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As the spring thaw began in Hunt Valley , MD, 34 Age of Renaissance players gathered at the Marriott for the sixth annual Enlightenment tournament with four dedicated rounds. With 12 of the top 30 ranked players in attendance, as well as the most recent two champions, the weekend promised to be a challenge.

The first round started Friday evening with three 6-player games and three five-player games. Chris Byrd led the way with a crushing win, leaving top-ranked Ken Gutermuth a distant second at 68%. Other first round winners included Kevin Sudy, Carl Damcke, Jeff Mullett, second-ranked Bill Crenshaw, and defending champion John Coussis who was the only player tin the first round who managed to buy all advances.

Saturday morning brought the second round which contained four 6-player games and two 5-player games. Unlike the previous night's blowouts, the largest margin of victory in this round was 13% by Mark Frueh. Ken Rothstein, Kathy Stroh, Ted and Steve Simmons joined the winners' list while Kevin Sudy rose from the winner's table to become the target for round 3 as he edged John Coussis by 3%.

The third round once again had four 6-player and two 5-player games. This round set the tone of the event with five players earning their second win of the weekend. Led by Bill Crenshaw's win at the 6th place table, Jeff Mullett, Mark Frueh, John Coussis, and Chris Byrd gained their second wins while Greg Stripes joined the winners list. Kevin Sudy finished second in his foiled bid to become a three-time winner.

This year's Enlightenment proved to be the most wide open tournament yet as six players had recorded two wins and many games saw multiple players in the high 90%'s. Sunday saw one 6-player and five 5-player games as several participants elected to get an early start home.

As the Sunday round ended, the GM was glad he had written tie breaker rules as close games prevailed once again. Chris Byrd managed to win his third game of the weekend, but his time penalty in round 3 kept the final results in suspense. Tom Browne, AJ Sudy (our youngest player this year), Sean McCulloch, and Arthur Field managed to pick up their first win of the weekend. Steve Simmons rounded out the 4th round winners with his second win of the weekend.

As the final scores were tallied, Chris Byrd's 3 point bonus for margin of victory in the last round was just enough for him to edge out two-time champion Bill Crenshaw and newcomer Jeff Mullett by a single point. Defending champion John Coussis finished 4th, Sean McCulloch 5th, and Kevin Sudy 6th.

                    

                      

Congratulations to all for a great tournament and especially Nick Smith for once again traveling the farthest to participate all the way from the UK and AJ Sudy, our young newcomer who fared quite well in his Enlightenment debut.

There were 16 different winners during the weekend, 47% of the field. The most consistent player was Jeff Mullett whose throw away game was a score of 91. Peter Stein placed the highest, 10th, among those who failed to win a game.

In the 5-player games, Paris led the way with six wins. Barcelona and Venice recorded two each as Genoa and London each garnered one. In the 6-player g294 ames, Genoa surprised the field as they recorded five wins followed by two each for Barcelona, London and Venice and one for Hamburg. Paris was shut out in the 6-player games.

The average capital bid for the weekend was 1.8 with the following distribution:

The average bid by country was: Barcelona 4.0, Genoa 1.2, Hamburg .3, London 1.2, Paris 1.2, and Venice 2.7.

The weekend saw only two games run past the 5-hour time limit and incur penalties. Only two players out of 132 starts chaosed out of their games, both in the first round. Eight players managed to buy all of the advances with three occurring in one game and two in another.