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Back to 2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 12

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 12

The price we pay for long notes in one round is hardly any in the next because I'm sitting and typing! That said, some good stuff happened this round. I'm at the finished game by table 1 when David Boys (Dorval QC) stops by to ask who won. His wife, Kate, said "Adam squeaked out a 9-point win," and thus I learn what transpired in the Adam Logan (United Kingdom) vs. George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) game. Adam got down GOOBERs through the first O for 67 and George played DEVELiNG for 74 and UNRIMED, front-hooking ARIA to create MARIA for 71. The annotators agree that this was a game of patience and concentration. Adam played his first 11 turns in less than 10 minutes and he ended the game with 3:38 on his clock. Kate Boys admitted she would not have had the patience for what Adam manifested with his final rack. Holding the last two Ss, he figured out how to exploit the play CEE one short of the bottom middle triple and VASES/CEES coming perpendicular beneath. Check this game out in its annotated version if/when it is up on the site!

Joel Wapnick (Montréal QC) tells me he has played 10 games at table 2, most in the very same seat, with only a break to play one at table 1. For the next round, I see him moving his stuff to table 3. Perhaps the change of scenery, albeit small, might be good for him! I notice that Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) defeated Joel Wapnick (Montréal QC) in this round, 377-356. The board is quiet and I see only two interesting plays, Evan's 70-point INOSITE and the pretty LANDsLIP from the first L to the triple for 80 by Joel.

At table 3, Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) and Tony Leah (Ajax ON) finish endgame paperwork while Ayami Imazu stands by patiently waiting for their result slip. She never says a word, just stands and waits. The impatience in me burbles on on her behalf and I mention to the players that she was letting them know that it was TIME to hand in their result slip. They complied quickly. Dean won this one, 403-360. The pair hardly had time to decompress when George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) looked at Dean's opening, 72-point play to ask if it was good. Sure enough, EPISTLeD* is NOT good. A phoney is a phoney is a phoney and they are part of the game, but I could tell this got to Tony and he sorta mumbled something about wishing he'd held longer on that play when it was first put down. In this close game, Tony got down DELATOR for 78.

Mad Palazzo, too efficient for her own good, has everything done so she is playing SCRABBLE^® at the cramped director's table with Gary Sagara. Ayami, Gary's wife, keeps score for them both. By the look of her sheet, Mad won game 1, 403-332, but Gary is leading this one, 169-86. Go Gary!

At this point, the event is running like clockwork. John Chew tells me that in this round we launched live broadcast of Table 1 games, posted directly under the control of the annotators present, using software newly developed for this event. John thinks it's exciting.

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