3rd Friedrich World Championship 2008

Results of the Qualification round



A: In the qualification round, 12 games were played. The following events are noteworthy:

Game 1: Bernd Preiß has a very bad start: His Prussians are defeated after only 9 turns. Even the early exit of Russia (turn 8) did not help. André Spiegel's Austrians are winning.

Game 2: On the neighbouring table it also looks like a fast Prussian defeat: After turn 6, Steffen Schröder has already lost about 20 Prussian armies. The total reduction of subsidies after turn 9 are not good either. However, he manages to consolidate. In turn 14 the wins a decisive battle against the Russians in the Neumark with the use of 3 reserve cards (his Prussians had been encircled). And finally he pulls of a victory after turn 16, with exactly one card left on the combined Hanover-Prussian hand: A clubs 2.

Game 3: Mannfred Wichmann's Prussians survive the attacks of the 2007-World-Champion (Anton Telle as France), the 2006-World-Champion (Josef Gundel as Austria) and of Arnold de Wijs (Russia/Sweden), but the early the death of the Tsarina helped him quite much.
Game 2: Steffen Schröder's united, but victorious Prussian-Hanoverian TC-deck at game end. As to be seen, he had made almost optimum use of his cards.

Game 3: Arnold de Wijs is engaging the Prussians in battle. His smile is the smile of a victor.


Game 4: Steffen Schröder (France) has severe problems with his supply trains.


Game 6: Andrea Homberg (Austria) and Arnold de Wijs (France).

Game 4: The Friedrich-Designer is crushed totally! — In turn 3 Richard Sivél's clubs-defense against Russia (Anton Telle) is broken, 2 turns later he has run out of diamonds against Austria (Bernd Preiß). Only against France, his cannae-like flank-defense is successful. Even the early exit of Russia (turn 9) is no aid to him: In turn 10, the Austrians conquer her last objective in Silesia. Bernd Preiß is winning. — Anton Telle is angry about himself after the game, since he had the chance to win the game with Sweden in turn 9! An attack against the bad postitioned Winterfeldt would have given him control over all 1st-order-objectives, and since Russia had dropped out exactly after that turn, he would have won with Sweden!

Game 5: Thorsten Hennig manages a wonderful double victory with Austria and the Imperial Army (which is worth 13 points for the ranking!). Interestingly enough, in this game a quadruple victory was almost reached, since Dennis Kelsey (Russia) and Marian Leimbach (France) missed victory by only one or two cards, they finished with 9 or 10 objectives each.

Game 6: Josef Gundel's Prussians are under heavy assault by Mark Luta's Russians. He needs a lot of tactical tricks and finesses to secure his positions in the Neumark. Finally he wins after turn 19. The spontaneous helper Andrea Homberg (Austria) has not much of a chance against him, though.

Game 7: In the afternoon, however, Andrea wins with Russia! Flooding East-Prussia with 4 generals and taking it quite fast, she then turns to the Neumark and wins in the same turn with Josef Gundel's French (turn 14).

Game 8: Anton Telle wins with Prussia without ever being in real danger. The Tsarina (André Spiegel) died with the first fatecard. The French have to use almost all their hearts against Hanover in order to take Kassel. This is perfect for Anton's Prussian hearts-defense of Magdeburg. Arnold de Wijs uses a 24-armies-stack against Anton in Silesia, but although he creates great pressure, Anton is not in real danger there, too.

Game 9: Dennis Kelsey's Prussians survive until turn 14, then they break. The assaults of Mannfred Wichmann (Russia), Mark Luta (Austria) and Bernd Preiß (France) had been to vigorous. Bernd pulls of his second victory after his bad start on friday evening.


Game 8: Anton Telle is thinking about Saxony, while André Spiegel is watching with great sorrow.

Game 9: Dennis Kelsey is holding his positions against the "Tsarina" and "Maria" Mark Luta.



Game 10: Mark Luta's Prussians are encircled. Austria (Richard Sivél) will win next turn.

Game 12: Anton Telle and Dennis Kelsey.
 		Game 10: Mark Luta (Prussia) starts with an Offensive-Option-Bluff, but beginning with turn 4, he adopts a minus-one-retreat-strategy. Austria (Richard Sivél) wins in turn 10, and also Russia (Josef Gundel) was close to victory. André Spiegel had forgotten to mark Kassel as conquest in turn 3. He will spend much time to conquer it then (he succeeds finally in turn 10).

Game 11: Steffen Schröder's Tsarina does also not live very long (turn 9). He is very disappointed since he had already taken 9 objectives. Arnold de Wijs' Prussians are able to consolidate. But, although France drops out after turn 13, Marian Leimbach (Austria) finally wins in turn 15.

Game 12: Andrea Homberg plays for the first time the role of Frederick, and she makes use of some very unorthodox manoevers. Her opponents are stunned! For instance, after repeated retreats with the Hanoverians, Dennis Kelsey thinks that now it is time to encircle her. But! What is happening? All cards of Hanover are spades and so it is not Andrea, but Dennis who loses all generals! Anton Telle (Austria) lacks diamonds in masses, but even repeated +21 attacks in Saxony do not help him much. In the end, however, Anton wins simultaneously with Bernd Preiß (Russia). This is Bernd's third win in a row, and so he is under the best four ranked players.


B: Ranking after the Qualification round

Rank Player Fred. Elis. M.Ther. Pomp. Total
1 Josef Gundel 12.0 9.0 9.2 11.5 41.7
2 Anton Telle 12.0 9.0 11.5 9.0 41.5
ooC Wichmann, Hennig, Witzler 12.0 9.0 13.0 6.0 40.0
3 Bernd Preiß 4.5 11.5 12.0 12.0 40.0
4 Steffen Schröder 12.0 9.0 9.0 7.0 37.0
5 Marian Leimbach 7.0 8.0 12.0 9.0 36.0
ooC Homberg, Hofmann 8.0 11.5 5.0 9.0 33.5
6 André Spiegel 7.0 6.0 12.0 8.0 33.0
ooC Richard Sivél 5.0 6.0 12.0 9.0 32.0
7 Dennis Kelsey 7.0 9.0 9.2 6.0 31.2
8 Mark Luta 5.0 9.0 8.8 7.0 29.8
9 Arnold de Wijs 7.5 6.0 7.5 8.0 29.0
* ooC = Out of Competition




Game 1: André Spiegel (Austria) and Mark Luta (France) are pressing hard and with a smile.


The four best ranked players of the qualification round (Steffen Schröder, Josef Gundel, Bernd Preiß, Anton Telle) have chosen their roles for the final game.
 As to be seen in the table, the best 4 players were
Josef Gundel, Anton Telle, Bernd Preiß and Steffen Schröder.

So, they played the Final.

The Final started at 5:30 p.m.

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

Note that the three best ranked players were exactly the same as 2006, in the exact same order of ranking, while Steffen Schröder was again 4th ranked player as he was 2007.