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NSC 2009 Commentary: Round 9

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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 9

We've got a crew here filming for the BBC. They intend to film at the Malyasian WSC later this year. So, they are finding players in the room that they may be seeing later. Young, brilliant, well-spoken Sam Rosin (Bernardsville, NJ) was an interview target at the end of this round. Despite the boom, the camera, the director, the crowd, he gave a such a candid and interesting interview, using his hands to punctuate points (and not dissolve into a blob of nervousness, which most of us would probably do). At one point, the interviewer asked him if he would be playing when he was 90 and mishearing, he said, "Oh in three years? Sure, I'll be playing then." (Sam is 16, so in three years he will e 19, which is what he thought he'd heard.) Then the interviewer said, "I mean, will you be playing when you are a pensioner?" Sam eventually caught on, but it was kinda funny to see two people speaking two different versions of the same language!

When his interview was over, I asked Sam about his completed game. He said, "Oh he killed me." Nathan Benedict (Tucson, AZ) got down FEUDArY and VITRINE to Sam's SEALERS. He admits that this was not his best game to date.

Alan Stern (Shadow Hills, CA) has lost four consecutive games to Canadians. He sees division 1 as being bookended by Sterns. Rafi Stern (Seattle, WA) in first and Alan Stern in last, but alas, Alan is only in 121st place, three short of the coveted "bookend" spot!

Young Ruben Radlauer (Los Angeles, CA) is seeded dead last in division 5. He is, however, 7-2 at this point! His School SCRABBLE partner, Tristan Vanech (Venice, CA) is 8-1, having lost one game by 2 points. Tristan just wrapped up his game with round with David Meredith (Bowling Green, KY). He said, "David is by far the best player I've played so far. Despite the scores, he knows his top 100s and all his 4s." Depsite this, Tristan had a 473-323 win. I see NITRATES for 68, MINARETS for 74, and NAIVETE for 73. He admits he tried DETONERS*, but David called it off. He later realized he had ERODENT. He said, "It is easy to witn with both blanks and three Ss!"

Nawapadol Sayavesa (THA) vs. Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON). Despite her challenging two of his phonies off the board, he still beat her, 484-441. I see his bingos: RECREATED, DEVIAToR, MEDIATOR, and SOLATInG. He also to a 67-point QI play. Robin laughed and said she was thankful for the second phoney because it prevented her from giving him a triple-triple (since she knew what was on his rack, she knew what NOT to play. Robin played SWARAJ on the triple and BOOSTING. Remembering off the top of her head, she rattled off his phonies: TARDIVES* and GOLIASES*. Desperate to try to catch up, she played ERENOW, trying to open up the board. All for naught. After the game, she had her laptop out and she was tossing her hands up in the air as she checked on what she could have done.

Bradley Whitmarsh (Attleboro, MA) had a good game with Adam Logan (New York, NY) at board 1 this round, but he still lost, 378-404. In the endgame, Bradley tried HENNAE* though the second N and to the last E. Adam challenged it off and then proceeded to block just about anything else Bradley could do. Adam's outplay was ETHMoID/ISM, which hooked onto ETH and hit the triple two ways. A very pretty find. A bingo each: Adam's cARRIES and Bradley's BOARDING.

Jim Pate (Birmingham, AL) slips me his scoresheet from last round. He played Mark Miller (Philadelphia, PA) and ened up losing, 352-408. What he liked the most about the game was that about midway, Jim bingoed with LAURELs for 77. Mark replied back instantly with PUSLIKE for 100 points!