GREG McLure, Dwight Sangster, Warren Burrowes and Ryan Lowe will go into the third and final day of the Strawberry Hill High Stakes backgammon tournament today as top seeds following round-robin results yesterday.

McLure, seeded number three going into the tournament, won all his three matches, while number two seed Lennie Chen became one of the early qualifiers for the knock-out round today.

Sixteen players will take part in the final round.

Top seed and tournament director Alastair Macbeath, who made the final 16 by a hair, noted that backgammon was one of the games “where anybody can beat anybody”.

Second seed Chen noted that backgammon is noted for its unpredictability, citing the top seeds for the final day’s play as players to watch.

The round-robin tournament was divided into six groups, A to F, with the first four groups comprising players of four and the final two with players of five. Qualifiers and seedings are determined by their average net points.

Chen, Tino Caldarelli, Joey Issa, Mitta Rousseau and William Mahfood booked their place in the knock-out by early afternoon, and by late afternoon, Ryan Lowe, Ruddy Armstrong, Warren Burrowes, Kynan Cooke, Johnny Todd and Eddie Azan were safe.

Dwight Sangster, Mike Hirst and McLure were the last three to make the 14.

With two more places to go, Andrew Issa and Macbeath earned their places based on the calculations.