“Queen” Sissy is the winner of the 2024 Holiday Masters after winning back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday.

A day after regaining her confidence by pulling even with her daughter, Nici, Sissy produced a convincing display and clinched the first level-2 title of the year.

By the 90-minute interval, Sissy had already brought three yellow and three black pawns home in a tactically perfect sequence.

Trailing his wife and daughter by 1-2-2, it was a must-win for Harry and, certainly as a result of this aggregate score after five games, Nici and Sissy went softer on him than on each other.

Indeed, he had a strong start bringing home two red and one blue pawn within the first 40 minutes, thus fueling his hopes to force a Game-7 decider. Unfortunately, Harry was eventually forced to complete his red team prematurely which would considerably harmed his flexibility.

With his three blue pawns remaining, Harry had to turn to destructive mode and did manage to interrupt Sissy’s endgame multiple times.

But when he got his second and third pawns home to fields (a) and (b), leaving (c) unoccupied and with his fourth one in the year, he was all but taken out of the game. The “1” or “6” required just would not come.

Nici, who had hoped to bring herself in position to attack her Mom’s top spot on the 3T World Rankings at the next tournaments, was on a good sequence as well at first, saving a violet and a green pawn.

However, she was forced into bringing home her second and third violet pawns before saving her second green pawn. Then, her attempts to keep her fourth violet pawn active by means of intentional “friendly fire” remained unsuccessful.

With both of her remaining green pawns on the track, Nici thwarted Sissy’s efforts to close out the game a few times and did seem to have a chance to win the game and the tournament.

When Sissy eventually saved her fourth black pawn, she had her fourth yellow pawn already half way around the track. She was then lucky enough to kick Nici’s green pawn off the track before it could do her any harm and after 1:55 hours of play, Sissy converted her second championship point on a “5”.

Having regained her competitive form, Sissy should be well equipped for the first “Major” of the season, the 2024 World Masters, starting next weekend. Due to the restructuring of seasons, Sissy will have to defend the trophy that she won only two-and-a-half months ago.

Thanks to the ranking points scored by winning the Holiday Masters, Sissy is guaranteed to stay on top of the 3T World Rankings after the World Masters regardless its outcome.