war at sea  

Updated 11/26/2008

 2008 WBC Report  

 2009 Status: pending 2009 GM commitment

Jonathan Lockwood, VA

2008 Champion

Offsite Links

  
  Laurels

Event History
1991    Bruce Monnin      20
1992    Tom Scarborough      23
1993    Bruce Monnin      28
1994    Phil Rennert      18
1995    Ray Freeman      33
1996    Steve Packwood      27
1997    Tim Hitchings      33
1998    Mike Kaye      32
1999    Ray Freeman     45
2000    Pat Richardson     42
2001    David Finberg     43
2002    Andy Gardner     51
2003    Ray Freeman     47
2004    Bruce Monnin     51
2005     Dennis Nicholson     55
2006    John Sharp     46
2007    Andy Gardner     44
2008    Jonathan Lockwood     50

PBeM Event History
1999    Vince Meconi      22
2000    Ed Menzel      39
2001    Jonathan Lockwood      43
2004    Don Greenwood      44
2006    Andy Gardner     46
2008    Darren Kilfara     46
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Andy Gardner       VA    07    145
  2.  Ray Freeman        CA    04    133
  3.  Pat Richardson     VA    05    110
  4.  Darren Kilfara     UK    08     94
  5.  Ed Menzel          CA    08     92
  6.  Jonathan Lockwood  VA    08     79
  7.  Bruce Monnin       OH    07     78
  8.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    08     65
  9.  Bruce Reiff        OH    03     59
 10.  Vince Meconi       DE    06     53
 11.  Michael Kaye       CA    08     52
 12.  Ewan McNay         CT    08     52
 13.  Don Greenwood      MD    04     50
 14.  David Finberg      MA    01     50
 15.  Rob Flowers        NC    06     44
 16.  John Sharp         FL    06     40
 17.  Robert Drozd       IL    08     36
 18.  Alan Applebaum     MA    08     34
 19.  Tim Hitchings      DE    04     30
 20.  Bill Thomson       TX    03     30
 21.  Steve Packwood     MN    00     30
 22.  Greg Berry         VA    05     28
 23.  Glenn McMaster     ON    06     19
 24.  John Pack          CO    07     16
 25.  Charlie Drozd      IL    08     16
 26.  John Elliott       MD    07     16
 27.  Rob Day            KS    06     16
 28.  Phil Rennert       MD    99     16
 29.  Tim Tow            TX    04     15
 30.  Joe Collinson      MD    03     15
 31.  Michael Ussery     MD    01     15
 32.  Ron Dietz          OH    00     15
 33.  Mark Gutfreund     KY    06     12
 34.  Chuck Stapp        NJ    05     10
 35.  John Strand        CO    03     10
 36.  Michael Knautz     WI    00     10
 37.  Jim Kramer         PA    07      8
 38.  Mike Brophy        NC    06      8
 39.  Scott Beall        OR    08      5
 40.  Kevin Shewfelt     CA    04      5
 41.  Dave Streams       OH    00      5
 42.  Bryan Eshleman     NC    01      4
 43.  Bob Hamel          CT    99      4
 44.  Dan Henry          IL    01      3
 45.  Nick Markevich     CA    99      3
 46.  James Pei          TX    99      2
 47.  Sean McKenzie      AK    99      1

2008 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists: 0

Mike Kaye, MD
2nd

Charlie Drozd, IL
3rd

Rob Drozd, IL
4th

Ewan McNay, CT
5th

Ed Menzel, CA
6th


Past Winners

Bruce Monnin, OH
1991, 1993, 2004

Phil Rennert, MD
1994

Ray Freeman, CA
1995, 1999, 2003

Steve Packwood, MN
1996

Tim Hitchings, DE
1997

Mike Kaye, CA
1998

Pat Richardson, VA
2000

David Finberg, MA
2001

Andy Gardner, VA
2002, 2007

Dennis Nicholson, NY
2005

John Sharp, FL
2006

Jonathan Lockwood, VA
2008
     

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

 GM      Vincent Meconi  [7th Year]   105 Churchill Ln, Wilmington, DE 19808-4355 
    vmeconi@aol.com   NA

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