Congratulations to Robert Zahn for winning the PrezCon Diplomacy Tournament in dominant fashion. Zahn earned a Best Country award on all three boards he played over the weekend. The best two of three round event was brought back in 2024 after a 14-year hiatus. Held annually in Charlottesville, Virginia the convention is known affectionally as the "Winter Nationals", a sister convention of the World Boardgaming Championships. Per usual, we treated players to Diplomacy shirts and some winter wear -- Diplomacy hoodies! The thick winter clothes keeps you warm and doubles as protective padding from backstabs.

Previously Claude Worrell was a repeat champion of the tournament -- winning in 2010 and in 2024 at the reformed event. Robert Zahn has matched him in a slightly shorter timespan with victories in 2025 and 2026. Claude earned his keep in the event, pulling down a Best France and also engineering a three power stab of Austria that took them from 5 to 0 centers in one year. That nasty bit of work also earned him the coveted "Golden Blade" award for best stab. Michael McKibbin won Best Diplomat for leveraging the ambitions of three strong Powers against each other in a wonderfully humorous fashion in the final round.

The event featured several newcomers. J Smith went from Intro session to tournament play. Despite getting attacked on all fronts in his first tournament game, he hung on with good temperament and forced a survival to end the game. That bit of good sportsmanship earned him a Classic Diplomacy game to take home. Esteban Carnice followed in the footsteps of his father Hans and big brother Santiago by playing in his first tournament as well. Esteban later player in the Era of Empire demo with his entire family. So it comes as no surprise the family took home a copy of Era of Empire and a WW1 propaganda book.

Special congratulations to Jeff Hayman for earning his first second place finish. Jeff is a former helicopter pilot and a published author (The Wall), and treated us to his most recent manuscript at the event. Several players in attendance ended up as characters in his book. Many thanks to JOhn Carpenter for traveling all the way from Toronto to compete in the event. John will be playing with his friends at the Canadian National Championship in Toronto this March at BreakoutCon.


Top Board:
1st - Robert Zahn
2nd - Jeff Hayman
3rd - Paul Konka
4th - Claude Worrell
5th - Santiago Carnice
6th - John Carpenter
7th (tie) - J Smith
7th (tie) - Michael McKibbin


Best Country:
Austria - Jeff Hayman
England - Robert Zahn
France - Claude Worrell
Germany - Robert Zahn
Italy - Paul Konka
Russia - Robert Zahn
Turkey - Jeff Hayman

Special Awards:
Era of Empire - Santiago Carnice
Classic Diplomacy - J Smith
Golden Blade - Claude Worrell
Best Diplomat - Michael McKibbin
Propaganda - Esteban Carnice