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NSC 2008 Commentary: Round 25

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Go to: 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, Award Ceremony.

Round 25

Ed, one of the two annotators at table 1 in division 1 slipped me a post-it note that says, "Ed has written 'i am Brian Cappelletto' so often during the log in prior to each game, he is suffering from an identity crisis." This means that Brian has been at table 1 for a long time! Each time Ed starts a game on the annotation server, he has to type in the name of the person he's annotating so that the web site displays the name of the person who is playing on that side of the table.

Michael Krafchick (Roswell, GA), perhaps most often recognized for being "Joey's dad," is a competitive player, too! This round he played Polly Lenzen (Fort Lauderdale, FL). She played SERVING and he got down BALDIES, the fun HOOPLAS, and then almost got to play PUTZING, but she blocked the spot. It as his win, 426-316. He is 14-11 now and clearly enjoying himself.

The game in progress between Nathan Benedict (Tucson, AZ) and Ian Weinstein (Coral Springs, FL), I see DATIVELY, GLORIAS, and PR?WORKS on their board.

Though he lost to him in round 8, Bradley Robbins (Windham, NH) defeated Dave Rauppius (Athens, GA) this round, 383-341. I see Dave's ALIuNDE, RECITING, and TINWARES (thre bingos and he lost!) and Bradley's STABILE and FRONtED. Bradley is at 21-4 with this win and Dave, still in it, is 18-7.

Two of the 18 and under crowd are playing at table 1 in division 4. She smiles when I ask who won, but Alexandra Gianikas (Tallahassee, FL) lost to Phil Wertheimer (Short Hills, NJ). Phil is now 20-5.

Scott Garner (Champaign, IL) is looking positively tropical today in his shell necklace. He informs me that he went 6-1 yesterday with it on, so he's planning on never taking it off. I nod as if to let me know that I understand completely.

I check in on my main gal at table 1 in division 3, Piengkamol Intarasuwan (Oakland Park, FL). She played the fun and polite Ben Lam (Toronto ON). She got down REZEROED through the third E, STREWED, and the non-bingo, double-double HUMERAL through the R. Ben played sINUATE and LOCAtED. Piengkomol tells me she dumped twice, one time disposing of IIIOO. She lost this one, 353-418.

An achingly stressful game has just gone down at board 1 in division 2. Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (Moraga, CA) slid back his chair rather suddenly and started pacing around, mumbling unintelligibly to himself. Questions poised to him weren't answered nor are ones posed to his opponent, Paul Haverly (Sorrento, FL). They both exhibited signs of shock with that kind of blank stare. People gathered around and tried to glean was happening. Eventually, it spilled out in a torrent. Paul had misadded and had himself winning their game by 5 points. Conrad may have added to a tie or may have added to a one-point win for him (not sure which), but in the end, Paul's misadding was discovered and Conrad's 415-414 was agreed upon. I decide to stay back and not ask for more info, since they are still freaked out.

At a nearby board, Rick Wong (San Jose, CA) defeats John Stardom (Ottawa ON), 363-361, in another close game. Rick is fixated on the fact that he missed playing QOPH. I guess it makes sense, playing QOPH would have increased the spread as he had to eat the Q. On their board, I see ANTIWEED for 67 through the N and WEsTiNG for 87.

So, Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand) is working hard on changing his fortunes: he's 9-1 in the past 10 games. He just had a big win against Nigel Peltier (Seattle, WA), 501-407. I see Nigel's string of impressive plays and almost think my notes must be wrong! They say he played four bingos: FLOUTINg for 74, DAUTINg for 77, SKATTING for 63, and SMARTING for 61. Pakorn has MiSRULE for 79 and ORDINES for 76.

The quiet Maddy Kamen (Covina, CA) tells me about a fun moment. She held DEIORRT and she thought to herself how nice it would be if her opponent would just play an A somewhere. Almost as if the heavens heard her, the coulds parted and her wish was granted when her opponent played RAIA with the A in the triple lane. Can you find her play?*

Jeremy Frank (New York, NY) tells me of a strange sunday sandwich. Three games in a row unfolded with these spreads: +1 win, -353 loss, +3 win. I guess he's a man of extremes!

Chris Cree has moved into the space at the Internet table between John and me. We've seen a slide show about his new baby and his beautiful wife and we've even seen a few more shots of used forklifts. This guy has an obsession! I come back to my seat to find Mike Baron (Corrales, NM) getting the slideshow treatment, too. Mike frees up my seat by leaping up onto Chris' lap! This makes everyone within eyeshot laugh hard. A shout out to my friend, Kristen Chew, all those newborn shots have made John want another baby (which I think is far better than him suddenly wanting a used forklift....).

*Maddy played ADROITER from the A.