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USSO 2006 Commentary: Round 26

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Go to: 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.

round 26

Our last announcements were delivered today before this round's games began. John D. Williams, Jr., asked Steve Polatnick (Miami, FL) and Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) to stand we we gave them an applause for being the only people to attend every US Open (formerally called Nationals) since they began, a total of 17! John thanked everyone for making this the best US Open ever. He acknowledged John Chew's hard work on the web site and announced that 2.5 million hits so far! The NSA has tracked 75 National news stories about this event so far.

The tension in the room was palpable. No division were set yet. No winners were established when round 26 began. So many games and yet no answers...yet.

I walked around division 1 and observed that Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX) plays all his games upside-down. He is a gentle player, too, placing his tiles softly, quietly. There just isn't anything offense about this guy. I later discover that Geoff won that board 2 game against Darrell Day (Richardson, TX), 470-353. Both players are Texans and they admitted they both were ambivalent about playing one another going into this match. At one point, there was the possiblity of an all-Texas top 4, Iffy Onyeonwu (Austin, TX), Chris Cree (Dallas, TX), Darrell Day (Richardson, TX), and Darrell. Oh well, maybe next year!

Lester Schonbrun (Oakland, CA) played Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand) at table 3 in division 1. He pulled out a big win, 427-309. Both players were playing so tensely that neither seemed to score the last several plays. So, although they knew that Lester had won, the score wasn't certain for several minutes. Neither of them writes down the scores per play, as they are cumulative score people only. I don't know how they do it, to be honest.

I look over at a board and PERSONAGE stares me in the face. Turns out that Albert Hahn (Calgary AB) played it through the separated P and R, on his way to beating Scott Appel (Trenton, NJ), 436-322.

Unlike other top players, Mark Pistolese (Pahoa, HI) has no fear of Joe Edley (Coram, NY). Not only does he like him as a person, he loves playing him. Mark lives in Hawaii and rarely gets the chance to play top-level SCRABBLE^®, so when he can, he just drinks it in like milk out of a cocoanut. So, as he's going on about his big fandom of Joe, I looked and him and said pointedly, "you beat him, didn't you?" Mark smiled and said, "yes, three times." I said, What? He said he's played Joe three times here and won all three games.

Jesse Day (New Haven, CT) comes over looking as sheepish and small as any 6'5" person can look. He'd just played Daniel Stock (Rocky River, OH). At one point Jesse held ACENSTT and he couldn't believe that he saw COINSTATE through an OI. Dan read his mind and blocked the spot. Jesse was so sad that the spot was blocked that he didn't even notice until minutes later that Dan's play contained the phoney DA* that neither of them had seen. So, Jesse missed playing his bingo due to a phoney. He played off CNT and ended up with SATINE? on his next rack. SATINE bingos are legendarily known by all SCRABBLE^® players. Jesse talked himself into INnATES* and puts it down and hits his clock. Dan looks up at him dumbfounded and said, "Jesse, that is a SATINE rack....." And he challenged Jesse's bingo off the board. Jesse went onto lose the game and nearly every shred of his dignity. After telling me, he wandered off, saying something about a dark corner....

Table 1 in division 1 featured a game between Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN) and Marlon Hill (Baltimore, MD). I could hear Marlon screaming to the gods, "FINALLY! FINALLY! FINALLY!" He never screamed once, but I imagined it. He even came over and hugged John Chew, he was so happy to be at board 1. So, they sat d down with their annotators and Jim got down three bingos: SAGUARO for 71, TWIDDlED for 82, and JOCKOES* for 79 to Marlon's one bingo TANAGERS for 72. At around the two-thirds of the game, I go over to get a photo and Marlon is gone. His clock is running, Jim is sitting quietly at the table, and both annotators are there, hands silent. I tilt my head towards the empty chair and Scott Smith shrugs. I look toward the hallway, across the room and see Bonnie in her black and white umpire shirt and Marlon heading back into the tournament room. Marlon climbed over the velvet rope, slid into his chair, and the game carried on like nothing happened. Afterwards, I asked Jim and he said he didn't really know why Marlon left, because he was busy focussing on the game. Jim said, "I don't care what anyone says, it isn't over until the last tile is played." Jim won, 475-371.

As at other Opens it gets weird about now, as the top 40 in each division gets paired after each round while the others go onto to play their preassigned next games. So, there is a sound difference in the room.

So many stories, so little time!

Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN) and Marlon Hill (Baltimore, MD) are playing each other at Board 1 in Division 1. Steve Pellinen and Scott Smith are posting the game live.