STRASBOURG - Yoshihiro Suzuki from Japan is the winner of the Fifth Open European Mahjong Championship. The new European champion and successor of Ildikó Hargitai is Michael Zahradnik from Germany. Kazutochi Miyake from Japan won the third prize.

Chris Redmond from the UK, who was first runner-up after Day 2, did not do well on the final day and ended in eighth position. Michael Zahradnik, on the contrary, did quite well in the last three sessions and jumped from fourth to second position. Zahradnik is a really versatile player: he was also the runner-up during the European Riichi Mahjong Championship 2013 in Austria. 

Hegemony of the Japanese: four players in the top-five

Within two weeks, also in France, we will no doubt witness the hegemony of the Japanese in the World Riichi Mahjong Championship. But also in Strasbourg, it was the Japanese who ruled, with no less than four players in the top-five. Next to winner Yoshihiro Suziki, these are Kazutochi Miyake (3), Koichi Oda (4) and Koji Idota (5). This is really amazing, and brings back memories of the first OEMC in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 2005, when the Japanese held the first four places in the top-five. Only Michael Zahradnik from Germany succeeded in making it to the honorary stand, so he really deserves his newly acquired title of European champion.

Chinese

Also on the last day of the OEMC, the Chinese did not impress, although their best player, Wenying Yan jumped thirty places and just made it to the 30th place. Of the notorious Danes, Freddy Christiansen was the best, with his 19th place, two places before Frank Rostved.
The French, as expected, did better, with one player (Jérémie Barbet) in the top-ten (he ended in ninth position) and six more in the top-twenty. Remarkable was the fall of Chris Redmond from the UK, the number one of Day 1 and the first runner-up on Day 2. But his eighth position in the final ranking is still something to be very proud of. Apart from Michael Zahradnik, the German delegation was not very successful.
Martin Mauther fell from 7th to 17th position, but he was still the best Austrian player. Ildikó Hargitai from Hungary, the previous European champion, ended on 81st position. Best Hungarian in the ranking was Pal Halasz on 18. Also the Italians disappointed a bit. Stefano Rijoff did great and made it to the top-ten (he ended on sixth position), but the next Italian, Franceso Martini, only make it to the 32nd place.
Best Dutch player was Bert Claessen on 26th place. His fellow-countryman Ad van der Linden, who recently was very successful in various MERS 2 tournaments, ended as 77th.
The best Belgian player was Rudi Kopmanis on 64, after Caroline Kopmanis dropped from 27 to 65 on the final day.
Two Russians in the top-twenty: Vladimir Stepanov on 7, and Alla Danilevskaya on 13. Eduardo Amador was the best Spaniard (36th place). Kee Chung Low from Singapore just made it to the top-ten, but the best Swiss player, Luc Humbert, who ended on 29, is not yet the successor of former European champion Bo Lang. Finally, the Swedish: Annika Ridell was the best. She made it to 145th place – an advance of 52 places compared to Day 2, so she surely can be satisfied.

Up and down

The player who made the largest leap forward in the ranking on the final day, was Sébastien Roux from France. After Day 2, he was on 149th position, but he eventually ended on 43rd place – that’s 106 places forward. Steepest fall was made by his fellow-countrywoman Annabel Di Domenico: she went from 35th to 110 place, which means 75 places down.

Final Results of the Open European Mahjong Championship 2016 (MCR, MERS 5), Strasbourg