2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Photos: Round 18

Adam Logan (United Kingdom) sneaks a catnap behind the bar near the director tables. We lost a player today due to a family illness. This worked out nicely for the Gibsonized Adam who was just as happy to spend the 50 minutes resting up for the finals.

John Dungey (Mitchell ON) and Linda Espallardo (Cote Saint-Luc QC), a featured game by the news.

Table 1 and the tension could be cut with a knife. Tony Leah (Ajax ON) vs. Shaun Goatcher (Mississauga ON). The winner of this game will likely play Adam Logan (United Kingdom) in the finals.

Table 2's David Boys (Dorval QC), annotated by Gregg Foster, and Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON), annotated by Pat Larash.

Arthur Carvalho (Dollard-des-Ormeaux QC) demonstrates his insouciant tile placement. It is not uncommon to see letters on his rack that are upside-down, sideways, and even backwards!

Arthur Carvalho (Dollard-des-Ormeaux QC) catches me looking and starts turning his tiles rightside up in a furious fashion.

Su Edwards acts as Sabbath proxy to Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) in all his games today. In this round, Zev plays Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON).

I walk by a game between Sinna Vijayakumar (Mississauga ON) and John Robertson (Cambridge ON). As if doing something official, John grabbed a piece of paper from the center wooden holder and started writing donw on it furiously. Naturally curious, I assumed it was a challenge or a blank slip and peered toward their game. The note, as it turns out, was for me!! John pushed it out toward the side of the board and said softly while his clock was running, "if you want to know why, look at my scorecard." Looks like a bad run of luck for ol' John!

Adam Logan (United Kingdom) makes the papers in his bear skin rug pose! Go Adam!

Table 4 for the final round, Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) vs. George MacAulay (Saskatoon SK) and Glenn Mosher (Toronto ON) vs. Andrew Golding (Verdun QC).

Table 3's Maxim Panitch (Toronto ON) vs. Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC).

Table 2's Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI) vs. Joel Wapnick (Montréal QC) (who is counting tiles) and David Boys (Dorval QC) vs. Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON).

Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) vs. Fern Lindzon (Toronto ON). See commentary.

David Boys (Dorval QC) vs. Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON). See commentary.

Venue coordinator, Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON), and Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) watch game 1's online annotation closely.

Andrew Golding (Verdun QC) vs. Glenn Mosher (Toronto ON).

Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON), Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON), and Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI).

Adam Logan (United Kingdom) sits down with the member of the press for another interview.

Adam Logan (United Kingdom) explains the finer points of game knowledge.

A group gathers around the last game to finish, board 1's Tony Leah (Ajax ON) vs. Shaun Goatcher (Mississauga ON). Turns out that after th recount, it is Tony's win and he'll be facing off against Adam Logan (United Kingdom) in the finals.