Category: Rank Changes

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Rank Changes SAGA Tournaments Uncategorized

SA Closed tournament: Contenders 2021 results

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.

Player NBW Notes
1 Victor Chow, 7d 7
2 Andrew Davies, 3d 5 Tie breaker: Andrew beat Chris
3 Chris Welsh, 3d 5
4 Andre Connell, 2d 4
5 Christiaan Maasdorp, 2k 2 Tie breaker: Christiaan beat Rocco and David
6 Rocco Vivier, 2k 2 Tie breaker: Rocco beat David
7 David Gale, 1k 2
8 Ben Bredenkamp, 1k 1
Final Standings


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Rank Changes SAGA Tournaments Uncategorized

Candidates 2021 results

The “Candidates” stage of the SA Closed tournament was played this weekend, May 1 and 2. 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.

Day one saw an upset with Fred Strauss beating James Gelant in the first round. James managed to stabilise in the next two games, and then went on to win day two. Three players who played day one went on to qualify for Contenders. All three will be playing in Contenders for the first time in 2021. Congratulations to Rocco, Christiaan, and James Gelant. They also earned promotions based on their performance. They are now 2k, 3k, and 3k respectively.

David Gale also secured his place at Contenders. He previously qualified for the tournament in 2018.

Day One:
1: Rocco Vivier
2: Christiaan Maasdorp
3: Michael Rapson
4: James Gelant
5: Fred Strauss
6: James Nicolson
7: Gordon Wells

Day Two:
1: James Gelant
2: Rocco Vivier
3: Christiaan Maasdorp
4: David Gale
5: Michael Rapson
6: Ben Bredenkamp
7: Paul Edwards
8: Paul Steyn

Positions 2-4 and 5-7 are determined by “sum of opponent scores”.

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Rank Changes Tournaments Winter League

Winter League 2020

Winter league 2020 took place from May through September, with 18 players taking part. Player ranks ranged from 4d to 18k.

A McMahon style tournament, with pairings pre-drawn based on player ranks at the start of the tournament, was trialed in 2019. As the format seemed to be successful, it was used again. The “McMahon bar” was set at 3k to encourage games between players above and below the bar after the initial rounds.

Competition for the top spot was fierce, but ultimately an on form Chris Welsh secured wins against Andrew and Ben to secure first place with a MMS (McMahon score) of 22. Four players tied on an MMS of 21. These were Ben, Andrew, Andre, and Rocco. Ben and Andrew were only separated by their head to head game, won by Ben. Andrew managed to finally break Andre’s winning streak in their head to head tournament matches during 2020. The remaining ties were broken by SOSM or SOSOSM (“sum of opponent score McMahon” and “sum of sum of opponent score McMahon” respectively).

Congratulations to Rocco, Fred, Neville, Anton, and Pico who all received promotions during the course of the tournament.

Final standings:
1: Chris Welsh, 3d
2: Ben Gale, 4d
3: Andrew Davies, 3d
4: Andre Connell, 2d
5: Rocco Vivier, 3k
6: James Nicolson, 1k
7: James Gelant, 4k
8: David Gale, 1k
9: Michael Rapson, 5k
10: Paul Edwards, 1d
11: Lloyd Rubidge, 1d
12: Christiaan Maasdorp, 4k
13: Marc Loon, 5k
14: Fred Strauss, 7k
15: Gordon Wells, 7k
16: Neville Eisenberg, 11k (playing as 10k in the tournament)
17: Anton Stott, 13k
18: Pico Geyer, 16k

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Cape Town Rank Changes Tournaments Western Cape

Cape Town Open 2020

The 2020 Cape Town Open was held on May 23. This year it was played on OGS rather than “over the board”. This allowed a number of Gauteng based players to participate and made for a competitive tournament.

The top spot was taken by Chris Welsh, in a bit of a repeat of the 1Q internet tournament. Congratulations also to Pico on his promotion to 17k after his round one win.

Final standings:
1: Chris Welsh, 3d, MMS 33
2: Andrew Davies, 4d, MMS 32 SOS 94
3: Andre Connell, 2d, MMS 32 SOS 92
4: Lloyd Rubidge, 1d, MMS 31 SOS 92 SOSOS 276
5: Paul Edwards, 1d, MMS 31 SOS 92 SOSOS 267
6: Christiaan Maasdorp, 4k, MMS 27 SOS 88
7: Michael Rapson, 5k, MMS 27 SOS 79
8: Fred Strauss, 8k, MMS 23
9: Pico Geyer, 18k, MMS 14

Thanks to everyone who took part.

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Rank Changes SAGA Tournaments Uncategorized

Candidates 2020 day two results

Candidates day two was played on OGS today, April 19. This tournament selects four players to progress to Contenders later in the year. Paul Edwards, Paul Steyn, Ben Bredenkamp, and Lloyd Rubidge are the four who qualified. Congratulations especially to Paul Steyn who made it through for the first time this year, having come close the last few years.

Final standings:
1: Paul Edwards, 3 wins
2: Paul Steyn, 2 wins, 2nd by SOS
3: Ben Bredenkamp, 2 wins, 3rd by SOSOS
4: Lloyd Rubidge, 2 wins
5: Michael Rapson, 1 win, 5th by SOS
6: Christiaan Maasdorp, 1 win, 6th by SOS
7: James Nicolson, 1 win
8: David Gale, 0 wins

Congratulations also to the players who earned rank changes during the Candidates tournament. They are:
David Gale, 1k
Christiaan Maasdorp, 4k
James Gelant, 4k