"A Bridge Too Far 2009" Arnhem ASL Tournament

last updated: April 21, 2010

The 7th edition of the Bridge Too Far ASL tournament took place in Arnhem, Netherlands from September 24-27, 2009. The total number of participants was 33 in the main tournament, joined by 8 players in the Mini-Tournaments.

Several big upsets took place in the first 2 rounds, where defending champion Klas Malmstrom, two-time winner Melvin Falk and two previous finalists (Bo Siemsen and Mattias Ronnblom) all lost their games. Four players reached 3-0 records, after which Lars Thuring and Albrecht Dekker lost their first games (to Michael Hastrup and Toby Pilling, respectively) in Round 4. The Surprise Round 5 saw an excellent game of “Bandits at Strubowiska” between the two unbeaten players. Pilling managed to hold off Hastrup’s NKVD troops at the end and went to a 5-0 record, which he then successfully defended against Bo Siemsen in the final round.

Siemsen vs Pilling

Final Ranking in the Main Tournament:

Winner (6-0): Toby Pilling (United Kingdom)
2nd place (5-1): Michael Hastrup (Denmark)
3rd place (5-1): Paul Sidhu (United States)
4th place (4-2): Lars Thuring (Sweden)
5th place (4-2): Bo Siemsen (Denmark)
6th place (4-2): Mattias Ronnblom (Sweden)
7-9th places (4-2): Christopher Peyre, Dan Qvarfordt and Robert Maglica (all from Sweden)
10th place (3-3): Albrecht Dekker (Netherlands)
11th place (3-3): Rich Domovich (United States)
12-13th places (3-3): Melvin Falk and Erik Leander (Sweden)
14th place (3-3): Chris Mazzei (Switzerland)
15th place (3-3): Allard Koene (Netherlands)
16th place (2-4): Tomek Kucharski (Poland)

The Mini Tournament "A Polish Requiem" was won by Dutchman Boudewijn van Schalkwijk, who beat Andreas Carlsson of Sweden in the final. 

The Mini Tournament "MeSS in the West" was won by Michel Bongiovanni of France, who beat German Michael Koch in the final.

The Mini Tournament "East Front Infantry Battles" was won by Klas Malmstrom of Sweden, who beat Flemming Christensen of Denmark in the final.

Winner of the Zaitsev Award was Lars Klysner of Denmark, who scored 5 CVP during his six games. Finally, the winner of the Tank Buster Trophy was Bo Siemsen of Denmark, who scored 16 points in that competition.

 Tournament participants

Klas Malmström posted these pictures on his website:
http://www.klasm.com/ASL/AAR/ABTF_2009/ABTF_2009.html