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2005 National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 4

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Go to: Anagrams Championship, Before the Tournament, 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, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, Final Round 4, Final Round 5.

Round 4

Our fourth game in a row and the players are seeking to finish these games quickly to make for a longer lunch break. Known to play quickly, I catch Gail Wolford (Portland, OR) heading to lunch before many other round 4 games have begun!

Division 2's Robert Crowe (Fort Wayne, IN) shows me his 421-288 winning board versus Mason Shambach (Battle Creek, MI). Mason got down REALIST for 69 and Bob fit in NASAlITY (should read NASALITY) to the Y for 85 along the bottom triple line.

Nearby, Laura Scheimberg (Littleton, CO) defeated Carl Madden (Brantford ON), 419-384, in another division 2 matchup. Neither player is at the board, but by glancing over Laura's scoresheet, I see that Carl played mORaINE for 70 and ISOMETER for 62 while Laura found INANEST for 76 and ZOUAVE to the triple.

Rich Baker (Eureka, CA), happy for his shot at the division 1 top seed, loses to Nigel Richards (New Zealand) this round, 389-448. REVERSaL for 86 was the games' first bingo, played halfway through by Rich. He also got down RESUPINE for 74, but Nigel played SWANHERD for 88 and the late-game QUIRE for 78.

As far away from board 1 in division 1 as I can get, I catch division 6's John Robertson make an adjudication in division 6. Anna Rawls (Christoval, TX) and Sandy Parry (Pacifica, CA) were seeking clarification on when they could neutralize the clock. John explained that clarifying the game score with the clock paused, as the players had been doing, was within the rules and the right way to resolve game score discrepancies.

Looking poised for some fun, I spot a smiling group of friends on their way out for lunch. Bennett Jacobstein (Milpitas, CA), Isaias Sarmiento (Boston, MA), Stephanie Sugano (Roseville, CA), and Joseph Oele (Roseville, CA) are about to take Reno by storm or at least until 2:45 when round 5 is scheduled to begin. Joseph's last name is jokingly referred to as "the phoney vowel dump."

Division 4's Jeanne Freebody (Santa Cruz, CA) bingos out to win her game, 357-329, versus Angelina Scroggins (Minneapolis, MN). In the excitement, I think I hear that the play was rELeASE/BOUTS/Ae for 70.

At a nearby table, Jeremy Simon (Aspen, CO) wins a squeaker against Stephanie Steele (Saint Paul, MN), 361-358. Stephanie opened the game with JuMPS for 46 and got down AIRLINES for 66. Jeremy played RECUSInG through the S for 61 and TRAILInG through the N for 65.

Rusty Peltz (San Diego, CA) and Jim Geary (Phoenix, AZ) are in an endgame recount. I notice that Rusty was down to 44 seconds on his clock and Jim had a mere 6 seconds left. From what I can glean, it appears to be a one-point win for Jim, but I'm told later that the recount changed the result to a one-point win for Rusty!

Kevin Fraley (Madera, CA) is smiling. He's just had a 375-368 win against the reigning National SCRABBLE^® Champion, Trey Wright (Van Nuys, CA). I see Trey's lovely CERULeAN and EBONISED and Kevin's UNRaTED and FREEZE to the E for 54 points.

Among the game's younger players, division 1's good buddies, Kenji Matsumoto (Aiea, HI) and Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA) squared off this round. It was Jason's turn to win, 455-356. While they discuss the "what ifs" of 7 turns ago, I try to get a sense of the game. I see Kenji's AtELIER and ENLIVEN and Jason's POURERS. Jason is moderately embarrassed that he played the latter word. I see two interesting nonbingo plays: IREFUL for a mere 13 points (and it takes a D front hook I'm told) and KANJI played from the KA by Jason. I make a KANJI on Kenji's board comment, but they are back onto a discussion that only 1% of the room could parse. They go to lunch, if they ever leave that board, with 3-1 records so far.

Team Thailand is doing well. Current Thai and World SCRABBLE^® Champion, Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand), is 4-0. I glance over his scorecard, where his lowest game score so far is a 411, and see his victims: Paul Sidorsky (Calgary AB), Steve Oliger (Holtwood, PA), Sam Kantimathi (El Dorado Hills, CA), and Tom Singleton (Laguna Hills, CA). His buddy, Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand), is 3-1. Win Inthara (Orlando, FL) nutshells the division 2 players' performance by telling me all three of them are 2-2 so far. Several Thai players are gathered around one of the last games in the room to finish, the 443-391 win for Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand) versus Chris Lennon (Lake Oswego, OR). QUESTING was a 128-point double-double and ARGUERS for 70 were Pakorn's better plays. Chris got down VENTAIl for 78 (VENTAIL, if the lowercase L is confusing).