|
World Championship (07)
Organization: Antwerp GIPF Centre
Place: Spellenspektakel, Eindhoven, the
Netherlands
Date: 31 october 2004
Format: Round
Robin, 15 min. player/game
Participants: 8
World Champion
without a trophy
The last of the 4
WC's started with a turn off: the throphies
got stolen even before the championship
had begun. They were in a plastic bag
next to the laptop that was going to be
used to run the tournament - and suddenly
the bag was gone! So, instead of calling
the players together for the pairings
of the first round, I had to explain that
the winner was going to get a lot of appreciation
from me, but, unfortunately, no throphy.
That did not seem to affect the good atmosphere.
Fine! We were only 8 players, so Round
Robin was a better format than the Swiss
system. In particular Xander Nijhuis (NL)
must have felt quite well with that, because
it gave him the possibility to play against
every other opponent, so that he could
make it personally very clear to all the
others who - and nobody else - was going
to become the World Champion. It
was just amazing to see how seemingly
without any effort he took the measure
of the one after the other. A true one
man show. In 2003 the first 5 places of
the DVONN WC had been claimed by 5 very
strong Germans. It was a pitty that only
one of them (Michael Reitz) had found
a way to be present. Michael ended in
3rd place in 2003, but did not find the
same drive this year. I'm really curious
to know whether one of the other Germans
could have stopped Xander. We'll never
know. Any way, all participants were so
impressed by Xander's play, that, even
though it was a championship with only
8, he is without any doubt a worthy World
Champion! In second and third place came
the borthers Mertner, from Denmark. Allan,
the eldest of the two, won the silver
with 5 wins, and Morten the bronze with
4 wins.
Standings
Pl. Name Nat. Score Berg. Wins
1 Nijhuis, Xander NL 7 21.00 7
2-3 Mertner, Allan DK 5 13.00 5
Mertner, Morten DK 5 11.00 5
4-5 Demerco, Jix B 3 7.50 3
Reitz, Michael D 3 6.00 3
6 Stuyck, An B 2.5 5.25 2
7 Claes, Robrecht B 2 3.50 2
8 Lemaitre, B 0.5 1.25 0
Cross Table
| No |
Name |
Nat. |
#1 |
#2 |
#3 |
#4 |
#5 |
#6 |
#7 |
#8 |
| 1. |
Demerco,
Jix |
B |
* |
L |
W |
W |
W |
L |
L |
L |
| 2. |
Reitz,
Michael |
D |
W |
* |
W |
L |
L |
L |
L |
W |
| 3. |
Lemaitre,
|
B |
L |
L |
* |
L |
L |
L |
L |
D |
| 4. |
Mertner,
Allan |
DK |
L |
W |
W |
* |
W |
L |
W |
W |
| 5. |
Claes,
Robrecht |
B |
L |
W |
W |
L |
* |
L |
L |
L |
| 6. |
Nijhuis,
Xander |
NL |
W |
W |
W |
W |
W |
* |
W |
W |
| 7. |
Mertner,
Morten |
DK |
W |
W |
W |
L |
W |
L |
* |
W |
| 8. |
Stuyck,
An |
B |
W |
L |
D |
L |
W |
L |
L |
* |
|