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 *
 
 
 
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