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Back to 2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 11

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 11

And so, sometimes color is best told after the fact. And in this vein, I mention a game Lisa Kessler (Toronto ON) played in round 9 against John Dungey (Mitchell ON). She played three tiles--ACF--for a score of 70 points. Early in the game, they word REMATED is played, one short of the triple. Later Lisa played BRAINIEr through the R. A bit later, the word TAX/EX was played. The board looked like this:

B REMATED TAX I N I E r Near the end of the game, Lisa played FACT to the T, creating, AB and CREMATED for 70 points! Great play! Great find!

Also in round 9 (I find out about so many things after the fact, as as I type I have no idea who is in first place!), we had our first tie of the championship. A score of 363 by both Lou Cornelis (Ottawa ON) and Lynda Wise (Toronto ON).

A lot happened this round, the round when I was finally caught up enough to catch some games in progress, my favorite way to experience the game! At one point, Glenn Mosher (Toronto ON) was leaning over a board, heads in his hand, seeming to stare at the word AGONIES on the board in front of him. Personification?

Then I happen across a romping good game going on between Libero Paolella (Toronto ON) and Andrew Golding (Verdun QC). The bingos are just a-flying across the board and the energy is high (considering how restrained, polite, and laid back these players are always). I decide to come back later and am not disappointed to find the game development more clearly explained. That will come later.

The next in-progress game is between Albert Hahn (Calgary AB) and Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON). As a walk by, Albert plays GALORES for 62. Holding EUCLLRT?, Zev takes his time and finds TELLURiC through the R. I move on by, out of fear of stymying their play. I see Zev's play of BuQSHA and the not often seen words ILIAD and NAEVI. Later I learn that Albert pulled out the win, 394-361. Since I was there last, I noted Alberts double-double, 94-point play ESCOTING.

Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON) with hair dyed red for the ocassion, calls me over to his just completed game against Jeffrey Parsons (Logy Bay NL). IT is a 585-279 win for Chris, gulp! In near perfect silence, he points out his plays: opening play of cICOREE for 72, second play of CAROtIN for 93, and later on RAINWEAR for 65, DISTINcT for 70, XI for 52, JABS for 54, FAT for 30, and an outplay of HAVER for 36. Jeff got down two good plays of his own: MOTIVE to the triple for 40 and SWEEP which hooked to make CAROLTINS for 35. A turn or two before, Jeff tried playing SEWED, which created CAROTINE*, which Chris knew to be phoney and challenged off. I look up toward the stage to check in on board 1's progress when Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) flashes me his biggest grin of all. Suddenly I remember Rebecca Soble telling him "He isn't invincible, just give it your best shot!" just prior to that game starting. And sure enough, he wasn't invincible this round and Evan defeated Adam Logan (United Kingdom), 416-359. Evan opened with IBEX for 26 and Adam responded with ESTRANGE to the triple from the first E for 80 and he later got down UNGENTlE from the first N for 72, but then Evan moved into action and played RETOOLED for 74 and REOBtAIN to the N for 86.

Sinna Vijayakumar (Mississauga ON) had a big game this round against Fern Lindzon (Toronto ON), winning with a 486-401. Smiling broadly, Vijay explained that Fern traded tiles on her first turn and then he played LEVELeR for 76. She immediately replied with WATTAGE for 77. He then played MORAINE for 66. That is three bingos in a row, a bingo-bango-bongo. Later on, Vijay played DECOUPLE for 80 and Fern replied with NIDGETS for 85 to the triple. He finally sewed up the win by playing AERIEST from the A for 61. I also think his play of MENINX from the ME for 30 is a nifty find!

At the same table, Jim Carlton (London ON) defeated Linda Espallardo (Cote Saint-Luc QC), 387-343. Jim got down MiLEAGES from the M for 72 and Linda played DEMEANs for 67, hanging the D in the triple lane one spot below the magic red triple letter square. After this play Jim held the Q and 6 vowels and was about to trade tiles, when this D caught his eye. Instead, he slapped down QAID to the triple for 42 points!

A 421-400 game just wrapped up with Timothy Anglin (Scarborough ON) still shaking his head over his defeat of Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON). Tim pointed out that he played OBI at one point and Jeremy responded immediately with MINORCA, creating OBIA. And later in the game, Tim played cOESITE and Jeremy reponded immediately with SMOOcHER. Jeremy mentions that at one time he was looking to play the word HORMONE. Tim replied with, "Well, you go my hormones going, I tell ya!" I think the game tension got the better of Tim that time!

I get called back to the Andrew Golding (Verdun QC) vs. Libero Paolella (Toronto ON) dance where Andrwe has pulled out a win, 547-455. Andrew got down mOULDING through the O for 72, NOTARIES for 78, and REMAINS for 78. Libero played WEAKlIER for 69, DECREASe for 112, and RENoTIFY for 86. But the play of the game was the development, over time, of one word. Midway through the game, Andrew played ZOEAE for 55, slotting the Z into the triple lane, to which Libero responded by playing ZOIC for 45. A turn or two later, Libero played AWN, creating AZOIC. Holding an MT at that point, Andrew fished for an E and got it immediately. Next turn he slammed down METAZOIC to the triple for 63 points! A really great game all the way around!

I'm still not sure exactly what all happened, but Emanuel Chicoine (Montreal QC) defeated Glenn Dunlop (Brantford ON) this game, 405-283. I walked by earlier and saw Evan holding AEOULSV. I thought to myself, "yuck!" Well, wonderman manged to find a bingo through an L, can you find it?* On their board, I see WEAKLiNG, FUBSiEST, and GLYCANS.

Lisa Kessler (Toronto ON) played her good buddy Stuart Levinsky (Thornhill ON) this round, beating him by a handful of points, 417-406. Last I saw, Stuart was walking around, clearing his mind for the next round.

A coterie of annotators is calling board 1 home. It turns out that the computers work best with a helper. So John Stardom is working on paper while Kristen Chew types into a lime green Mac laptop on one side of the table and Kate Boys works on paper with Rebecca Soble on her sleek silver Mac laptop. So far, all is working well!

Kristen Chew whispers into my ear, "David Boys (Dorval QC) lost, Adam Logan (United Kingdom) lost, and they are all bunched up now! Adam is still in first place with his killer spread."

*Emanuel played ALVEOUS.

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