Both tactile and visual sensations make Queen's Gambit a favorite.	The appeal of miniatures in a boardgame format is a strong draw.

In the 7th year of Queen's Gambit play, the field remained stable despite the game being long out of print. As usual, players who can't handle the time-pressure of Doncon fell by the wayside as they crapped out with the Naboo and whimpered about the unfair nature of the format and how "it sucks to be the Naboo!" This year's overall outcome was again close to 50-50. In the preliminaries the Naboo won 26 of 49. There is no time limit in the prelims and this slants things towards the Naboo. In the time-limited playoffs, the Trade Federation wins if it is still standing after two hours -- reflecting the time pressures of the cinema battle. This year the Trade Federation won eight of the 15 playoff games, so the final tally was Naboo 33, Darth Maul 31.

Sixteen players advanced to the playoffs, including past champs Brian Sutton and Karl Henning and the sole two-time champ Lawrence Lingle. Two previous champs, Buddy Sinigaglio and William Sparks, did not get past the preliminaries. In fact, William "Window Ledge" Sparks, who forgot how to play, was seriously hammered by the Dark Side twice.

The most interesting item in the prelims was that David "The Hutt" Gubbay showed up to play in his clothes rather than his underwear. It should be noted, that "Jabba the Hutt" Gubbay will always be classified as bringing his own game, even when he does not, based on the fact that he has been the only Queen's Gambit player nominated for the Sportsmanship Award.

Because the game is out of print, many of the tie breakers for making it to the playoff rounds include "bringing your own game." In 2008, the most significant event was the sight of players appearing for the playoff assignment with a copy of the game, even though they did not bring one to the prelims. In 2009, game status will be determined during the prelims and will not be altered before the start of the playoffs.

Those who made it into the playoff rounds, but not to the championship game included "Battle Droid" Bill Morse, Red Queen Lingle,  Rob "Purple Queen" Flowers, Brian "Nute Gunray" Sutton, Alex "Jedi Padawan" Bell, Jacob "Quigon" Hebner, Paul "Bomarr Monk" Menders, Greg "Zuckuss" Zegalia, Aaron "Mustafarian Flea Rider" Fuegi, Karl "Sith Witch" Henning, John "Sidious" Schoose, Gino "The Vornskr" Sinigaglio, John "Lobot" Pack and Kerry "Sly Moore" Codoley.

In the Championship, Geonosian Overseer Nick Page bested Rick "Rancor" Sciacca in a hard fought contest that could have gone either way.