BGG SPRING 2026 in Dallas, Texas has concluded.  We had a great time in our Diplomacy Triathlon. There was fun, smiles, frustrations and laughs.  Overall, it was a great group of players who had some competitive but friendly fun - what we all want to see in Diplomacy.  Things ran smoothly and stayed on time.

We had seven new players for each of the learn to play events for Classic Diplomacy and Era of Empires plus seventeen for the Diplomacy the Golden Blade learn to play.   For the tournament events we had thirteen unique players over all three rounds.   Of note is that Pete Tanthmanatham, who tried Diplomacy for the first time ever in the Era of Empires learn to play event, had so much fun playing that he stayed for the Era of Empires Tournament round and ended up toping his board after turning on his British ally the last year of the game and getting and earning a second place silver plaque for that round.

Our overall Tournament Champion was Ivory Whitehead.  Ivory tied for placement points with Anatoly Morosov and won on tiebreaker (three medals).  Ivory had played classic Diplomacy online some but never played in an actual face to face game ever much less a tournament event and had never played Diplomacy Era of Empires or Diplomacy the Golden blade.   Ivory had smart consistent gameplay, good negotiations and took advantage of the board where opportunities presented while not worrying about moves that didn’t work out, beating out some more seasoned players.

We also made history at BGG Spring 2026! 

After checking, we confirmed that Ivory Whitehead is now the youngest person ever to win a Diplomacy Tournament.  Ivory, a soon to be high school junior, placed third in each of the qualifying rounds of the BGG Spring Diplomacy Triathlon taking the Bronze Plaque in each event.   Ivory told me before round three started that they wanted third place “to have the trifecta of thirds”.   Ivory was so happy to take all three Bronze plaques “to make the set” that they didn’t realize they won the whole event!  Congrats to our winner!  Now Ivory has a title to defend at BGG Fall 2026!