Later this week, Christian MacDonald will relocate to Seattle to pursue a new opportunity with his employer. He leaves the Weasels better off than when he found us in June 2008, having helped to guide the organization as an officer on the first three Sneaks.

Christian also helped elevate our overall level of play in Chicago. He won the 2011 CODCon Open and the 2008 Buckeye Game Fest. He also finished seventh at the World Diplomacy Championship at Origins in 2009. He was a regular competitor at our CODCon and Weasel Moot tournaments, and he represented us well at the 2010 DipCon in San Francisco and the 2011 DixieCon.

Until recently, Christian was a prolific league player. He competed in our second Weasel Royale in 2009 and very nearly won the championship. He played in a total of 25 games with us, and he topped five of them, including his last game (for now), played yesterday at Dan Burgess' home in Downers Grove.

Peter Lokken continued his strong run in Season 6 with another board top in Game No. 141, played June 2 at Guthrie's Tavern in Wrigleyville. This one established a new club record for board tops in a season. The old record was set by Matt Sundstrom at five in Season 5 and tied by Lokken at Game No. 139 last month.

"One move can really make that big a difference?" asked developing player Nathan Kos during the postgame breakdown of Game No. 140, played today at John Gramila's home in Logan Square.

"Yes," chorused Gramila, Peter Lokken and I.

The one move was a retreat by new player Ben Dipaola, who was playing Germany. In Spring 1906, England (Gramila) dislodged him from the North Sea. Norway, which England owned, was open for a retreat. Sweden and Denmark, also British dots, were also vacant, the latter because the attack had come from there. Instead, Germany chose a more interesting retreat to the English Channel. ("I wanted to make more than one person uncomfortable," he would later explain.)