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2005 National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 25

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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 25

Kristen Chew annotated table 1 in division 1 again this game as she has done most of the tournament. She was very surprised to see Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand) make two rare mistakes this round, and back-to-back to boot. She says, "When he played ILLUVIAN* he could have been thinking of DILUVIAN or ILLUVIUM. John Luebkemann (Pineville, NC) challenged almost instantly, but Panupol thought something was there, so he next tried ILLUVION*. He confused it with DILUVION, and it again came off almost instantly. I think Panupol couldn't believe it. He was so sure of his plays." After four plays each, the score was 118-28 in John's favor. Opting to not search for another bingo, on his next turn, Panupol played ILLUVIA for 20 and it stayed. Some of John's better plays: PRAYING for 80, ENTICED for 85, and the non-bingo QUAKES for 56. This game is worth checking out in the annotated games section of the web site.

A pretty 4-bingo game at division 4's table 13 between Fran Galt (Saint Paul, MN) and Gerry Smith (North Lauderdale, FL). Fran got down GALOPED for 78 and OUTRUnS for 70. Gerry played ETOILES for 64 and TRYSTING through the second T for 80, but it wasn't enough and she lost, 401-465.

At table 57 in division 3, Steve Hartsman (Brown Deer, WI) had a big game against Mary A Lyons (Coatesville, PA), 466-353. He played the 96-point double-double KAOLIANG through the A. Mary Alice played JEST along the triple, hooking to create BUTTONERS for 66. Steve didn't much care for the latter and challenged the play. She also played QuASI for 77 and Steve played MODELER for 95 and ZEUGMA for 19 to block the last bingo lane. His last rack was AELRST? but he board was cramped and unwelcoming. So, what did he do? He played a phoney! TRELLS* for 31, and it stayed!

Ember Nelson (Buffalo, NY) brings me over to her division 3 table 55 board. She opened the game with FLOATER and also played PIGlIKE, but her favorite play was PENULTIMA from the PE for a 90-point double-double. Ann Raymond (West Chester, PA) ended up losing that game, 290-455, but she did make a good play of BEANO on the top triple lane, hooking BORT to make ABORT for 31 points.

Division 6's Charlotte Bremond (Oakland, CA) misread the schedule and thought today was a half-day of play and booked her flight home, so she needs to leave us after this round of playl. Her division assistant director, Lisa Kessler, was overcome when she head that Charlotte ran the School SCRABBLE^® program that produced players like Chris Ofstad (Antioch, CA). Charlotte has processed 800 students through her program so far. She really is part of the reason the School SCRABBLE^® program has reached such a place of success.

A side note to say that we all miss you, Tori Ofstad! We look forward to seeing you at the next NSC!

Table 1 in division 5 was really fun for Nat Gardenswartz (Newton, MA) and not so fun for Anna Miransky (Toronto ON). Nat played a fun 92-point play of DEVOURERS from the DE! That is a 9-letter word in division 5! Nat also got down PrOBATED for 62, which led him to his 407-315 win. Anna did manage to stick Nat with the Q!

Another Q-stick at division 3's table 1, but it was even worse than that. Chris Williams (Vancouver BC) played REALISt for 59 and Diana played pOTTIES for 59 and SATIATED through the second T for 63. On top of the unplayable Q, poor Chris went over on his clock by nearly 4 minutes, losing 40 points off his score. It ended up a 430-310 win for Diana.

John OLaughlin (Hartland, WI) had a good game against Kevin Fraley (Madera, CA) this round, winning 490-402. John played CAROLING, AGNATES, and ArCHIVES while Kevin got down PROMOTED through the E. A huge crowd gathered to hear their engame talk.

The play of the tournament, though, was jointly created at table 14 in division 2 between Andrew Golding (Verdun QC) and former NSC champ Rita Norr (Danbury, CT). It started out very safe, a play of mATERIAL for 58 by Rita. But then it grew. Andrew decided to sandwich her play to make REmATERIALIZE for 93 points. But this still wasn't enough, so a few plays later, Rita put down AIDE, creating REmATERIALIZED for 30, and the longest word I've ever seen on a SCRABBLE^® board: 14 letters long! Other plays were Rita's LEGATOR for 70 and UNTIDIER for 60. Andrew got down JOKEY for 59, QUeYS for 54, and SCHAV for 50. Oh, and he got the win, 446-360.

Sam Kantimathi (El Dorado Hills, CA) had a big win this round against Rich Baker (Eureka, CA), 476-271. Sam found eNVIRoN for 82, which drew a challenge from Rich. On his next play, down the triple, Sam played ADJUST, creating KA/eNVIRoNS for 81 points. He also got down BONITO S for 70. Rich played MAZER for 67.