Sisi Cup: a Success Formula That Lasts

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Created on Wednesday, 18 July 2012 20:04

Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 November 2012 18:00

Written by Martin Rep

BAD VÖSLAU, Austria - The coming weekend, the sixth edition of the Sisi Cup will start. That’s the largest European double mahjong competition. The success formula is simple: during two succeeding weekends, the open championships of both Austria and Hungary will take place. The player with the best accumulated results in both tournaments will be the new winner of the yearly Sisi Cup.

The Sisi Cup has seen some followers, but none of these are as successful as their great example. There is an Austrian-Italian event called the Gourmet Cup, which combines good food with good mahjong. The first edition took place in 2011, and was won by Austrian player Doris Salmutter. One year later, her mother Gabriele took over the ‘Gourmet Cup’. The general ranking of the two tournaments (at Gurk in Austria and Udine in Italy) in 2011 listed 43 players. One year later, this figure has dropped to 24 players.
This year, for the first time the ‘Iberia Cup’ was held: the double competition of two ‘mahjong dwarfs’, Spain and Portugal. For Portugal, this was even its first open championship. The accumulated ranking of the Spanish and the Portuguese championships 2012 listed 39 players, but only 8 of them had participated in both tournaments. The first Iberian Cup was won by Alexander Doppelhofer from Austria.

Interest

For the Sisi Cup, there is an undiminished interest from MCR-players all over Europe. For the Austrian part, which takes place coming weekend at Bad Vöslau in Austria, 64 players have subscribed. One week later, at the Hungarian town of Dunaújváros, a similar number of players have subscribed. 42 of them will compete in both tournaments; all hope to win the Sisi Cup 2012. Amongst them, not only players from Austria and Hungary, but also from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and even from Japan.

Favorites

Hard to say who has the best chances to win. Until now, never a Hungarian player has won, but Ildikó Hargitai from Hungary, the reigning European champion, is amongst the favorites, just as last year’s winner Marco Montebelli from Italy, Otto Myslivec from Austria, Joël Ratsimandresy from France, Eszter Várnal from Hungary and Martin Scheichenbauer from Austria.
But of course, the Japanese are not coming for nothing to Europe. Kimoto Kugimya is a very strong player, just as his wife Yukari. Or, perhaps Marianne Croeze from the Netherlands will be back in shape again to grab the cup.