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Russian Railroads (RRR) WBC 2018 Event Report
Updated November 19, 2018
70 Players Aaron Blair 2018 Status 2019 Status Event History
2018 Champion & Laurels
 

A New Champion

70 different players played 21 total games (obviously with some repeat contenders) for a total of 21 unique winners. The unusual part was that we had one 2-game winner, and a tie, so 2 winners in one game! All 21 players won their first heat entered! Priority seating was given to those who played a second game and finished second (6 players) and then margin of victory as a percentage of the second-place score. The only player in the top 16 who did not show for the semi-finals was our only 2 game winner, Tom DeMarco, last year’s GM of this tournament.

Franҫois de Bellefeuille, Ming Hon, Woolly Farrow (my son), and Aaron Blair all won their semifinal games to advance to a tense and well played final.

An outside observer can determine each players’ strategy after turn 3, if not sooner. So, we pick up the action in turn 3. Francois has claimed his first circle, nabbed the 9 train, and scored the maximum 20 points for the Kiev line to take the lead in turn 3 at 55 points. Ming went for the more traditional progress of the Trans-Siberian line and had brown up to 12 points by turn 3, putting her in second at 53. Woolly, likewise, went for the Trans-Siberian line and had 10 points in grey and 8 in bone on turn 3, standing in 3rd at 37. Aaron was a little slower out of the gate, had nothing on the Trans-Siberian line, and only 10 for the Kiev line with a total of 36.

The lead did not change for the next 3 turns although second, third, and fourth did alternate between the other 3 players. However, on the last turn Aaron pushed the white track and was able to score 147 while also having the most engineers to take the lead and the wood! Francois finished second and Ming finished third. All 4 players played a strong game and they all deserved the laurels they earned.

Some statistics from this year’s competition:

  • There were 26 games played, including the semifinals and finals.
  • We had a total of 70 players, up by 16 or almost 30% from last year!
  • Winning scores ranged from 358 to a high of 489, which also happened to be our only tied game (between Chad Martin and last year’s champion, Keith Dent). I would not have thought that two players could both score that many points in one game!
  • Margin of victory (first place score divided by second place score) ranged from 0% (our tie) up to a whopping 51%! Hebert Gratz won his match 464 to 306!

 
2018 Laurelists Repeating Laurelists: 1
Francois de Bellefeuile Ming Hon Woolly Farrow V Devin Smith Allan Jiang
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th

 

Finalists with GM Dan Farrow.
 
 
GM  Dan Farrow [1st Year]  NA
 NA  NA