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War At Sea
is as steady as wargames come ... having drawn between 42 and
55 players each of the past ten years. |
Ed Menzel patrols for Mike Brophy's
Bismarck. What the dice giveth, the dice taketh away - unless
you're Jon Lockwood. |
50 Still in Convoy
Jonathan Lockwood of Reston, VA won the 2008 WBC War At
Sea championship, adding the WBC crown to his previous BPA
2001 PBeM Championship to comlete the set. Jonathan blitzed the
field with eight straight wins, defeating former champ Mike Kaye
(Pasadena, MD, 5-3), who was playing in the event for the first
time since 2001, in the Final. Jonathan got out in front early
in the Final and coasted to a 10-POC victory. The Drozd family
of Vernon Hills, IL had their best showing ever, with son Charlie
in third (4-3) and dad Rob in 4th (4-3). Charlie had won Victory
in the Pacific earlier in the week, so he came up short in
the latest bid to win both VIP and War At Sea in the same
year. Other playoff competitors were Ewan McNay of Albany, NY
in 5th at 4-1, Ed Menzel (Fullerton, CA) in 6th at 4-2, Scott
Beall (Portland, Oregon) in 7th at 4-2, and the GM (Wilmington,
DE) in 8th at 3-3. Rob and Charlie Drozd did not play each other
at any point, but the Raszewskis, dad Steve and son Brad, did,
in a grudge match that may have had higher stakes than the Final.
Sorry Steve, your son has bragging rights for the next year!
It might have been expected that the expansion of the playoffs
to eight would increase a player's chances of making the playoffs,
but no player repeated from last year's elite 8. In fact, only
one player so far, John Pack, has managed to make the playoffs
two years in a row since we added quarter-finals. In this year's
quarter-finals, Jonathan Lockwood was the only higher seed to
prevail, besting the GM, while Rob Drozd knocked off Scott Beall,
Charlie Drozd topped Ed Menzel, and Mike Kaye defeated Ewan McNay.
In the semi-finals, Jonathan Lockwood kayoed Rob Drozd and Mike
Kaye bested Charlie Drozd.
Jonathan Lockwood was so dominant that he added both Best
Allied Player (5-0) and Best Axis Player (3-0) to his championship
wood. Rookie of the Year was Brad Raszewski in 14th place.
Total entrants were up 5 from last year, and 83 games were
played. Play balance tilted toward the Allies again this year,
with 49 Allied wins to just 31 by the Axis. There were 3 tie
games. The Allied advantage occurred even though total bidding,
as well as bidding for the Allies, rose. Only 15 contests had
no bid, while the other 68 (the highest number and the highest
percentage ever) featured Allied bids, including 27 of 2 POC
or more. No player bid for the Axis. The average bid was 1.27
for all games and 1.54 for those games in which bidding took
place.
My thanks to Assistant GMs John Pack, John Sharp (who provided
the chess clocks), and Frank Cunliffe (who ran our demo).
War At Sea PBeM Tournament 2008 Results
Congratulations go to Darren Kilfara for finishing 7-1 and
besting Alan Applebaum in the Final round of the 2008 War at
Sea PBeM Championship. 46 entrants participated in the tournament
of 5 Swiss Rounds followed by a single elimination phase for
the final eight players. Ewan McNay, Dennis Nicholson, Ed Menzel,
and Scott Beall claimed laurels for third through sixth respectively.
112 games were played which were all recorded for AREA purposes.
AREA ratings at the beginning of the tournament were headed by
Ed Menzel with 6135 (as at March 1, 1997) but the tournament
finishes with Andy Gardner on top with 6304. Full details are
available at http://www.geocities.com/kjlshewfelt/2007_was_bpa.html
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