euphrat & tigris [Updated October 2002]

E&T  3 prizes Experienced Mult Ent Sing Elim Scheduled 
 
  Rnd1 Heat1  13      Rnd1 Heat2  
  Rnd1 Heat3 17         Round 2 9 Semi Round 3 Final 11   

  Rnd1 Heat1 Rnd1 Heat2 Rnd1 Heat3 Salon EF     Round 2 Round 3 Belmont

Jeff Cornett, FL

2002 Champion

2nd: Craig Moffit, NJ

3rd: William Wible, VA

4th: Eric Freeman, PA

5th: Doug Smith, PA

6th: Jason Levine, NY

Event History
1999    John Kilbride     77
2000    Chetan Radia     49
2001    Aaron Fuegi     66
2002    Jeff Cornett     66


AREA Ratings


GM: Mark Guttag

Past Winners

John Kilbride - PA
1999

Chetan Radia - UK
2000

Aaron Fuegi - MA
2001
 

Acquiring Civilization ...

The Euphrat & Tigris (E&T) event drew 66 entrants, exactly the same as in 2001. The 2002 tournament used essentially the same format as last year: Players were only guaranteed to advance to the semifinals if the player won the heat game he/she played in, whether that game was in heat 1, 2 or 3. This year, a player whose best finishes were a 2nd and a 3rd advanced to the semifinals. All games played in the tournament were four-player games.

Three finalists from last year: Aaron Fuegi (2001 champion), Luke Moffitt and Jeff Cornett made the semi-finals. However, only Cornett advanced to play in the final with Luke's brother Craig Moffitt.

In contrast to last year when the final was the shortest game of the tournament, this year's was by far the longest game of the event. Also, unlike in 2001 when no monuments were built in the final, five were built this time, the most monuments built in any game in the tournament.

Relatively early in the game, the board was reduced to three treasures and it looked like this year's final might be as quick as last year's. However, instead, the constant threat of the game being ended raised the tension and level of play for all the finalists. Many rounds passed like this with different kingdoms forming and reforming from the sides with no one able (or wanting) to force a conflict that would take the last treasure. The game became very tactical, but players also built monuments for immediate scoring thinking the game would end any second. Jeff Cornett as the fourth player finally prevailed with a score of 10-10-10-16 over Craig Moffitt 8-9-9-9 (1st player), Eric Freeman 8-8-9-10 (2nd player) and Sandy Wible 8-8-10-14 (3rd player).

Key to Jeff's victory was his ability to strengthen his weakest color, black. Late in the game, Jeff seized an opening to place his black leader into an empire containing two black monuments. He then was able to use these two towers for two turns to generate four more black pieces until the game ended. Adding one wild card, that gave him ten black, matching his two lowest other colors, a perfect time, from his point of view, for the game to end.

This year, players going first won eight games, players going second won seven, players going third and fourth won six each. The slight advantage in having an earlier player turn is the reason that player order continues to be used in the E&T tournament to break ties

The GM would also like to thank his assistant GMs: Stuart Hendrickson, Frank Hamrick and Peter Staab for assisting him in running the E&T tournament this year and Craig Moffitt, Eric Freeman, Sandy Wible and Jeff Cornett for their help in preparing the description of the final.

 GM      Mark J. Guttag [4th Year]  610 South Fayette St., Alexandria, VA 22314
    mguttag@erols.com   (703) 549-5960

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