OFFICIAL RESULTS
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Ho Chi Minh City, May 26th 2023.
The 60-year-old lion roared again. Torbjörn Blomdahl came to the table for his very first inning of the tournament and ran a magnificent 26, two points away from the world record. His run DID set a new world record high run in World Cups.
The Friday is always a tough and long day, with three matches for all 32 players. The main casualties who will not return on Saturday: Eddy Merckx, Haeng Jik Kim, Jeremy Bury, D.A.C. Nguyen.
Group A: Jaspers and Kiraz played a draw, but the loss of one point didn’t hurt either player: they both advance.
Group B: World champion Tasdemir never in danger, he was joined by Jose Maria Mas, at the expense of D.A.C. Nguyen.
Group C: Three wins for Jun Tae Kim, Marco Zanetti second in this group.
Group D: Excellent performance by M.J. Cha, second place for Horn. Defending HCM champion Merckx came up short, both in points and average.
Group E: Local hero D.T. Do Nguyen joins group winner J.H. Heo, at the expense of favorite H.J. Kim.
Group F: Sameh Sidhom (three wins) and Nikos Polychronopoulos head and shoulders the best in this flight.
Group G: Blomdahl group winner with 2.448, Q.C. Tran second with 2.609. Amazing play in this group, with Nelin and Bao as the victims.
Group H: Morales wins three times, M.W. Cho draws with Bury in a nailbiter for second place.
It all results in a very interesting draw for Saturday’s K.O. stage:
Blomdahl – Mas
J.H. Heo – Kiraz
J.T. Kim – Polychronopoulos
Sidhom – T.H. Do Nguyen
Morales – Horn
Jaspers – Zanetti
M.J. Cha – Q.C. Tran
Tasdemir – M.W. Cho
Ho Chi Minh City, May 25th 2023.
Europe fights back on the final qualifying day.
The wealth of Vietnamese talent is still impressive, but the home country was no longer dominant on day four of the Ho Chi Minh World Cup. Several European and Korean players won their group and advanced to the main draw, which starts on Friday.
D.H. Kim, Q.H Dinh and Michael Nilsson were a few of the unlucky players who didn’t win their group. They averaged well over 1.500 but finished 2nd or 3d and had to hope for a “best second” spot. Berkay Karakurt also came up short, but his brother Ömer did qualify. Two other Turkish players finished first in their flight: Lütfi Cenet and Tolgahan Kiraz. One of their big names, Murat Naci Coklu was unconvincing, he had a win, a loss and a modest 1.158.
The group winners on Thursday:
J.M. Mas 4 – 1.739
T. Kiraz 4 – 1.632
H.C. Thai 4 – 1.509
D.R. Kim 4 – 1.454
L. Cenet 4 – 1.355
D. Nelin 4- 1.311
R. Morales 4 – 1.159
Ö. Karakurt 3- 1.666
V. Bao Phuong 3 – 1.600
J.H. Ahn 2 – 1.777
T.H. Do Nguyen 2 – 1.710
M.J. Cha 2 – 1.666
Best nrs. 2:
B.J. Hwang 3 – 1.355
D.H. Kim 2 – 1.682
Q.H. Dinh 2 – 1.577
On Friday morning at 10.00, both the world champion and the world number one will be at the table. Tayfun Tasdemir will play D.H. Kim and Dick Jaspers will play Q.H. Dinh.
All matches can be watched on Afreecatv.
Ho Chi Minh City, May 24th 2023.
Each round more exciting
José María Más was the best player of the day and of the prequalification, the race towards the main tournament continues with the 16 group winners: 2 Spanish players, Mas and Morales, 2 Turkish players Kiraz and Omer Karakurt and two Japanese players Umeda and Sakai.
The Korean and Vietnamese armies with 5 applicants each. The qualified players will face tomorrow with world-class experienced players such as Legazpi, Nelín, Nilson, Coklu, Ceulemans and many more. Exciting matches await us.
All the details and groups on the official website of the tournament and all the matches on Five&Six and AfreecaTV.
Ho Chi Minh City, May 23rd 2023
Wilkowski and D’Agata join the Asian party.
On the second day of the Ho Chi Minh World Cup, the home players again made a strong impression. Of all the qualifiers for day 3, even the lowest averaged over 1.000. D.M. Tran was the (shared) best player of the day, thanks to a sensational win in 9 innings (30 pts). He struggled in his second match, but still recorded 1.714 and a ticket into the PQ.
Only three non-Vietnamese, non-Korean players survived: Huub Wilkowski from the Netherlands, T. Miyashita from Japan and Alessio D’Agata from Italy.
The group winners:
D.M. Tran 4 – 1.714
V.L. Dao 4 – 1.714
T. Miyashita 4 – 1.500
T.M.T. Nguyen 4 – 1.463
A. D’Agata 4 – 1.463
D.R. Kim 4 – 1.395
H.T. Nguyen 4 – 1.395
H. Wilkowski 4 – 1.333
D.Q. Nguyen 4 – 1.276
L.G. Ngo 4 – 1.250
S.K. Oh 4 – 1.224
Q.T. Pham 4 – 1.132
Y.H. You 4 – 1.090
T.T. Le 3 – 1.363
Q.H. Dinh 3 – 1.276
D.L. Nguyen 2 – 1.056
Alll the matches can be watched on YouTube via the Five & Six / Afreecatv channel.
Ho Chi Minh City World Cup kicks off.
Ho Chi Minh City, May 22nd 2023
Not unexpectedly, the opening day of the Ho Chi Minh World Cup was a feast of Asian talent. The two top countries in the ACBC, Korea and Vietnam, both saw eight group winners advance to day two. A clean sweep, as the qualification event started off with sixteen groups. Starting tomorrow, European players will enter the schedule and take on all the local hopefuls. Ho Chi Minh is the second World Cup of 2023, due to the cancellation of the Ankara event after the earthquakes in Turkiye. Tayfun Tasdemir was the winner of the first 2023 WC, held in Las Vegas. Title holder in Ho Chi Minh City is Eddy Merckx. Dick Jaspers defends his number 1 spot on the world ranking.
The best player on day one was Korea’s YounHyun You, with 4 points and an impressive 1.818 average. Fifteen of the sixteen group winners were undefeated, the only player to advance with a win and a loss was Hung Man Tran from Vietnam.
Day one group winners:
Younhyun You (Kor) 4 – 1.818
Tran Duc Minh (Vie) 4 – 1.666
Jeongju Park (Kor) 4 – 1.538
Nguyen Dac Luc )Vie) 4 – 1.428
Ngo Le Duy (Vie) 4 – 1.333
Nguyen Hoan Tat (Vie) 4 – 1.333
Kim Tae Hyun (Kor) 4 – 1.304
Nguyen Truong Minh Trong (Vie) 4 – 1.200
Pham Quoc Thich (Vie) 4 – 1.111
Lee Tae Geun (Kor) 4 – 0.923
Nguyen Dinh Quoc (Vie) 4 – 0.923
Cho Su Hyun (Kor) 4 – 0.845
Ko Hyun Woo (Kor) 4 – 0.810
Jung Dong Keun (Kor) 4 – 0.779
Lee Dong Han (Kor) 4 – 0.674
Hung Manh Tran (Vie) 2 – 1.180