Day One: Tuesday.
The Championship Starts
Earthquakes. YK2. Unstable Stock Markets. Loss of casinos. Washing your hair. What's your reason for not attending this years World Cup Challenge? Why do I ask? Well, with only 115 entrants in the public draw today the field is less than half of that expected and well below last year's entry.
Why? I do know that back in England most of my friends think me mad to take my holidays in such a dangerous country as Turkey due to earthquakes; but don't they happen all over the world (is San Francisco on your list of don't visits?). Hey, life's a risk so why lose out on what little pleasure we afford ourselves?
The millennium bug has been conspicuous by its absence - it is certainly not the horror we thought it to be, more like an aphid gobbling up your roses. The Stock Markets have survived the new year without major losses so we've all got plenty of dosh (well, those with shares have!). OK, so the Turkish government have closed down all the casinos in Istanbul, so what; there's still plenty of action if you want.
The Main (73)
In the past this tournament has been won no less than six times by a European (twice by one competitor) and once by an American. The roll of honour is:
1993 - Thomas Lumper, Germany
1994 - Gordon Cross, Germany
1995 - Bill Robertie, U.S.A (the lone non-European)
1996 - Peter Heitmuller, Germany
1997 - Hamid Kaaration, Germany
1998 - Jerry Grandell, Sweden (breaking the German stronghold)
1999 - Jerry Grandell, Sweden (2nd consecutive win)
The big question is, can Jerry Grandell do it again? He's up against some very stiff competition but is the favourite according to the 'bookmaker' at the tournament.
The answer unfortunately is no; he was knocked out in his first match by Van Ingen, and Gordon Cross (winner in 1994) was also out in his first match falling to Selo. Americans Malcolm Davis and Elliot Winslow fared better getting through with Winslow coming in at 20-1.
The 'bookmaker' ran a book on Grandell:12/1, Schreman:16/1, Leverman:20/1, Winslow:20/1, Mosseri:20/1, Riskin:25/1, Johanni/25/1 and Schiff:25/1. Apart from Winslow the only other in the book to survive today's rounds was Riskin.
I sat and watched Chris Ternel from Denmark play his first round against Marcel Bordei. Soon Chris was at the Crawford game leading 14-4 in a match to 15 points. I recorded this game. You can play through it on our Java viewer, and it is available as a JellyFish .mat file which you can download here. (To download, right-click and choose to save the link on your machine.)
If you don't have a copy of JellyFish the file can be opened using Notepad and read as a simple text file and you can then play from the listing.
Intermediate (22)
A somewhat small field, but hard fought nonetheless. The last 8 are: Alexander vs Vaatainen, Forsund vs Behnke, Dan Frank vs Elsayed Serour and Jakov vs Kamalian.
Beginners (20)
Always the smallest entry and a great competition for gaining tournament experience. The last 8 are: Gidutyan vs Tukhaveli, Mamporia vs Mosoyan, Osamu vs Adem Nar and Harutunian vs Durmus.
Kick-Off
Continuing from yesterday we had our first Sheet One finalist, Meesha, who played and beat Dan Frank in the last 8 then went on to beat Irfan Mizragki to gain the a place in the final. And on Sheet Two Ronn was beaten by Nepom, and Zako and Groetsch are yet to play.
When walking around the playing room one could be forgiven for thinking you were in the Tower of Babel; several languages are being spoken at the same time and no one of them seems to dominate. This has the effect of making listening redundant as it is all gibberish. What I need is a 'Babel Fish' in my ear as worn by all good hitch-hikers around the Galaxy - anyone got a spare one? I've taken to speaking to myself just so I can hear a voice I understand ... and that's nonsense most of the time! Ah, well, back tomorrow.
- Michael Crane
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