power grid [Updated October 2005]

	2005 WBC Report     2006 Status: pending 2006 GM commitment
Jim Castonguay, PA 2005 Champion Offsite links: AREA Ratings	Event History 2004    Eric Brosius     84 2005    Jim Castonguay     94	Laurels Rank Name From Last Total 1. Jim Castonguay PA 05 40 2. Eric Brosius MA 04 40 3. Gerald Lientz VA 05 24 4. Evan Tannheimer MA 04 24 5. Matt Calkins VA 05 16 6. Tim Swartz MD 04 16 7. Rod Spade PA 05 12 8. Richard Meyer MA 04 12 9. Steve Koleszar VA 05 8 10. Frank Hastings MD 04 8 11. Robert Sohn NJ 05 4 12. Marshall Phillips VA 04 4
2005 Laurelists Gerald Lientz, VA 2nd Matt Calkins, VA 3rd Rod Spade, PA 4th Steve Koleszar, VA 5th Robert Sohn, NJ 6th Past Winners Eric Brosius, MA 2004 Even More Power ... The Power Grid tournament at the 2005 World Boardgaming Championships was quite a success. 94 unique and 113 total entries over two heats represented an increase from the 84 entrants in its inaugural year. The first heat had 16 games, with one five-player table and one table choosing to use the German side of the board. Luckily, we had just enough space and boards for 16 games. Competing with several other tournaments scheduled at the same time, the second heat drew slightly less, with only 12 tables. I played a very close game with Blair Morgen, Tom McCorry and Tom Saal in the second heat. McCorry brilliantly bluffed me into paying too much for the 42 plant on the last turn and won on the tie breaker. Six of the 19 people who played in both heats won twice; Jim Castonguay, Chris Johnson, John Weber, Phillip Shea, Steve Koleszar and Benoit Groulx. 14 of the other 16 winners appeared for the semifinal, making five tables of four each. At one of the games, Valerie Staton tried a very unorthodox strategy of not building on the first turn. This created a very different dynamic and caused a very slow game. Valerie finished second to Rod Spade, although everyone played a brilliant game. One of the winners of the semifinal, Steve Koleszar, chose not to advance to the Final due to prior commitments. That left four people in the Final: Jim Castonguay, Rod Spade, Gerald Lientz and Matt Calkins. I asked the finalists if they would like to use the German board and they all agreed. They chose to leave out the brown region in the northeast and the blue region in the southwest. What followed was one of the most resource intensive games I've seen. Several players hoarded coal and caused the market to be depleted by the fifth turn. Bad plant markets caused all players to pass on putting plants up for auction on turns 3, 6, 8 and 10. The critical point in the game came on the eleventh turn when Jim decided not to build in order to allow him to control the resource market and the build phase for the rest of the game. On the 13th turn, he managed to save enough money to build seven cities, bringing his total number of cities to 17 and ending the game. Gerald also built to 17 cities that turn, but lost to Jim by 17 electros on the tie-breaker. All four players played an excellent game. Congratulations to Jim Castonguay for winning all four games he played that week and becoming the new Power Grid champion. Thanks to my assistant GMs, Jim Castonguay, Keith Levy and John Weber. Their help was invaluable to a first year GM. Keith Levy dons goggles and lab coat to get in character to assist GM Jason Wagner.
GM      Jason Wagner  [1st Year]   NA    Loquutus@hotmail.com   NA