MOSCOW - Austrian player Alexander Doppelhofer has won the Russian Open Championship today. Same number of table points but lesser mini-points had two Russian players: the runner-up, Natalya Chichigina, and the number three player, Stanislav Ilyin.

Moscow means success for Alexander: two years ago, he won the first Open Russian.

Thirty players competed, of four nationalities: Russia, Austria, Holland and Germany.

In Austrian hand

Alexander Doppelhofer writes Mahjong News, right after his return from Moscow: “Something sensational happened there. After the fifth session - just one more to go - I was on fourth position, with four points behind number 1. I won my table in that final session, so I was curious to know on what position I had ended.

“To my great surprise, I learned that I had won the tournament, since the first three players in the classification all had lost their tables. Finally, there were three players with 17 table points. I had the highest number of mini-points, so I was the winner. The player who had been on the fifth position became the runner-up, and the leader of the classification ended in third position.”

Alexander: “Luck was on my side this time! Russia remains in Austrian hands.”

Final classification