Chris Martin 

Personal Bio:

• Born July 7, 1969, Roanoke, VA. 

• Grew up in Lincoln, NE 

• Spent 2.5 years in Undergrad at U of N. 

• Spent 6 months in England as an itinerant Ballroom Dancer. 

• Finished my degree in Music at Catholic U in Washington DC, on a scholarship for Ballroom Dance.

•  Moved to NYC in 1995

• Currently residing in Hell's Kitchen with lovely wife of 5 years Mary, and son of 14 months Jesse. 

• "Dance Director"  (manager in charge of pedagogy and training) at Stepping Out, one of NYC's 3 biggest dance schools.

 Diplomacy History:

           In Chris's own words...

• Blame Tim Richardson.  I had played a little dip as a youth in Nebraska, but didn't re-discover the game until I got my first computer in 96 (wedding present.  If only Mary had known!).  One of the first things I looked up, I don't remember why, was Diplomacy.  I signed on to a few judge games, but wasn't crazy about the anonymity and the frequent drop-outs and delays. Found Cat-23 and then, The Old Republic.

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• It was in my first game there, JAdams, that the players realized that 6 of us lived in the NY/Philly/DC corridor.  (The 7th lived, I think, in Canada.) Tim, also a DC resident, convinced us to get together for a F2F game, so I drove down to DC, to meet 6 people I met over the internet.  I am sure my mother thought I was going to be sacrificed to dark gods.

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• Well, she was partly right, as Smacko McMille talked me into opening with a Key Lepanto, which WOULD have worked beautifully -- I was in Galicia, and the order should have been Galicia support Serbia -> Rumania.  It would have gone, I'd have made a great start, and what order is read?  A Galicia S A Galicia -> Rumania.        

•                                 AAHHHHGGGGHHHH!

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• Shortly after, I was sacrificed to the dark gods.  But I got better, and indeed F2F was the environment I thrived in.  I teach people for a living, and I think that brings a higher level of social interaction to my daily life than many Dip players, if a somewhat smaller salary!  My vocal training and stage presence allow me to comport myself with assurance, anger, calm, or despair, whatever seems likely to elicit the best response.  :)  Hey, THEY don't know that I get sick to my stomach before every Con I've ever played.  I don't think anyone has noticed that I always take a break from diploming in S 01.   never let them see you sweat, right?

Chris wrote about his favorite Dip adventure this way...

I won the WDC at DixieCon in 98, and the NADF Grand Prix (not the French pronunciation) in 99, and nuthin in 00!  (My son was born in December of 99, so 00 was still a winner of a year for me!) Other notable dip events include being on the "Where's the LOVE, MAN?" board, ordering the famous "Berlin to Kiel!  Berlin to Kiel!" (2 years running as Germany at AvalonCon, survived with one unit in Berlin for 3+ years, with that order.)  receiving end of a great dip compliment "You know what?  You talk to <expletive> much.  Just shut the <censored> up, will you?'   Written a couple of articles on F2F dip, tournament style.  Perhaps I will go down in history as the person who threw the Solo to my fellow World Champ Christian Dryer in the Pouch Showcase game, "Ruffians".  That was a fun one!

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Chris Martin 

sketch by Buz Eddy

Chris had been playing in events that eventually would find there way to the ratings for three years when he came to mine and everyone's attention by posting a solo against some established competition at 1998 WDC at Chapel Hill. The rating results of that event shot him to nearly the top. 

He and I had a few exchanges on the net and he continued as a top performer both nationally and internationally through 1999.

In August 1999, Chris combined a visit with his brother in Seattle with the Dragonflight tournament. We played three games together and established our "perfect relationship". Neither of us once represented our intentions accurately to the other in any of the three games.

Chris seems to go at everything in life with flair and excitement. I laughed more in the games with him than perhaps the previous 30 of the decade. He plays gaming for fun and recreation. He is good competitor, of course, but more than that he is an excellent gamer.

Chris won the initial Grand Prix in 1999. I had started publicizing it as the Grand Prix (not to be pronounced in the French manner). I stopped using the phrase in print, but when I presented his award at Baltimore at 2000 WDC, he seemed a little disappointed that the parenthetical phrase was not engraved after Grand Prix.

Chris Martin is the most likeable person to Eliminate me from a Diplomacy game.

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