38 players entered to play 13 games in four rounds of play to determine a Vinci champion. The tournament format followed the same basic structure as in previous years, two preliminary qualifying heats, one semifinal round (if needed) and one Final.

Tuesday evening 20 players appeared for the first preliminary Heat. Players were divided into five 4-player games. Mark Pitcavage, Joe Pabis, Jonathan Miller, Paul Murphy and Bryan Eshleman emerged victorious and advanced to the semifinals. The second preliminary heat had an even larger attendance, 23 players bright and early on Friday morning. Players were randomly separated into three 5-player games and two 4-players. Alan Kaiser, Ashley Collinson, Bruce Bernard, Brian Carr and David Fritsch recorded wins.

If there had been six or fewer preliminary winners then a semifinal round would not have been needed. This year there were 10 preliminary winners and as promised a number of runner-ups would advance to the semifinals, one third the number of winners. The top four second place finishers were Alex Gesing, Chris Palermo, Benjamin Foy and John Morris. In their preliminary heats Alex had a tie for first and was the victim of the tie breaker, Chris and Benjamin were a mere one point behind their leaders, John had a very close two-point loss.

The field of 38 was thus reduced to 14 semi-finalists, curiously all with distinct first names, in spelling anyways. Ten arrived to compete Saturday at 11 am slightly before high-noon. Two games of 5 would determine who advanced to the Final. There were four prizes at stake so the top two players from each game would advance. Alan and Brian advanced from the table with Mark, Chris and John. Bruce and Joe advanced from the table with Benjamin, Alex and Ashley.

The Final was held at a mutually agreed upon time Saturday evening in a neutral location. Players were seated randomly, in player order Joe, Bruce, Brian and Alan. The Fnal showdown was about to begin. A hush fell over the crowd (OK, it was only the GM).

For a complete play by play summary of the Final please visit "http://www.markneale.lunarpages.net/cgi-bin/vinci/vinci.pl". In short the finalists emerged with Joe 123, Alan 119, Bruce 115 and Brian 109. Thus, Joe Pabis became the 2005 Vinci Champion with a preliminary win, semifinal tie for first and a Final victory.