From April 20-27, the three-star FMJD Flevoland Open 2024 World Cup tournament was held. The Dutch province of Flevoland, known for its tulip cultivation, hosted 52 players from 9 countries, competing over 9 rounds.
In the Open classification, the best performance came from Latvian GMI Guntis Valneris [13 points], marking his second World Cup victory in 2024, following an earlier win in Ouagadougou (5*, Burkina Faso). GMI Wouter Sipma (Netherlands) [13 points] finished in second place, and somewhat surprisingly, MF Filip Kuczewski (Poland) [12 points] took third. For the current Polish champion, this is likely his greatest success on the international stage. A big surprise is also the 17th place of GMI Alexander Shvartsman representing Israel, a five-time world champion, who lost one of his games against MF Peter van der Stap (Netherlands)… on time!
Tournament PAGE.
In the women’s classification, the top three all amassed the same score – 11 points. The highest Solkoff (tiebreaker), and thus first place, went to GMIF Viktoriya Motrichko from Ukraine, the current women’s world champion. The other spots on the podium were taken by Polish players – GMIF Natalia Sadowska (2nd place) and GMIF Marta Bańkowska (3rd place).
You can find the full results HERE.
The FMJD World Cup series is a sequence of tournaments where players’ results are accumulated towards a final classification. The larger the prize pool in a tournament, the more ranking points can be earned. High placements in the World Cup offer several benefits, including a spot in the final tournament of the world championships. This year, the following World Cup tournaments are still scheduled: Riga Open 2024 (Latvia, June 30 – July 6, 3-star), China (the exact location to be announced in April, November 16-22, 7-star), and Julinek (Poland, December 9-15, 3-star).
Current World Cup Classification.
World Cup tournaments, due to their high level, provide ample material for analysis. On checkers.TV channels, you can find the most interesting and beautiful moments from these competitions. An example is the stunning combination executed by Lisa Scholtens from the Netherlands, which you can see below:
