District 19wins razor-close NAP contest
Henry Lortz becomes a Grand Life Master

from the first Spring NABC Daily Bulletin, March 19, 2004

The Seattle-based duo of Henry Lortz and Wayne Ohlrich are the new Flight A North American Pairs champions, but their success is partly due to a bizarre conjunction of an extremely close field and a series of appeals to which the winners were not a party.

At the end of the second final session, the recap sheet revealed that the top 15 pairs were separated by less than 1-1/2 boards, and that the top three places were separated by less than a matchpoint.

Lortz and Ohlrich were third behind New York’s Chris Willenken-Glenn Milgrim and the Texas pair of David Hadden-Alexander Kolesnik.

There were three appeals cases pending, two of which involved both of the leading pairs. Although the leaders, who were non-appellants in the cases, won their respective appeals hearings — leaving the scores intact — the third case caused a slight fluctuation in the overall scores.

Lortz and Ohlrich picked up one matchpoint as a result of the adjustment, pushing the pair ahead of Willenken and Milgrim by the ultra-slim margin of .03.

Lortz and Ohlrich are both software engineers who have been playing together 10 years. This is the first NABC victory for both players, and is especially significant for Lortz who became a Grand Life Master by virtue of the win.

2004 Flight A North American Pairs winners
Henry Lortz and Wayne Ohlrich