1969 European Championship International in men's drafts

The European Championship was held, as it was the year before, in Italy (the previous tournament of this rank was held in Livorno) thanks to the efforts of the president of FMJD, representing this country, Beppino Rizzi . This circumstance allowed the owners of the site to get three seats in the championship participants - as much as the Netherlands team had. The USSR, Belgium, France and Switzerland were represented by two players each, Czechoslovakia and Austria were represented by one person each. The tournament was held for the first time according to the Swiss system , which initially caused criticism of the participants, and only the firm position of international arbiter Louis Dalman led to the fact that conflicts were resolved, according to tournament participant Michel Isar , "to almost everyone's satisfaction."

In general, the championship was marked by the superiority of last year's champion Ton Cebrands . If last year the success of Seybrands could be questioned due to the absence of Soviet drafts players at the championship, this time the USSR was represented by the former and current world champions - Iser Kuperman and Andris Andreiko . However, the 20-year-old Dutch grandmaster, having shown a deep and offensive game and having won four wins in the first four games, by the middle of the distance created himself a margin of safety and, with more "peace-loving" Soviet representatives, played from a position of strength. Cooperman offered a draw on the 24th move in a game with him, and Andreiko on the 15th move (however, Andreiko was already two points behind the game with the Sabrands and even in the case of a win, he would have given him the first place by the coefficient). The world champion finished second, and the bronze medal went to Switzerland-speaking Andreas Kyuken .

Despite the third consecutive champion title, Seybrands was unhappy with the organization of the tournament. Later in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw, he spoke negatively about the venue of the tournament (the large hall allocated for him was outside the city limits, and there were few spectators), and his transient scheme, thanks to which, in particular, Italian Molesini took not high on the game place, and the invitation to the championship of representatives of countries where there was not even his drafts federation (including Feldl, who did not score any points in the end). The Drafts Federation of the Netherlands and the bronze medalist of the championship, Kyuken, joined the criticism of Cebrands.

• M. Isar . European Championship // Checkers. - 70. - № 3 . - pp . 22-23 .

• Table and results in the database of tournaments of the Netherlands Drafts Federation (English)