Improved coordination with other euro GMs helped boost attendance despite the new location. The 2005 tournament used essentially the same format as the previous three years: players were only guaranteed to advance to the semifinals if they won the first heat game he/she played in, whether it was in heat 1 or 2. As in past years, some players with a single 2nd were needed to fill four semifinal tables. All were 4-player games.

Defending champion Aran Warszawski did not attend this year. However, past champions Jeff Cornett, Aaron Fuegi, and John Kilbride were among the 16 advancing. Jeff won his semifinal to advance after a one-year absence from the Final. Brian Stone prevailed with a heavy monument building strategy at the second table. The game was played on Rob Kilroys impressive hand-made board, including plastic bugs for catastrophes. Matt Calkins and Thomas Wojke also won their tables to advance..

Matt, as the 3rd dynasty, won with a final score of 15-15-16-19. Jeff took the fight for silver with a perfectly balanced 9-9-9-9 against Brian's 8-9-10-13. Playing last, Tom couldn't overcome a poor start and finished 5-6-6-8. The game turned in Round 7. Brian has just built a green/black monument in his kingdom in the southwest when Thomas attacked, decimating both kingdoms in the process. Players maneuvered to control the vacant monuments. However, Matt had a solid base of support in the northwest and used repeated mergers to evict the other leaders and build a dominant kingdom. By the time other players were willing to sacrifice actions to catastrophe the kingdom, Matt had already connected his kingdom with a second prong.

This year, players going first won five games, those going second won eight, and the third to move won four. Players going last won five. 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 for seeding. Unfortunately, the current system results in two wins being seeded lower than a single win from fourth position. We may revise this in the future to provide incentive for playing in multiple heats, while still guaranteeing a single win will advance.

The GM would also like to thank his Assistant GMs: Ann Cornett and Mark Guttag, for their help in assisting him run the event.