Short day-by-day 2001 Pan-American Tantrix Championship reports can be found below, with Pan-Am links at the bottom of the page:
17 Apr The first match was between the top American in the Elo ratings and the top American in the lobby rankings. The Elo ratings predicted 30-10 TPs to defending champion Ben Trumbore, who duly won both games against Brad Swanlund to take 31.5 of the TPs and serve notice that he is very determined to make it a hat-trick of Pan-Am titles.
Brad won his second match 28.9-11.1 TPs against tournament newbie Joseph Ruby, who did well to get within two tiles in game 1 and broke the world record for the fastest play, taking just 2m 27s. It was the fastest ever tournament game too, 9 m 14 s in total. Brad also won game 1 against Brian Colp, edging ahead by one tile at the end and gaining a bonus when Brian went just over the time limit.
18 Apr Day 2 and playing Pamela Wiley, top of the fledgling Master rankings, did not stop Joseph Ruby claiming his first win against here, the fastest ever win in 2m 37s. This beat Alan Chang's year-old record by 4s - coincidentally, that was a win against Pamela's husband! Joseph was then brought down to earth by Jason, whose big win in game 1 helped him to take 34.2 of the 40 TPs from their match and overtake Ben at the top of the table.
The Wiley family match ended with one win each, Pamela winning the first by a single tile and Steven the second by 8 tiles to edge the match 22.4-17.6 TPs and move into third place.
19 Apr Today saw probably the biggest shock result ever in a Tantrix tournament, as 11 year old tournament newcomer Joseph Ruby put a big dent in defending champion Ben Trumbore's hopes of winning the tournament for the third year in a row, luring Ben into playing at his speed and winning by two tiles in the fastest tournament game ever - it lasted just 7m 01s ... then just to prove it was no fluke, he beat him again to win the match by 28.6-11.4 TPs! He only climbed one place to 7th, but if he keeps this form up who knows what could happen.
Brad Swanlund beat Pamela Wiley in their first game to move into third place. Joseph then came back again to take on Dave Dyer. Dave won their first game by five tiles, but back came Joseph again to take the second by 11 tiles, taking just 1m 48s (breaking his own record) for all his moves and winning the match 21.4-18.6 TPs.
20 Apr In the only match played today, Steven Wiley made sure Joseph Ruby did not have a chance to consolidate his wins from yesterday by winning the first game by 18 tiles, the second by one to win the match convincingly by 31.0-9.0 TPs and move clear in second place.
21 Apr In the Dyer family match, Irene won by 22.7-17.3 TPs to move into third place. Some consolation for Dave though - in game two he beat Irene by a single tile to end a run of three tournament defeats against her stretching back to April 1999.
It is still very early days for the tournament though. Joseph Ruby has played in more than half of the 19 games played so far and has only five games left to play and apart from the Dyer and Wiley family matches, no games have been played between any of the top 7 seeds at the start of the tournament.
22 Apr A very busy Sunday evening in the PanAm, with ten games played and positions changing every half an hour. Dave Dyer won both games against Steven Wiley to win their match 28.3-11.7 TPs then followed that up by winning both games against Pamela Wiley too, to take that match 27.6-12.4 and move fleetingly into second place. At this point only about 2% separated 2nd to 6th places. In between these matches, Pamela avenged Wednesday's game 1 defeat by Joseph Ruby to take their match 22.3-17.7.
Brian Colp then scored his first win of the tournament by beating Pamela in game 1 by 7 tiles, then Irene Dyer beat Joseph to overtake her husband and go clear in second place. Steven Wiley beat Brian Colp 22-20 in their game 1, then lost game 2 by the same score so that match ended 20.0-20.0 TPs, then beat Brad Swanlund by one tile to make up some of the ground he had lost earlier in the evening.
When the dust settled, Jason was still first by a long way but has only played two games. Irene was second, then Dave headed a group of five players between 51-57%, having climbed three places today. Steven was down two places in 4th, 1% ahead of Ben Trumbore in 5th. Ben was 1% ahead of Brad in 6th, who also dropped two places and is now just 1% ahead of Brian in 7th, up two places today. Pamela, after flitting between 7th and 9th all evening, ended up still in 8th and Joseph finished down 2 in 9th. Both are some way behind, but within 1% of each other. All nine players have now won at least two games each.
28 Apr The tournament comes back to life, with Brad Swanlund finishing off both of his matches against the Wileys, losing again against Steven to lose the match by 29.5-10.5 TPs and winning again against Pamela to win the match by 30-10 TPs. Steven stays in 4th, but is now less than 0.1% (just 0.2 TPs) behind Dave Dyer in 3rd. Brad drops one place to 7th, just 0.3% behind Brian Colp. Pamela drops to last position, just 0.7% behind Joseph Ruby, with these two trailing the other seven players by over 13%.
29 Apr Six games today, Irene Dyer and Steve Wiley winning one game each in their match, Irene with the bigger margin of victory to win by 21.7-18.3 TPs. Irene then played Pamela Wiley, Irene winning game 1 and Pamela game 2 to end a five game losing streak. Pamela won the match by 21.4-18.6 TPs and lifted herself back off the bottom of the table above Joseph Ruby and Irene dropped from 2nd to 3rd below husband Dave.
Either side of that match, the crunch top of the table match between Dave and Jason took place. The match was marred by computer problems for Jason, who lost game 1 on a time penalty when he went over by seven seconds in a hard fought game which was drawn on tiles. Jason's very bad choice between forced spaces after a return from disconnection handed Dave game 2, and the match by 24.9-15.1 TPs, dragging Jason's TP% back down towards the rest of the field.
We are now halfway through the tournament (though some players have played a lot more games than others) and Jason still leads with 62% even though he has won two games and lost two games. Jason's big wins and small losses keep him ahead of Dave on 58%, even though he has played six games more and won them all, mainly by just one or two tiles. Dave looks very well placed at this stage though. Six players have between 51% and 58% and unusually only two players currently have a TP score below 50%.
1 May Dave Dyer and Brad Swanlund won a game each, Brad emerging as the narrow winner of their match by 21.5-18.5 TPs to move up one place to 6th, but he is only 0.2% ahead of Brian Colp. Dave stayed in 2nd, but Irene is much closer now in 3rd and less than 1% separates 2nd-4th places.
6 May Only one match played today and the tournament is now dropping a bit behind schedule. Irene Dyer beat Jason in game 1 to go into 1st place and knock Jason down to 5th but Jason won game 2 and although Irene won the match by 21.9-18.1 TPs, she ended up where she started in 3rd place, but she did husband Dave a big favour - he ended up at the top just ahead of Jason in 2nd.
The tournament is currently about as tight at the top as it could possibly be. Less than 1% separates the top FOUR players, with three more within 5%. So why is it so tight? Well, if you look at the win/loss records, Dave should be way ahead - he has nine wins and three losses, Jason in 2nd has three and three. However, Dave's nine wins have been by an average of just 2.4 tiles, whereas his three losses have been by an average of 10 tiles - a difference which is unusually extreme. Had all his wins and losses been by 5 tiles, he would have 150 TPs instead of 135.2, 63 % instead of 56 %. Dave is still very well placed though. However, any of the top seven still have realistic chance of winning, including reigning champion Ben Trumbore.
9 May Ben Trumbore played his first match for a while today, putting his quest for a third successive title back on track with a double win, 29.7-10.3 TPs, against Steven Wiley which lifted him from 5th to 1st. The top four seeds are now in the top four places. Steven dropped back from 4th to 7th. However, less than 1% covers 2nd-4th and 5th-7th and Ben has not played any of the players in 2nd-4th yet.
10 May In the top of the table match, Dave Dyer won game 1 against Ben Trumbore by a single tile (again!) but Ben came back to win game 2 by seven tiles to win the match by 22.2-17.8 TPs and stay top, Dave dropping down just below Jason into 3rd place. Brad Swanlund then beat Irene Dyer by the exactly the same TP score to close the gap between them in 4th and 5th places to less than 1.5%.
12 May Irene Dyer beat Joseph Ruby in game 2 of their match to win by 29.6-10.4 TPs overall. As a result, Irene moved just above Dave into 3rd place.
13 May Brad Swanlund beat Brian Colp in game 2 of their match to win their match by 30.2-9.8 TPs. Brian dropped one place behind Steven Wiley and Brad stayed in 5th, but closed in on the leaders a little.
14 May The vital top of the table match between no. 2 seed Jason and no. 1 seed Ben Trumbore resulted in a convincing double win for Jason, who took the match by a convincing 30.5-9.5 TPs. Jason replaced Ben at the top and Ben dropped no less than four places to 5th. His chances of a hat-trick of titles again look to have been derailed, but in this tournament anything can still happen!
Jason was then brought right back down to earth by Brad Swanlund, a one-tile win in their first game lifting Brad all the way up to 2nd place. Can Brad continue his storming finish in his final game, also against Jason, and set an impressive target for the rest to aim at? 2nd-4th are covered by only about 0.5%, so if he loses that last game, Brad could drop right back down into the middle of the table again.
In fact, Brad later managed to move into 1st place without playing, when Steven Wiley's big double win by 31.3-8.7 TPs against Jason knocked Jason all the way down to 6th and saw Steven move up two places to 4th himself. Jason then won and drew games against Brian Colp to win their match by 24.3-15.7 TPs and move back up one place to 5th, Ben Trumbore dropping yet another place to 6th. The top four are now all on 55%, only 0.7 % covering all four of them!
15 May Brad Swanlund won his final game against Jason, and their match by 27.6-12.4 TPs, to move more than 1% clear at the top (that's a BIG gap for this tournament!), an amazing recovery after his mediocre start to the tournament. Jason, in 1st place only a few days ago, dropped to 6th as a result.
Ben Trumbore continued his disastrous run by losing heavily in game 1 against Pamela Wiley. Ben won game 2 but Pamela won the match by 21.2-18.8 TPs. Pamela then lost game 2 against Brian Colp, having lost game 1 earlier in the tournament, Brian winning the match by 29.4-10.6 TPs.
16 May Brian Colp won one and lost one against each of Ben Trumbore and Irene Dyer, which did not really help any of the three of them in their quest for the title. The match scores were 20.6-19.4 TPs to Ben against Brian and 21.4-18.6 TPs to Brian against Irene. Of those who have already completed their 16 games, Brad Swanlund survived another day at the top of the table and Steven Wiley moved into the top three as Irene dropped below him to 4th.
So with four matches left, what are the possible outcomes now? Well, with Brad having completed the tournament at the top of the table on 179.9 TPs out of a possible 320, six players could still win - maybe even seven if Brian, the only player with more than two games left, has a very good run in his last four games.
Pre-tournament favourites Ben and Jason, languishing in 5th and 6th places respectively, would each need to win their two remaining games by more than 20 tiles to reach 180 TPs, which is a very tall order. Brian would need to win all four of his remaining games by about 10 tiles each to reach 180 TPs, again very unlikely - in fact if he beat Dave by 10 tiles in both games, Dave would drop from 2nd to 7th, which shows how tight the top seven are. Ben, Jason and Brian still have realistic chances of a top three finish though, if they win their remaining games.
Steven has played all of his games, so cannot overtake Brad, but could well finish in the top three. That leaves just Dave and Irene Dyer with realistic chances of overtaking Brad at the top. Dave's match against Brian on Thursday evening could decide the title, with Dave needing to win both games, at least one of them by more than his now trademark one tile, to top 180 TPs. Irene, on the other hand, would top 180 TPs if she won both games against Ben on Monday night by five tiles or more, and also needs to score about 3 TPs more against Ben than Dave scores against Brian.
With all of the remaining games vital to both players (even Joseph Ruby and Pamela Wiley have a lot to play for, trying to avoid the bottom spot) and to the other players in the tournament as well, not to mention the pride and rating points at stake, all four remaining matches (Dave v Brian, Brian v Joseph, Jason v Pamela and Irene v Ben) are sure to be nail-biting affairs for all concerned.
17 May Jason got halfway to his target today, winning his first game against Pamela Wiley by no less than 21 tiles. However, Pamela won the other game and although Jason won the match by 23.8-16.2 TPs, it was only enough to lift him one place to 5th ahead of Ben Trumbore, a disappointing finish for the no. 2 seed. Pamela stays in 8th.
Dave Dyer came very, very close to overtaking Brad Swanlund at the top of the table, with one game in his match against Brian Colp decided by one tile, the other by two, exactly as required. However, it was Brian who shaded the win by one tile, putting paid to Dave's chances and while Dave won the match by 20.6-19.4 TPs, he dropped one place to 3rd, Steven Wiley unexpectedly moving up one to 2nd place by just 1.1 TPs. Dave will end up with the best win/loss record (11/5) of all the players in the tournament, an excellent performance, but needed more wins by more than one tile to take the title.
21 May In a very close match, the first game between Ben Trumbore and Irene Dyer ended in a one tile win for Ben, the second in a draw. The match finished 23.3-16.7 TPs to Ben. This did not help either player to move up the table. In fact, had Ben won game 1 by one more tile, he would have moved up from 4th to 6th, swapping places with Irene, who therefore managed to do just enough in the final match to maintain her position. Congratulations to Brad Swanlund, who is now confirmed as the 2001 Pan-American Tantrix Champion.
Conclusion In a tournament with numerous twists and turns, the five players with official pre-tournament Elo ratings ended up in reverse order in 2nd-7th places, but with less than 8 TPs covering all five of them.
The expected battle for 1st place between Ben Trumbore and Jason ended up as a fight for 6th place, which Jason won by just 0.1 TPs (less than a tile!), with 3rd seed Irene Dyer just 0.4 TPs further ahead in 5th place. Ben was the only player to win more than four two-game matches apart from Brad, who won six, but although Ben also took more points off Brad than anyone else, big losses against Joseph Ruby and Jason put paid to his chances of a hat-trick of Pan-Am titles.
In the end, Joseph defaulted his match against Brian Colp, leaving himself in 9th place and lifting Brian four places to 4th, 3 TPs ahead of Irene Dyer, because the points for 4th-7th place were so close. Dave Dyer ended up 3 points ahead of Brian in 3rd, with Steven Wiley 1.1 TPs further ahead in 2nd. Brad won the tournament by 5.3 TPs, equivalent to about only one drawn game but nevertheless quite a big margin compared with the rest of the tournament!
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