December 5-8, 2003

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Back to 2003 Canadian SCRABBLE Championship Live Coverage

2003 Canadian SCRABBLE Championship Commentary: Round 7

Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Award Ceremony, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, Final Round 4, After the Tournament.

round 7

Back from lunch. Most players decided to brave the cold and find nourishment outside the building. Ten souls took advantage of the lunch offered by the Ontario Club.

At table 1, the two youngest players in this event are facing off. Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) at 21 is the youngest and Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) is 28. The third youngest, Carl Madden (Brantford ON) is a whole three months older than Evan. All three of these young'uns are currently 5-1, along with Vince Castellano (Fairfax, VA), Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON), Fran Silver (Cote St. Luc QC), and Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON).

Kate Doe has been nicely managing the annotators for the event. She arrived this morning with a spreadsheet of which annotator was working at each board every round. Now we know to whom questions about "what went down" should be directed. Great contribution, Kate. I, at least, get to sit down every once and awhile to type and download photos. Diane Brown is on her feet all through the round. She eschewed her high heels in round 1 and is padding around in black silk stockings over her bare feet. I keep telling her the running shoes won't clash with her ensemble, but she claims to be comfortable. I wander by table 2 and see Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) on fire against Ray Francis (Pickering ON). She opened with JAWBONE for 104 and later got down EUPNOEAE* for 68. She also played LImITED for 77. Ray got down ATONERs for 75. She won 503-322 and after the game confessed she erred and that EUPNOEAS took an S and not an E. She is excited about the two last games with around 181-point differentials. Inspired by Robin's phoney vowel dump, Diane Brown took a gander at AENEOUS for 75 played by David Boys (Dorval QC) on another board. In the "youngests" battle, age was a benefit and the older player, Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) defeated Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC), 410-383. Evan opened with IODIZE for 52, had a "cheap" X play for 52, and got down CREATING to the G for 78. Dean played PAINLESS for 70, KAOLINs for 86, and FLEECY down the triple through the C for 42. Toward their endgame, Dean held for a long time on Evan's penultimate play of REtRO/HAEt. Eventually he accepted the play and the game finished soon thereafter. Afterwards, Dean admitted it was REtRO he didn't like and Evan thought it may have been HAEt, but both words were good. Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON) would like us to shout from the rafters that he had a 601-point score this round. Poor Trevor Sealy (Oshawa ON) was the one who kept score opposite the bingo maniac. Jim played EARTHMAN through the first A for 82, RIGoURS for 75, STrAYED to the triple for 91, and CORDITES for 64. Perhaps, the biggest "ouch" for Trevor came when Jim made the one-tile hook and created ESTRAYED connecting to another triple word for 45 points! Trevor admits to trying the phoney BARONING* when the good word, ABORNING, didn't fit. Trevor earned 295 this round. Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) tells me, "I'm 6-1, but my highest score is the only game I lost! I had a 453!" At table 21, Albert Hahn (Calgary AB) defeated Sinna Vijayakumar (North York ON), 448-318. I see Albert's RIbROOTS to the S for 74 and STRANDER to the R for 80. Albert wanders over and in typical fashion says, "VJ played WEIRD and then hooked an O to it creating WEIRDO. Do you think he is trying to tell me something?" Sensing a theme, Diane Brown catches Vince Castellano (Fairfax, VA) play FILMGOER to the R and at the next board sees Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI) play CINEAST for 76. As the latter game wound up, Diane observed some good endgame strategy. Ron, short on time with only 2 seconds left on his clock, held LI in his rack. He needed to play out and not go over, so he turned the tiles upside down so that when it was his turn he could toss them onto the board, creating LI/LOWE. It worked and he played and ended the game with two seconds still remaining on his clock! He advises her that his only works for horizontal plays. Vertical plays, with the tiles laying sideways are a mess and don't work as well.

Lisa Deift took a break from her book (she reads during the quiet times) and played a game of SCRABBLE^® against Daniel West. Her verdict, "John taught him well. He's a very good player."

Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) played Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) at Board 1 this round, and their annotated game is available for browsing.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) played Ray Francis (Pickering ON) at Board 2 this round, and their annotated game is available for browsing.