PARIS - Paris has become a Dutch town - in the mahjong world, that is. For the third consecutive time, the prestigious large French Open tournament (96 participants) was won by a player from the Netherlands. In 2007 and 2008 Marianne Croeze was laureated for her first prize, today Anton Kösters got big cheers from all the players for his performance. Anton, by the way, is a member of the same Rotterdam mahjong club as Marianne Croeze.

The fourth edition of the Paris tournament was, again, a great success. The event has become Europe's largest tournament now that the Dutch Golden Dragon is no more, and the atmosphere is even more international. Players from thirteen countries had come to Paris for this well-organized tournament. Amongst them a number of players from the remote French overseas department of Reunion, a small island in the Indian Ocean.

The Reunions appeared to be strong players, yet the title of French champion was for a player of the 'mainland'. Olivier Boivin ended on the runner-up in the competition (with the same number of table points as Anton Kösters), and thus succeeded Sandra Bondoin as the best French player. 

Final results