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Back to 2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 14

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 14

Now playing at table 2, not for the first time he assures me, Adam Logan (United Kingdom) had a an absolute monster of a win against Shannon Burns (Airdrie AB), 575-255. Shannon stood and smiled as Adam told me about the game's beginning, which included four bingos in Adam's first 5 plays: DECUrVE for 82, WEANLING through the second N for 67, JOINT for 30, PIEBaLD/DECURVED for 86, and FEATLIER for 86. Shannon points out that his best play of the game was his first, EXOGEN from the E for 44. The N in this play permitted a bingo, but I digress. At one point, Shannon cleverly managed to block both spots where Adam could have played the word SUNDAES. I asked Shannon if he was upset at the loss and he assured me he was not because Adam had beat his buddy, Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC), by even more! After laughing it off, Adam wandered away and Shannon said, "I would like to say I would have seen what he saw, but what amazed me was his speed." Adam is known to play faster than the average bird.

So, if you ever want to see something funny, watch John Chew deal with three women who need him at exactly the same moment, his wife Kristen Chew, his co-director Mad Palazzo, and his internet cohort, me. At one point I think I heard him tell us to take a number. Kristen, of course, defaults to number 1.

I see Salvatore Desiato (Toronto ON) and Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) in a tense endgame. Sal is holding, AEOLRST and momentarily puts down RESOLATE*, but think better of it.

I catch a quick glance at a completed board between Ray Francis (Pickering ON) and Libero Paolella (Toronto ON). Ray's win, 492-386. Looking over the paperwork, I see Ray's AVENGES for 82 and MINTERS for 76. Libero played SEcLUDED from the S for 80.

At table 3, I overhear Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) say, "It was all Timothy Anglin (Scarborough ON)." And so, the 459-362 result makes more sense. I see two of Tim's bingos: TEETHES for 86 and SANDALs for 68.

Tony Leah (Ajax ON) defeated Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON), 471-431 this round. It started off as a slugfest with Tony exchanging tiles and Evan slapping down bOOSTED for 68. Tony responded with MINUTEST through the S for 63 and then Evan played SHEAVING through the N for 82. Bingo, bango, bongo done, the game settled down and it was a while later until Tony caught on fire again and put down three more bingos: HARRIES for 66, TERTIALS through the R for 64, and RECLINES through the first E for 72. Evan managed a nice 48-point X on the triple play, but Tony stuck him with the Q.

I've been circling a Maxim Panitch (Toronto ON) vs. Glenn Mosher (Toronto ON) game for quite some time now. At first, it appeared to be a deep in thought moment and then I realized it was a recount. A few minutes later, Max was gone and Glenn was still staring at the board, transfixed. I tentatively asked how it went and he told me he'd lost , 334-335. It was an endgame mistake on his part, explained Glenn. He had his "out in two" situation mapped out, but he didn't specify to his brain which pay was to have happened first. Insteaf of putting down HA and then FONTS and out, he played FONTS first, which opened the triple lane and gave Max the opportunity to nestle UNLOAD above and alongside FONTS for a bunch of points. Had HA gone down first, "none of this would have happened." I see two bingos on the board, TINnIEST from the T for 66 by Max and Glenn's PURITIES through the first I for 63.

I heard a thump and suddenly David Boys (Dorval QC) and Emanuel Chicoine (Montreal QC) were about 6 inches behind me at the lookup machine. Instead of taking the stairs down, the two had jumped off the stage to the floor below. They looked up LORDLESS and Emanuel, who played the word had his fingers crossed as Dave typed the word in and he actually pumped his fist in joy after it was ruled acceptable. Dave was less than psyched about the overt enthusiasm, but I figured it was better than cheering if an oppoent's play is ruled unacceptable (that seems plain unkind). Not only did they not take the stairs down, they didn't take them back up either, opting to show great flexibility by stepping upto the stage and pulling themselves up. All those pullups at the gym *do* come in handy! This play ended up deciding their game, which went to Emanuel, 476-424. Dave played OUTYElL for 79 and MOTIVATED for 78. In addition his his 60 point play mentioned above, Emanuel played TAWNIER for 78 and AWEATHER through the W for 78.

To say that John Chew is happy would be an understatment. He is over the moon that the annotating program and system is going so well. He slumped back in his chair and said, "hey, I don't need to go over and breathe down their necks to see how they are doing! I can look here at the monitor and it tells me immediately!" Well done to both John and the adaptable team of annotators!

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