9th Friedrich World Championship 2014
The Qualification Round
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In the qualification round 36 games were played.
They can be briefly summarized like this:
Game 1: The last year's champion, Steffen Schröder, loses his opening game as Prussia after 13 rounds. Winner is the 2012-grandmaster
Christian Blattner playing France. Game 2: Bjorn Apelqvist (Prussia) suffers a subsidy reduction with the first fate-card. However, he still wins after 17 rounds. And he manages to set up a new time record: For 17 turns he needed only 30 minutes! Game 3: Malte Heinrich uses 34 Prussian points in hearts against the Imperial Army. In the end, he would need those 34 points of hearts desperately in the encirclement of Magdeburg. There, Manni Wichmann pulls off victory with France. Game 4: Andrew Brown (Prussia) loses after 12 rounds against Christoph Kaminski (Austria) who gave his FWC debut. Against Rafa Torrente (Russia) and André Dallmann (France) Andrew is quite safe throughout the game, though. Game 5: In this game the fate-cards are chasing each other: Elisabeth (turn 7), Sweden (8), Lord Bute (9), Poems (10). The card of turn 11 (America) is not drawn, since Christian Yorck's Prussia has just collapsed. And this in a special way: David Jensen was damned close to victory already twice, once with Russia, just one turn away, then it dropped out, and 1 turn later the same happened to him with Sweden. Tough luck! -- But, fate was with the brave, and when Daniel took over the Imperial Army, he simply lead them to victory. Game 6: Against Anton Telle (Prussia) Russia and Sweden are leaving early, too (turn 8 and 9). And the one to suffer is Austria (Jan Hölk) which ends the game after 23 turns with 3.3 points only. Game 7: Richard Sivél stops the complete French army (Jorge Sánchez) for 18 turns only with Cumberland. He wins after 22 turns. Game 8: Stephan Jordan (Austria) has more than one opponent! Not only Prussia (Klaus Blum), but also the Imperial army (led by Niclas Büchel after the dropout of France) is not very friendly when the Imperials close the last exit of Stephan's big Austrian stack. Klaus makes good use of this opportunity immediately and wipes the Austrian off the board. Following this Klaus even starts a counter offensive into Bohemia. Game 9: 30 minutes later, Bernd Preiß succeeds in the 5th Prussian victory of the evening. Daniel Dunbring (Russia), Alex Calderón (Austria) and Andreas Dargel (France) had tried in vain to break his defense. |
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 Game 5: Daniel Jensen is frustrated. One turn ago, his Russians were short before victory, but fate kicked them out. And now Sweden's victory was a sure thing. But fate kicked them out! But, eventually, everything will turn out good: Daniel will win with the Imperial Army.  Game 7: Martin Leis moves his Austrians, while Mike Ramsey does not seem too happy with the positioning of his green hordes.  Game 9: Alex Calderón(Austria) and Andreas Dargel (France). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Game 10: Bjorn Apelqvist moves his pieces. Rafa Torrente puts his glasses in place. Andreas Zölitz (Russia) and Bjorn von Knorring are watching.  Game 12: John McCullough (Pr), Christian Blattner (R), Guy Atkinson (A) and Daniel Dunbring (F). |
Game 11: Peter Hannappel's Prussians get encircled in Saxony, their supply train is already gone, but Richard Sivél's Austrians lack diamonds, and the Prussians survive. Finally Peter's defense is standing until the end in turn 19. Game 12: John McCullough's Prussians beat the Swedes again and again, right from the start. Daniel Dunbring (France) is close to victory when France drops out after turn 7. The Tsarina and Sweden follow soon, and so Prussia wins in turn 13. Game 13: Andre Dallmann (Austria) has worn down Andreas Buschhaus (Prussia) after 17 turns. Game 14: Arnold de Wijs (R), Anton Telle (A) and Stephan Jordan (F) are attacking wild. After 10 turns, Christoph Kaminski's defense is worn down, Anton wins with Austria. Game 15: Rodrigo Witzel is suffering, too. After 12 turns, the FWC-rookie Niclas Büchel (Austria) pulls off his first FWC-victory. Game 16: Jose Bonilla Rau wins after 21 turns. Between turn 11 and 14 this game was an orgy of fate: Indien, Elisabeth, America, Poems. The attacker score 7.5, 8.0 and 8.0 points. Game 17: Jorge Sánchez is the Prussia to be defeated the fastest: After 8 turns it is all over. Marian Leimbach wins with Austria. Game 18: Manni Wichmann sails home his Prussian ship safely. He wins after 23 turns. The early death of the Tsarina (turn 7) was balanced out by subsidy reductions in turn 10 and 14. |
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Game 19: This game sees a dying Tsarina in turn 7 as well (Anton Telle). Lord Bute is just the next fate-card. Still, Mark Luta's Prussia holds out until turn 23 and wins. In the course of the game, Cumberland made it to the southern edge of the board, roaming around at Miltenberg. Game 20: Rodrigo Witzel wins with Russia in turn 14 against Jan Hölks Prussia. Not much was missing for Guy Atkinson to be the French co-winner. Game 21: Sometimes, you have to go to the bathroom to achieve victory! This happened to Arnold de Wijs. Basically, Alex Calderón's Prussian defense seemed very safe. However, there was this short time window in which Austria had all 1st order objectives. And, whoops! Sweden dropped out, Niclas Büchel took over the Imperial army, and Austria won immediately! And all that happened while Arnold was on his way to the bathroom, lamenting on the way how bad the game was going for him... Hey, guys: Drink more beer, go to the bathroom and you will win! Game 22: It was only minutes to midnight when Rafa Torrente won with Austria against Maurice de Wijs (18 turns). Until that point, only Sweden (Marian Leimbach) had exited the game and one subsidy reduction did occur. Game 23: Martin Leis repulses the attack of an Austrian monster stack in Saxony, only to be sent to Kulmbach by Hildburghausen by an −8 retreat. Andrew Brown Austrians pull off victory in turn 11. The subsidy reductions in turn 8 and 9 didn't help either. Game 24: Out of a sudden, Christian Yorck (Austria) is facing Prussian hordes in Bohemia. It is no Offensive Option, but Christian starts to sweat nevertheless. Prussia wins after 19 turns of struggle. Game 25: Daniel Dunbring brings home another Prussian victory after 19 turns. Game 26: Fate is not friendly to Andreas Zölitz. Early subsidy reductions, and after the exit of Sweden (turn 12) and Russia (15) Jorge Sánchez wins immediately with the Imperial Army. The real job was done by Marcus Straßmann whose score with Austria is now quite poor: 4.2 points. Game 27: Stephan Jordan is hit by another turn-6-Lord-Bute. Bernd Preiß (Austria) goes for an Imperial win, attacking in hearts again and again. Profiting from this is France (Richard Sivél). Just in the right moment, Chevert makes the decisive attack (France holds only a 11 in hearts), and succeeds in conquering Magdeburg! This means a French victory! It has to be mentioned, that after the glorious battle victory, Chevert had to fight Cumberland as well. This combat ended with Chevert's −7 retreat. But, who cares about that? |
 Game 21: John McCullough is reading out the fate-card. Alex Calderón, Niclas Büchel and Arnold de Wijs listen anxiously. Some turns later, Arnold will be on his way to the bathroom, when victory comes over him: Sweden exited and Austria already had all her 1st order objectives. What a brilliant way to win a game! Simply go to the bathroom!  Game 24: Christian Blattner is not sure whether he should dare an Offensive Option. André Dallmann (R) and Christian Yorck (Ö) seem quite happy.  Game 25: Daniel Dunbring as Preußen. Steffen Schröder and Bjorn von Knorring won't be able to defeat him. |
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 Game 6: Please, make a typical gesture of a Friedrich player! It is a pleasure for John McCullough to demonstrate that gesture!  And so it is for André Dallmann (game 34)...  And Niclas Büchel knows about it as well (game 35) :-) |
Game 29: In a game with a lot of tactical finesses, Daniel Jensen (Prussia) finally wins after 19 turns of struggle. He and Manni Wichmann (Austria, 8.3 points) manage both to enter the final. Game 30: Bjorn von Knorring (Austria) crushes Thorsten Groß' Prussian defense after 10 turns. Game 31: Rafa Torrente has the fate on his side. It is the shortest Prussian victory: 11 turns. Christian Blattner (France) scores 6 points and misses the final by inches. Game 32: Mark Luta (Russia) has very good chances for reaching the final. In this game there are even 4 pathes to victory: If Russia would drop out after turn 14, Sweden wins immediately. After turn 16, Sweden needed only 3 turns to take his last objective (well guarded by the Russian troops), but it dropped out on this turn 16. If Russia became more hearts then Mike Ramseys defense would collapse. But no hearts for Russia! And, finally, if Russia would drop out after turn 17, Mark would score an instantaneous Imperial victory. — But none of these victories materializes. Instead Rodrigo Witzel wins after 19 turns with Austria. Game 33: Guy Atkinson defends the Kammin area with 14 troops. Against France (Anton Telle) he sends a poorly armed Seydlitz (1 troop) but commits massive spades. Since Anton needs a win for entering the final, he goes full risk. Big gamble, big loss: Anton scores 3 points only. It i Andreas Buschhaus who wins with Austria after 14 turns. Game 34: In this game, Saxony was long ignored by the players. A Prussian supply train entered Brünn. Despite the subsidy reductions in turn 6, André Dallmann wins with Prussia after 23 long turns. This puts an end to all hopes entering the final for Klaus Blum (Russia) and (France). Game 35: Daniel Dunbring (Austria) defeats Niclas Büchel's Prussians in turn 14, and so he is the 4th candidate for the final. Game 36: In turn 3, Arnold de Wijs blows for the attack! His Prussians encircle an Austrian stack at Löbau in a 3 sector combat. However, Arnold is too weak in hearts, and in the counterattack, he gets encircled himselft and 15 Prussian troops are dying. Following this, the Prussian defense is messed up, and Russia (Richard Sivél) wins in turn 10. This is Richard's third win in the tournament. |
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 Game 14: Prussia (Christoph Kaminski) under big pressure! All 3 attacking players have announced their "Gardéz" (shown by the standing flags). That means everyone of them can win next turn.  Game 27: A similar "Gardéz" situation for Stephan Jordan. Here it is Bernd Preiß who wants to win with the Imperial army. In the end, France is the lucka winner (Richard Sivél). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The four finalists: Manni Wichmann, Rafa Torrente, Daniel Jensen, Daniel Dunbring. |
Since Richard Sivél was playing out of competition, the best 4 ranked players were Daniel Jensen, Manni Wichmann, Rafa Torrente and Daniel Dunbring. They entered the final at 17:15. Daniel Jensen, as best ranked player of the qualification round, had the first choice of role. Manni Wichmann the second choice, and so on. For Daniel Jensen and Rafa Torrente it was the first participation in a FWC final. For Manni the fourth, and for Daniel Dunbring the second. Guy Atkinson was awarded with the Fair Ehrensvärd, the prize for the fairest player. |