101 players from 22 countries are ready to start the battle for the $10,000 champion's prize at the 2016 Kremlin Cup. Total prize money is $50 000 and for the first time, this years Kremlin Cup is an official WPA ranking event. In a race to 8 format, with alternate break, the contenders are set to play double elimination until the last 32 players who will then continue in single elimination. And all this on industry-leading Diamond tables! Rumour is, there is even a 10-foot giant for exhibition purposes.
There is a pretty strong fleld this year, with several pool stars looking to make their way to the top and earn ranking points. We have 4 out of 6 players from the junior Team EUROPE that won The Atlantic Challenge Cup last summer in Chicago. Leading that group of juniors is Maksim Dudanets who is no stranger to the US pool scene, having played on The Predator Tour and other notable events including The US Open.
This is also going to be the inaugural Kremlin Cup for David Alcaide, who finished 5th at the recent US Open 9-Ball, along with his fellow countryman Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz. The mighty Germans Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann are already familiar with playing at The Olympic Stadium, as they have been playing in Moscow's biggest tournament for quite a while. This year, both Alcaide and Souquet were involved in a close race for Mosconi Cup Team Europe selection, and both finished short of making to the squad by a small margin.
Those who remember one of the most famous Russians in pool, Evgeny Stalev, will be glad to learn he is playing again. Two years ago he was a runner-up at this event, and he finished 5th last year.
For the second time in a row, The Kremlin Cup will have an American pool star in attendance. Last year, Shane Van Boening couldn't get past Ruslan Chinakhov. This time, it is Corey Deuel who will be riding on his solid performance in Kuwait.
Stay tuned for the next four days, as ABNbilliards crew are going to provide a daily live stream from the TV table with English commentary, and it's free! First day, November 9th, we start at 1 p.m. (Moscow time), check at https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebilliardbrothers/?fref=ts. Along with that there are feeds from at least 5 other tables available via web cameras.
Online brackets (mostly in Russian) can be found here: http://tournamentservice.net/tournament.php?chart=15632
