war at sea  

Updated 11/30/2009

 2009 WBC Report  

 2010 Status: pending 2010 GM commitment

Pat Richardson, FL

2009 Champion

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  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
2009    Pat Richardson     43

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    09    169
  2.  Pat Richardson     FL    09    150
  3.  Ray Freeman        CA    04    133
  4.  Darren Kilfara     uk    08     94
  5.  Ed Menzel          CA    08     92
  6.  Jonathan Lockwood  VA    09     91
  7.  Bruce Monnin       OH    07     78
  8.  Ewan McNay         CT    09     68
  9.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    08     65
 10.  Bruce Reiff        OH    03     59
 11.  Michael Kaye       CA    09     56
 12.  Vince Meconi       DE    06     53
 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.  Chuck Stapp        NJ    09     18
 25.  Charlie Drozd      IL    08     16
 26.  John Pack          CO    07     16
 27.  John Elliott       MD    07     16
 28.  Rob Day            KS    06     16
 29.  Phil Rennert       MD    99     16
 30.  Tim Tow            TX    04     15
 31.  Joe Collinson      MD    03     15
 32.  Michael Ussery     MD    01     15
 33.  Ron Dietz          OH    00     15
 34.  Mark Gutfreund     KY    06     12
 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.  Mike Bailey        VA    02      5
 42.  Dave Streamo       OH    00      5
 43.  Bryan Eshleman     NC    01      4
 44.  Bob Hamel          CT    99      4
 45.  Dan Henry          IL    01      3
 46.  Nick Markevich     CA    99      3
 47.  James Pei          TX    99      2
 48.  Sean McKenzie      AK    99      1

2009 Laurelists                                       Repeating Laurelists:

Andy Gardner, VA
2nd

Ewan McNay, NY
3rd

Jon Lockwood, VA
4th

Chuck Stapp, NJ
5th

Mike Kaye, MD
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, FL
2000, 2009

David Finberg, MA
2001

Andy Gardner, VA
2002, 2007

Dennis Nicholson, NY
2005

John Sharp, FL
2006

Jonathan Lockwood, VA
2008
     

Bruce Monnin, the original Avaloncon GM for WAS back in the olden days and current PBeM GM, runs afoul of Jim Kramer, fresh off his 5-0 Swiss run last year.

Mark Gutfreund and Steve Raszewski get in a game using the new L2 version of the game with enhanced graphics aplenty on the map and ships.

43 Still in Convoy

Pat Richardson won the 2009 title with a record of 7-0-1. Pat, who previously won the 2000 WBC, defeated teammate and one-time neighbor Andy Gardner (6-1-1) for the title. Ewan McNay nabbed third place with a 5-1 tally. Ewan was the only player with a perfect slate in the Swiss rounds, doing so for the second year in a row. Fourth went to defending champ Jonathan Lockwood who went 4-3. The other playoff contenders were Chuck Stapp and Ed Menzel who took fifth and sixth place laurels at 4-2, and Mike Kaye, 4-2, and Bruce Reiff at 3-3. Just missing the playoff cut on strengtyh of schedule tie brekers were Ray Freeman and Scott Beall at 3-2.

In addition to his second place wood, Andy Gardner became the fourth inductee into the War At Sea Hall of Fame, joining previous inductees Alan Applebaum, Ray Freeman, and Bruce Monnin. On top of his two WBC crowns, Andy is the only player thus far to have won the War At Sea "triple crown," which includes the WBC, PBeM Ladder, and BPA PBeM Championship tournaments.

37 players opened the competition shortly after 9 AM. But playoff eligibility for most players came down to Round 5, eight hours later. At the end of the Round 5 carnage, five of the eight playoff slots were set. Andy Gardner and Pat Richardson led the way with identical 4-0-1 records and 45 VPs apiece; Andy's strength of schedule was marginally higher. Similary, Chuck Stapp (4-1) edged Ewan McNay (4-0) for the #3 seed; both had 40 VPs, but Chuck's strength of schedule was slightly better. Next was Mike Kaye at 4-1 and 38 VPs. The five following players all finished 3-2 with 30 VPs: Scott Beall, Ray Freeman, Jonathan Lockwood, Ed Menzel, and Bruce Reiff. Ed, Jonathan, and Bruce won the strength of schedule tiebreaker to round out the elite eight field. Mike Kaye, Jonathan Lockwood, Ewan McNay, and Ed Menzel all repeated from last year's playoffs; the only previous player to have done so since the playoff field was expanded to eight was John Pack.

In the quarter-finals, top seed Andy Gardner took the Allies for a 2.0 bid against #8 seed Bruce Reiff's Axis, and Andy prevailed with an 8-POC win after the bid. To avoid a rematch, rather than play the #7 seed, Pat Richardson's #2 seeded Allies, bidding 2.5, faced Ed Menzel's #6 seed Axis, and won by just 0.5 POC. Jonathan Lockwood's #6 Allies upset #3 Chuck Stapp's Axis by 8 POC. The Axis started with a 2.0 bid, but lost four ships on Turn 1 and never recovered, never even breaking the blockade. And finally, #4 Ewan McNay's Allies, bidding 2.0, crushed Mike Kaye's Axis. The Axis could not break the blockade with six U-boats against 11 ASW in the North Sea on Turn 6, then failed with seven U-boats to break out against 11 ASW in the North Sea on Turn 7. In the semi-finals, Andy Gardner continued his winning ways against Jonathan Lockwood; Andy took the Allies for 2.5 bid and won by 5.5 POC. Meanwhile, Pat Richardson used an Allied bid of 2.5 to turn Ewan McNay's Allied lead of 1 POC into an Axis victory by 1.5 POC.

Finalists Andy Gardner and Pat Richardson reprised their Round 3 tie. Pat won the die roll for 1st bid and promptly bid 2.5 for the Allies, which Andy accepted. Pat's Barents on 1 tactic was met by Andy sending the Axis fleet to the South Atlantic. 2x225 speed rolls failed, but the Axis won the area anyway; each side losing one ship. Turn 2 proved the defining moment as the Axis sallied forth to the South Atlantic again, but lost a 225, 3x117, and the area. While they retained a 3-POC lead, the majority of their fleet was now trapped. With nowhere else to go, the Axis fought in the South Atlantic again on Turn 3, losing both 357 battleships, the last Italian CA and, again, the area; the Axis lead was now +2. On Turn 4 the Axis used U-boats to decontrol the South Atlantic, but the Allies landed a convoy and took the lead by 1 POC. On Turn 5 the Axis sailed their remaining ships to the Barents. LBA disabled the convoy, but after 20 rounds (the GM was counting!), the Allies barely won the battle to go up by 2 POC. Turn 6 saw the Axis U-boats again disable Convoy 2B, but the Allies got it to England on Turn 7 to widen their lead to +4. The Allies landed Convoy 3C in England on Turn 8 to clinch the victory at 5 POC before the bid and 2.5 after.

Including later entries, our field of 43 played a total of 72 games. For the first time since the initial Avaloncon in 1991, when everyone was a rookie, no Rookie of the Year was named. Champ Pat Richardson added Best Axis Player (2-0) to his honors; he was previously Best Axis player in 2000. Andy Gardner and Jonathan Lockwood shared Best Allied Player laurels at 4-0; Jonathan repeated from last year and Andy was the 2007 Best Allied Player. For the sixth year in a row, no chess clock expired.

Bidding for the Allies reached an all-time high this year (90.3% of the games had an Allied bid vs. 9.7% with no bid; no player bid for the Axis). However, the percentage of games won by the Allies also reached a new peak. The Allies won 45 games (62.5%), the Axis 25 (34.7%) with two ties (2.8%). The average bid this year was 1.51 for all games and 1.68 for those games which had bids; both numbers were higher than last year. The percentage of games won by the Axis has now declined every year but one since 2002: from 51% to 50, 36, 49, 42, 39, 37, and now 34% even while, as mentioned, bidding - and bidding for the Allies - has steadily increased.

Bidding effected the results of more games than ever before - 15 in all were altered this year by bids. Four Allied wins became Axis wins, four ties became Axis wins, and two Allied wins became ties. In addition, one Axis win by less than 2 POC became an Axis victory by 2 POC or more, and four Allied wins by 2 POC or more converted to Allied wins by less than 2 POC.

Chuck Stapp battles GM Vince Meconi. The event has thrived under Vince, consistently drawing 40+ players to the swiss format.

Defending champion Jonathan Lockwood runs out of mojo in the Final against Pat Richardson who earns his second title in the event.
 GM      Vincent Meconi  [8th Year]   105 Churchill Ln, Wilmington, DE 19808-4355 
    vmeconi@verizon.net   NA

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