December 5-8, 2003

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Back to 2003 Canadian SCRABBLE Championship Live Coverage

2003 Canadian SCRABBLE Championship Commentary: Round 10

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.

Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) played Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) at Board 1 this round, and their annotated game is available for browsing.

round 10

Carl Madden (Brantford ON) walks by and he isn't as chipper as I've seen him today. He explains, "I lost four in a row this afternoon after a great start." He says three were very close, but this last loss to Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON) was by 181 points.

Stuart Levinsky (Thornhill ON) calls me over to say that he has finally made a "nice play." His opponent, Wendy McGrath (Calgary AB), muttered not so under her breath that she didn't find it all that nice. He played EXOERGiC through the O for 102 points. He also got down the cuddly SNUgGLE while Wendy played RUNNIEST to the T on the bottom triple lane.

Joel Wapnick (Montréal QC) was off to a terrible start this tournament. Although it wasn't music to his opponent's ears, he is now 5-5 after defeating Sary Karanofsky (Cote-St-Luc QC) this round. He started off with a bingo bango bongo: LINTERS for 66, IBOgAINE for 68, and SOAKING for 76. Sary replied to his opening bingo with BETTERED through the R, but it wasn't enough to overcome the onslaught. 472-369, Joel's game.

At table 4, Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) had a field day with David Boys (Dorval QC), winning 496-384. Dave opened with OUTGOINg for 60 and then played SCIENCE through the second C for 71, Dean played HYALINS for 90 and TAILGATE through the second A for 68. Dave got stuck with the Q to keep their game spread good and high.

At table 1, Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) lost to Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON), 262-519. It was a huge loss and a tough one for her to take. She was frustrated with the racks and her abundance of Os despite solid rack-balancing measures. Evan opened with GLUIEST for 70 and also got down BRIDLES for 90 and ENDOSTEA through the D for 68 points. He also made the non-bingo ZYMeS for 84 points! This win on Evan's part makes him a the only 9 win player and a solid footing on first place. Behind him, the only 8-win player is Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC). So the young guys are alone at the top after all!

At table 2, Albert Hahn (Calgary AB) is smiling and Lou Cornelis (Ottawa ON) is taping into his PDA seemingly amazed at Albert's play. I discover it is BEDQUILT through the E for 130 points! His opponent that game, Teri Tetreault (Calgary AB), got down dERANGED for 80, which only gave Albert the E for his bingo, and Teri lost, 324-484.

Diane Brown has been indefatigable all day long. At table 25 in a game between Anita Rackham (Mansonville QC) and Michael Krepakevich (Mississauga ON), she saw that one of them opened with LEADMAN for 72.

At table 21, John Robertson's (Cambridge ON) opened with CHILD for 22. He later extended it to MANCHILD* for 48, which is opponent, Arthur Carvalho (Dollard-des-Ormeaux QC), didn't challenge.

At table 8, George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) played TOTALED for 75 and then Libero Paolella (Toronto ON) played SATINET underneath that play, creating OS, TA, AT, LI, EN, and DE. In that game, one of them later played SKY down the triple, which hooked making SATINETS, for 36 points.

Only one more game to go today and then seven more tomorrow.

Bernard Gotlieb (Cote St. Luc QC) played Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) at Board 2 this round, and their annotated game is available for browsing.

John Chew writes: Thanks to stellar work from our rota of annotators, annotation coordinator Kate Doe, annotation entry operator Gary Sagara, results entry operator Ayami Imazu, and Internet Reporter Sherrie Saint John and her assistant Diane Brown, we are actually sitting here with nothing to do for the first time in the tournament. We have commentary, photos, statistics and two annotated games posted for each of the first ten rounds, and round eleven is only now slowly drawing to a close.