Ivan Lawson, David Metzger, Lee Mewshaw and Rod Davidson	Haim Hochboim, Tom DeMarco, and Karl Henning

Changing of the Guard ...

Not only did three-time defending champ Andy Latto not repeat, none of last year's top six tasted laurels again in 2010. This year's semi-finals proved to be a family affair, featuring 2009 runner-up Karl Henning and his brother Nick, and 2006 champion Anne Norton and her husband and previous finalist Tom DeMarco. Three-time defending champion Andy Latto had his streak ended by Ted Bohaczuk in the first heat. Karl could not repeat his performance in last year's semi's, leaving his brother to defend the family's honor, but Anne won her semi to return to the familiar territory of the Final table for a third time. A third semi-final game was decided by the closest of margins. Aran Warzsawski and Arthur Field finished in a tie, and the usual tiebreaker did not apply, since neither of them had triggered the endgame. But Aran was to the immediate left of David Meyaard, the player who did trigger the end of the game, and this was sufficient to break the tie and advance him. Romain Jacques of Quebec rounded out the final four, giving us an international Final with competitors from three different countries.

While Thurn and Taxis has a lot of skill, there is of course a chance element in the game too. In the Final, Nick had possibly the worst luck I have ever seen in the game. Twice he was forced to clear the board to attempt to extend his route, and in both cases, none of the 13 cards he saw (six before clearing, six after, and a desperation blind draw) was useful, and he was forced to discard his route. Romain needed Pilsen to provide a connection to Lodz for the all-countries visited bonus, and eventually obtained a Pilsen card, but only by clearing five times in succession, losing valuable time. Aran sat to Romain's left, so reaped the benefit of often seeing a set of fresh cards. This combined with good play was enough to best the former champion at the table for the title.

This year's results seem to indicate an advantage to going first; out of 35 games played, the first player won 12, compared to six wins for the second player, nine for the third player, and eight for the player going last. Combining that with last year's results, though, we have a total of 19 wins for first, 14 for second, 15 for third, and 14 for fourth, so while there seems to be a first player advantage, it is smaller than this year's results seem to imply. Oddly enough, all four semi-final games resulted in a win for the third player, and the Final was won by the player going last. The advantages of early position are obvious, with first shot at six new cards on Turn 1, and being one turn ahead in claiming bonus chits first. The advantage of the later positions, controlling the timing of the game by deciding whether to trigger the endgame or continue for an extra turn, are more subtle. Perhaps the better players in the semi-finals have discovered how to use this to balance the advantage of the first player. At any rate, any first player advantage does not seem large enough to warrant bidding for position, so we will continue to use random seating in 2011.

Carmen Petruzelli, Karl Henning, Romain Jacques and Kevin Wojtaszcyk	Attendance bounced back for T&T after an inexplicable down year in 2009.

2010 Euro Quest Laurelists
Robert Kircher, RI 1st Randy Buehler, WA 2nd Andy Latto, MA 3rd Mike Turian, WA 4th Bill Zurn, CA 5th