Incheon, March 3rd , 2019
The first of the 3CC Masters tournaments of 2019 was once again played in the “Survival” format, with four players at the table. Incheon, near Seoul, was the location and Frédéric Caudron was the winner.
The third of the Survival tournaments spent its first two days eliminating eight of the 24 players, in group matches. Early victims were Blomdahl, Tasdemir, Jung Han Heo and Dong Koong Kang. In the four quarterfinals, most of the Vietnamese, Turkish and Korean top guns went out: Sayginer, Cenet, Sung Won Choi, Haeng Jik Kim, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and Coklu.
The “old soldiers” Zanetti and Jaspers survived their semifinal group with Ngo Dinh Nai and super-talent Myung Woo Cho. In the other semi, the two top Belgians Merckx and Caudron were too much for Sánchez and Jae Ho Cho, the stylish Korean player paying a high price for one careless mistake, the Spaniard not getting rewarded for his consistent high averages during the week.
In a tense final, the only player not in contention was world number one Dick Jaspers, who had a poor day, by his high standards. Zanetti worked hard to counter an early attack by Caudron, but the Belgian had the last word in the very last inning. He finished on 78, ahead of Zanetti on 74, Merckx on 54 and Jaspers on 34 points.
First prize was 50.000 dollars, with 21.000 for the runner-up, 18.000 for third place and 15.000 for fourth. The high run of the event was made by Jae Ho Cho: 18. Dani Sánchez had the high general average: 2.366.
Final standing of the Incheon Survival:
- Frédéric Caudron 2.050 – 16
- Marco Zanetti 1.971 – 15
- Eddy Merckx 1.965 – 10
- Dick Jaspers 1.781 – 7
- Dani Sánchez 2.366 – 10
- Jae Ho Cho 2.150 – 18
- Myung Woo Cho 1.674 – 8
- Dinh Nai Ngo 1.610 – 10
- Murat Coklu 2.296 – 10
- Semih Sayginer 2.000 - 6