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 |