One one of the four Quarterfinal matches progressed to a seventh game as Ahti Lampi defeated fellow Finn Jan Pelkonen. while the other three matches all saw Russians eliminated.
Lampi lost to Edgars Caics in the first Semifinal in a dramatic 2-1 Game 7 and Atis Silis prevailed, also in the full seven games, over Maxim Borisov to set up an all Lativan final.
Caics and Silis shaking hands before the finals
To get to the finals, Caics went 25-3-1 to win the preliminary Group B, edging Silis who opened the tournament at 22-2-5 with Caics winnign their head to head meeting 4-3.
They were both placed in the Final Group II, which Borisov won at 23-4-4 for 50 points with Caics and Silis just behind at 49 points with Caics holding the edge at 22-4-5 and Silis at 21-3-7, but both easily advanced to the Round of 24 and drew byes based on their high placings.
In the Round of 16, Silis swept Latvian Valts Smagars in 4 while Caics needed 6 games to eliminate Russian Alexey Titov to make it to the Semifinals.
Silis took Game 1 of the finals 4-2 but Caics fought back with a 6-1 win in the second game. Silis took a close Game 3 3-2 and dominated Game 4 with an easy 7-1 win before claiming top honors with a 3-2 overtime win in Game 5 to become the first Lativan world champion in 13 tournaments.
In other results, Russia defeated Latvia to win the Team championship, Maria Miloradova took the Ladies title and Borisov took some measure of consolation by winning the Junior championship to go with his third place in the Open Division.
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