Contenders was once again held as a combination of “over the board” matches and online matches. Games between players in the same area were “over the board” and the remainder were online.
The top four kept their 2022 positions, with Andrew’s victory over Andre breaking their points tie. David Lubinsky qualified for Contenders for the first time, and caused some upsets. His wins against Andrew, Rocco, and Ben secured him fifth place.
The “Candidates” stage of the SA Closed tournament was played this weekend, September 17 and 18. Each day is a three round Swiss tournament, with the top four players from day one progressing to day two. The top for players from day two move on to the “Contenders” stage of the tournament.
Congratulations to James and Adru on their promotions to 2k and 5k respectively. David Lubinsky played through from day one to qualify for Contenders, his first time qualifying. His last recorded game in the SAGA ranking system was in 2011. It seems that he’s come back from a break in good form.
Day One: 1: James Gelant 2: Christiaan Maasdorp 3: David Lubinsky 4: Adru van Niekerk 5: Pieter-Francois Theron 6: Michael Rapson 7: Fred Strauss 8: Pico Geyer
Day Two: 1: Rocco Vivier 2: David Lubinsky 3: Ben Bredenkamp 4: Paul Edwards 5: James Gelant 6: Adru van Niekerk 7: Christiaan Maasdorp 8: David Gale
Positions 2-4 and 5-7 are determined by “sum of opponent scores”.
Contenders was once again held as a combination of “over the board” matches and online matches. Games between players in the same area were “over the board” and the remainder were online.
Victor took first place with straight wins, and Chris came second with only a loss to Victor. There was a three way tie for third place. Andre beat Andrew but not Rocco, and Andrew beat Rocco. The tie breaker in these cases is the previous year’s results, so the final positions were Andrew, Andre, Rocco.
The “Candidates” stage of the SA Closed tournament was played on 28 September. The top four players from the Candidates proceed to the “Contenders” stage of the tournament. The results were as follows:
Contenders was once again held primarily online, using the South Africa room of OGS as the main venue. Players were also given the option of meeting up and playing “over the board” with opponents in their area.
Victor took first place, again with straight wins. Not all the games were as comfortable, however. Andrew managed to keep his game against Victor within 10 points throughout, and Chris had a 15 point lead at move 80 that he didn’t manage to convert. The fight for second was fierce. Andre’s win vs Andrew left him with all to play for in the final game vs Chris. When Chris held on to his 1.5 point lead in end game, David’s early upset win against Andre left Andre on 4 points. This handed Andrew second place, with the tie breaker being Andrew’s head to head win vs Chris.
There was a three way tie between the lower four players, with Christiaan, Rocco, and David all on 2 wins. Christiaan took 5th place, with Rocco in 6th. Head to head games were again the tie breaker. David’s upset win against Andre unfortunately only earned him 7th place, with Ben taking a point off Christiaan.
Congratulations to Christiaan and Rocco who participated in Contenders for the first time. Christiaan also earned promotion to 2k after his win against David.
