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2005 National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 28

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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 28

It was time for Jim Geary (Phoenix, AZ) to get his bye in division 1. Instead of kicking back, he offered his services to me, asking what he could do. So, I gave him a notebook and told him to quietly keep his eye on the top tables minus tables 1 and 2 in division 1. What follows are his insights with a few of mine at the very end.

(Jim Geary (Phoenix, AZ) guest reporting) Board 5: Lester opens with GUIPURE for 74; Komol repies UNMINgLE for 80. Lester answers the call with MUFTI.

Sam Kantimathi (El Dorado Hills, CA) is looking dashing in a burgundy sam-shirt and mauve socks.

Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) opens with XU for 18. Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA) briefly considers fishing for the UH gridlock, but instead plays GEnOISE 9c 73.

With an opening rack of EIIIST?, Lloyd Mills (Georgetown ON) finds IlEITIS (should read ILEITIS) for 64.

Playing against Nigel Richards (New Zealand), Jerry Lerman (Foster City, CA) takes a rack of AEILOV?, and lays down OVArIOLE off the O on the star for 86. Nigel Richards (New Zealand), holding, a consonant-heavy rack, plays COTHURN 13c through the O. Jerry, with a rack of GNOORT?, eschews TROGONs and instead plays ROOTiNG n9 also making COTHURNi and hitting the double word score at n14.

With a difficult rack of AEHILWY, Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) in a flash of inspiration plays ANYWHILE* through an open N against Kevin Fraley (Madera, CA). Kevin thinks hard, but lets it go.

Anywhile, back on board 13, Darrell Day (Richardson, TX) and Lloyd Mills (Georgetown ON) have added COLItIS and MEIOSES to their ILEITIS. Diagnosticians are stumped.

Lynn Cushman (New York, NY) is looking snappy in her upside-down frame glasses -- definitely Upper West Side. Against Ben Withers (Houston, TX), she turns AEINOP? into sENOPIA for 88 points.

Sam Kantimathi (El Dorado Hills, CA), whose scoresheets are oft supsected of being the prototype for the Voynich Manuscript, has taken the lead with some Samerriffic play against Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON).

Over on Board 1 of Division 2, it's winner take all between Doug "Schnooky" Brockmeier and Mike "the french horn is cool" Early. Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX) opens with BEFRET for 28 and Doug Brockmeier (Yorba Linda, CA) sitting on a divine rack of IKMORUU plays BURKIUM*. Ten seconds and a quick jaunt to the challenge computer, Mike remains up 28-0 and now on turn.

Carol Kaplan (San Diego, CA), in her trademark red polo and navy jogging suit is locked in a brawl with the ever-loquacious Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN) on board 6. HANGERS, uMBONAL, and AVERMENTS are on the board. Jim plays OXIDIZER for 128 to take a big lead. Carol holding AAIUNN? shoots for the moon and off an open L, plays LUNArIAN for 74 to get back in it. It's all down to the endgame now. Carol reaches into the bag needing a little good juju and pulls .. IU. oops.

Meanwhile back on board 4, Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) and Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA) have shotgunned the board with more bingos: TROPINES, INVENTOR, and LOACHES. Jason lays down BIALYS for 33, but hesitates before hitting his clock. What's this? An open W? Jason pulls up the wayward tiles and moves them to the top of the board and lays down WAYBILLS for 107! Goodnight, Irene. After the perfunctory endgame, Jason defeats the former National and World SCRABBLE^® Champion 459-410. Just 18 years old and sixth place!

Over on board 9, Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) announces he has but ten seconds on his clock to no one in particular. He now has six seconds.

Back in the Division 2 finale, Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX) augments his lead with WEFT 7h and rather than heave another egregious phony on the board, Doug Brockmeier (Yorba Linda, CA) elects to exchange some tiles. Mike has got the lead AND the mo. And that's big.

Mike is going semi-BluesBrothers today with the all black outfit and white socks. He's also going semi-Hollywood director with solid black cap and day-old whiskers. Doug Brockmeier is going post-modern preppy with his short-sleeved red seersucker and open-toed sandals.

Marlon Hill (Baltimore, MD), who is going for the Whoopi Goldberg look with his natty dreads and smoke-colored shades half cocked on his nose, bounces over to report on his final-round victory over Paul Epstein. The decisive twist was when Paul unsuccessfully challenged Marlon's play of BIGFOOTS. "YET I didn't know that was good," thought Paul.

Over in the Division 2 final, Mike capitalizes on the Early momentum and steers the ship home for a $5000 payday. Doug's tournament success the previous 27 rounds is enough to hold on to second place and $2000.

Anywhile, back on board 6, Jim Kramer's final rack is an unpromising EEEIOOP, and the best he can find is PIE under the UMB in UMBONAL for twenty points. Carol goes out with DUI for a few points and upon collecting eight points for the remaining tiles on Jim's rack garners a 421-421. Do I love this game? DU I!

Sadly, that was all Jim had time to report. I know, I know, I'm about out of a job!

Kenji Matsumoto (Aiea, HI) ends the tournament on a high note, defeating Sammy Okosagah (Baltimore, MD), 448-336. Kenji plays INGATES for 73 and ReSOAKED for 89. Another game bingo was PELORUs for 64. A very nice overlap play was made with both players' help. Kenji played SILEX in the lane one short of the bottom triple line. Sammy snuck under it with SONATINE played through the A, making SO/IN/LA/ET/XI for 74. Very pretty, Sammy. Kenji has time to be happy for his buddy, Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA), who will be in the elite top 15 rated expert players in North America on the next NSA rating list. Jason defeated Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL), 459-410 this round to wind up with an impressive 6th place finish for the 18 year old MIT freshman!

I catch a photo of the Jerry Lerman (Foster City, CA) 441-364 defeat of Nigel Richards (New Zealand) before the tiles come up.

One of the event's doppelgangers is the Stephanie Steele (Saint Paul, MN) and Andrea Michaels (San Francisco, CA) confusion. Andrea says she has had to stop several people halfway through stories to let them know she is not Stephanie! Andrea mentions that they both sport short blonde hair, but Stephanie has about 8 inches on her!

Sam Kantimathi (El Dorado Hills, CA) pulls me over to see his last round win over Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON), 445-389, which puts him, he thinks, in 10th place. Sam is estatic! He points out Jim's DISDAiNS for 83 and JINGLY for 50, but most of the game sparkled for Sam: PRAISERS for 72, OPERANT for 74, WAKE making WE/AR/KA/EN for 73, and ORbITAL for 73.

I'm asked to check out table 20 in division 3 where Maureen Kennerk (Hicksville, OH) had a heartbreaking loss to Evan Koch (Petaluma, CA), 392-450. What happened was she played LEISTER and said "75 and out." Both players were sure there were no tiles in the bag, that the game score was 438-392, and that it was Maureen's win when one of them patted the bag to discover A TILE! Maureen picked it, an N, and watched Evan slap down JEEZ for 84 points. After playing out with the lousy letter N, she lost the game. Who woulda thought that one little tile could mean so much?

The last board I see today is one that just winds up in division 3 between Eric Kinderman (Freehold, NJ) and Chris Williams (Vancouver BC). Chris got down ZYGOTE for 78 and other plays were UPRATED, NEGaTORS, and TEARIER. It was Eric's win, 390-372. This guaranteed Eric 2nd place in the division and Chris came in 5th.

John Chew, the computer committee, and the division leaders are now running around, ascertaining who wins the prizes big and small. Though many of the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in about 90 minutes, they'll all have to wait for their checks to be mailed from Greenport, NY, when the NSA returns to its offices.

Awards Ceremony

Minutes after the last round ended and the players went off to decompress and find food, an army of hotel workers swarmed into the playing room, breaking it into sections, moving tables and chairs and using miniaturized fork lifts to rearrange the space for an awards ceremony. Where there once was an endless sea of white tablecloth covered tables for as far as the eye could see, there now was a wall. In less than an hour, our ballroom had been sectioned and repurposed for the next phase of the championship.

A throng of people showed up for the awards and by the time the prizes were being announced, it was standing room only around the room's perimeter.

A table full of crystal awards rested atop distinctive Tiffany boxes to the side of the John D. Williams, Jr., and Laura Klein. After thanks to all the workers and event coordinators, the festivities were under way.

Each division leader took a turn at the microphone, first announcing the auxiliary prizes (best senior performance, best comeback, low win, etc.) and then the top finishing prizes. All these prizes should find their way onto the web site in the near future. Worth mentioning, the top performing senior in division 3 was also was the division 3 winner, Betty Cornelison (Portland, OR), and she received a thunderous applause for this accomplishment.

The ceremony's highlight came at the end when Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand) and Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR), the two highest-finishing players in division 1, walked to the front of the room. We are all looking forward to tomorrow's best-of-five finals, which will determine the event's overall winner.