GURI, November 11th.
The third event in the Masters series and the second tournament in the Survival format was emphatically won by the reigning world champion, Dick Jaspers. He overpowered all his opponents in the semifinal and final foursomes, to win first prize in Guri, a lofty 50.000 dollars.
On the final day, two foursomes were left to compete. The first semifinal consisted of Jaspers, Sayginer, Coklu and Zanetti. Halfway through, the Turk and the Italian were leading but the Dutchman was awesome in the second part of the match. With 2-13-3-3-13 he bulldozed through the field to build a big lead. Jaspers scored 128 points to Sayginer’s 44, which was just good enough to advance. Dick’s average in the semi: 3.583.
The other semi was all-Asian, and Chi Yeon Cho and Quyet Chien Tran were the dominant players here, also with averages over 3. Ding Nai Ngo played well (1.7) but could not keep up, and Jae Ho Cho was never even in with a chance.
In the final bracket, Jaspers again dominated thanks to his high runs. He produced an 8, a 9 and a 10 in that match, to finish on 109 points, with Tran on 57, Sayginer on 49 and Cho on 25. Another strong average for Jaspers in that final: 2.692. He was, without a doubt, the most productive player of the event. Who would have thought, when he needed the second-chance “losers” round to get back in the tournament, after a weak first day?
The final ranking of “Guri”:
- Dick Jaspers 50.000 dollars
- Quyet Chien Tran 21.000
- Sayginer 18.000
- Chi Yeon Cho 15.000
5/8 Jae Ho Cho, Dinh Nai Ngo, Coklu, Zanetti all 9.000 dollars
9/16 Caudron, Polychronopoulos, Merckx, Carlsen, Haeng Jik Kim, Jung Han Heo, Merckx, Dong Koong Kang, all 6.000 dollars.
UMB.
Guri – The UMB / Kozoom Masters initiative is now in its third tournament, the second one in the survival format with four players at the table. Guri, South Korea is host, and the field is divided into six groups of four players. Twelve will advance to the knock-out stage automatically, four will get in through the back door, via a second-chance round.
A short recap of the system: four players will take turns at the table, trying to score. For each of their points, they can add 3 to their credit, 1 will be deducted from each of their opponents. In two periods of 45 minutes (the order of play reverses in the second half), they will try to outscore the others.
On the opening day, it became clear that the format has little or no respect for names and reputations. The likes of Zanetti, Sánchez, Tasdemir and Jaspers did not get to 1st or 2nd place in their flight. Eddy Merckx, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Dinh Nai Ngo, Jae Ho Cho, Chi Yeon Cho and Torbjörn Blomdahl won their groups. Sayginer, Tran, Carlsen, Haeng Jik Kim, Coklu and Caudron advanced as group runner-up, Caudron needing a 4-3 shoot-out win over Sung Won Choi to do it.
Eddy Merckx averaged an impressive 2.555 on the opening day. Polychronopoulos was not far behind with 2.533. Nikos also had the day’s high run, with 13.
Tomorrow, Friday 9 November, three groups of four will play the second-chance matches, starting at 12.00 local time. The time difference between Western Europe and South Korea is eight hours.