thurn & taxis

Updated Nov. 16, 2015

2015 WBC Report

2016 Status: pending 2016 GM commitment

Antero Kuusi, fi

2015 Champion

Event History

2006 Anne Norton 37
2007 Andy Latto 104
2008 Andy Latto 100
2009 Andy Latto 68
2010 Aran Warszawski 99
2011 Kyle Smith 112
2012 Randy Buehler 127
2013 Rob Murray 148
2014 Jeffrey Meyer 151
2015 Antero Kuusi 161

Euro Quest BPA Event History
2006 Rod Spade 41
2007 Rob Kircher 33
2008 Raphael Lehrer 42
2009 Cliff Ackman 47
2010 Rob Kircher 37
2011 Jim Castonguay 45
2012 Sceadeau D'Tela 40

Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Andy Latto         MA    13    128
  2.  Anne Norton        NJ    10     75
  3.  Rob Kircher        RI    11     72
  4.  Kyle Smith         PA    14     66
  5.  Randy Buehler      WA    12     61
  6.  Aran Warszawski    il    13     54
  7.  Antero Kuusi       fi    15     50
  8.  Robert Murray      NJ    13     48
  9.  David Meyaard      CT    13     48
 10.  Amy Rule           MD    12     48
 11.  Jim Castonguay     PA    11     42
 12.  Jeffrey Meyer      MA    14     40
 13.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    09     40
 14.  Raphael Lehrer     MD    08     32
 15.  Yoel Weiss         NJ    15     30
 16.  Rod Spade          MD    06     30
 17.  Romaine Jacques    qc    15     27
 18.  Alex Bove          PA    11     27
 19.  Nick Henning       CT    10     27
 20.  Jay Fox            NJ    15     24
 21.  Sceadeau D'Tela    NC    12     23
 22.  Cliff Ackman       PA    09     20
 23.  Karl Henning       VT    09     18
 24.  Eric Brosius       MA    06     18
 25.  Phil Rennert       MD    06     18
 26.  Rebecca Hebner     CO    14     16
 27.  Michael Thompson   PA    09     16
 28.  Daniel Eppolito    NV    11     15
 29.  Eric Kleist        MD    14     12
 30.  Jennifer Mongold   MD    13     12
 31.  Vien Bounma        NJ    12     12
 32.  Haim Hochboim      il    11     12
 33.  Steven LeWinter    NC    11     12
 34.  Sarah Beach        MD    09     12
 35.  Bill Murdock       NY    08     12
 36.  Rich Meyer         MA    15     10
 37.  Charlie Kersten    OH    06      9
 38.  Phil Taylor        NJ    06      9
 39.  Winton Lemoine     NV    14      8
 40.  Judy Wobbeking     MD    13      8
 41.  Ray Pfeifer        MD    07      8
 42.  Chris Gnech        NJ    12      6
 43.  Cary Morris        NC    11      6
 44.  Mike Turian        WA    10      6
 45.  Arthur Field       SC    10      6
 46.  Tom Stokes         NJ    08      6
 47.  Tom Dunning        NY    08      6
 48.  Larry Loiacono     PA    07      6
 49.  Thomas Browne      PA    06      6
 50.  Sara Hagen         VA    06      6
 51.  Forrest Speck      MD    15      5
 52.  Robert Cranshaw    RI    14      4
 53.  Bill Zurn          CA    10      4
 54.  Sean Vessey        VA    08      4
 55.  Ted Bohaczuk       PA    07      4
 56.  Skip Maloney       NY    07      4
 57.  Alexandra Henning  PA    11      3
 58.  Chad Weaver        PA    10      3
 59.  Ivan Lawson        MD    09      3
 60.  Jon Gemmell        CT    08      3
 61.  David Gagne        qc    06      3
 62.  Tom McCorry        VA    06      3
 63.  Hillary Smith      MD    12      2
 64.  Norman Rule        MD    10      2
 65.  Lee Mewshaw        MD    09      2
2015 Laurelists Returning Laurelists: 0

Yoel Weiss, NJ
2nd

Jay Fox, NJ
3rd

Romain Jacques, qc
4th

Rich Meyer, MA
5th

Forrest Speck, MD
6th

Past Champions

Anne Norton, NJ
2006

Andy Latto, MA
2007-09

Aran Warszawski, il
2010

Kyle Smith, PA
2011

Randy Buehler, WA
2012

Robert Murray, NJ
2013

Jeffery Meyer, MA
2014

Antero Kuusi, fi
2015

Cliff Ackman, Lori Miskoff and Daniel Ottey

Finlander Antero Kuusi downs twice-Caesar Randy Buehler

Chris Long and Chris Burnett

Jay Fox and Jennifer Visocnik

Victory by a Half Point...

A strong quarterfinal field saw reigning champion Jeff Meyer and all six previous champions qualifying for the elimination rounds. Only one player, 2011 champion Kyle Smith, won games in all three heats, earning a bye to the semifinals. Of the remaining 53 players who won at least one game, 45 appeared for the elimination rounds giving us a perfect field of 15 3-player quarterfinal games. Next year we will be using byes rather than 3-player games, to increase the incentive for players who have won a game to keep playing future heats. Had we done so this year, there would have been six players with byes to the semifinals (the six players with multiple wins).

In the heat games,17 were won by the first player, 18 by second seat, 16 by third seat, and 13 by the last player, showing much less advantage to the first player than we've seen in past years. Combining this with previous data on Turn Order, over 351 games, 31% were won by the player going first, 25% by the second player, 23% by third, and
21% by the player going last.

Bidding for seats in the quarterfinals was very light, with only three bids of a full point (two for first, one for third seat) nine bids of a half point (six for first, three for last seat), and seven players going first and 11 going third without needing to make any bid for the privilege. In no case did the bid points affect who won a game. Five of the games were won by the first player, three by the second player, and seven by the player going last. The quarterfinals included many close games, with two decided on tiebreak and five more by a winning margin of five points or less.

Bids in the later two rounds were also low, with three players bidding .5 for first, and one bid of .5 for each of third and fourth places. But winner Antero bid .5 for first in both his games, so maybe position does make a difference after all!

The most exciting semifinal game saw Kyle Smith gambling by leaving a length 6 route on the board without a card in his hand to extend it. On his next turn, no card was available to extend the route, and an administrator and blind draw gave Kyle seven more cards to look at, none of which helped, forcing the route to be discarded. Had Kyle found the card he needed, he would have scored 189, losing the game to Jay Fox on tiebreak and winning fifth place laurels overall, With his final route discarded without scoring, Kyle turned in a final score of -8, the lowest recorded in any game of the past seven years.

A tight Final showed players very reluctant to use the administrator. The board was cleared of cards only twice. The first of these, on Turn 5, got Antero the often-sought-after Lodz card, which proved useful, since by Turn 11, only Antero had a house in Lodz. This enabled him to get the first world-traveler chit for six points, defeating Yoel by (after adjusting for Antero's .5 bid to play first) a .5 point margin of victory over Yoel, the narrowest margin of victory in a title game so far.

GM Andy Latto (7th Year) 22 Creighton Ave., Foxboro, MA 02035
andy.latto@pobox.com 508-369-4170

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