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NSC 2009 Commentary: Round 16

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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, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.

Round 16

Lo and behold! Two people have shown up that I did not expect! New York's Diane Firstman was at a convention in Washington, DC, at the beginning of the NSC and she is here now to help. Jeremy Cahnmann from Chicago has come by for a baseball game, a play reading, and maybe a little bit of assisting the playing room, too.

Ron Hoekstra (Kentwood, MI) vs. Rafi Stern (Seattle, WA). I see LEACHATE and COeXIsTS. They both used up nearly every second of their 25 minutes, playing the endgame fast, without a lot of time to think through the best plays. Rons' win, 469-378.

Nigel Richards (MYS) vs. Ben Withers (Houston, TX): TUBEROsE, MORALITY, and cYPRIANS are on their in-progress board.

Ian Weinstein (Coral Springs, FL) vs. Sammy Okosagah (Baltimore, MD): SUBLATe, TENTAGES, HARDwIRES, and ZESTY on that board.

One of the first games to finish this round was Webster Phillips (Montclair, NJ) vs. Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME). Joey's win by 20, 446-426. I see Webster's ROUBLES, SCORIATE, and PERMeATE from the P. Joey played NAIADES and dEPRIVES. Webster played ZINE one short of the triple row and was reminded of that great end hook when OBEY/ZINEB went down for 55!

Keith Smith (Austin, TX) vs. Max Panitch (Toronto ON). This was a game that wasn't a foregone conclusion who would win from the start as so many are. Keith played STEADIeD and cAPERING. Max played SELENATE, SVARAJ, and RETOTAL. This last one drew a challenge (Max thinks Keith had to challenge and hope it was bad). Max's win, 475-356.

I walk by table 1 just as the game looks be to be done. I'm looking over the board, one rack is empty, but something just isn't right. Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) then says, "well, we are still kinda in process." Just then, Bryan Pepper returns with the ajudication on the outbingo: WALLIES is acceptable. This gives Dave the win over Alex Fiszbein (South Lyon, MI), 498-420. See this game in the annotated game section!

Some fancy playing by Adam Logan (New York, NY) and Jerry Lerman (San Francisco, CA). I see Jerry's EARNeRS for 64, Adam's BANDEaUX for 88 and Jerry's response on the triple lane with FANO/FE/Aa/NU/OX for 72! Adam plays SWEATER for 82 and JETE for 57. Jerry got down VISITED for 82. Adam's win, 433-425.

Apropos of nothing, or so he says, Bruce Adams (Rochdale, MA) lets me know that the last two games he played ended with the same exact socres: 383-369. The funny thing is, he lost the first game and won the second!