WPPF World Championship News, by Tom Braunlich
Posted:
Jul 17, 2004, 11:10 PM
Hi Everyone,
Tom Braunlich here.
(Yes, I finally found my way to these message boards! I plan to visit here often; they are a great forum for Pente.)
I want everyone to know that I am going to Las Vegas August 7-8 to play in the first official "World Championship" for Pente in over 20 years, and I hope to see all of you there too. Despite the disappointing resignation of our highly active friend Greg Strange from the WPPF, the federation is still strong and we will be having an organizational meeting there in Vegas to get better structured.
I will be coming with specific proposals on how to get our act together, which will include: (1) a great new WPPF Pente Rating System which I think will interest everyone. (2) a monthly online Pente newsletter of which I will volunteer as editor, and (3) a system for better coordinating and consolidating the currently farflung Pente internet sites so that we can build a better sense of "community" with the game.
I hope all of you will be able to come to the meetings and to participate in the tournament.
Winning Moves is donating support materials and merchandise prises for participants.
I also intend to expand my Pente presence online. I know some have been disappointed with me for not playing online. Partly this was because I have little experience with online play -- being an old fogey who prefers Over-the-Board (OTB) play! And also this has partly been due to my already strong involvement in two other game hobbies -- Chess (at which I have a master rating), and Poker. But those games too are becoming strong on the internet and I've been playing there a lot lately, so I might as well do the same for Pente, my old love! I just wish someone would tell me when the best time is to log on for a little fun Pente play like speed games; I can't seem to figure this out.
By the way, the current official world champion, as you know, is Rollie Tesh; winner of the mammoth 1983 event. But this will change in 2004 in Las Vegas. Rollie until recently was living in Europe, but has since returned to the USA. I mentioned the Vegas tournament to Rollie a few months ago. He was intrigued, but said he would be reluctant to play if he could not play his best -- i.e., if he could not come prepared to play at his old level and be one of the favorites to win. That's his attitude, and it has always been a winning attitude. But since he has not played in years and is rusty, it means he would need to take literally months to prepare, so I don't expect to see him in Vegas (although maybe there is an outside chance). However, we might be able to persuade him to get back into the game, and possibly participate in the 2005 Championship. We'll see!
Finally, regarding the game variation "D-PENTE", I added anote to the thread discussion of it from last May which I think will interest its fans.
Re: WPPF World Championship News, by Tom Braunlich
Posted:
Jul 18, 2004, 1:39 AM
Good Afternoon Tom
It is nice to hear from such a great legend of Pente. It brings back such wonderful memories of the last Kansas City tourney and regional tourney I played in back in the early 80s. wow the old college days. Pente was the game to play then and I am hoping that with your help and the help of many others that we can get pente back to where it was 20 years ago. There are so many great players around the world now that this American championship tourney will be a stepping stone to future World Championships where many of the top 100 to 200 or even 500 players will come to compete for the title of World Champion. Good Luck to all the players there and to future champions from around the world Jayhawklov
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Re: WPPF World Championship News, by Tom Braunlich
Posted:
Jul 19, 2004, 12:30 AM
Hello Tom,
It's great to hear from you with such exciting news. I look forward to seeing you in Vegas. I look even more forward to playing agianst you, as I'm sure all of us who will be there do!
See you then.
-Scott
PS I hope to be seeing you around the online sites more often as well! And sorry, but I'm not sure what the best times to play at DSG are. I have noticed that the most action seems to happen on the weekends. I think this is a question best answered by our esteemed webmaster....Dweebo, can you give us an idea of when you get the most traffic???
Message was edited by: snut at Jul 18, 2004 6:31 PM
TOM BRAUNLICH