YEAR 
The 22-year-old Japanese star Mitsuru Kōno won the Asian Championships and successfully conquered the #1 spot in the World Rankings. The highest-ranked European player of this year was the 1968 European champion – 22-year-old Yugoslav, Dragutin Šurbek, who also won two Pro Tour events during the 1968 season. He finished year at the #3 spot.
TOP 30 PLAYERS IN THE WORLD RANKING
#
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Player
Mitsuru Kōno
Shigeo Itoh
Dragutin Šurbek
Nobuhiko Hasegawa
Janos Börzsei
Hans Alser
Kjell Johansson
Kim Chung-yong
Kim Chang-ho
Stanislav Gomozkov
Jung Ryang-woong
Pak Sin-il
Chu Chang-suk
Jaroslav Štanek
Matyas Beleznay
Hajime Kagimoto
Denis Neale
Anatoly Amelin
Eberhard Schöler
Istvan Korpa
Dorin Giurgiuca
Satoru Kawahara
Štefan Kollarovits
Vladimir Miko
Radu Negulescu
Sarkis Sarhayan
Istvan Jonyer
Uldis Eglītis
Peter Rozsas
Kan Hun Noa
N
EC
x
x
x
x
x
1/4
x
x
x
1/4
1/4
x
1/4
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
R32
R32
R64
x
AC
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
PRO TOUR
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Description
N – Nationality EC – European Championships AC – Asian Championships & other flags – Pro Tour events
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