My long time friend Michele Pascucci had invited me to Zurich and from there, we travelled together to Genoa in Italy. Unfortunately, only 45 players competed at the 4th edition of the Simone Gatto Memorial. For this reason, 15 groups with three players each were played in Round Robin format. The first two players of each group entered directly the main field and even the last player of each group
still had a chance in the losers bracket.
I could win both matches in my group (5-2 vs. L. Cherti and 5-1 vs. F. Tomati, both from Italy) and so entered the main field. Here, I managed to fin, after a fierce fight, 8-7 against M. Tschudi (CH) and was qualified for the round of the last 16 players which was played in KO format. My opponent was F. Petroni from Rome, who previously had lost 1-8 vs. G. Cappelletti (ITA) and who had to play his way through the losers bracket, before winning against M. Pascucci to enter the final round. I was leading 2-1, but then committed two consecutive mistakes and the Italian could rapidly take and increase the lead. After already trailing 3-7, I came back to 6-7, but without a successful break throughout the entire match, it was simply impossible to win. And so it happened that I lost 6-8 and finished 9th. Petroni won the final against his country fellowman M. Castriota 9-6. Third places went to M. Tschudi and V. De Falco (ITA).