Sen Zhan prevailed in his ProQual semifinal, defeating young Michael Xu 2-0 on Wednesday in a pair of hard-fought-games. He awaits the winner of the third game in the other semifinal, as Bill Lin and Guanyu Song split their matches, Lin winning the morning game after Song missed the killing move, and Song winning the afternoon game when Lin, trying to erase a one-point deficit, made a costly endgame mistake. The online crowd was again in the triple digits and as one viewer said, “I've really appreciated the mix of commentators. some great chemistry and varied viewpoints has made it great to watch over the past couple days.”
The Bill Lin-Guanyu Song playoff begins at 9:30a Thursday; 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/photos by Chris Garlock, EJ Team Leader and Board 1 game recorder. Wednesday’s game recorders: Zhongwei Zheng & Chris Garlock (with TD Jean-Sébastien Lechasseur providing much-needed relief). EJ team online producer: Jae Donley. Game commentators: Yixian "Michael" Zhou/Jae Donley (morning) and Michael Chen/ Sungsoo Kim (afternoon). Photos: Zhan (left), Song (top right) & Lin (bottom right)