SHARM EL SHEIKH - The 73rd World Three-Cushion Championship is coming up for the coming days, played over five days (Tuesday 7-Saturday 11 December) with a total of 79 matches. That is really a big difference with the 6th World Championship, which was played in Egypt for the first time in 1933. In that tournament, 7 participants played in the championship that was organised in the Shepheards hotel and lasted 11 days. Dutchman Hendrik Robijns was crowned with the world title ahead of Egyptian Edmond Soussa. The tournament for the world title was organized five times in total in Cairo: 1933, 1973, 1981, 1987 and 2018. For the sixth World championship in the African country, the organization has moved to the Park Regency Resort in Sharm El Sheikh, where Saturday night's World Cup ended with a victory by Semih Sayginer.
The route that the 48 players took went for most players along the World Cup in Veghel, the World Cup in Sharm El Sheikh and silently leds into the event that had not been played since 1 December 2019 due to the COVID crisis. The world title was in Torbjörn Blomdahl's possession for two full years, these days he has to hand in the 120 valuable ranking points.
The Swede's position is under pressure, but not so much that his top-ten position would be in direct danger. Dick Jaspers leads the ranking with 438 points, followed by Marco Zanetti with 338, Torbjörn Blomdahl with 326, Dani Sánchez with 326 and Semih Sayginer with 299. That means for Jaspers he will almost certainly keep his leading position after this championship.
Vietnamese Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, who was second at the last World Championship in Randers, keeps his 81 points, as he was forced to cancel due to flight problems in his country. Semih Sayginer and Sameh Sidhom were on the podium in Randers and both lose 57 ranking points.
The field of participants for the World Championship in Sharm El Sheikh consists of the reigning champion and the best 16 players of the world ranking list, plus 13 European, 8 American, 5 Asian, 3 African players and two players with a wildcard from the organisation.
The players who are automatically seeded are:
Torbjörn Blomdahl (Sweden)
Dick Jaspers (Netherlands)
Marco Zanetti (Italy)
Eddy Merckx (Belgium)
Tayfun Tasdemir (Turkey)
Dani Sánchez (Spain)
HaengJik Kim (Korea)
Sameh Sidhom (Egypt)
Semih Sayginer (Turkey)
Murat Naci Coklu (Turkey)
Martin Horn (Germany)
Jérémy Bury (France)
Lütfi Cenet (Turkey)
Sung-Won Choi (Korea)
Jung-Han Heo (Korea)
Dion Nelin (Denmark)
Roland Forthomme (Belgium)
The European players by country:
Ruben Legazpi (Spain)
Ludo Kools (Netherlands)
Jacob Haack Sörensen (Denmark)
Peter Ceulemans (Belgium)
Can Capak (Turkey)
Nikos Polychronopoulos (Greece)
Ronny Lindemann (Germany)
Martin Bohac (Czech Republic)
Arnim Kahofer (Austria)
Manuel Rui Costa (Portugal)
Gwendal Maréchal (France)
Alessio D'Agata (Italy)
Michael Nilsson (Sweden).
The African players:
Mohsen Fouda (Egypt)
Mashhour Abu Tayeh (Jordan)
Yassser Shehayeb (Lebanon).
The two wildcards from the organisation:
Youssef Ossama (Egypt)
Riad Nady (Egypt).
The tournament will be played at Park Regency Sharm El Sheikh Resort.
The tournament director is Mohamed Soliman.
During the tournament, on Friday, in the location on the Red Sea is the annual meeting of the UMB, the General Assembly, for which representatives of all countries are invited. The agenda is without board elections, which have been set for 2022. The event calendar for the coming months is discussed, including the Continental Cup, which was scheduled for 17-19 December in Korea. That tournament has been cancelled, the same for the Survival from 24 January to 6 February 2022. UMB president Farouk Barki expects the World Cup in Ankara from 21-27 February to be the next tournament. For the month of March, the World Nation Championship in Viersen is on the calendar, followed by the World Cup in Las Vegas, a delegation of which has arrived in Sharm El Sheikh to have a look at the organisation.
The tournament in Sharm El Sheikh starts with 48 players, who are divided into 16 groups of three players of which the first two move up to the knock-out rounds with 32 players.
The group matches start on Tuesday (7 December, local times in Egypt) at 12:00 and are then at 14:00, 16:00, 18:00 and 20:00. That day, 20 of total 48 group matches will be played. On
Wednesday the first session is at 10.00 and a total of 24 games will be played (10.00, 12.00, 14.00, 16.00, 18.00 and 20.00).
Then, four group matches remain for Thursday at 11.00 am.
The sixteenth finals with sixteen players knockout are over four sessions, on Thursday at 14.00, 16.00, 18.00 and 20.00.
On Friday, the eight-player finals are first over two sessions at 12.00 and 14.00. The quarter-finals with four follow at 16.00 and 18.00.
This Saturday is the final day: at 11.00 and 13.00 the two semi-finals, at 16.00 the final.
All matches will be broadcast live on Five&Six YouTube.
The groups for the first sessions:
Group A: Gwendal Maréchal, Ruben Legazpi, Torbjörn Blomdahl
Group B: Peter Ceulemans, Cetin Behzat, Dick Jaspers
Group C: Michael Nilsson, Mohsen Fouda, Marco Zanetti
Group D: Rui Costa, Abu Tayeb, Eddy Merckx
Group E: Jacob Haack Sörensen, Ronny Lindemann, Tayfun Tasdemir
Group F: Martin Bohac, Jose Juan Garcia, Dani Sánchez
Group G: Javier Teran, Shehayeb Yasser, Haeng Jik Kim
Group H: Chang Hoon Seo, Javier Vera, Sameh Sidhom
Group I: Riad Nady, Mauricio Gutierrez, Semih Sayginer
Group J: Arnim Kahofer, Ludo Kools, Murat Naci Coklu
Group K: Wan Young Choi, Christian Hernandez, Martin Horn
Group L: Can Capak, O Takeshima, Jérémy Bury
Group M: Pedro Gonzalez, Youssef Ossama, Lütfi Cenet
Group N: Sung-won Choi, Erick Tellez, Takao Miyashita
Group O: Nikos Polychronopoulos, Jung Han Heo, Alessio D'Agata
Group P: Dion Nelin, Roland Forthomme, Choong-Bok Lee.