Meghan Friedmann, Shannon Keating and Angela Hoffman have Matthew Craig outnumbered. Meghan would take second place overall.	Anni Foasberg plays Joe Yaure and his mates. They never had a chance. Although only 37 ladies played, they copped five of the top six places.

A Dynasty Done in by Women ...

Ingenious again easily topped the Century mark. The usual major families were there: Keating, McCorry, Henning, Wojtaszczyk, Friedmann, Yaure, Strock, Beach, etc. OK, the Five Families from The Godfather it's not. But if you're looking for a game you can play with the whole family, Ingenious is worth a look.

First I need to kill off the rumor that the Friday night heat is now Formal Wear night. Seems that the twenty-somethings had some sort of roleplaying game going on later that had a prom theme. So there were several people dressed in gowns and tuxedos. I'd give more details, but if it's cool, hip and happening I know very little about it. But what does a zombie/vampire/werewolf do before going to the prom? Apparently they play Ingenious! (I'm thinking werewolf because I believe all the members from the team Werewolf Bait showed up in costume).

Once again I must make my annual plea: PLEASE BRING A COPY OF THE GAME! This year I was lucky and only had to shoo away last minute stragglers. It doesn't do any good sitting in your room and it guarantees you a seat.

2011 saw an increase in double winners, which meant single game winners needed a pretty good second place to advance. I don't know if that's a one shot deal or a trend, I may have to rethink it in the future. But I doubt I'm changing anything in 2012.

As usual we had 16 semi-finalists. But this year the timing of a Sunday semi gave us a piece of history. Bruce "Plaqueman" Reiff was a semi-finalist, and he had yet to win a tournament in 2011. This was his pathetic last stand. The random draw for table assignments was not kind as he wound up facing Jason Levine and Meghan Friedmann, both 2010 finalists, plus Rebecca Hebner - the former wunderkid with a few records of her own. A noisy crowd gathered to watch the death of a dynasty. OK, they were on the other side of the room playing Pirates Cove, but it sounded good. In the end it was Meghan Friedmann who gets credit for the kill as she won and left Bruce limping home in third place. The 20-year streak of winning at least one tournament was over!

Cue the scene from the Wizard of Oz where the munchkins break into a rousing chorus of "The Wicked Witch is dead". It was that kind of moment. Where are munchkins when you need them? Like the day Ruth called his shot, years from now there will be thousands claiming they were at the game that ended the streak. Well, maybe not. With that piece of history out of the way, Steve LeWinter was trying to make his own. The defending champ topped Jenna Sunderlin, Laura DeWalt and Pete Gathmann to regain the Final for the chance to become our first two-time winner. Shannon Keating just missed a perfect score and pulled away for a big win over Tim Packwood, Karl Henning and Robbie Mitchell. The last seat was claimed by Marcy Morelli who beat Jefferson Meyer, Carolyn Strock and Matthew Craig.

An Ingenious Final always seems to turn into a low scoring defensive struggle and this was no exception. This year the color was yellow and at game's end although Meghan had most of it, her score of 9 in red and orange was not enough to overcome Marcy's 9 in Yellow and 12 in orange. Defending champ Steve didn't repeat but he did provide the only testosterone relief to WBC's only All Girl Laurelist Review.

You might as well forget about it guys. It's a woman's world. John, Norman and Jason ain't got a prayer.	Vincent Sinigaglio tries to fend off the ladies: Marilyn Flowers, Samantha Berk and Angela Collinson.

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 Ingenius Junior

Chris Yaure ran a Junior version of Ingenius for 20 budding geniuses and again the young ladies dominated - ensuring rough times ahead for the gents of future generations.

Final Standings
1st - Mandy Mossman
2nd - Dagny Lytle
3rd - Sarah Morgan
4th - Ethan Shipley-Tang

5th - Aidan McNay

6th - Alyssa Morgan

I wonder if their teachers know they are geniuses?	GM Chris Yaure presents the little genius wih her plaque.