First off let me say thank you to all of the members who voted this Classic back into the Century this past year. We had a record turnout of players with 24 participants; the highest this tournament has ever drawn in the past was 16. The total number of games rose from 15 to 45 Everyone except one player loved the new open format this year, the one individual who expressed his doubts changed his mind by the time it was all over. I plan to be the GM for this tournament next year and will use the same tournament format. If L2 publishes the new version by the end of the year, next year's tournament will use the new L2 version.

Californian John Popiden played Jim Tracy in the semifinals and handed me my head for the second year in a row. One of these days I will beat him and as I understand itt, when that happens it will serve as one of the signs of the apocalypse. The other semifinal pitted Robert Frisby against Kevin Hacker, whom Robert dispatched with as much prejudice as John had dispatched me.

The stage was now set for a classical match up of two of the best PGG players in the country, East meets West. This was a a rematch of last year's second round in the Single Elimination format. This time Frisby prevailed as the Germans. Last year it was Popiden who led the Germans to victory.

The Germans spent the first three turns surrounding and destroying the elements of the 13th and 20th Soviet armies defending the forest road hexes and cities west of Smolensk. Only one HQ and a few divisions escaped to the east. On turn 4, most of the German armor was massed a few hexes to the west of Smolensk. Panzer Lehr attempted an overrun of the three divisions defending the river loop southeast of Smolensk. Luckily for the Germans, the units there had defensive combat values of 3, 2, and 2. A subsequent 3-1 attack resulted in a D2, which destroyed two of the three defending units. This result allowed the Germans to overrun the loop hex at 1-1 in the mechanized movement phase. An engaged result destroyed the last defending division. The Germans then overran the 5-10 HQ and another division defending in two hexes behind the loop. Two additional engaged results destroyed the HQ and the division, and enabled a half dozen mechanized divisions to penetrate the Soviet line and envelop Smolensk. The Germans eventually lost a Panzer Grenadier division and four other regiments (including Lehr) to aggressive Soviet counterattacks northeast and east of Smolensk, but succeeded in reducing Smolensk and destroying a dozen or so surrounded divisions a few turns after the breakthrough. After taking Smolensk and destroying the Soviet pocket, the bulk of the German armor headed south to take Roslavl while the German infantry established a solid defensive line east, north, and northwest of Smolensk. Concluding there was no realistic chance to destroy a German division or retake Smolensk or Roslavl, the Soviets conceded on turn 10.