Box Scores

A year ago, when this feature first appeared in The Pouch Zine, I indicated that it would be a regular feature. Well, despite our absence in the last issue, I wanted to renew this promise. With a new editor at the helm of the Zine, and with something of a renewed focus here at the Face to Face desk, I think that the Zine is back on schedule. Since this is the first issue that The Pouch has released in a while, I thought that I should catch everyone up on what's going on in the world of face to face Diplomacy.

First off, belated congratulations should go out to at least two players for roughly equivalent accomplishments.

The 2001 North American Diplomacy Grand Prix, which recognizes the player who performs the best at all the tournaments he attends over the year, was won narrowly by Jerry Fest of Oregon over Spencer Bernard now of Texas. The award wasn't wrapped up until the last major event of the year, when both players played at "The Tempest in a Teapot," in Washington D.C.

The 2001 Bismark Cup, the Australasian equivalent to the North American Grand Prix (and, in fact, its inspiration), was won by Tristan Lee of Victoria. Tristan's accomplishment was perhaps even more impressive as he won four of the six tournaments he attended.

Getting back to current events, I had hoped to get some reviews of WDC XII into this issue of The Pouch, but I'm told that most of the participants are still either hung over, or jet lagged, or both; so that will have to wait for the Retreat issue. Ken Sproat, who I'm told did an excellent job running the event, was good enough to get the results out within a week of the event, which is about the fastest I've ever seen for an event of that size. Manus did send his own reflections on his play at the tournament, and these appear underneath the box scores below.

As I imagine you all know by now, Australia's Rob Stephenson walked away from the event as the new World Champion. Although a lot of our European and American readers may not know about Rob, I'm sure his victory was no surprise to anyone down under. The new World Champion has won at least ten Diplomacy tournaments since 1995, and perhaps more. A truly astounding number when you think about it. Hopefully Rob will be available to defend his title next February in Denver!

DAANZ Bismark Cup Standings (Top 10) The Pre-WDC standing for the Bismark Cup show a tight race. Check the DAANZ web site for the updated standings in the weeks to come! (complete standings) 1 Sean Colman NSW 9.42 2 Dugal Ure VIC 9 2 Rob Schone WEL 9 4 Andrew Goff ACT 8.1 4 Craig Purcell HAM 8.1 6 Tristan Lee VIC 7.66 6 Peter Taylor ACK 7.66 8 Christain Moura BRA 7.2 8 Jimmy Millington WEL 7.2 10 Rohan Keane VIC 6.76 10 Dominick Stephens WEL 6.76

Twelfth World Diplomacy Championship CANBERRA - Congratulations to the new World Diplomacy Champion, Rob Stephenson! (complete results) 1 Rob Stephenson (AUS) 2 Grant Steel 11 Andrew Goff 3 Yann Clouet 11 Jason Whitby 4 Dominick Stephens 13 Greg Evans 5 Craig Sedgwick 14 Shane Cubis 6 Manus Hand 15 Brian Shelden 7 Guillaume Vuillin 15 Andrew Cheevers 8 Rohan Flavelle 15 Tony Collins 8 Rob Schone 18 Edi Birsan 10 Steve Gould 19 William Attia

NADF Grand Prix Standings (Top 10) With the results of only three tournaments included, the Grand Prix results are somewhat preliminary. However, with several tournaments upcoming soon, we expect the picture to begin to clear soon..... (complete standings) 1 Nathan Barnes WA 270 2 Edward Hawthorne WA 247 3 Andy Marshall MD 238 4 Manus Hand CO 194 5 Edi Birsan CA 186 6 Ike Porter MD 174 7 Eric Jurgeleit CO 162 8 Brian Shelden NY 148 9 Ken LeMere WA 138 10 Matt Shields WA 131

Regatta III DENVER - Forty-five players attended the third running of the Regatta, at the site of next year's World Championship. (complete results) 1 Edward Hawthorne 2 Eric Jurgeleit 3 Nathan Barnes 4 Matt Shields 5 Jon Saul 6 Matt Drew 7 Edi Birsan 8 Monty Carlisle 9 David Willis 10 David Maletski	OxCon 2002 OXFORD - Four boards were filled at England's most popular one day event. (complete results) 1 Shaun Derrick 2 John Stratford 3 Doug Massie 4 Scott Osprey 5 Gihan Banderanaike 6 Mark Wightman 7 Philip Gardner 8 Phil Hannay 9 Dave Norman 10 Tim Sparks	Piggyback III PORTLAND - The third time wasn't a charm for Edi Birsan, as the two-time defending champ fell to 7th. (complete results) 1 Manus Hand 2 Andy Marshall 3 Ken Lemere 4 Nathan Barnes 5 Jerry Fest 6 Fred Sutherland 7 Edi Birsan 8 Ben Ferguson 9 Edward Hawthorne 10 Kevin Kacmarynski
DiploCamp 1 CAMPINAS - The second Brazilian tournament to join the circuit featured a number of new players! (complete results) 1 Tiago Ali de Oliveria Bueno 2 Joao "JS" de Oliveira Bueno 3 Cristiano Restitutti 4 Daniel "X" da Silva Andrade 5 Grahal Benatti 6 Ed Camilo 6 Marcelo Kid 8 Rafael Ozzetti 9 Jose Bueno Jones 10 Pedro Pons	Waikato Open HAMILTON - Despite a somewhat diminished field, the Waikato Open provided a good warmup for several of New Zealand's top players before heading to Canberra. (complete results) 1 Rob Schone 2 Craig Purcell 3 Peter Taylor 4 Jimmy Millington 5 Dominick Stephens 6 Yvonne Walus 7 Josh Guilbert 8 Will Black 9 Sean Colman 9 Adam Purcell	Diplomatic Incident BOSTON - The premier event in New England returned this spring, and we hear that the any rust came off the blades quite nicely! (complete results) 1 David Partridge 2 Adam Silverman 3 Melissa Nicholson 3 Rick Desper 5 Jim Burgess 6 Doug Massey 7 Chris Campbell 8 Avi Pfeffer 9 Pete Rauch 10 Ian Caines

As promised above, The Pouch's Fearless Leader, Manus Hand, did report on his near miss at Worlds:

I co-led the tournament after round 1. I took a three-way draw as a 14-center Russia. People (like David Norman) who looked at the board told me I shouldn't have agreed to the draw and could have solo'ed. Who knows? I prefer to think that (a) maybe I couldn't have (b) maybe a time-draw would have kept me from it anyway and (c) even if I could have, soloing in round 1 would be like yelling to all the other players to come and kill me.

I led the tournament all alone after round 2. In round 2, I was a 15 center England and once again was told by some players that I shouldn't have accepted the three-way draw. My mistake here was in taking Tunis from my French ally on the final turn. If I hadn't "stabbed" France for it, he and I would have been okay to continue our alliance and perhaps I could have soloed. But taking Tunis put him on the other side of the board, and he, Chetan Radia, and the others would have been able to make sure that I couldn't have soloed.

Leading the tournament as I was, I was targeted in round three. I was targeted by Dominick Stephens -- I sure wish I had known his results going into the round -- he was right behind me! I was Italy to his Germany, and William Attia (who I knew was right behind me) was in France. William and I were so concerned about each other that Dominick (who neither William nor I knew was right there with us in the top three) took advantage and both William and I were dispatched basically by the rest of the board. Dominick agreed to the draw as soon as I was all the way out -- William held a single center so he got three more points than did I; I think Dominick didn't know where William stood.

So I came out of my third game in third place. In one of the rounds that I (along with 80% of the other players) didn't play, Rob Stephenson solo'ed, putting him in the lead (for good, as it turned out). I needed a 15 to overtake him in my final game. I was told that all of the other tournament leaders had crappy final rounds, so it could have been done. I was on nine with what I think I could have easily played to a sure 12 or more when I misplayed. I stabbed England (sorry, Doug!) when I shouldn't have, which let Turkey (Andrew Cheevers -- another guy whose position in the tournament I should have scouted!) out of his box, and I ended the game on six. Until my mistaken stab of Doug, I honestly felt like I was playing one of the best games of my life. I had successfully parried an opening onslaught by a united Italy/Austria (Steve Gould and Jason Whitby) alliance, outguessing them even with unwanted supports, etc., and forming a line against them while keeping a very solid E/F/G together. I shouldn't have stabbed England -- at least not until Austria was finally dead and the line against Turkey was completely solid. That is the mistake that, I think, cost me my shot at the top spot.

As it is, I came home with the sixth place trophy, one point out of fifth place, and eight points back of Rob, our new World Champion. I also took Best England and tied for Best Russia (which went to the other guy on a tie-break, using a method that the Aussies -- and, from what David Norman tells me, the Brits as well -- call "on countback").

I returned with the best of impressions about every one of the players I met down there, and I hope that the bonds we formed at the board and the bar-rails will continue and grow forever.

Manus

Well, that should about do it for this issue. I'd encourage anyone who has observations about tournaments they've attended to send them to The Pouch, and I hope to see you at a tournament very soon. For my part, I'm off to look for cheap flights to DixieCon for the 2002 North American Championships!

  Matt Shields
(chirchill@diplom.org)