Greetings, Gentlemen.
The votes are in and the AYES have it!  The DIAS passes.  Our official result is a 4-way draw including England, Germany, Italy and Turkey.
Final SC Tally:
England (:   Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Moscow, Norway, Portugal, St Petersburg, Sweden.
Germany (9):   Belgium, Berlin, Brest, Denmark, Holland, Kiel, Munich, Paris, Warsaw.
Italy (7):     Marseilles, Naples, Rome, Spain, Trieste, Tunis, Venice.
Turkey (10):    Ankara, Budapest, Bulgaria, Constantinople, Greece, Rumania, Serbia, Sevastopol, Smyrna, Vienna.
I'll have the results posted to the DC site
shortly.
I want to congratulate Mick, Nick, Eric and Steve for a job well-done.  That was as solid an EG as I've ever seen.  You quickly got over the stalemate line and pretty much forced the east to resolve as it did with Italy and Turkey set against you.  In my experience, it is a rare thing to see a IT pairing last into the mid-game, but there was little choice in this game.  Any break between those two and EG would have swept the board.  There might have been a chance in there somewhere for E or G to stab the other and try for the solo or a strong 3-way, but it would have been a risky proposition.  As it stands now, I'd say it will difficult but still possible for one of you to win the tournament.  A solo in round 2 would give you a few fractions of a point less than when I won two years ago.
Naturally, EOG statements are encouraged.  Please send directly to
the group, and go ahead and include the blitzforum address, as well.  There are actually Dip junkies out there that want to hear what you have to say.

Finally, I'd like to thank all of you for being a great group to GM.  Only one NMR, and only one or two times where people were in slightly late.  If you've ever GM'ed, you know what a hassle it is trying to track down missing orders.  I really appreciate that there was very little of that in this game.  Best of luck to everyone in Round 2.  See you around!

Cheers,Chris