Bill Lin was very likely the only one who slept soundly Monday night, his seat in the
NAGF semifinals guaranteed by his sweep of the first four rounds. But for the rest of the leading contenders, it must have been a restless night.
In Group 1, Michael Xu had three wins, but he’d be playing Joel Kenny, who had two; if Joel won their fourth-round match, they’d both be 3-1, but Joel would advance because of winning their head-to-head. In the end, Xu won handily, not only booking the second Group 1 seat in the semis, but – for the first time – not having to go to his ever-present board-side lollipop.
Meanwhile, in Group 2, the chance of a 3-way tie after the fourth round materialized when Guanyu Song, Eric Yoder and Sen Zhan all wound up with 3-1 records. Song was the lucky winner of the random drawing, which was conducted on the livestream, guaranteeing him the third slot in the semis and giving him the afternoon off. However, that also means that he’s #2 in Group B, so he’ll face Bill Lin in the best-of-three semi. That left Eric Yoder and Sen Zhan to battle it out for the last berth in an exciting game that drew an online crowd which for the first time – like the heat bubble baking a large swath of both the U.S. and Canada – hit triple digits. The two waged a series of sharp battles that concluded with an extended endgame so complex that when it came time to count, neither player knew who’d won. It was Zhan, by a half point.; he’ll play Xu in the other best-of-three semi. The winners of each semi play in the finals, which start Thursday afternoon.
The semi-finals are a best-of-three match between the top two players in each group, beginning with Round 1 at 9:30a Wednesday; the round starts at 9:30a ET on OGS; live game commentaries start at 10:30a ET on the AGA’s YouTube channel. Full event overview, including standings and game records here. Check out photos of the tournament on the AGA’s Facebook and X (@theaga) feeds.
- report by Chris Garlock, EJ Team Leader and Board 1 game recorder. Tuesday’s game recorders: Antoine Boisvert, Benjamin Cérat, Xuhua Chen, Winston Mayer, Zhongwei Zheng. Tournament Director: Jean-Sébastien Lechasseur. EJ team online producer: Jae Donley. Game commentators: Alex Qi/Jerry Jaffe (morning) and Paige LeMaster/Tony Zhao (afternoon). Photo: Official group shot of the ProQual players, TD and Tuesday’s EJ recording team; photo by Na Gu.