alhambre   

Updated 11/15/2010

2010 WBC Report  

  2011 Status: pending 2011 GM commitment

Luke Koleszar, VA

2010 Champion

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Event History
2004    Bruce Reiff       69
2005    Nate Hoam       97
2006    Michael Mullins       88
2007    Vassili Kyrkos       84
2008    L. Dan Hoffman       91
2009    Kevin Wojtaszczyk       99
2010    Luke Koleszar     122

Euro Quest Event History
2004    Holliday Jones     22
 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Luke Koleszar      VA    10     58
   2.  Nate Hoam          OH    08     54
   3.  Kevin Wojtaszczyk  NY    09     30
   4.  Legend Dan Hoffman MD    08     30
   5.  Vassili Kyrkos     NY    07     30
   6.  Michael Mullins    MA    06     30
   7.  Bruce Reiff        OH    04     30
   8.  Sam Atabaki        CA    10     24
   9.  Matt Calkins       VA    10     22
  10.  Holliday Jones     MD    04     20
  11.  Carolyn Strock     PA    09     18
  12.  Richard Meyer      MA    05     18
  13.  George Sauer       OH    04     18
  14.  Michael Wei        FL    10     16
  15.  Tom Dunning        NY    05     14
  16.  Tom Stokes         NJ    10     12
  17.  Robert Drozd       IL    09     12
  18.  Matthew Amitrano   VA    09     12
  19.  Steve Koleszar     VA    08     12
  20.  Brian Kowal        WI    07     12
  21.  Christian Moffa    NJ    06     12
  22.  Ilan Tadmor        NY    05     12
  23.  Josh Cooper        MD    04     12
  24.  Perrianne Lurie    PA    04     12
  25.  DebBie Gutermuth   NC    09      9
  26.  Heather Palenshus  OH    08      9
  27.  Faisal Kassam      ab    07      9
  28.  Jeff Mullet        OH    06      9
  29.  David Buchholz     MI    05      9
  30.  Laurel Stokes      NJ    04      9
  31.  David Meyaard      NY    10      8
  32.  Davyd Field        SC    08      6
  33.  Peter Putnam       PA    04      6
  34.  Tom Wojke          PA    04      6
  35.  Jim Vroom          PA    04      4
  36.  Alfred Smith       NC    09      3
  37.  Lisa Gutermuth     FL    08      3
  38.  Robert Kircher     RI    07      3
  39.  John Faella        RI    06      3
  40.  David Gagne        qc    05      3
  41.  Lee Presser        NY    04      3
  42.  Luann Stubbs       PA    04      2

2010 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists: 0

Sam Atabaki, CA
2nd

Michael Wei, FL
3rd

Tom Stokes, NJ
4th

David Meyaard, NY
5th

Matt Calkins, VA
6th


Past Winners

Bruce Reiff, OH
2004

Nate Hoam, OH
2005

Michael Mullins, MA
2006

Vassili Kyrkos, NY
2007

Legend Dan Hoffman, MD
2008

Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY
2009

Luke Koleszar, VA
2010
     

After years of flirting with triple figures, the event broke through big time in 2010 with 122 players in only two heats.

There have been only six repeat laurelists in eight Alhambra tournaments. Is that due to the size of the event or the skill required?

Palaces R Us

After flirting with triple digits for six years, Alhambra finally broke through that glass ceiling and shattered the old attendance mark set just last year with 36 5-player tables during two heats.

During Heat 1:
· Pete Gathmann and Rob Drozd tied, but Pete advanced with the longest wall tie breaker. The other nail biters included:
· Elaine Pearson's one-point win over Christy Hunnefield. Only 13 points separated first and last in what was the closest grouped game of the heat. Steve Koleszar, Curt Collins, and Michael Wojtasczyk kept it close.
· Chuck Krueger also won by a single point over Michael Shea.
· Matt Calkins managed a 2-point difference over Bobbi Warszak.
· Michael Wei at his first WBC beat 2007 Champ Vassili Kyrkos by three.

In the second heat, Scott Bane ended the reign of defending champ Kevin Wojtasczyk. Sam Atabaki won in the second round and together with Chuck Krueger had the distinction of being the only players to win both heats.

Three tables ended in a tie with Chuck Krueger edging Luke Koleszar, David Meyyard besting Rebecca Hebner, and Eric Brosius outlasting Rob Brode on the strength of their longer walls. Winning in a more conventional manner by ever greater amounts were Lisa Gutermuth over Lawrence Solomon by one, Lynda Shea over Normal Rule by four, Gilles Duchesne over Tom Vickery by six, Chris Rericha over Jim Fry by seven, and Nick Page over John Luckini by eight.

Lauren Vessey enjoyed the largest spread between first and last with a 67-point spread over John Faella. Joel Feldman managed to win with the smallest wall - five; less than half the average wall length (13) of the winners - and in stark contrast to Nick Henning's longest wall (17).

With the two heats completed, the attendance increase took its toll as there were more winners than slots available for the Semi-finals so no alternates and six second-heat winners were denied a further shot at glory. Lynda Shea, Lisa Gutermuth, Robbie Mitchell, Nessa Mongold, Gilles Duchesne, and Keith Levy came out on the short end of the tie-breaking straws.

The closest table in the Semis matched Vien Bounma, Eric Brosius, Matt Calkins, Luke Koleszar, and Joel Feldman. Luke took an early lead. By the second scoring round, Joel had pulled ahead with Eric close behind. Vien did not make up much ground by the last scoring round and ended up in last place with 66. Eric purchased only four pieces and fell back to fourth at 71. Matt and Joel tied for second with 88. Luke purchased seven pieces which put him in first for two colors and tied in a third which gave him the one-point win over Matt and Joel.

Nick Henning, Scott Bane, Debbie Gutermuth, Chuck Krueger, and Sam Atabaki also played a close contest. After the first scoring round, both Sam and Chuck already had walls of 6 so they led. By the end of the second scoring round, Scott and Debbie had made up enough ground to challenge the leaders. By the end, Scott had lost his white and red positions and ended in fourth. Debbie gained, but not enough to pull ahead. Sam won the duel of the leaders by two points.

The table that saw the largest win was cotested by Barbara Flaxington, Marilyn Koleszar, Carol Haney, Nick Page, and Michael Wei. Micheal took the early advantage by having the lead in white and pink palaces and the longest wall. By the end of the second round, Nick tried to build a long wall to make up ground and led in Blue while Carol wrested the lead in Brown. Michael was able to keep his lead in white and purple. By the end, Michael was down to a three-way tie in purple, but had held his lead in white and won with 102 followed by Nick with 84, Carol 71, Marilyn 70 and Barbara 60.

The fourth table was manned by Pete Gathmann, Elaine Pearson, Tom Stokes, Jeff Mullet, and Chris Renicha. After the first scoring round, there was a clear dividing line between the Have's and Have-not's. Chris had the lead with 11 followed by Pete and Jeff at 10. Elaine and Tom followed way behind with only 3. The second scoring round brought the field closer together. Elaine still lagged behind, but Tom had moved into second with Pete holding the lead. Jeff and Chris were close, but had lost ground. The momentum was with Tom and he took the lead at the end followed by Pete. Jeff was a distant third. By this time, Chris had fallen back and struggled to keep fourth, two points ahead of Elaine.

The last table contained Thomas Idzikowski, Lori Miskolf, Lauren Vessey, David Meynard, and Jean-Francois Gagne. After the first scoring round, Jean-Francois and Lauren were tied for first with David a point behind. At the mid-point, Lauren had dropped back into last. David had surged ahead into first with Lori close behind followed by Jean-Francois. The player positions did not change in the third period as everyone held their station.

The five winners immediately went about the business of deciding the next champion. The first scoring round found David Meyaard with only one point for his wall. Tom Stokes was only slightly better off with five points and Michael Wei had but six. Luke Koleszar and Sam Atabaki had purchased more blocks and were in better positions with 11 and ten points respectively. By the midpoint, David had significantly improved his palace, but still brought up the rear with 20 points. Michael had secured the lead with the Blue buildings and built up his wall, but dropped to fourth place in the process. Tom had concentrated on the green and white buildings, but was hampered by a wall of 4. Sam had built a 13 length wall which was the longest of the group. He had also secured at least one of all the buildings except for blue which meant tying for first in two colors instead of taking the lead himself. Luke was in a similar situation where he had exactly two buildings of all the colors except for blue. This also meant he was tying for the lead in colors, but enjoyed a nine-point lead with 45. By game end, David remained in fifth position with 56 points. Tom had fallen back to fourth with Michael edging him for third. It all came down to Sam and Luke. Sam had secured the lead in the red and purple buildings and a wall length of 15. Luke had secured only the lead in white, but held the second position in red, brown, green and purple with a 9 length wall. With all this tallied together, it proved that holding the lead is not always the best way to win, but second place in many colors can do the trick just as well as Luke's 104 points topped Sam by eight.

James Dougherty, Rebecca Hebner, David Meyaard and James Freeman battle in a game won by Dave over Rebecca on a longer walls tie-breaker.

This year's finalists pose for the traditional Final photo before deciding who would walk away with wood and who would have to settle for lesser laurels.
 GM      Debbie Gutermuth  [7th Year]   NA
   NA   NA

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