Go to: Commentary Games Players Photos Standings Press Merchandise

Back to 2005 National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 23

[ ]

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 23

Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand) didn't much care for sitting in second place to Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) and beat him this round. Check out their annotated game!

Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) practically beat the tar out of Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON) this round, 528-347. I see Brian's PIPELINE from the P and WINDROW, which the onlooking Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) liked, too. Jim got down ELEVATE, but was pretty much relegated to keeping score that game.

Jessie Jones (Yuma, AZ) defeated Diana Spiller (Ashby, MA) this round, 388-336, knocking her down to 6th place and nudging himself up to 2nd place. Eric Kinderman (Freehold, NJ)] had his way with Jeff Martin (Albuquerque, NM), 414-293, and is one game ahead of the pack now at 18-5.

A "duh" moment turned into an "aha" moment for Nat Gardenswartz (Newton, MA) at table 1 in division 5. He tried GOARS* and his opponent, Michael David (Portage, WI) called it off. The extra time to study the rack afforded Nat the chance to see that he had SARONGS, which he played the next turn for 80. He won that game, 332-281.

Once again, Helen Pipi (Las Vegas, NV), as one of the event's oldest players, is garnering more than her share of media interest. This round her every nuanced move was being recorded as she blithely ignored the camera and giant microphone. Her opponent, Robert Nellis (Glenview, IL), wasn't as accustomed to the attention but braved it well!

I'm reminded as I walk around, how different tournament SCRABBLE^® is from the days when I first began playing. The biggest change is technology and the smallifacaton (yes, I made that word up) of everything. At least half of the players whip out some sort of PDA at the end of every game to check out their plays or missed opportunities. The room itself is a quiet dream to be in as the WordJudge machines have completely replaced the manically running word judges and the loud shouts of "challenge" heard everywhere. I'd say we are certainly a larger group, but also a more well-mannered one, too. I think we look fabulous, actually.