Wojciech Szewczyk of GKS Katowice won the final tournament of the 2026 Dynamic Billard Best of the East series – Polish 9-Ball, held in Kielce. The two-time World Champion defeated Hubert Łopotko 7:4 in the final. The Kielce event brought to a close the 25th season of one of the longest-running international billiard series in Europe.
The final tournament of this year’s Dynamic Billard Best of the East brought together 110 players in Kielce from Poland and several other European countries, representing 9 nations in total. The competition was held at two venues – Kieleckie Centrum Bilardowe and the PZBil–ERG International Billiard Centre.
Traditionally, the first day was devoted to group-stage competition, with the top two players from each group advancing to the knockout stage. At this point, several notable names unexpectedly ended their participation in the tournament, including all players from Romania, the Czech Republic and Albania, as well as well-known Polish players P. Błachowski, B. Rozwadowski, O. Jamorski and A. Stankiewicz, and Slovak players T. Furko and M. Szabo.
The knockout stage opened with several strong matchups, including European champions facing each other, such as Daniel Macioł vs Mieszko Fortuński (5:2), K. Skowerski vs J. Chrobot (5:2), W. Szewczyk vs M. Skoneczny (5:2), and M. Śniegocki vs Marcel Fortuński (2:5). The last Slovak player, M. Drobny, was also eliminated.
Among the Polish players, Lithuania’s Kasparas Budnikas remained in contention, but he lost his next match to Bartosz Utkowski 3:7.
In the semifinals, world number 3 Szewczyk faced world number 5 Macioł. After a good match, Szewczyk won 7:2. The match between H. Łopotko and J. Pietrzyk ended with the same score.
The final was not one-sided. Ultimately, the victory went to Wojciech Szewczyk of GKS Katowice, who had won his second career World Championship title just a dozen or so days earlier. The decisive match ended 7:4 in favour of the GKS Katowice player.
Polish 9-Ball 2026 podium in Kielce
1. Wojciech Szewczyk – GKS Katowice
2. Hubert Łopotko – Bank Spółdzielczy w Sokółce Piotrowski Żuraw
3. Daniel Macioł – GKS Katowice
3. Jacek Pietrzyk – Pub Duet Tomaszów Mazowiecki
117 tournaments and 25 seasons of Best of the East
The Kielce event was also the finale of another season of the series, whose history began in 2002. This year marked the 25th season, while the tournament in Kielce was the 117th event in the history of Best of the East.
As Marcin Krzemiński, head of the East European Billiard Council and the initiator and organiser of the series, emphasizes, over more than two decades Dynamic Billard Best of the East has become an important arena for international competition, both for established players and for athletes who are only beginning to gain experience.
“Another Dynamic Billard Best of the East series has come to a successful conclusion. I am pleased that after 117 tournaments played over 25 seasons, we have managed to build a competition that promotes billiards in different parts of Europe. Over the years, we have hosted events in more than a dozen countries, and I believe this is a tremendous added value of the entire project.
One of the greatest strengths of Dynamic Billard Best of the East is also the opportunity to gain international experience. Players can compete here against strong fields and then find it easier to enter the biggest tournaments. This is particularly important for young athletes, who gain their first experience in international competition at events like these.
In the 2026 season, as many as 286 players from 16 countries appeared on our ranking list. This is a very important signal. It shows that the series is still developing and attracting new participants. Finally, I would like to thank our sponsors and partners. Without their support, organising such a large international series would be much more difficult.”
“Martin Time” – a new match-time system tested in Kielce
The Kielce edition of Polish 9-Ball was also interesting because of the use of a new time-control system, provisionally called “Martin Time”. Each player had an individual time limit, measured using a chess clock. The aim of the solution was to reduce unnecessary delays and make the matches more dynamic.
After the tournament, the system received a positive assessment from Alexandru Balas – President of the Romanian Billiard Clubs Association, international billiard referee and head referee of the Polish 9-Ball event.
“In my opinion, this is one of the best solutions that can be introduced for the benefit of our sport. Billiards needs to be more dynamic and more attractive to the viewer. If the game becomes significantly prolonged, the appeal of live broadcasts suffers, as does the interest of fans and, in the longer term, sponsors as well. There is no need for a player to spend two minutes analysing a simple situation with a ball close to the pocket, especially if he is a professional and has played such a shot thousands of times. At this level, decisions need to be made efficiently.
That is why I believe that individual time for each player is a very good solution. During practice, a professional player can run a rack from the break to the end in as little as two minutes. Professional billiards should be smooth, dynamic and attractive to the audience. A time-control system like this can help a great deal.”
A positive effect was the faster pace of the event, the possibility for players to warm up between rounds, and the predictability of the event’s finishing time.
Of course, the need to monitor the time and operate the clock caused a certain amount of discomfort for the players. This was particularly noticeable in the opening matches.
A successful end to the season
The tournament in Kielce concluded the 2026 Dynamic Billard Best of the East series, which also visited Romania, Slovakia and Georgia this season.
Nearly 300 players were classified in this year’s ranking. All events were broadcast live thanks to TVSports.pl. The players competed on high-quality Dynamic tables covered with new Iwan Simonis cloth, using professional Aramith balls.
MAIN SPONSOR: Dynamic Billard Organization
Sponsors and partners: Iwan Simonis, Aramith, Cuetec, Kamui, Brześć-Sipa, the City of Kielce and the series partners.