2nd Friedrich World Championship 2007

Results of the Qualification round



In the qualification round, 20 games were played. The following events are noteworthy:

Game 1: Rodrigo Witzler achieves the fastes victory of the tournament. After 7 turns (2.5 hours real time of play) his Austrians are victorious over Herman Baeten.

Game 2: Another Austrian victory (Nico Maly), also very fast. After 10 turns André Spiege is defeated.

Game 3: Anton Telle's Prussia holds out and wins despite early reductions of subsidies. His opponents Dennis Kelsey, Anne Groß and Richard Sivél have not the slightest chance on victory.

Game 4: In turn 11, Alex Hofmann takes over the Imperial Army (after Sweden and Russia have exited). The Imperial Army is in excellent position to win. But Alex fails to make the first IA win during an FWC come true. Finally Prussia (Steffen Schröder) wins in turn 21.

Game 5: The first IA-win during an FWC is achieved on the neighbour table by Josef Gundel (the FWC-Champion from last year). Starting the game as Russia/Sweden, he attacks in turn 16 a Prussian 3-generals-stack (with 15 armies) and conquers the last objective. — The special irony: After this round 16, the game would have ended! Really bad luck for Jürgen Winter (Preußen)!
Game 1: Rodrigo Witzler as Austria


Game 4: Imp. Army close to winning. A lot of spectators!

Game 7: Thorsten Hennig's T-Shirt says "I am not happy with the overall situation"


Game 8: Guido Lux: Prussia is still standing.
Game 6: Prussia (Mannfred Wichmann) would have persisted for 3 more turns, but it collapses in turn 15 against France (Nico Maly).

Game 7: Thorsten Hennig (Prussia) is not happy with the overall situation, very typical for Prussia, isn't it?

Game 8: Josef Gundel (Austria) traps 3 Prussian generals in Silesia and eliminates them. But he is not able to win with Austria. Instead, he makes another win the Imperial Army!

Game 9: Bernd Preiß (Austria) sends the Imperial Army deep into Silesia. Early in the game, Prussia (Dennis Kelsey) had suffered heavy defeats there. But Dennis survives a complete 23 turn game and wins.

Game 10: After 6h 20m real playing time, Richard Sivél wins with Prussia. This game ended 2 turns before the clock of fate run down, due to the missing chess clock time on the attackers' side, but Prussia situation was more than safe anyway.

Game 11: Andreas Dargel is playing his first Friedrich game. And in real Russian manner, he steamrolls Rudy Voß' Prussia and wins in turn 8. It is noteworthy, that if Russia would have exited before turn 8, Andreas would have won with Sweden alternatively.

Game 12: Alexei Gartinski is without chance against the 2006 Champion Josef Gundel and against the 2006 Grandmasters André Spiegel and Anton Telle. Russia wins in turn 8.

Game 13: Niels Peter Q. (Austria) and Rodrigo Witzler fight vigorously in Silesia. Also Russia (Marian Leimbach) pounds on Prussia. Finally France wins in turn 11.

Game 14: Nico Maly (Prussia) makes his 3rd victory in his 3rd game of the tournament. Thus, he has quite sure qualified for the Final. (Btw.: Anton Telle won his first 3 games as well.)

Game 15: Denham Block's Prussia survives, but only marginal, against Thorsten Hennig, Herman Baeten and Bernd Preiß (everybody needed only 1 objective to win).
Game 12: André Spiegel and Josef Gundel


Game 13: Rodrigo Witzler

Game 18: Anton Telle's French were just wiped off the map the turn before.


Game 19: Prussia's "flock-of-flies-defense"
Game 16: Marian Leimbach (Prussia) makes a very clever defense against France (Herman Baeten). He defends in the "outside triangle" (1 general each in the area of Kassel, Minden, Magdeburg) and forces Herman to spread out his forces. Finally Dennis wins with Austria in turn 12.

Game 17: Niels Peter Q.'s Prussia dares the risk of the first Offensive-Option during an FWC. The subsidy reductions after turn 6 and 7, are not very useful for this plan, however... Alexei Gartinski wins with Austria.

Game 18: Bernd Preiß (Prussia) demoralizesd Mannfred Wichmann (Austria) by encircling a 3-general-stack with 21 armies. (Mannfred swears that this was certainly his really last Friedrich game (joking).) Bernd also wipes Anton Telle's French off the board. But in turn 17, Steffen Schröder wins with Russia, thus reaching the final game.

Game 19: Josef Gundel (Prussia) is thrown out of Silesia and Saxony in turn 7. His situation is desperate, and so he makes a "flock-of-flies-defense", that is he moves many generals with 2 armies to Silesia, and makes immediate -1 retreats. And, he succeeds! Austria is not able to win. Finally Josef's Prussia collapses against France (Thorsten Hennig) in turn 15.

Game 20: Alex Hofmann (Prussia) is caught by the Austrians without clubs: He has to retreat with -7 out of Silesia. But, he is able to consolidate, and comes very close to victory! In turn 21, however, Russia 8André Spiegel) conquers her final objective and wins.


B: Scores after finishing the Qualification Round

Rank Player Fred. Elis. M.Ther. Pomp. Total
1 Nico Maly 12 9 12 12 45,00
2 Anton Telle 12 12 12 6 42,00
NC* Richard Sivél 12 7 9,38 12 40,38
3 Josef Gundel 7,5 12 12 8 39,50
4 Steffen Schröder 12 12 9,17 5 38,17
5 Alex Hofmann 10,5 8 9 9 36,50
6 Dennis Kelsey 12 4 12 8 36,00
7 Torsten Hennig 5,5 9 8,33 12 34,83
8 Rodrigo Witzler 5,5 9 12 8 34,50
9 Bernd Preiß 8,5 7 9,17 9 33,67
NC* Groß, Lux, Dargel, Gilbert 7 12 5 9 33,00
10 Denham Block 12 6 5,83 8 31,83
11 André Spiegel 5 12 9,38 5 31,38
12 Manfred Wichmann 7,5 8 8,75 7 31,25
13 Rudy Voß 4 9 8,33 9 30,33
14 Marian Leimbach 6 6 9,17 9 30,17
15 Jürgen Winter 8 8 5,63 8 29,63
16 Niels Peter Q. 5 9 6 9 29,00
17 Herman Baeten 3,5 6 8,33 8 25,83
18 Alexei Gartinski 4 6 12 3 25,00
* NC = Not Competing


Game 10: Herman Baeten, Jürgen Winter, André Spiegel


Game 11: Andreas Dargel, Alex Hofmann, Mannfred Wichmann.


Game 15: Denham Block wins with Prussia 		As to be seen in the table, the best 4 players were
Nico Maly, Anton Telle, Josef Gundel
and Steffen Schröder.
So, they played the Final.

The Final started at 5:30 p.m.

Nico Maly had the first choice of the role (because he was ranked best). Anton Telle had the second choice, and so on.