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Back to 2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 10

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 10

Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) had a big game this round against Stuart Levinsky (Thornhill ON), winning, 538-340. LAUWINe for 70 was Jeremy's opening play, and he later got down, INERTIAE through the N for 60, HERETICS from the H for 78, and CURLIEST to the T on the triple lane for 83. Stuart struggled the whole game, but finally hooked ENDITES atop ME, creating EMU for 69 points.

The streamroller that is Adam Logan (United Kingdom) is still in top operational order at table 1. He defeated Tony Leah (Ajax ON) this game, 498-325 (the annotators say the score was actually 324-498, but as always, the players' scores are the "official" ones used in the event). Adam's bingos were STEEPLY, hooking onto XENIA, making XENIAL, for 83, REALGARS through the first A for 60, IMPOSTER from the I for 86, and DENTAlIA for 70 (that should read DENTALIA). The annotators had lots to say about this game. They saw Tony struggling for more than half the game with a blank he could not get down. In one turn, his rack wqas BDDKUU? and two turns later it was DEEIOU? They liked Tony's opening play of XENIA for 40 and were amazed by Adams play of FORDOES to an ES on the board. Kate Boys said, "I annotated Adam yesterday and he had both blanks and I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. It is more fun to watch him play when he doesn't have the good tiles, see how he pull out wins despite the odds."

Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) defeated Joel Wapnick (Montréal QC) this game, 411-333. Craig tells me that he loves playing Joel and that he learns from Joel even in games he manages to win. Craig explains that early on his tiles were dreadful and he dumped UUIIFH. After that he picked well and got down JITTER/JO to the triple for 51 points. Joel kept in the game with well-placed, consonant-heavy plays like WAB, WEB, and GECKO. Craig got down KEtONES after he dumped 7 and later played ROSINED. Joel played DOpANTS. Late in the game, plagued with Is and Hs (which he hates and tries to dump and they keep coming back), Craig played PARISH, with the P two spots from a triple. Joel amazed him with a strong and nestled play of AMPUL to the triple, through that P, for 40 points. After this play, the score was 329-333 in Craig's favor, so Joel was never quite out of it. Late in the game, Joel tried GLADIATER* through the separated L and D. Craig called it a brilliant attempt that he challenged off. If Joel had held an O instead of thaat E, it would have been a different endgame result!

He did what he set out to do. David Boys (Dorval QC) started today saying, "I just need to beat Adam Logan (United Kingdom), Joel Wapnick (Montréal QC), and Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC)." And he did, defeating Dean this round, 378-348. Dave played EXPRESS for 82 and TEGULAR for 66, while Dean got down SErJEANT through the A for 82. Dean explains that Dave's second bingo sewed up the win. Of the remaining pool of endgame tiles, Dave got the S and Dean got a blank and he beat Dean to the opening.

Players have headed off to lunch, so I see finished boards everywhere. One between Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) and Shaun Goatcher (Mississauga ON). It appears that Evan won, 434-379. Reading their sheets, I see that Evan played SOLVATE for 71, IRONERS for 77, HORAH to the triple for 41, and DUIKeR to the triple as well for 45. I see Shaun's ENJOYERs for 88.

Salvatore Desiato (Toronto ON) looks to have defeated Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON), 391-343. On their board I spy VENTAIL, TOWELING, and LUNIEsT.

Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI) is going through an intense endgame discussion with Emanuel Chicoine (Montreal QC). The game under scrutiny was between Ron and John Robertson (Cambridge ON) and Ron lost, 416-423. I wanted a photo of it, but Ron was up to his elbows in tiles moved every which way doing the "what if I'd done this move instead of that move" kind of talk, so I moved on.

We are off to lunch and the air is still light and excited. Tension isn't cloaking everything in sight! As I type these notes, Steve Ozorio (Mississauga ON) is being filmed by a journalist. They are talking about Steve's best and worst plays. Steve is incredibly casual, almost laying back in his chair, relaxing, giving his all in an articulate and relaxed fashion.

One other note, top Canadian SCRABBLE^® players read a lot of newspapers. Every time I look up, someone is reading a newspaper! Let's call them informed.

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