World Seniors Championship, Croatia - starts today

[Jonathan Livingstone]

Wanted to see your game Ian but no PGN's from yesterday as yet. You probably noticed after the 4 draws yesterday, and the 3 draws and win for Douglas today, thats 2 unbeaten rounds in a row for the Scot's. Everyone also finishing with a 50% or more score!

[Alan Borwell]

Congratulations to all of our seniors in Croatia. Craig finished just below the medalists on 7.5/11, Philip scored 6/11, Ian 5.5/11 and Douglas 5/11. The next big seniors event (the European Team Championship) is also scheduled to be held in Croatia (Sibenik) in early April.

[Craig Pritchett]

Thanks for interest and moral support. I wasn't entirely happy with my somewhat up and down play in Opatija but I can't really complain at getting back to a share of 7-17th places on 7.5/11 after a decidedly sub-par start. Winner Anatoly Vaisser thoroughly deserved his second title and played the best field by a distance. Jens Kristiansen also stood out from the rest to deserve his second place.

According to information posted on the tournament noticeboard (i.e the physical one not "net" based), all of next year's senior events (including a new world seniors team championship in July) will apply the recently amended (younger) qualification age for Men of 50 years rather then the previously current 60 years. However, this remains to be confirmed in the relevant tournament by tournament regulations when eventually published. The aim is to have both 50+ and 65+ sections (possibly also, if feasible, a 75+ section).

The first such event is supposed to be the euro seniors individual championships in Oporto early in March but this has still to be confirmed in actual regulations (which really ought to be there latest at the end of November). I've emailed the Portuguese federation for urgent clarity on this as it's now getting late in the day for interested players to commit and book to play.

The euro seniors teams in Sibenik (early in April), on the contrary, is already certain ... but even though the same Croatian organisers are involved as in Opatija (who "announced" that the Men's new minimum age of 50 years would apply), their early flyer still only mentions the old minimum 60!

All still a bit unclear!!