Gipf: I play the game

Ranking Tournament (Dutch GRC 2002, heat 4/4)

Organization: EGO
Place: Utrecht, Ducosim Convention
Date: December 14, 2002
Format: Round Robin, 5 rounds, 15 minutes per player/game
Participants: 8

And the winner is... an EGO-member !!!

EGO was founded in Eindhoven (NL) in the very beginning of 2001. It is now the very end of 2002 - say 2 years later. That's how long it took EGO to deliver a first winner of a GIPF ranking tournament. Ad Rovers is for the moment the strongest Dutch GIPF-player - and if not, he for sure is the strongest EGO-member. He has won more than half of the EGO-leagues, but when he had to face the Belgiam top-players, he always came just a bit short.
This time he scored a strike! 5 wins out of 5 games. There were only 8 participants, but that does not mean that he got the victory for free. Kurt Vandenbranden and Patrick Van de Perre were present - two of the strongest Belgian Gipfers - and Ad floorded them both. Congratulations!

And there's another significant detail that remains to be mentioned... Koen de Jongh was the first (and until recently the only) player with a Dutch nationality who had won a GIPF ranking tournament - but he was (still is) living in Belgium. Ad Rovers is the first *real* Dutch player to win a ranking title.

Special attention also went to John van Schaik. He was the only newcomer. He was clearly lacking experience, but we all count on seeing him back many more times - since he's the man who'll try to set up ZAGO, a GIPF-club in Zeist, the Netherlands.

Standings

Pl.   Name                  Feder Rtg  Score M-B. Buch. Progr.

1    Rovers, Ad             NL    1623  5    7.0  13.0  15.0 
2    Van de Perre, Patrick  B     1765  4    7.0  12.0  12.0
3    Van den Branden, Kurt  B     1733  3    8.0  15.0   9.0
4-7  Ammerlaan, Boris       NL    1465  2    9.0  14.0   6.0
     Wentzler, Angelo       NL    1475  2    8.0  13.0   8.0 
     Passmann, Hennes       NL    1312  2    7.0  12.0   6.0
     Van Aelst, Frédéric    B     1404  2    6.0   9.0   4.0
8    van Schaik, John       NL          0    6.0  12.0   0.0

Cross Table

No   Name                   Fed. Rtg      1   2   3   4   5
  
1.   Van de Perre, Patrick  B    1765    5:W 4:W 3:L 2:W 8:W
2.   Van den Branden, Kurt  B    1733    6:W 3:L 5:W 1:L 7:W
3.   Rovers, Ad             NL   1623    7:W 2:W 1:W 4:W 5:W
4.   Wentzler, Angelo       NL   1475    8:W 1:L 7:W 3:L 6:L
5.   Ammerlaan, Boris       NL   1465    1:L 8:W 2:L 6:W 3:L
6.   Van Aelst, Frédéric    B    1404    2:L 7:L 8:W 5:L 4:W
7.   Passmann, Hennes       NL   1312    3:L 6:W 4:L 8:W 2:L
8.   van Schaik, John       NL           4:L 5:L 6:L 7:L 1:L