Many thanks to Ken Gutermuth for stepping in to GM the event this year while Don Greenwood was busy elsewhere.

Enlightenment uses a unique scoring system that keeps most players in contention for a prize throughout the weekend rather than being eliminated by a poor showing or relegated to the "losers' table". Every player scores points as a percentage of the winner's score. This provides a real incentive to play against the leader to prevent run-away victories. In subsequent rounds, players are grouped according to their finish in the previous game ... with all round 1 winners paired in round 2, all second-place players together, and so on. The winners compete with each other - earning a bonus point for each other table's winner in that round they best by posting a wider margin of victory. The winner for the weekend will be that player with the highest total for any three of the four rounds.

Slow play is discouraged by penalizing all scores in games that take more than five hours. Use of a similar system in 2001 resulted in nearly all games finishing in under five hours, with some ending in less than four. The scoring was altered in 2002 by penalizing slow play rather than rewarding fast play, but the pace did not slacken much.

1998, 2001 Bill Crenshaw	1999 James Pei	2000 Tom Taaffe	2002 John Coussis

Enlightenment V took place in Hunt Valley, Maryland on the weekend of March 22-24 during the height of March Madness in the heart of terrapin country drawing 36 Age of Renaissance players to compete in four rounds of mostly six-player games. Fourteen of the top 30 AREA rated players took part in the three-day tournament in which a player's best three scores counted toward the tournament score.

Twenty-four games were played with 34 players playing in all four rounds. Only five games went over the five-hour time schedule as this year penalties were assessed to scores for games lasting more than five hours.

In the first round on Friday evening, John Coussis led the way with a strong victory and defending champion Bill Crenshaw continued his remarkable Enlightenment winning streak with his fifth straight win. Other first round winners included Doug Mercer, strong newcomer Lyman Moquin (pictured at right), Nick Henning, and Jim Standard.

With the 1st round winners meeting on Saturday morning, Bill Crenshaw's streak came to an end as John Coussis once again triumphed and remained atop the leader board after two rounds. Other second round winners included Rob Kircher, Peter Stein, Nicholas Anner, Jim Eliason, and Ted Mullally.

As the third round came to an end Saturday evening, John Coussis finally tasted defeat but recorded a strong 2nd place finish to keep him atop the leader board. Third Round winners included Lyman Moquin and Peter Stein (who joined the two-time winner circle), Nick Smith, Carl Damcke, Ted Simmons, and Tim Kniker.

So the stage was set for an exciting finish in the fourth round on Sunday morning. John Coussis had already posted a three-game score of 297 for people to shoot at. Entering the Sunday round, eight players were still in the running for top wood.

In the fourth round, young Nick Henning (pictured at right) and Nick Smith managed to get their second wins of the weekend while Charles Hickok, Ewan McNay, Harold Siegelman, and Rob Flowers also joined the winner's circle.

When the morning's free donuts were but a memory, John Coussis, with a strong 2nd place finish on Sunday, improved his score to 306 edging out Lyman Moquin by a single point to earn the crown. John also had the best four-game score for the weekend while Lyman showed he understood the scoring system, eliminating the lowest score of the entire weekend to allow him to tightly contest the tournament. Nick Henning, Jim Standard, Charles Hickok, and Rob Kircher also won wood while placing third through sixth respectively.

Nick Smith once again was the player traveling the farthest for the weekend event, although he had company this year as John Coussis joined him in the jump across the Atlantic.

The average opening bid for the weekend was 2.8 with only 13 zero bids in the 24 games. Three individuals managed to buy out all the advances during the weekend. The average winning score was 1514 and eight individuals managied to score more than 2000 points and not win their game. All countries managed a win with Venice leading the way followed by London, Barcelona, Paris, Hamburg, and Genoa. London and Barcelona had the strongest tournament while never ending in last place.

Name	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Total	Dropped Score	Final Score
1. John Coussis	106	103	88	97	394	88	306
2. Lyman Moquin	104	6	106	95	311	6	305
3. Nick Henning	103	91	84	100	378	84	294
4. Jim Stanard	101	95	93	43	332	43	289
5. Charles Hickok	91	83	98	99	371	83	288
6. Rob Kircher	97	99	22	90	308	22	286
7. Ewan McNay	90	63	88	105	346	63	283
8. Bill Crenshaw	102	95	86	76	359	76	283
9. Nick Smith	48	71	101	104	324	48	276
10. Harold Siegelman	43	76	93	106	318	43	275
11. Carl Damcke	79	88	102	80	349	79	270
12. James Pei	92	96	81	81	350	81	269
13. Peter Stein	64	98	105	58	325	58	267
14. Ted Simmons	72	76	103	82	333	72	261
15. Dennis Nicholson	73	83	57	98	311	57	254
16. Nichokas Anner	89	105	53	58	305	53	252
17. Steve Simmons	78	66	88	86	318	66	252
18. Jim Eliason	51	106	28	93	278	28	250
19. Mark Frueh	77	60	94	78	309	60	249
20. Thomas Browne	90	84	74	47	295	47	248
21. Marvin Birnbaum	31	92	61	93	277	31	246
22. Doug Mercer	105	63	77	59	304	59	245
23. Ted Mullally	70	104	69	55	298	55	243
24. Ken Rothstein	76	53	85	DNP	214	-	214
25. Ken Gutermuth	66	64	81	51	262	51	211
26. Jim Jordan	83	63	62	DNP	208	-	208
27. Tim Kniker	47	61	97	49	254	47	207
28. Kathy Stroh	64	46	54	89	253	46	207
29. Peter Staab	71	37	49	80	237	37	200
30. Rob Flowers	50	44	24	102	220	24	196
31. Mark Neale	36	46	64	79	225	36	189
32. Jason Levine	38	42	66	78	224	38	186
33. Tom Cannon	25	57	89	37	208	25	183
34. Pierre LeBeouf	29	25	74	72	200	25	175
35. Greg Stripes	66	48	61	31	206	31	175
36. Vincent Coppola	44	77	53	9	183	9	174