Author: Michael Rapson

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Cape Town Tournaments Western Cape

Cape Town Open 2021

The 2021 Cape Town Open was held on May 30 and was played “over the board”.

First place was closely by Andrew and Sam, with their head to head game going to Andrew by less than komi. James got revenge against Fred for his loss during Candidates day one, but lost to Christiaan in the final round, allowing Michael to sneak ahead on “sum of scores”. This puts Christiaan and James at one all so far in tournament games this year.

Thanks to everyone who took part.

Player NBW SOS SOSOS
1 Andrew Davies, 3d 3 5 14
2 Sam Scott, 3d 2 5 14
3 Christiaan Maasdorp, 3k 2 4 13
4 Michael Rapson, 5k 1 5 14
5 James Gelant, 3k 1 4 13
6 Fred Strauss, 7k 0 4 13
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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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Tournaments

1Q iNet Tournament 2020

The 1Q internet tournament was held on Sunday 28 March, on OGS. 10 players participated.

Competition was fierce between the top three, with Andrew beating Andre by 4.5 points but losing to Chris by the same margin to end in second. Congratulations to Chris on his win. All games were even (no handicap) and positions 4 to 6 were determined by “sum of opponent’s scores”.

Final standings:
1: Chris Welsh, 3d
2: Andrew Davies 3d
3: Andre Connell, 2d
4: Paul Edwards, 1d
5: Rocco Vivier, 3k
6: Ben Bredenkamp, 1k
7: Dave Gale, 1k
8: Christina Auret, 6k
9: Christiaan Maasdorp, 4k
10: Michael Rapson, 5k

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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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SAGA Tournaments

SA Closed tournament: Contenders 2020 results

Contenders was held primarily online this year, 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.

In the top four players, Victor and Andrew defended their 2019 positions, and Chris managed to nudge Andre out of 3rd. There was a three way tie in the bottom four players, with Lloyd, Ben, and Paul Edwards all on 2 wins. This arose because they each scored one win and one loss in their head-to-head games. The rules of the Candidates tournament specifies that this tie is broken based on the results from the previous year (2019). This resulted in Lloyd and Ben taking 5th and 6th place respectively. Paul Edwards improved on his 2019 position, finishing in 7th. Congratulations to Paul Steyn for qualifying for candidates for the first time.

The final standings were as follows:
1) Victor Chow – 7 wins
2) Andrew Davies – 6 wins
3) Chris Welsh – 5 wins
4) Andre Connell – 4 wins
5) Lloyd Rubidge – 2 wins, tiebreaker 5th in 2019
6) Ben Bredenkamp – 2 wins, tiebreaker 6th in 2019
7) Paul Edwards – 2 wins, tiebreaker 8th in 2019
8) Paul Steyn – 0 wins

Victor, Andrew, Chris, and Andre once again automatically qualify for the event next year.