For the first time in the ten-year history of the De Jure Cup, the winner of the Russian Billiards tournament was an international participant – a lawyer from the Republic of Belarus

A real triumph of friendly relations between Russia and Belarus was marked by the confident and beautiful play of lawyer Andrey Nikolaev from Minsk, who took part in the “Free Pyramid” tournament among active lawyers for the first time. But the anniversary “De Jure” Cup – 2024 will be remembered not only for this victory. This year, the event surprised everyone with three more pieces of news, which will be discussed in the article.

Women’s bracket

For the first time this year, the organizers held a separate Women’s tournament among girls with the status of a lawyer, in which 7 billiards lovers took part: Ekaterina Zabolichenko (Kamchatka Territory), Maria Miroshnichenko and Tatyana Holdman (Orel region), Irina Nesterova (Samara region), Tatyana Solovyova (Bryansk region), Victoria Karlova and Anzhelika Manucharova (Moscow). It is symbolic that back in 2014, when the first competitions of the De Jure Cup took place, there were exactly 7 male lawyers, which gives hope for the dynamic growth of participants in the women’s bracket.

The women’s stage of the competition was held under high emotional tension. None of the participants wanted to give up even a ball to their opponents. Therefore, most of the games were played with a difference of only one ball. Only the winner of the tournament, a lawyer from the Bryansk region, confidently went to her first place, playing matches with a significant advantage. In the semifinals of the tournament, Tatyana Solovyova beat Maria Miroshnichenko with a score of 3:0, and in the final Victoria Karlova – 4:0. In the match for the 3rd place, a lawyer from the Orel region beat a colleague from the Samara region with a score of 2:0.

Thus, the places in the women’s bracket were distributed in the following order: 1st place – Tatyana Solovyova, 2nd place – Victoria Karlova, 3rd place – Maria Miroshnichenko and 4th place – Irina Nesterova.

Pair tournament with the sportswomen

The biggest excitement was around the invited billiard players – current sportswomen: Darya Mikhailova (Master of Sports of International Class, current winner of the Moscow Mayor’s Cup), Elina Nagula (Master of Sports of International Class, two-time world champion), Liliya Panova (vice-world champion) and Natalya Kirpichnikova (World Cup champion). The girls played with absolutely everyone who signed up for a game with the champions.

But before that, a pair tournament of lawyers with sportswomen took place. Since there were about 20 lawyers who wanted to play with the girls, 4 pairs of champion and lawyer were determined by drawing lots, as a result of which the following took part in the tournament: Elina Nagula and Alexander Sholokhov (Krasnoyarsk Territory), Lilia Panova and Valery Kharisov (Republic of Bashkortostan), Darya Mikhailova and Mikhail Kuznetsov (Omsk Region), Natalya Kirpichnikova and Andrey Zakatov (Republic of Karelia).

The pairs played in a round-robin system up to 2 wins. The strikes were carried out strictly in turn. The lawyers had a great opportunity to get valuable advice from the current champions on how to make strikes correctly, which balls are strategically better to choose for hitting and how to recoup correctly.

As a result of 3 rounds of the tournament, the winners were: the 1st place – Mikhail Kuznetsov and Daria Mikhailova, the 2nd place – Valery Kharisov and Lilia Panova, the 3rd place – Andrey Zakatov and Natalia Kirpichnikova, the 4th place – Alexander Sholokhov and Elina Nagula.

The largest billiards competition in the world

The main bracket of the X “De Jure” Cup, which has become a men’s bracket since this year, was attended by 114 lawyers – this is the largest billiards sports event among lawyers. And in general, we have not found any analogues in the world.

On November 30, lawyers from 25 regions of Russia arrived in Moscow: from Kamchatka and Transbaikalia to Bryansk and Kaliningrad, as well as two lawyers from the capital of the Republic of Belarus. Traditionally, the largest team was from the Samara region – 11 people, most of them have been coming to the Cup for more than 7 years. Also, for 7 years now, another large team from the Bryansk region has been coming to Moscow in December, this year the team was represented by 8 lawyers.

Traditionally, one of the most stable teams in the tournament for the last 7 years has been the team from the Kirov region. Every year, 4 people fly to the competition: Grigory Bukhanevich, Andrey Grukhin, Vladimir Ovsyannikov and Sergey Plesovskikh – the constant four, who have already taken both the main and additional cups of the tournament, and this year they also did not leave without awards.

Winners of the additional X Cup “De Jure” 2024

The 1st place was taken by Sergey Bolotin (Tyumen region), who beat his opponent with a score of 3:1. The 2nd place was taken by Andrey Grukhin (Kirov region). In the match for the 3rd place, Khusey Aybazov (Karachay-Cherkess Republic) won with a score of 2:1 against Dmitry Pleshivtsev (Bryansk region).

The prize places were taken by: Maxim Zhevora and Daniil Zakharov (Bryansk region), Sergey Plesovskikh (Kirov region).

The prize for the longest series was received by Sergey Bolotin, who realized 9 balls from the cue in the very first round of the additional tournament in a meeting with Andrey Obukhov (Moscow).

Winners of the Jubilee X Cup “De Jure” 2024

This year, 16 prize places were played out among 114 participants in the men’s bracket. Places from 9 to 16 were taken by: Nikita Filippov (Moscow), Maxim Ustinov (Kaliningrad Region), Mikhail Terekhin and Boris Smirnov (Moscow Region), Igor Pakhomov (Moscow), Andrey Zubenko (St. Petersburg), Arsen Goncharuk (Kamchatka Territory), Alexander Boguslavsky (Chelyabinsk Region).

From the 5th to the 8th place were taken by: Sergey Bosnyakov (Moscow region), Vladimir Krasov, Viktor Probichev and Vladislav Shishenin (Moscow).

In the match for the 3rd place, Sergey Kapitonov (Moscow region) won against Roman Ivanyukhin (Leningrad region).

In the final Andrey Nikolaev (Belarus) beat Vladimir Ovsyannikov (Kirov region) with a score of 5:3. The lawyers demonstrated real skill at billiards and in playing difficult strikes and in in performing safety plays. The finale turned out to be spectacular and emotional.

The next day, the De Jure Cup left Russia in the form of hand luggage and will now be stored in Belarus, reminding its owner of two difficult but exciting tournament days in Moscow.