Box Scores

Whew! It's been a busy month in the world of international Diplomacy. But before we move on to more recent events, I hope everyone will take a look at the reviews of the Twelfth World Diplomacy Championships in Australia this April. If we missed anything, be sure to drop us a note for next issue's Pouch Deposits.

No action with the Bismark Cup since Worlds, but the European Diplomacy Grand Prix is now well underway with the first three tournaments taking place in April, and one more in May. It's still a close race and we've got a long way to go. Although the Israeli Championship has been postponed until fall, there are still lots of points up for grabs this summer with ArCon in June and ManorCon in July.

On the western side of the Atlantic, The North American DipCon - hosted this year by DixieCon - was supposed to begin clarifying the North American Grand Prix questions. No such luck. The NAGP is now even closer than it was before. As we move into summer, we can look forward to WBC and Dragonflight bringing into focus who the real contenders will be. Here are the top ten (or so) for each of these three races. Kudos to Yann Clouet and Brian Shelden for getting their names on two of the lists!

DAANZ Bismark Cup Standings (Top 12) WDC had a big impact on the Bismark Cup race, but nothing is clear yet, with four more tournaments to go this year. (complete standings) 1 Dominick Stephens WEL 18.19 2 Rob Schone WEL 17.57 3 Andrew Goff ACT 15.09 4 Rob Stephenson VIC 14.29 5 Grant Steel AKL 12.86 6 Christian Gemballa Moura VIC 12.21 7 Yann Clouet FRA 12.14 8 Brian Shelden USA 11.79 9 Peter Taylor AKL 11.6 10 Frank Meerbach VIC 11.31 11 Tristan Lee VIC 11.14 12 Sean Colman NSW 11.13

European Diplomacy Grand Prix Standings (Top 12) Here we go! Four tournaments took place in the last 2 months, with the 4 winners are at the top of the pack! (complete results) 1 SPA Miguel Martinez 1800 1 SWE Jens Persson 1800 1 FRA Yann Clouet 1800 1 ENG Simon Bouton 1800 5 NET Ronald Lokers 1700 6 FRA William Attia 1234 7 FIN Jari Mustonen 1200 7 ENG Vick Hall 1200 9 BEL Stephane Derdi 800 9 FIN Matias Forss 800 9 ITA Pietro Cremona 800 9 GER Dominik Panic 800

North American Diplomacy Grand Prix Standings (Top 11) With the biggest prize of the year, DixieCon, out of the way, it's still a surprizingly close race, with a couple of old perennial favorites leading the pack!(complete standings) 1 Edi Birsan CA 289 2 Chris Martin NY 278 3 Nathan Barnes WA 270 4 Andy Marshall MD 263 4 Morgan Gurley NC 250 6 Edward Hawthorne WA 247 7 Ike Porter MD 238 8 Sandy Wible NC 203 9 Brian Shelden NY 200 10 Andy Bartalone MD 198 11 Manus Hand CO 194 Note: Manus couldn't attend DixieCon. His spare sister chose that weekend to get married. Despite such a good excuse, the other players chose to kick him out of the top ten. He considers this shameful.

Lincon 2002 LINKOPING - Fourty-nine players turned out for the 2002 Swedish Championship. (complete results) 1 Bjorn Thalen 2 Niklas Perez 3 Dennis Andersson 4 Tage Bengtsson 5 Mattias Johansson 6 Tommy Larsson 7 Eric Billving 8 Henrik Andersson 9 Torbjorn Rander 10 Tomas Falemo

DipCon XXXV / DixieCon XVI CHAPEL HILL - David Hood cleaned out the attic for this year's DixieCon, inviting some big names from years past. The field was led by Morgan Gurley, who won in his first tournament appearance in eight years! (complete results) 1 Morgan Gurley 2 Chris Martin 3 Sandy Wible 4 Mark Franceschini 5 Dave McCrumb 6 Dan Mathias 7 Andy Bartalone 8 Tim Richardson 9 Edi Birsan 10 Tom Kobrin

San Marino 2002 SAN MARINO - The semi-annual San Marino tournaments are quickly growing up to be a regular stop on the European circut. (complete results) 1 Simon Bouton 2 Vick Hall 2 Pietro Cremona 4 Antonio Congedo 5 Renato Cremona 6 Paolo Calbucci 7 Piero Maselli 8 David Zanatto 9 Lorenzo Maggi 10 Irene Maggi

Israeli DipCon II ISRAEL - The second Israeli Diplomacy convention was a resounding success. (complete results) 1 Amos Haytman 2 Tal Hever 3 Yair Zvilichovsky 4 Sharon Prober 5 Uri Yaakobi 6 Michael Shynar 7 Itamar Laserson 8 Toussia Cohen 9 Ori Tal 9 Gilad Foldes

NordCon 2002 HAMBURG - The first true Diplomacy Tournament in Germany took place in Hamburg this May! (complete results) 1 Yann Clouet 2 William Attia 3 Dominik Paric 3 Ronald Lokers 5 Marko Klockner 6 Stefan Unger 7 Thomas Mumm 8 Marco Seidlitz 9 Hinner Kandler 10 Michael Schwuchow

Anyone who attended any of these events, or any others for that matter, who has comments or reviews about their experiences, please send them along!

  Matt Shields
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