinal games, Anne was victorious over Ray, Beth, and Chuck, while Thomas B. had the farthest advance at ten spaces past the finish line in his win over Tom D., Thomas M., and Frank. Tom D. had the best second place finish at seven spaces past to become the fifth finalist, beating Frank (who placed sixth in the tournament) at one space past, Ray at one space short, and Beth at four spaces short of the finish. In the final, John again used his very effective strategy of exhibiting early and often. Passing the midpoint of the track first, he was unstoppable, finishing at nine spaces past the finish line, and a whopping 14 spaces ahead of runnerup Benjamin at six spaces short. Tom D. placed third at eight space short. Anne, who had the best set at nine cards, used the eight-space bonus to advance to fourth place, leaving Thomas B. to finish fifth. Stats: For the second year in a row Black had the most wins, winning 13 of 39 games. Blue, green, and yellow only had six wins each. Red had eleven last place finishes, beating yellow's eight lasts, while green had the fewest lasts at six. The player of the black cards got an average of 3.28 placement points per game, followed by blue at 3.10, yellow at 2.97, red at 2.90, and green at 2.82. The blue player averaged the fartherest around the board at 1.26 spaces short of the finish line, followed by black, yellow, red, and then green at 3.08 short of the finish. Chuck Foster and John Pack (in the final) each finished with a 14-space lead over the runnerup for the largest lead at the finish, while Anne beat John with a six-card set to John's five-card set for the closest 1-2 finish. '98 champ Mark Geary edged Peter Staab in the most tightly bunched finish - all five players were within a stretch of five spaces. Tamara McGraw (finishing first) and Derek Landel (finishing second) each ended one of their games with a 13-card set. Greg Crowe repeated last year's accomplishment of winning a game with no set at the end. Eric Wrobel won two of his games with no set at the finish. And Tom D. edged out John Pack to win a game where they both ended with no set. His less than stellar 1-5 VIP record (his team event) enabled John Pack to play in the Adel Verpflichtet tournament - a game he always tries to squeeze in to his hectic schedule! In the prelims, he finished 1st, 2nd, 2nd, and 2nd - over the finish line in each game, qualifying for the semis easily - since the point system favors "close enough" strategies over outright victories. He employed his run, run, run strategy to win the first semi-final. It was a strategy borrowed from his wife, Sharee, who wins a large share of their home games but has yet to grace WBC with her presence. John modified it slightly - he likes the jail to be full of everyone else's thieves before going on an exhibiting spree. In the final, he started with a set and, true to form, ran, ran, ran until hitting the second edge of the board - taking advantage of several guarded exhibits. At that point, most of the big checks had been spent, so he went to the Auction House four times in a row (winning two when no one else was at the Auction House and spending my two largest checks to collect four items). That strengthened and thief-proofed his set enough to run for the finish. All that was lacking was a full jail - with only two thieves having been caught. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long as his next detective was the guest speaker at a thieves convention (three attendees). From there, he was off to the races - successfully defending his title. Three in a row is apt to be more difficult, but you can bet he'll try.  Jessica Hardesty topped 15 pint-sized burglars in the Junior version. She was followed in order by: Scott Uhrich Shea Lawson Alex Henning Alexander Lange Tim DeMarco Fifteen young art collectors showed up for this tournament. After a quick overview of the rules, they were split into three games. At the first table, Shea Lawson finished six spaces past the finish line to beat Jessica Hardesty, Claire Anderson, Erin Stockingtreadway, and Jessica Finkeldey. At the second table, Alexandra Henning finished twelve spaces past the finish line to beat Alexander and Heather Lange, Angela Collinson, and Alex Bell. And at the third table, Scott Uhrich finished at the maximum possible of 13 spaces past the finish line, beating returning champ Tim DeMarco, Jacob Hebner, Andy Dunn, and Daniel Winemiller. So Shea, Alexandra, and Scott advanced to the final along with the two best runnerups - Jessica H., and Alexander L.. The other runnerup, Tim, placed sixth in the tournament. In the final, Shea got off to an early start. But by the second corner Jessica had taken over the lead and held on to it across the finish line and also got the four-space bonus for having the second best set (eight cards), ending six spaces past the finish line. Scott had the best set at nine cards, but the eight-space bonus wasn't enough to catch Jessica and he placed second. Shea placed third, Alexandra fourth, and Alexander (who stole a lot of checks, but couldn't convert them into movement) placed fifth. I hope everyone's name is spelled correctly, I didn't have badges from which to copy names. Next year I think we can increase the number of first round games to two, and add a two-board, ten player semifinal to the five player final. Thanks to all the juniors for participating, and I look forward to seeing you in the Adel Verpflichtet Junior Tournament next year (or perhaps even in the regular Adel Verpflichtet tournament). Tom DeMarco