he followed up his strong performance in the world championship by winning the 1982 international open against david taylor, and a year later was victorious in the 1983 professional players tournament and reached the semi-finals of the world championship, leading cliff thorburn 15–13 before losing 15–16, with thorburn getting a very fortunate fluke on one of the colours in the deciding frame. as a result, he moved to no. 4 in the 1983/1984 world rankings.