World Championship

Organized by the Antwerp GIPF Centre, during "Games Spectacular"
Date: Sunday, November 1, 2003
Place: Eindhoven, NL
Format: Swiss system, 7 rounds, 25 minutes per player/game
Participants: 23


Underdogs no longer underdogs!

André De Laet at last victorious! He has developped a complete new way of playing GIPF: with only one GIPF-piece. That is not only a risky way of playing, but also a very unpredictable. It took him about 3 years to tune his style - and he did it the hard way: with many defeats - but finally it paid off. This time he won 6 games and that was enough to become the 4th World Champion GIPF. A well deserved reward for his courageous play! Kurt Van den Branden also scored 6 points but, in spite of the fact that he was the only player who won his match against André, he ended in second place because André's MB-score was higher. So, Kurt got silver. Bronze went to another underdog: Ad Rovers - who, like André, must not be considered an underdog any longer. They both got too strong for that! Ad scored 5 points. So did Patrick Van de Perre and Nico Habraken, but here, too, the MB-score was used to break the tie.

Three more Dutch players ended high in the final standings: Angelo Wentzler, Boris Ammerlaan and Hennes Passmann. They scored 4 points each, which may mean that the Dutchmen are closing the gap with the Belgians. A last remarkable fact was that 5 Germans participated at this World Championship. This is more than at any other GIPF tournament before! Let's hope that we'll have the privilege to welcome many more Germans in the future.

The top three (from left to right: Kurt Vandenbranden, André De laet, and Ad Rovers)
in front of the other participants (except Rita Pauwels, who had to leave immediately after the last round).

Cross table

No    Name                     R1   R2   R3   R4    R5  R6   R7  

1.    Van de Perre, Patrick   12:W  8:W  6:L  9:W  2:W  4:L  7:W
2.    Dupont, Werner          13:W  9:W  7:W  5:W  1:L  3:L 11:L
3.    Van den Branden, Kurt   14:W 10:L 16:W  6:W  7:W  2:W  8:W
4.    Jacobs, Walter          15:L 17:L 18:W 19:W 16:W  1:W  5:L
5.    Rovers, Ad              16:W 11:W 10:W  2:L  8:W  6:L  4:W
6.    De Laet, André          17:W 15:W  1:W  3:L 11:W  5:W  9:W
7.    Weyn, Jeroen            18:W 23:W  2:L 10:W  3:L 11:L  1:L
8.    Pauwels, Rita           19:W  1:L 15:W 22:W  5:L 10:W  3:L
9.    Wentzler, Angelo        20:W  2:L 23:W  1:L 15:W 12:W  6:L
10.   Ammerlaan, Boris        21:W  3:W  5:L  7:L 17:W  8:L 12:W
11.   Habraken, Nico          22:W  5:L 20:W 14:W  6:L  7:W  2:W
12.   Van Aelst, Frédéric      1:L 18:L 17:W 20:W 22:W  9:L 10:L
13.   Torfs, Frank             2:L 20:L 19:L   :W 21:L 23:L 16:W
14.   Reitz, Michael           3:L 19:W 22:L 11:L 23:W 21:W 17:L
15.   Claes, Robrecht          4:W  6:L  8:L 18:W  9:L 20:L 21:L
16.   Nuyttens, Christof       5:L 21:W  3:L 23:W  4:L 22:L 13:L
17.   Passmann, Hennes         6:L  4:W 12:L 21:W 10:L 18:W 14:W
18.   Claes, Bruno             7:L 12:W  4:L 15:L 19:W 17:L   :W
19.   Burm, Dries              8:  14:L 13:W  4:L 18:L   :W 23:L
20.   Basedow, Lueder          9:L 13:W 11:L 12:L   :W 15:W 22:W
21.   Lang, Tobias            10:L 16:L   :W 17:L 13:W 14:L 15:W
22.   Timm, Andrea            11:L   :W 14:W  8:L 12:L 16:W 20:L
23.   Trunz, Sebastian          :W  7:L  9:L 16:L 14:L 13:W 19:W

Place Name                    Nat.    Pts     M-B.   Buch.  Pro.

1-2   De Laet, André           B       6      23.0   31.0   24.0
      Van den Branden, Kurt    B       6      18.0   26.0   22.0
3-5   Rovers, Ad               NL      5      21.0   29.0   22.0
      Van de Perre, Patrick    B       5      19.0   28.0   21.0
      Habraken, Nico           B       5      18.5   27.0   19.0
6-12  Dupont, Werner           B       4      22.0   29.5   22.0
      Ammerlaan, Boris         NL      4      19.0   27.5   17.0
      Pauwels, Rita            B       4      18.5   26.0   18.0
      Wentzler, Angelo         NL      4      18.0   26.0   17.0
      Passmann, Hennes         NL      4      16.5   25.0   13.0
      Jacobs, Walter           B       4      15.5   22.0   14.0
      Basedow, Lueder          D       4      15.0   21.5   12.0
13-19 Weyn, Jeroen             B       3      20.5   29.0   17.0
      Van Aelst, Frédéric      B       3      18.0   25.5   12.0
      Timm, Andrea             D       3      17.0   24.0   13.0
      Reitz, Michael           D       3      16.5   24.0   11.0
      Claes, Bruno             B       3      15.5   21.0   10.0
      Lang, Tobias             D       3      14.5   20.0    9.0
      Trunz, Sebastian         D       3      13.0   18.5   10.0
20-23 Claes, Robrecht          B       2      18.0   26.5   11.0
      Nuyttens, Christof       B       2      16.5   24.0   10.0
      Burm, Dries              B       2      15.5   21.0    7.0
      Torfs, Frank             B       2      14.0   19.5    5.0