From September 17 - 19, the world's best Catan players competed at Wildenstein Castle for the coveted World Champion title.

52 participants from 28 countries competed for the 8th "The Settlers of Catan" world championship title. On the first day of the tournament, preliminaries took place to determine the 16 best players. These players then participated in the four semifinal games on the last day to decide who would participate in the final.

In the semifinals, Maris Logins from Latvia, Mauri Sahlberg from Finland, Peter Jähne from Germany, and Erwin Pauelsen from the Netherlands prevailed at their respective tables. An exciting final followed, whose main highlight was the duel between Maris Logins and Erwin Pauelsen.

By turns, each of them took the lead for a while -  especially the Largest Army was fiercely disputed, and the two players established trade embargos between them early on. That way, Mauri Sahlberg from Finland might actually have come off best - only Peter Jähne soon fell behind and was left without a chance. With his two face-down victory point cards, Mauri Sahlberg came very close to win the game - but in the decisive phase, the dice roll numbers weren't to his advantage. Therefore, with the additional help of a "Road Building" card, Erwin Pauelsen was able to build three roads at once and thus take the Longest Road away from Peter Jähne to claim victory. The winner of the eighth Catan world Championship is from the Netherlands! Finally a title for one of the greatest Catan nations! And there was a beaming Erwin Pauelsen, who may look forward to a Caribbean cruise, a truly unique Catan World Champion jacket, and a golden trophy.

Congratulations to the new Catan World Champion! And, of course, congratulations to the finalists and all other participants.

The Catan World Championship 2010 was a great experience. Besides its medieval atmosphere that included a medieval banquet and ball, the event also presented a prominent guest: handball star Stefan Kretzschmar honored us with his presence and competed against Klaus Teuber and 4 invited Catan fans.

A detailed report on the entire World Championship will be published here soon.