New openings for the Modern Variant
This article wont be as long as my previous articles, which suits me fine, as I'm quite busy. Still, an article is better than no article, right? Rather than move on to the opening strategies for Poland, I thought I'd step back and take a look once again at the first five powers and give you an update on how the various openings I described for them have fared. Have new openings been used that I haven't yet described? Have players come up with comments about the openings or the powers since then?
Finally, don't forget you can get the latest on the variant at the Modern Variant Homepage. Check it out if you haven't already! For all games finished in 1997, you can now see a graphical summary of each game. Let me know what you think. If the feedback is positive, I might do the same for the games that finished in 1996 too.
The first game that finished in 1997 was Buchanan, a no-press game which saw the first 5-way draw in modern. Jouni Tikkanen, Jeff Behan and Bruce Duewer, banded together as Britain, Egypt and Spain to stop Polish Erik Stensland and Ukrainian Kent Liljegren from sweeping the board.
Next came Desire, a press game in which Jeff Schoenborn nearly managed to run away with the win as Germany, stabbing his ally Spain, played by Rob Lacy, at the last minute. Yours truly, playing Turkey and Ian York, playing Ukraine, were the other powers in the 4-way draw, with Turkey sending extra units north to help shore up Ukraine's defense in Russia.
Also a 4-way draw, Katras was a no-press game where yours truly, Joseph W. Carl Jr, John Roberts and Klas Forsberg shared the honors as Britain, Italy, Poland and Turkey. As Britain, I felt lucky not to have been eliminated by Poland and Italy, but of course grateful as well. Finally Rick Desper won the first modern game of 1997 as Italy in Rostov by, fittingly, capturing Rostov itself as his last SC. The win moves Rick to the #1 spot for 1997 and the #2 spot overall. Well done!
Anyhow, on to the article itself. I'll be revisiting the British, Egyptian, French, German and Italian openings and strategies, and will top it all off with some general comments from players about the modern variant.
| Vincent Mous ([email protected]) |
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