YEAR 
The 22-year-old Chinese international Guo Yuehua won the Asian Championships and became the World Ranking leader for the first time in his career. The highest-ranking European player in 1978 was the Hungarian star Gabor Gergely, who dominated the continental competitions, and won both – European Championships and Europe Top 12.
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
Guo Yuehua
Gabor Gergely
Liang Geliang
Istvan Jonyer
Chen Xinhua
Cho Yong-ho
Desmond Douglas
Tibor Kreisz
Tibor Klampar
Milan Orlowski
Wilfried Lieck
Sarkis Sarhayan
Jacques Secretin
Stellan Bengtsson
Dragutin Šurbek
Christian Martin
Jaroslav Kunz
Li Zhenshi
Janos Takacs
Josef Dvoraček
Patrick Birocheau
Wang Jianqiang
Peter Stellwag
Martti Autio
Igor Solopov
Tommy Danielson
Ake Grönlund
Valery Shevchenko
Peter Engel
Engelbert Hüging
N
EC
x
x
x
x
1/4
1/4
1/4
1/4
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16
x
R16
R16
R16
x
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
R32
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
E12
x
x
5th
x
x
x
x
x
4th
x
6th
7th
8th
10th
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
x
x
x
x
x
Description
N – Nationality EC – European Championships AC – Asian Championships E12 – Europe Top 12 & other flags – Pro Tour events
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