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USSO 2006 Commentary: Round 4

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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.

Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand) and Robert Linn (Potomac, MD) are playing each other at Board 1 in Division 1. Steve Pellinen and Scott Smith are posting the game live.

round 4

So, this round it was David Mallick (Andover, MA) who got to play pigeon and Ted Rosen (Rochester, NY) who played the part of statue. A 424-335 win was Dave's with the 66-point phoney BETASTED* and the truly lovely RAvENOUSLY to the SLY for 83. Ted didn't like it and challenged. Ultimately, he challenged the wrong bingo! Ted got down SPLINTER for 70. Dave admitted that the board was closed and he fished three times to get the tiles for that long bingo.

I'm not sure what to attribute it to: my unkindness or his bad luck. But, once again, I approach Steve Oliger (Holtwood, PA) to find him on the losing end of a game, this round to Ray Smith (Tucker, GA), who is now 4-0. The rub is, this is Steve's first lost all day! I promise to return another time and I hope to one of his victories!

So, I run into Angela Dancho (Thornton, CO) standing in the middle of the floor. This is her first US Open and she is happy to be here. So far, she is 3-1, and waiting for club director, Laura Scheimberg (Littleton, CO) to walk over. Laura directs the Denver SCRABBLE^® club and is delighted to tell me that their club has sent five players to this year's event.

I walk by a game in progress to find Andrew Fanoe (Marietta, GA) demonstrating terrible tile-drawing technique. Turns out, he and his opponent, Jeff Cooley (Jacksonville, FL), are just practicing, having wrapped up their round 4 games a bit ago. Paul Cole (St. Augustine, FL), clearly not in a hurry to rush off to lunch, was onlooking.

SCRABBLE^® couple, Kit Morehead (Berkley, MI) and Scott Pianowski (Berkley, MI) stop by and pose for me by the SCRABBLE^® rug. They are in great spirits. I'm not surprised to hear that Kit is 4-0. When Scott says, he is 2-2, he smiles and says, "it is far greater to have your partner 4-0 than it is be 4-0 yourself!" I think he earned big points for that one!

Cesar Del Solar (Pasadena, CA) is 4-0 as he goes off to lunch and way happy. On the opposite side is Ira Cohen (Los Angeles, CA) who is now 1-3. Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) is 3-1 and smiling. The former WSC and NSC champion isn't staying at the hotel because he grew up in Phoenix and he and his wife, Wendy, are opting to stay with Brian's Mom.

Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) stops by to tell me that he had the privilege of annotating a 2001 WSC game in which Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand) played. And in round 4, he finally had the chance to play the Thai super star. It didn't go so well for Craig. As he told me the story, he smiled broadly and said, "He could have beat me by 300 points, but went over on his clock by 3 minutes, so only beat me by 270!" In their game, Pakorn played FISH from the top right triple. Craig decided that FISHCAKE* sounded imminently plausible. Pakron, however, disagreed, and challenged the phoney off, which probably helped him glide to that remarkable winning game!

The real sensation of the event so far is division 1's petit superstar, Cecilia Le (Wilmington, DE). She goes off to lunch undefeated with whispers following her. I hear things like "who is she?" "how old is she?" "where did she come from?" Being from the East Coast and seeing Cecilia in action, I just smile to myself and think, "Oh, you'll all know soon enough!"