The 2nd KO of the KO-packed GNT season has completed with Smirnov prevailing to the semi-finals with a 65-22 halftime score and finishing the match with a final score of 114-34.
First off, congratulations to the 5th place team consisting of Jim Diederich, Thierry Bonnet, Barbara Marsh, and Rita Bar-Or. Each player will receive 6.67 Masterpoints, half gold half red, which are crucial pigments needed to eventually earn the rank of Life Master. The points will also count toward this year’s Mini McKenney races, but not the Ace of Clubs or Ace of Virtual Clubs (because even though the entire event took place at Honors, this is a District event).
Next up, Team Smirnov will play against Team Li, with quite a lot on the line. Any team that advances to the finals will receive an invitation to represent New York City and Long Island in the national finals in Toronto this July. It will be the winner of Smirnov vs Li in addition to the other side of the Flight C bracket, consisting now of Team Lupoff, Team Oratofsky, and Team Moscow.
Will There Be A 3rd and 4th Place?
Also, in one final twist, it is possible the two semi-final losing teams will need to play a match or merge into one team to determine the 1st alternates for Toronto. Why might a team not go to Toronto? Some people simply can’t take 5 days off to play bridge. Others might have no interest in going to the national finals, but wanted to play in a fun and friendly District wide event to earn gold points. Whatever the reason, should any of the eventual two winners opt not to attend, we need a clear 1st alternate team.
This occurred last year when Team Verrier and Team Latta advanced to the finals of Flight B, but Latta also reached the finals of Flight C. After Team Latta opted to go to nationals in Flight C, the original 3rd and 4th place teams, Petsch and Schwartz, merged into one team.
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