Windy City Weasels

Fasten your seatbelts. March Madness is under way.

Our third annual March Madness extravaganza tipped off today with Game No. 91 at my place in Oak Brook, and what a start to a month in which we expect to play six games of Diplomacy. The center lead changed hands five times, with five players at least sharing it at various points.  The game also saw:

• Austria and Italy open with a Key Lepanto.
• France grab three centers in 1901.
• Russia fail to build and fall in 1905.
• Five players at six centers in 1903.
• Turkey go from two in 1904 to nine by 1908.
• Germany own Moscow and Spain.
• Austria play two short after jumping from six to 11 in 1904.
• Russia convoy a British army from St. Petersburg to Sweden.
• Italy convoy a German army from Spain to Tuscany.
• Several misorders.
• A couple of surprising retreats.
• And a desperate race to prevent a solo.

When the dust cleared in Fall 1910, it was Sam Bassett atop the board with a 15-center England. The final center counts were:

Our third annual March Madness tips off tomorrow at the Prime Weasel's pad in Oak Brook. The game will begin at 9 a.m. (And as an aside, one of the players is seeking a replacement, so if you want to play, speak up.)

This year, other clubs on the continent are getting in on the action. The Houston group also will be playing tomorrow, while the Potomac Tea & Knife Society will tip off on Sunday. Later in the month, we expect to see games in the Bay Area, Vancouver, New England and possibly Toledo.

We still need one more for next Saturday's game at Dan Burgess' home in Downers Grove. And to free Dan to concentrate on blogging and serving you beer, we could actually use two more players.

The event at Thom Comstock's home in Oak Park on March 20 needs two more players to round out a second board. Thom is promising prizes, including a Diplomacy game and one of Greg's cool linen maps.

Finally, the wrap-up event at Guthrie's Tavern on March 25 needs one more player for a second board.

Don't miss an opportunity to tune up for the CODCon Open, which is right around the corner on April 10-11. Grab one of these openings today!

Who would have thought it possible? Our March Madness extravaganza just got even more extravagant!

That's right, we've added one more Diplomacy event to a month that's already packed with three Saturday sessions. We're now going to wrap up our third annual March Madness with at least one board but preferably two at Guthrie's Tavern!

1. Jim O'Kelley (will give up his seat for Belgium)
2. Matt Sundstrom (will give us his seat for less frequent player)
3. Adam Berey
4. Pete McNamara
5. Scott Yahne
6. Eric Brown
7. Keith Bareman
8. Yuji Takata
9. Michael Martinez
10. Peter Yeargin
11. Christian MacDonald 
12. Chris Paxhia
13. John Gramila
14. Nate Cockerill

Don't make me and Matt give up our seats! We need one more for a second board.

We followed up a five-board January with two house games in February. Thirteen players participated, including two who were playing with us for the first time since June 2008.

We've now had 30 different players in our seven 2010 games. Five of those 30 were playing with us for the first time, and one of them played his second game in February.

Of our 2010 membership goals, I expected the seven reactivated members to be the most difficult to achieve, but we've already reactivated three, and two more are signed up for the March 20 game.

Speaking of that, we're working hard to fill a second board on March 20. If you're interested, speak up. The March 20 event will take place at Thom Comstock's place in Oak Park. We also have room for Dan Burgess' game on March 13 in Downers Grove. Dan's games are always fun, thank in equal parts to his hospitality, chili and hand-craft beer. Don't miss out!

We may open a Guthrie's game in March as well. Stay tuned.