Report
The Catan World Championships 2005 are presented by: 
A total of 52 players tried to obtain the highly prestigious title 
of Catan World Champion. How prestigious this title is can be 
seen by the impressive number of 28 participating countries, 
among them Corea, Japan, Taiwan, the U.S.A., Canada and 
most of Europe.
Even the Faroe Islands sent two players to the Catan World 
Championships 2005.
The players are eager to get to know how the game is played 
in other countries and how tactics differ throughout the world. 
If the communication is difficult at times, people have to rely 
on the capability to make themselves understood even 
without talking by pointing on tiles and cards – but overall 
the mood was nicely and the tournament ran smoothly.

Soon one could tell some dominant players at the tournament. 
Very impressive were the scandinavian players, with both 
danish players qualifying for the semi-finals (beneath them 
Claus Sorensen – Vice Champion of 2004).  In addition to 
those two both players from the Faroe Islands, on norwegian 
and one finnish player qualified for the semi-finals.
 
But also the German speaking part of the players were strong, 
with both German and one Swiss player qualifying for the 
semi-finals. It was nice to see a strong dutch player, Frans 
de Bode, again (since the last strong dutch player was Hans 
Baert in 2002).
And of course the native english speakers with Sacred Ngo 
from England and two irish players were strong and went to 
the semi-finals. The only player not from Europe in the semi
finals was Zhuang Chenglun from Taiwan.

But clearly the best player was Jiri Buchta from the Czech 
Republic, who was the only player to win all four games on 
day one.
 

The Worlds Championships 2005,
Jiri Buchta from the Czech Republic.
 
The semi-finals on Sunday all were very tight with all second 
placed players ending with 9 victory points. So in this tight 
games Frans de Bode (The Netherlands), Jiri Buchta 
(Czech Republic), Andreas Münzinger (Finland) and Shane 
Cassels (Ireland) prevailed. 

What`s more to say about the semi-finals?
The German Team was the strongest of the tournament, 
with Olaf Oberhofer (ending on place 7) and Cedric Andrik 
(ending on place 6) which made them win the nations 
ranking – which is regrettably only inofficial...
... and of course we have to mention the best woman playing
in the tournament. Susanna Joensen from Faroe Islands, 
ending on place 8. The Faroe Inseln made an outstanding 
third place in the nations ranking in their first appearance, only 
beaten by Germany and Ireland`s Shane Cassells and Paddy 
McDonagh. 
 
The final game was the hardest fought final I’ve seen at the 
World Championships so far and it took almost two hours to 
play. In a circle of numerous spectators (we had to strengthen 
the booth walls, so they wouldn`t fall over…) they fought hard
and one player seemed without a chance to win… Frans de 
Bode was in a situation, where he couldn`t build any other 
settlement then his starting two settlements. But he surprised 
everyone with upgrading the settlements to cities very quick 
and buying almost all the development cards, but he only got 
3 out of 5 possible victory points and consequently couldn`t 
win the game – but he ended up as Vice-World Champion. 
Keeping his bad position in mind this is a huge success.
Shane Cassels and Andreas Münzinger fought viciously for t
he longest road, which switched possession a couple of times 
during the game. And this fight was excellently used by Jiri 
Buchta, who was able to develop his position nicely on his 
part of the board and win in the end. Therfore Jiri Buchta is 
the first player at a World Championship to win all of his 
games – Congratulations! Never before it was easier to 
say that the right person had won the tournament.
Shane Cassels ended up third and Andreas Münziger fourth.

How thrilling this final was, is shown by the victory points 
optained by the competitiors:
Jiri Buchta: 10, Frans de Bode: 9, Shane Cassels: 9, 
Andreas Münziger : 8
 
Around 3 p.m. Klaus Teuber was congratulating the four 
players together with the other sponsors, where the four 
players got there winning prices cheered by the spectating 
crowd.

I thank all the helping hands and partners that made this event 
possible, spezial thanks go out to our sponsors: 
Catan LLC, Friedhelm-Merz Verlag, K.E. Mathiasen, Kosmos, 
Mayfair Games, Microsoft Casual Games, Nokia N-Gage, Paperiyagi.

We hope to see you again at the SPIEL2006 for the 5th Catan 
World Championships 2006.
Michael Bartusch-Lenzen
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