caylus [Updated November 2007]  

2007 WBC Report  

 2008 Status: pending 2008 GM commitment

Andrew Gerb, MD

2007 Champion

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 Laurels Laurels

Event History
2006    Jeremy Spencer     72
2007     Andrew Gerb     44

Euro Quest Event History
2006    Peter Putnam     20
2007     Peter Putnam     25
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Peter Putnam       MD    07     67
  2.  Jeremy Spencer     NC    06     40
  3.  Andrew Gerb        MD    07     38
  4.  Rod Spade          PA    07     22
  5.  Rich Meyer         MA    07     18
  6.  Raphael Lehrer     MD    07     12
  7.  Chris Trimmer      TX    07     12
  8.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    06     12
  9.  Christine Frattali WA    06     12
 10.  Tom Browne         PA    06     10
 11.  Marc Berenbach     MA    07      9
 12.  Michael Kaltman    PA    07      8
 13.  Ken Rothstein      NY    06      8
 14.  Alfred Smith       NC    07      6
 15.  Kevin Walsh        NY    07      4
 16.  Lance Slitka       MD    06      4
 17.  Sam Atabaki        CA    07      2
 18.  Jack Jaeger        VA    06      2

2007 Laurelists

Rich Meyer, MA
2nd

Chris Trimmer, TX
3rd

Marc Berenbach, MA
4th

Alfred Smith, NC
5th

Peter Putnam, MD
6th

Past Champions

Jeremy Spencer, NC
2006


The Tuesday heat was well attended with 30 players present

 Our finalists go for the gold on Satuday night.

Down to Two Heats in year 2 ...

In 2007 the format for Caylus changed from the inaugural three preliminary heats to two, with a corresponding drop in attendance from 72 to 44.  The Tuesday heat was well attended, accounting for 30 of the year's total players.  The Saturday version only drew 14, apparently due to conflicts with some similar Euro titles.

  Scoring in the initial heats was fairly consistent, with most 4-player game winners scoring in the 80s, with two scoring 97.  The lowest winning score (in a 5-player game, not surprisingly) was 62 (Rich Meyer).

  The semi-finals drew 22 players, with the winners advancing to the Final.  The finalists (in turn order) were Andrew Gerb, Alfred Smith, Marc Berenbach, Chris Trimmer, and Rich Meyer.  None of the finalists were repeats from last year, indicating that either the field is competitive or that the better players moved on to other challenges (hopefully the former).

  The Final started quickly, and at the scoring of the dungeon Marc and Rich were tied with 13 despite Marc not having built a section in the castle.  Chris was third with 12, Alfred fourth with 10, and Andrew trailed the field with 9, but was loading up on resources.  At the scoring of the walls, Rich had pushed into the lead with 39, followed by Andrew (34), Chris (31), Alfred (26), and Marc (25).  As the game entered the later stages, Rich and Andrew began to invest more heavily in the castle, separating from the others with scores of 56 and 54 respectively versus 38 for the other three.  In the end, Andrew edged Rich 82-81, with Chris not far behind at 74.  Marc and Alfred battled for the fourth and final wood spot, with Marc prevailing 61 to 54.  Andrew went unbeatenin the tourney, winning in both heats, the semi and the Final for a truly dominating performance.

  From a strategy perspective, the importance of building castle spaces was indicated by the fact that the player building the 1st or 2nd most castle spaces won 15 of the 17 games reporting building stats.  The highest number of castles built in a 4- or 5- player game was 11 by Chris Trimmer in a semi, a fair accomplishment in a 5-player game.  The Final supported the castle strategy, with first and second place being captured by the high castle builders (7 and 9 versus 4, 4, and 6).

  For next year's event, I would recommend keeping the two-heat format with Tuesday night and another TBD, but reducing the number of semi-finalists to 16. At the present time, I am not planning to GM this event next year so anyone wishing to bring it back should act accordingly.


2007 Euro Quest Laurelists

Peter Putnam, MD
1nd

Raphael Lehrer, MD
2nd

Michael Kaltman, PA
3rd

Rod Spade, PA
4th

Kevin Walsh, NY
5th

 GM      Jeff Finkeldey (1st Year)  NA  
   Jfinkeldey@aol.com   NA

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