Trans America was a first year adult trial event at WBC 2004 with 44 participants. It had previously appeared as a Juniors event but the quick playing train game also proved popular as a Sunday get-away choice. We started off with ten boards of mostly four players each. (Some late comers were seated at different boards and those games were played with five players each.) After the first game all of the winners (eleven firsts because one game had a tie) and the top five seconds advanced to four semi-final games with the four winners advancing to the final. Fifth and sixth place in the tournament were awarded to the closest seconds of the semi-final games.)

Contrary to the standard rules of play, in this tournament each game consisted of a number of rounds equal to the number of players so that everyone would have a chance to play first in a round each game.

Kevin Wojtaszczyk was the only person in the semi-finals to win only one round and advance to the final. That game was also the closest scoring game in the tournament with only a two-point spread separating first and fourth place. The three other finalists each managed to win two rounds in their semi-final game. In the final, Kevin made up for lost time and won three of four rounds, acquiring only one point in the round he didn't win; which was the lowest (best) score of all the games played in the tournament - removing all doubt that his semi-final narrow escape was a fluke or undeserved pass to the final. It was Kevin's 7th WBC wood - but his first in the past four years.

In future tournaments I would recommend that five- and six-player games be conducted. Although the games would take longer due to the additional rounds, there would be less "bad luck of the draw" involved. It was observed that in the fewer player games if someone got a city isolated from everyone else, then they would likely acquire so many points in that round that they usually wouldn't recover enough in the other rounds to be competitive at the end of the game.