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2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 16

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 16

Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) is counting tiles left in the bag very carefully, one by one, with the bag well over his head. I overheard some of the catering staff joking about how exagerated is the room's tile drawing technique. I contend it is better to exaggerate one's attempts at not cheating than it is to shade one's behavior in the opposite direction.

Fern Lindzon (Toronto ON) lost a tough one to Sinna Vijayakumar (Mississauga ON) this round, 493-380. The game was actually closer throughout than the score indicates. Vijay opened with MAX, and Fern, ready to dump, was happy to get the chance to dump FIEF/MAXI on the board for a bunch of points. Later, after playing VOUCH, she completely forgot the A front hook and held what she thought was an unplayable bingo. Just as she was about to play off a few tiles, her memory kicked in and she put down RETINAL/AVOUCH. Later in the game, she got down tHIRLED, which bought her to within a few points of Vijay and required her to empty the bag of the last seven tiles, but she could not overcome his three bingos: DINOSAUr, ERASERS, and his outbingo DETRAIN. This last play left her with AEIUCPY and a bunch of points for his spread.

Joel Wapnick (Montréal QC) won big this round against Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON), 535-283. Jim opened strongly with FIQUES, but it was pretty much downhill from then. Joel got down WAsTERIE, CRAZIEsT, and the fun outbingo TOLUENES to the S. Joel laughs and points out the play VEGGIES on their board. Earlier in the tournament, he tried VEGGY*, which was a great rack cleaner but a bad word that got challenged off. Even the "greats" forget sometimes! How refreshing! So, he was vindicated by making sure the word was played correctly at the event, if not in the same game.

David Boys (Dorval QC) defeats Maxim Panitch (Toronto ON) this round at table 2, 431-354. I see Dave's YCLEPED and gREASIER and Max's VENISONs.

At table 1, I see a smiling, but clearly disappointed Timothy Anglin (Scarborough ON) push away from the table. He was just defeated by Adam Logan (United Kingdom), 320-392. The annotators say it was a game or difficult rack management that Adam managed just a bit better than Tim. They both got down a late game bingo each: Tim's ATONIEs for 72 and Adam's tRAMPLER to the R for 92. In a move that will be analyzed by better thinkers at a later point, Tim held EIUUBGQ at about the games 3/4 point and he traded 7 tiles.

Lisa Kessler (Toronto ON) won a game with the play HUBRIS and she just had to tell me all about it! In the later racks of a game against Danny Panganiban (Calgary AB), the players were just 5 points apart. Lisa knew she had the last S and the triple lane was open. She found HUBRIS through a U on the board down to the triple for 32 points. She confesses that this word describes how she has been feeling about her placement in the tournament so far, and to make it even better, Danny challenged. Once she heard him say the word challenge, she knew she had the game won, and it was so, 404-370.

I see a phoney from about a mile away on a game played between Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) and David Stokoe (Windsor ON), so as soon as it is completed, I run over to hear all about the game. Craig admits that he played the bad word, BONELIKE* from the B on the triple for 92. He figures he is known for not playing phonies, so he might get away with it and he was right! Other bingos were Craig's OUtLAIN for 68, BLOODIER through the E for 80, and GERENTS for 64. Craig let DIVESTER* played by David for 78 go because he wasn't sure it was bad and it let him play his own bingo elsewhere. Toward the game's end, Craig got to play JERBOA for 58 down the triple lane. And with 20 points off David's rack, Craig's score continued to go upwards.

Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) was still sitting at the board in a game he lost to Tony Leah (Ajax ON), 392-440. Dean opened with POSTULES* for 61, which went unchallenged. Tony got down TURNABLE for 64 and then back to back bingos with TERTIALS to the S for 68 and NATURaL for 61. Later on, Dean got down ANERGIA for 75 and the scores were 359-344 in Tony's favor. It was a "who gets the blank first" will win game; not for bingoing, but for rack flexibility and the ability to just play out which happened to be Tony's to enjoy this game.

A heartbreaker of a game between Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) and Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI). Evan won, 418-299. Evan opened with BAIlEYS (BAILEYS) for 80 and Ron tried TENDINGS* through the I. Evan held him for a total of 5 full minutes thinking over the play. There were two things wrong with it. One, it blocked Evan's own bingo and two, Evan had never seen it before, so he decided, finally, to challenge and off the board it came. After Evan got down PROBITS for 74, Ron got desperate and tried TWINNESS* to the last S on the triple lane. Evan lost no time in challenging that play off. Ron eventually did get down STOmODEA through the O for 58, but it was too little too late.

Salvatore Desiato (Toronto ON) is most proud of his 72-point non-bingo play of QUANGO this round. He had a good game against Fran Silver (Cote Saint-Luc QC), 456-331. He got down AcTUAtED from the A for 74 and DILUTION from the D for 80. Fern managed a fun JO/OX on the triple combo for 53 points, but it just wasn't her game to win.

John Chew points out that we are using the same pairing system as the one used in New Orleans last year at the NSC. The players seem happy with the arrangement so far!

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