On January 12, 2019, the World Chinese Pool Masters Grand Finals will be held  in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, China. This event, the longest running International Chinese Pool Championship,  will feature top players from more than 50 countries.

 

The finals will consist of 64 players, including 24 Chinese players and 40 international players. The 64 finalists emerged from tens of thousands of players who competed to earn this honor. Players qualified through the following six channels…

 

1 Masters International Points

Five Master’s International Points events were held in Linyi, Siping, Shuangyashan, Xiushui and Shijiazhuang in China. Each event rewarded points based on player finishes with the top eight players earning spots in the Finals. 

 

This group of players includes such notables as Yang Fan, Zhang Kunpeng, Liu Chuang, Zhao Ruliang and Wang Yun.

 

2 China Regional Selection Competition

 

At the end of the aforementioned points events, the top eight players from the each event competing to earn a spot in the Finals. 

 

Players earning their spots through this method included Zheng Yubo, Wu Zhenyu, Li Hewen and  Wang Ye.

 

3 National Chinese Pools Tournament Year-end Championship

 

At an international level, more than 30 countries have established their own Chinese pool points system. Regional champions from this system earned their positions in the finals. 

 

Examples of playing qualifying through this system are Shane Van Boening from American, Bosnia-Herzegovina Champion Sanjin and Myanmar Champion Yang Shaojie.

 

4 Foreign Players Trials

 

International players could also qualify through a qualifying stage that took place just before the finals with 8 players being awarded spot in the finals. 

 

This group of players included Philippine players Johann Chua and Jeffrey Ignacio, Mongolian B. Narantuya and Thailands  P. Boonmoung.

 

5 Overseas International Open Competition

 

In addition to the four methods mentioned above, the Masters Competition also hosted high-level international events such as the Japanese Open, the American Open and the British Championships. Players who won those events include American Open Champion Li Henwen and British Champion Clint Ianson.

 

6 Joint Recommendation by International Associations

The world Chinese pool masters grand finals is strongly supported by the World Billiards Association (WPA) and the International Chinese Eight Balls Association (ICEA). In cooperation with the event, these two international associations recommend one players from each association who earns a spot in the finals. 

 

The ICEA recommended Chinese Pool World Champion Gareth Potts and the  WPA recommended Albin Ouschan.

 

Watch AzBilliards for daily updates from this great International event.