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Back to 2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 1

Congratulations to the first-ever two-time Canadian Champion, Adam Logan!

Go to: Registration, 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, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, Final Round 4, After the Finals.

Round 1

Fifty players halves down to only twenty five games and thus the room is quiet and orderly and neat; a director's dream! Two players and their annotators sit at the only one-game table in the room on the elevated stage at the end of the room opposite the committee tables where the event workers sit. In between these two stations are three rows of 8-foot tables, 4 tables deep. Each table is covered in a black tablecloth (chosen to keep the blinding glare of white tablecloths from distorting event photos. On top of these tablecloths are two new deluxe games and wooden boxes full of challenge slips, blank designation slips, win/loss stickers, etc.

John Chew ordered special event Protiles from Bob Schoenman in the color John says is "closest to the Toronto Maple Leaf's team colours." They have gone over well. In years past, the event Protiles have been red with white letters and white with red letters and now the event branches out! These tiles will not be confused with any other blue tiles, however, as the blanks retain the distinctive Maple Leaf emblem.

The first game to wrap up this event was between Adam Logan (United Kingdom) and Lynda Wise (Toronto ON). Known for playing fast on occasion, this swiftness came as no surprise, and Adam, our top-seeded player starts this event with a win.

David Boys (Dorval QC) is happy. Though he is the last CNSC winner, he wasn't obligated to start at the top table, that honor reserved for the event's top-rated player. He jokingly said, "I'll be there soon enough if I play well, and then the pressure can begin."

Albert Hahn (Calgary AB) had a good game vs. David Stokoe (Windsor ON) this round, winning, 385-346. I see Albert's GoLDEYE play on the board as the tiles are quickly swept up.

Chuck Abbate (Quispamsis NB) lost a game by a lot and it hurt, I could tell. Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) had a big win, 494-251. I see scribbled on the bottom of Chuck's scoresheet on Dean's side of the paper: ?SJSQSXS?, which I take to mean that Dean had a bit more than his share of the "goodies" this round. I see Dean's plays of INsURERS for 68, NOMADES for 86, and BEStING for 83. I also see one of my favorite non-bingos: SQUEG.

A game in progress between Linda Espallardo (Cote Saint-Luc QC) and Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI). Linda holds the natural DEVIATE on her final rack. The score is 405-392, Linda's lead and though she has more than 5 minutes left on her clock, Ron is down to 1:29 on his. He is hunched over, alternating in biting his lip and his finger. I later see on the wallchart that Linda won that game by 5 points. I guess she didn't get the bingo down, or the score would have been a bit more disparate.

A relative new player on the SCRABBLE^® scene, Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON) faced off against Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) this round and lost, 281-452. Evan points out before I even look at the board that "yes, yes, yes, I did let a phoney get by, but I had a bingo on my rack at the time... " I then see Jason's CARBONED* for 64. Jason admits that he lost the game making a silly mistake. Evan had set up the bottom triple lane by playing HIE one short of the bottom lane. Knowing the D hook, Jason tried DIAPAR*/HIED, which Evan challenged off in short order. To add insult to injury, Evan then layed down SHOUTEd/HIES for 96 points. Evan also got down TIArAED for 69 and it was lights out for Jason.

Shannon Burns (Airdrie AB) has three lovely bingos that led to his defeat of Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON), 468-300. I see Shannon's GERMIEST through the R for 72, mAIOLICA through the O for 61, and UNFREES for 89. Not knowing it and not liking it much either, Jim lost a challenge on this third bingo of Shannon's. Jim did manage to get down hERNIAE for 69.

David Stokoe (Windsor ON) played the "I" guy to George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) this round, losing 301-394. While George got down lovelies like VESPERa, AGITATES, and SiZABLE, David played MEINIE, TOILE, and ADIEU.

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