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2005 National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 13

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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 13

Playing at table 1 in division 1 this round was Carol Kaplan (San Diego, CA). She faced off against Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand). It was a very close game with Panupol pulling out a 381-372 win. I See Panupol's DIALLER and ANKLINg, but was catches my eye is his VOMITO. Earlier today he played VOMICA and I teased him about his focus on forms of VOMIT. Carol played CREASEd in their game.

Lisa Kessler slipped me a note about division 6: "Sharon Valorose (Williamsburg, VA) had miscounted by 10 points; and had written down that she had lost by 6 points. Her opponent, Ricky Sirois (Columbia, MO) informed her that she had won the game, and showed her where her error was. Sharon asked whether there is an 'honest players' award' because it should to to him!"

Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) tries to hide when I approach her completed board 1 in division 2. She lost badly to Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX) this round, 335-460, and bemoans that I have to pick this game to highlight. I see her play of ERINGOEs through the second E and Mike's INSCAPED. The board starts to disappear, so I move on to the next game at board 2.

Phil Polsky (New York, NY) lost this one to Kevin Rickhoff (Saugus, CA), 317-411. He is about as happy as Dielle was to see me. Kevin placed down VOUCHING and then decided on a later turn to front hook, creating AVOUCHING. The problem was that he put down GLADED*, which was a phoney not caught by Phil. Despite losing, Phil did get down AIRTIMe.

Top table honors in division 1 fell to Joe Edley (Coram, NY) and Nathan Benedict (Tucson, AZ). Joe pulled off a 344-321 win. They were deep into an endgame discussion, so I kept on moving.

Clubmates and friends, Ben Greenwood (Lexington, MA) and Diana Spiller (Ashby, MA) faced off this round in division 3. It was Diana's turn to win, 457-347. Ben played the nicely nestled INOSITE/IT/NE/OD for 77, but Diana got down three bingos: UnMELTED from the U for 83, SQUIRED for 87, and SLANTED for 75.