The move from Friday night to Saturday night proved highly beneficial for the Naval War tournament, as its numbers were up sharply from last year, allowing six tables of 5-6 players each to vie for seven seats at the championship table. The winners of the six tables would advance to the Final, along with the highest scoring second place finisher. Table 1 had Stephen Squibb advancing with a "just good enough" 75 point victory total. Table 2 saw defending champion Bill Place once again punch his ticket with an 81 point total, while Table 3 advanced Michael Confoy with 76 points, with three competitors nipping at his heels within seven points of him! Table 4's Patrick Mirk easily advanced with 78 points, while Table 5 advanced two, one being Daniel Pappas with a crushing 113 point victory, and Stephen Cuyler advancing as the top second place finisher with an impressive total of 97 points. Barry Shutt rounded out the field of seven with an 81 point victory at Table 6.

The championship once again became an object lesson in the game's axiomatic strategy of always ganging up on the obvious leader. Noteworthy of the Championship Round was the relative lack of success of the Destroyer squadrons, usually a decisive weapon with their potential ability to sink entire fleets on a single die roll. The players at the table were all too aware of this, however, and only two destroyer squadrons ever managed to press home their attacks, with only one able to sink an entire fleet. Cuyler was the leader after Round 1 with 26 points, followed by Place with 20 points, Squibb with 15, Mirk with 14, Confoy with 12, Pappas with 8 and Shutt with 0, earning him the role of early spoiler. However, while Cuyler paid for his early lead in Round 2 by gaining no points, Place was able to exploit his slightly lower profile to amass another 24 points and emerge tied for the lead with Confoy at 44 points, who had the most successful round of 32 points. The leaders were followed by Mirk at 29 points, Cuyler at 26, Pappas at 21, Squibb at 17, and Shutt bringing up the rear with 4 points.

Both Place and Confoy would pay dearly for their success in Round 3, however, as the remaining five players united to sink both players fleets and trim their scores with the resulting 10 point penalty. As the haze cleared at the end of Round 3, Cuyler once again regained the lead with a highly successful round of 33 points to reach 59, only 16 shy of the required 75 for victory. Pappas also had a successful round of 30 points to lurk in second at 51, while Place managed to sink 9 points of ships to nearly offset the sinking of his own fleet, losing only one point to stay in contention at 43. The remainder of the field followed with Confoy at 37 points, Mirk at 34, Squibb at 31, and Shutt finally managing to exploit his spoiler role for 24 to reach 28 points.

Round 4 proved to be decisive, as players looked for the opportunity to surge past 75. Pappas drew the early attention of the field, with his fleet reduced to a very battered three ships by the middle of the round. Confoy and Mirk were enjoying the most successful rounds pointwise, scoring 26 and 30 respectively to put them within striking distance. But Cuyler made the move of the match when he drew a 2-point minefield and deployed it against Pappas's already battered fleet, sinking all three ships to total a 25 point round and the championship as well with a total of 84 points. He would be followed by Mirk in second at 64 points, Confoy at 63, Pappas at 53, defending champ Place at 52, and Shutt making a late comeback to take the remaining 6th place laurels with 46 points, leaving Squibb odd man out at 31 points. So Stephen Cuyler turned his second place finish in the first round into first place wood in the championship round of Naval War! And Bill Place became only the seventh Naval War laurelist to add to his totals in eight years - something he's done twice - keeping hin at the top of the rankings.