Congratulations to the 2009 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) winner, Dominion, by Donald X Vaccarino, and published by Rio Grande Games! Dominion is a quick and clever game about expanding your kingdom faster than your neighboring monarchs (other players) do. This is the first time Mr. Vaccarino has won the game of the year award.

The German Spiel des Jahres is perhaps the world's most prestigious game award. Founded in 1978 by a group of German game critics to promote awareness and to increase the cultural value of games, the award recognizes outstanding games based on originality, playability, and educational value of the game idea; organization, clarity and understandability of rules; packing and layout of the gameboard and the game rules; and functionality and overall quality of the game materials included.

Congratulations again to Donald X Vaccarino and Rio Grande Games, and all the other nominated and recommended games. You can see the complete details of all these games on Funagain's Spiel des Jahres 2009 page.