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Table-top game simulating ice hockey From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ITHF table hockey is a sport played on table hockey games. International Table Hockey Federation (ITHF) is an organization that oversees these competitions. The origin of the sport was the Swedish Championship 1982 in Upplands Väsby. Organized table hockey is played in northern, central and eastern Europe, in North America, but table hockey is also played in South America, Africa, Australia, and Asia.
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The World Championship is organized by the ITHF every two years. The models, produced by Stiga, are the official game for competitions.[2]
Sweden has dominated the table hockey scene from the beginning and a couple of years into the new millennium. Until the Finnish gold in Riga 2005, Sweden had won all Team World Championships, until 2006 only Swedes had won the Open Swedish Masters, and until 2007 all individual world champions were Swedes. But the new generation of players comes from Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Latvia, Canada, Denmark, the United States, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Norway, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia and Lithuania, and its current world champion is Yanis Galuzo from Russia.[3] However, from December 2013 until 2021 Maxim Borisov from Russia had been ranked #1 in the world. In 2021 national team competition Latvia was the winner.[4]
Since the sport expands quickly in many countries, the table hockey map may have to be redrawn within a couple of years when nations other than the big eight (Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine) produce new talents.
First table hockey games were made during the 1930s in Sweden and Canada.[5][6] Naturally there was no plastic, so they were made from sheet metal.[7]
The use of plastic brought an expansion of table hockey. The Swedish company Stiga started to make hockey tables in the late 1950s.[8] Thanks to the enthusiasm of Swedish players, table hockey expanded to the rest of the world.
Big worldwide development arrived in the late 1990s. That led to an idea founding an international federation. ITHF was established during the World Championship 2005 in Riga, Latvia.[9] Now it associates 21 national federation.
Especially in Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Latvia, table hockey is quite popular. But it is growing in lots of countries and there are many tournaments played every week.
These are the most important rules.[10][11] Whole rules.
Centre forwards and left defenders must stay on their own side of the centre red line during a face-off.
In 2003/04, the first worldwide league, EuroLeague (EL), was created. 6 tournaments formed the league, The tournaments were Helsinki Open, Oslo Open, Riga Cup, Swedish Masters, Moscow Open and Czech Open.
The league has changed name to World Table Hockey Tour (WT), and consists every year of around 15 tournaments. The original 6 tournaments (B6) were still regarded as the most important tournaments, and were called the Big Six tournaments. After the main tournaments were called SuperSeries, and at season (2021/2022) there are planned 6 SuperSeries tournaments (in Slovenia, Latvia, Sweden, Estonia, Czech Republic and Russia).[12]
The World ranking table sorts players by their actual rank points. The ranking is sum of player's best results in last two years. Points, which player gets for participating in any reported tournament are counted on the basis of: level of the tournament, number of players beaten and world ranking of players beaten. A winner of the World Championship gets always 1010 points and a winner of Europe Championship and North America Championship gets at least 610 points. World ranking with a reduced coefficient calculated points to six years. In the world ranking is more than 10 000 players from more than 50 countries and six continents,[13][14] organized through about 520 clubs.[15]
Rank points of a country is sum of its five best players. The table below shows top ten nations as of September 28, 2021. Complete table
| Rank | Nation | Top player (Rank) | Rank points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Russia | Denis Matveyev (1) | 19941 |
| 2 |  Latvia | Edgars Caics (2) | 19894 |
| 3 |  Ukraine | Evgeniy Matantsev (4) | 19307 |
| 4 |  Finland | Kevin Eriksson (8) | 16986 |
| 5 |  Sweden | Oscar Henriksson (25) | 16632 |
| 6 |  Czech Republic | Zdenek Matousek ml. (32) | 16056 |
| 7 |  Estonia | Maria Saveljeva (40) | 14226 |
| 8 |  Norway | Magnus Klippen (56) | 13950 |
| 9 |  Slovenia | Anze Bozic (81) | 12735 |
| 10 |  Lithuania | Simonas Pleikys (155) | 11742 |
| Rank | Nation | Player | Rank points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | Denis Matveyev | 4207 |
| 2 | Latvia | Edgars Caics | 4099 |
| 3 | Russia | Nikita Zholobov | 4036 |
| 4 | Ukraine | Evgeniy Matantsev | 4034 |
| 5 | Ukraine | Oleksii Korabel | 4016 |
| 6 | Latvia | Atis Sīlis | 4011 |
| 7 |  Australia | Noah Webber | 4011 |
| 8 | Finland | Kevin Eriksson | 3980 |
| 9 | Latvia | Rainers Kalnins | 3971 |
| 10 | Russia | Maxim Borisov | 3941 |
| Rank (Open rank) | Nation | Player | Rank points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (40) | Estonia | Maria Saveljeva | 3234 |
| 2 (96) | Ukraine | Hanna Ivantsova | 2799 |
| 3 (133) | Russia | Ksenia Oboeva | 2610 |
| 4 (148) | Latvia | Krista-Annija Lagzdina | 2546 |
| 5 (150) | Russia | Darya Obuhova | 2537 |
| 6 (151) | Latvia | Laima Kamzola | 2526 |
| 7 (154) | Estonia | Tatyana Suchkova | 2521 |
| 8 (162) | Estonia | Veronika Sachok | 2488 |
| 9 (192) | Latvia | Elena Racenaja | 2408 |
| 10 (209) | Russia | Kapitolina Semagina | 2360 |
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