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NSC 2012 Commentary: Round 17

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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 17

Just as this round started, a blur of orange ran up to me. I heard, "Vuvuzela sighting at table 1 in division 1!" I see Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (Piedmont, CA) sitting at the board with the annotators and glean that Jason Keller (Highland Park, NJ) would be joining them soon.

Someone learned a word. Emanuel Chicoine (Montreal QC) and Susan Gordon (Australia) use the lookup computer: TAUTOMER is good!

The play was CANISTEL played through the I in INVERT, creating parallel plays AW/NO and in division 3! (a now ejected player) got it down in his game with Tom OLaughlin (Hartland, WI). I see rEADINGS and TARGETTED on their in-progress board.

Did I mention that I met Cliff Smith (Ballwin, MO) on the shuttle ride from the airport on Friday? I was impressed, then, because he was coming to his first nationals without belonging to an official SCRABBLE club! And, it turns out, he's good, too! I found him this round in row 1 of division3. His game with Norma Lovett (Unknown city QC) just ended and she said he creamed her, 295-464. I see his RENAILER and BUYOUTs. She got down SPeCTRES. He also played NAEVI, for not a lot of points, but demonstrating some word knowledge! Welcome Cliff: happy to have you here!

The croupier, Bob Lipton (Vero Beach, FL), taught the kid, Sam Rosin (Bernardsville, NJ), a thing or two this round, winning, 464-295. :) They are having a good endgame chat and I don't bug them. I just write down some pretty plays: RAGSTONE, POUNDAgE, NOTITIAE, BIFOcALS, NOILIER, VOTEENS, and BECAUSE.

Rafi Stern (Seattle, WA), smiling, asks me over to see his board. He played a blank for two points. This, I had to see. Sure enough, he played EAu from the E on the bottom right of the board and created an unblockable opening for his Q. Ben Schoenbrun (Ardsley, NY) held some subset of OVIIIU. Rafi was able to play QuIN to the triple for 66. Ben got down the pretty ROCKABY through the AB and ADIpOUS and Rafi got away with SCUTATED*. Rafi's win, 434-336.

David Gibson (Spartanburg, SC) vs. Kenji Matsumoto (Berkeley, CA): TELERANS, DELICTS, ENTROPIC, RIFLERY, AUGITES, and KNOWN are on the board. I'm staying far back because they are winding up as the room is getting louder, that is already enough stress. Someone walks by and perhaps answering a gestured question, Kenji said, I am NOT winning."

David Koenig (Silver Spring, MD) asks if I want to see and "old fashioned beatdown." He got whalloped, 531-397 by Marty Gabriel (Charleston, IL). Marty got down WRENCHED for 104, then SUBTAXA/TAW for 120, then OVERsAIL#. David played TURIoNS and TARLETON. Fun small plays: Marty's IODIZE for 52 which David overlapped with COKED for 50 points. JASP# for 63 by David and the fun JEELIE# and TYTE#. David admits to trying UNGRASPS* at one point and it got called off the board. Very pretty board and a great win for Marty in this 11-turn game.

Kate: On a Sam Kantimathi (Sacramento, CA) vs Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) game in CSW, I see MIDGET, PIMP and BOOZER. So, I wander around the division looking for more people who live in the Collins neighborhood this round, and find: PERVS, EvaNGEL, FEMMES, NAZI, VIZIER, TONGER, HOGGER, WAIF, SUBMEN# (in America, you can only have BUSMEN), and ODALLERS#. They also have pets: BOK#, MONKEYS, PINTO, and GRIVETS. On a Eric Kinderman (Burlington, VT) board, I see both OX and its British cousin, the DZO#.

Steve Polatnick (Miami, FL) had a nice sequence that would only work in Collins: He hooked AIRIEST on POLAR to make POLARS#, maximizing points (it would've played elsewhere for less). Later, he top hooked AIRIEST with EvaNGEL, making LAIRIEST#. EvaNGEL was one short of a triple word score with only a few in the bag, and both Ys unseen. In the end, Steve draws one and plays EvaNGELY#/YE for 47, which Matthew Bernardina (Durham, NC) challenges. Steve also had JADED for 53, and a number of 36+ point plays, to hit 519, despite only having two bingos, to Matthew's 319.

EVANGELY# means "the Gospel" (plural is EVANGELIES#, which anagrams to EVANGELISE#). In another religious play, Aldo Cardia (New York, NY) bingoed late with BREVIARY to go on to win (a breviary is a prayer book).

Eric Tran (Calgary AB) is playing Leesa Berahovich (Berkeley, CA) in D1, with Nigel Peltier (Portland, OR) and Evans Clinchy (Boston, MA) at the neighboring board. As I walk by, I hear 'challenge' and look over — I see POOPY* on Eric's board. They come back and he picks it back up, and his full rack is: ?AEORTY. Leesa plays FUNGO, and Eric is able to bingo through it with bARYTONE. Later on, FAKENESs is added to the board. Eric wins.

At the neighboring board, Nigel Peltier (Portland, OR) had a good round against Evans Clinchy (Boston, MA), getting ZAbAIONE, RINSIBLE and SAURIES to Evans' CONDyLE. Nigel's win.

In Joe Edley (Port Jefferson, NY) versus Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) at table 18, Chris opened with AGOUTIS. Joe catches up, aided by CAsABAS. The game is tied a bit beyond its midpoint. Chris bingoes with HUmBLER, then draws the bango-bongo to go with it: ENTERON and MINERALS, while Joe muddles through IIOOVV. The game goes from a tie to a 200 point loss for Joe.

Bernard Gotlieb (Montréal QC) and Tony Claitor (Orlando, FL) have POtTAGES on his board — I should tell them that the Harry Potter round was earlier this morning.

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.