4th Friedrich World Championship 2009

The Qualification Round



A: In the Qualification Round, 24 games were played. Remarkable results were:

Game 1: Anton Telle wins as Maria Theresa in turn 10 with the Imperial Army!

Game 2: Andreas Zölitz wins as Maria Theresa in turn 12 with the Imperial Army!!

Game 3: Rodrigo Witzler wins as Maria Theresa in turn 17 with the Imperial Army!!!

Unbelievable! Three Imperial Army wins right at the start !!

Game 4: After 3 hours and 10 minutes Prussia (Steffen Schröder) has to surrender; the Tsarina (Louis) is the winner.

Game 5: Some minutes past 11 pm, it is Josef Gundel to accomplish the first Prussian victory: At the beginning of the game he had a safe life, but later Austria and Russia made him sweat.

Game 6: Manfred Wichmann is victorious with Prussia as well: In this game, there were almost no fights for a very long time; the TC decks were growing and growing... It was the subsidy reduction in turn 13 and 14 which made Manfred's position crumble.


Game 4: Steffen Schröder turns his attentin to Bernd Preiß' French. Bernd is the 2008 world champion. Meanwhile, Louis is planning his Russian moves to victory.


Game 6: The enormous TC-decks of France, Prussia, Russia, and Austria (from left to right).



Game 7: Marian Leimbach (Prussia) with Richard Sivél (Russia) and Daniel Jensen from the neighbouring table.


Game 12: Dennis Kelsey in combat with France (Louis). Dennis plays a Reserve and a spades 13.


Game 7: Marian Leimbach's Prussia is defeated fast. At the beginning, it seemed like a sudden win Russia, but then Manfred Wichmann won with Austria in turn 9.

Game 8: Arnold de Wijs is defeated fast as well: In turn 11, Ralf Viereck holds the glory with France. But Jürgen Pfeiffer and Bernd Preiß were short by only 1 city from victory as well.

Game 9: Michel Lepetit does only slightly better: In turn 13, there is the double victory of Austria (Josef Gundel) and France (Björn Apelqvist).

Game 10: Anton Telle makes the third Prussian victory come true – and this despite the subsidy reduction in turn 6 with the first fate-card!! The first attacker left the game in turn 12 (France, Thorsten Hennig), followed by Russia (turn 20) and Sweden (turn 23).

Game 11: Stefan Altmann is defeated by Mark Luta and his Austrians in turn 18. In this game the Tsarina died with the first fate-card.

Game 12: Dennis Kelsey tries hard to withstand the combined attacks of Klaus Blum, Andrea Homberg and Louis, but finally Andrea Homberg's Austrians are victorious in turn 15.

Game 13: Daniel Jensen crushes Hanover and the Magdeburg defense of André Dallmann and wins with France in turn 13.

Game 14: Marian Leimbach (Russia) sweeps through East Prussia and the Neumark, winning by turn 12 against Andreas Zölitz' Prussians.

Game 15: The fourth Prussian victory in the tournament: Christian Blattner is favoured by the fate; after turn 15 France, Sweden, and Russia made their exit.

Game 16: Ralf Viereck, in his preivious game a glorious winner with France, is nun defeated by France (Dennis Kelsey). Prussia loses in turn 11.

Game 17: The Friedrich-designer, Richard Sivél, tries an Offensive Option against Jürgen Pfeiffer. The early successes in Bohemia are not enough, and after a heavy mistake in counting, Prussia must give the victory to Anton Telle, who manages even a double win with Sweden AND Russia (in turn 8).

Game 18: Thorsten Hennig's Prussia withstands until turn 20. In this game, for the first time the new time-rule was in effect: When the chess-clock is used up, each nation receives a certain amount of seconds on the stopwatch (for instance, Hanover has 30 seconds per turn).


Game 17: Richard Sivél's Offensive Option after the Prussian turn 3. The Austrian general close to Berlin is victim of a -9 retreat and will be taken off the map due to lack of supply soon.


Game 18: Thorsten Hennig fights until turn 20 until he is defeated by Louis' Austrians.



Game 20: Daniel Jensen is happy after he repulsed the hearts-attacks of Austria and the Imperial Army. — 2 turns later he will lose against Russia (Björn Apelqvist), though.


Game 24: Many spectators watch the last game of the Qualification round. In this game, it were the attackers who ran out of time, and the strict stopwatch rules is against them!!
Game 19: Mark Luta loses as Prussia in turn 13, defeated by Steffen Schröder's Russian hordes.

Game 20: Daniel Jensen denies the Imperial Army its victory (Richard Sivél) in turn 15. However, this had used up all his hearts, and so Russia (Björn Apelqvist) wins in turn 17. With this victory, Björn has qualified for the Final.

Game 21: Louis survives until turn 13, then his Prussia must let France (Sascha Rakow) enter Madgeburg with croissants and the crown of glory.

Game 22: Andrea Homberg, the always laughing Prussian, is defeated in turn 13 as well, and like in game 21 it is France (Josef Gundel). It is Josef's third victory, and thus he is in the Final as well.

Game 23: And one more game finishing after turn 13: Jürgen Pfeiffer is double-defeated by Russia and Sweden: Manfred Wichmann, who earns 13 points for that, thus entering the Final.

Game 24: Bernd Preiß sails his ship of Prussia safe through the seven seas of storm. A win in turn 22, despite the subsidy reduction in turn 6. The early death of the Tsarina (turn 8) did help a bit, though. – Anton Telle (France) makes 8 points, and together with his 3 wins in the other games, he is the best ranked player of the qualification round.



B: Ranking

Rank Player Friedr. Elis. M.Ther. Pomp. Total
1* Anton Telle 12.0 13.0 12.0 8.0 45.0
2 Manfred Wichmann 12.0 13.0 12.0 8.0 45.0
3 Josef Gundel 12.0 9.0 11.5 12.0 44.5
4 Björn Apelqvist 8.5 12.0 9.4 11.5 41.4
5 Louis 6.5 12.0 12.0 8.0 38.5
6 Bernd Preiß 12.0 7.0 9.4 9.0 37.4
7 Dennis Kelsey 7.5 8.0 9.2 12.0 36.7
8 Mark Luta 6.5 9.0 12.0 8.0 35.5
9 Daniel Jensen 8.5 6.0 8.3 12.0 34.8
10 Ralf Viereck 5.5 8.0 9.2 12.0 34.7
OoC Witzler, Dargel
Dallmann, Rakow
6.5 4.0 12.0 12.0 34.5
11 Andreas Zölitz 6.0 8.0 12.0 8.0 34.0
12 Marian Leimbach 4.5 12.0 9.4 8.0 33.9
13 Steffen Schröder 6.5 12.0 8.1 7.0 33.6
14 Christian Blattner 12.0 7.0 6.3 8.0 33.3
15 André Spiegel 7.0 9.0 8.8 8.0 32.8
16 Andrea Homberg 6.5 5.0 12.0 8.0 31.5
17 Michel Lepetit 6.5 7.0 9.4 8.0 30.9
18 Thorsten Hennig 10.0 5.0 8.1 7.0 30.1
19 Stefan Altmann 9.0 5.0 9.2 6.0 29.2
OoC Richard Sivél 4.0 9.0 7.0 9.0 29.0
20 Jürgen Pfeiffer 6.5 9.0 4.0 9.0 28.5
21 Arnold de Wijs 5.5 5.0 8.8 8.0 27.3
22 Klaus Blum 5.0 9.0 5.0 8.0 27.0
* : better due to tiebreaker.
OoC : Out of Compettion.


Game 3: Björn Apelqvists move, anxiously watched by Thorsten Hennig, while smiles somehow happy. (Does he already understand that he will win with the Imperial army?)


Game 7: Manfred Wichmann is going to attack with his Austrians. Steffen Schröder stops the clock. Marian Leimbach is in sorrow for Silesia.


The best four players of the qualification round have taken their seats (Manfred Wichmann, Björn Apelqvist, Anton Telle, Josef Gundel) for the Final Game.
The Ranking of the Qualification round was very close at the top!
It were Anton Telle, Manfred Wichmann, Josef Gundel, and Björn Apelqvist who made it for the Final.

The Final started at 5:15 pm.

Anton Telle had the first pick of his role (since he was the top-ranked player of the qualification round). Manfred Wichmann, as second-ranked player, had the second pick, and so on.

Note that both Anton Telle and Josef Gundel participated in ALL 4 final games so far! – On the other hand, Manfred Wichmann and Björn Apelqvist gave their final game debut.