The New Zealand Trax Association Newsletter. Issue: 12
2000 World Championship
The World Championship series consists of a series of three tournament levels, and is currently held every second year (although there are plans to change the format slightly and convert it to an annual event). The first level in the series is the set of Regional Qualifier Tournaments. These are open tournaments which will select the top candidates from each region. These candidates then battle it out in the Candidate's Tournament to select a challenger. Finally, the challenger plays against the defending champion in the Challenge Match.All of the games of the World Championship Tournament are played live, either over the table or over the internet where players are located in different cities.
Qualifier Tournaments:
The world was split into three regions or zones, with each zone providing two candidates. Tournaments in each region were organised by a regional tournament director. The qualifying candidates from each zone in 2000 were:- Zone 1: North and South America. Qualifiers are Dan Pless and Aaron Armading.
- Zone 2: Europe, Africa & Middle East. Qualifiers are Martin Pedersen and Carl Johan Ragnarsson.
- Zone 3: Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and Pacific Islands. Qualifiers are Tom Siegenthaler and Peter Small.
The loser of the previous Challenge Match is also deemed to have qualified based on past performance. Mel Nicholson, who lost the 1998 Challenge Match, qualified under this rule.
For a player's perspective on the Qualifier Tournament and Candidate's Tournament, see Carole Plante's article.
Candidate's Tournament:
The qualifying players won the right to participate in the Candidate's Tournament, the purpose of which is to find a Challenger for the World Championship Challenge Match. During the month of September, the Candidates battled it out over the Trax tiles (over the internet actually) with all of the games played live on the MSN Gaming Zone.The qualifying candidates played a round robin of best of 3 matches to determine the challenger for 2000. Mel Nicholson withdrew prior to the start of the tournament, so is not listed below.
To let you know a little more about the top players, each of the qualifiers has provided a short description of themselves.
Results:
| DP | CR | AA | TS | PS | MP | won | |
| Dan Pless | - | 2/1 | 2/0 | 2/1 | 2/0 | 2/0 | 5 |
| Carl Johan Ragnarsson | 1/2 | - | 2/0 | 2/0 | 2/0 | 2/0 | 4 |
| Aaron Armading | 0/2 | 0/2 | - | 2/0 | 2/0 | 2/0 | 3 |
| Tom Siegenthaler | 1/2 | 0/2 | 0/2 | - | 2/1 | * | 2 |
| Peter Small | 0/2 | 0/2 | 0/2 | 1/2 | - | 2/0 | 1 |
| Martin Pedersen | 0/2 | 0/2 | 0/2 | * | 0/2 | - | 0 |
Dan Pless is the winning 2000 candidate, winning all 5 of his matches. The games from the Candidate's Tournament are listed on the Trax website.
Challenge Match:
The challenge match was a best of 11 games, played between the winning candidate, Dan Pless, and the incumbent champion, Donald Bailey. These games were played live on the MSN Gaming Zone over successive weekends during November.Some of the games attracted quite an audience, with running commentary provided by David Smith and Carole Plante. Carole has provided a brief post-match commentary.Donald won the match 6-4 to retain the World Championship title. Again, the games are listed on the Trax website.
Meet the Candidates Player's perspective Comments