WSC 1999 Finals: Round 3

Back to WSC 1999 Round by Round

1999
World
SCRABBLE^®
Championship
Melbourne, Australia
November 3 - 7

Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5

Joel Wapnick defeats Mark Nyman 462-339 in Round 3.

JoelW                                   MarkN
AELLOYZ  8d   ZOEAL           +48   48  IYMDAAJ  7e   JAY             +37   37
DFLMNPY       -FLMYP           +0   48  AMDIUAT   d8  ZAMIA           +32   69
OOUNNDX   c9  NOX             +27   75  UDTVPRR       -PVUDR           +0   69
EDONTTU 11b   OXID            +24   99  TROTAOE 10b   TOMATO          +19   88
EUNSTTV 13b   VEST            +31  130  REOIOAD   e5  DOJO            +24  112
EUNNRTV       -NUVT            +0  130  OAREIUA   d3  URAO            +13  125
EIOBNRT 11g   BORNITE         +72  202  AEILPRO   l6  EPILATOR        +72  197
BGHRSSY  3b   BRUSHY          +36  238  TCIEUIR   h11 OURIE           +18  215
EIGGLNS   m2  GINGLES         +79  317  TICKSNI 15e   KINETICS        +65  280
?UCFQNE 14f   QUIEt           +69  386  PAEEHEA  2j   PHAGE           +34  314
?CDFMNV  6c   COOM            +25  411  AEETIWD  8k   WISED           +27  341
?FDGLNV 10k   DANG            +15  426  ATIEFWR  2a   FA              +18  359
?EIUFLV  1h   FLU             +22  448  EEINRTW   o1  WINTERED       +101  460
                                        EEINRTW       --             -101  359
?EIV     4k   VINEs           +14  462
              (EEINRTW)       +10  472  EEINRTW       (EEINRTW)       -10  349
              (-0:30)         -10  462  EEINRTW       (-0:30)         -10  339

   a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
   -----------------------------      Player Tiles   Score  Time
 1|=     '       F L U   '     =|1
 2|F A       "       P H A G E  |2    JoelW            462 -0:30
 3|  B R U S H Y   '       I    |3    MarkN  EEINRTW   339 -0:30
 4|'     R       '     V I N E s|4
 5|      A D           -   G    |5    The game is over.
 6|  " C O O M       "   E L "  |6
 7|    '   J A Y   '     P E    |7
 8|=     Z O E A L     W I S E D|8
 9|    N A     '   '     L '    |9
10|  T O M A T O     " D A N G  |10
11|  O X I D   B O R N I T E    |11
12|'     A       U       O     '|12
13|  V E S T   ' R '     R -    |13
14|  -       Q U I E t       -  |14
15|=     ' K I N E T I C S     =|15
   -----------------------------
   a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o

Commentary

Barry Harridge:

Joel Wapnick said after game three, and reiterated after he clinched the Championship in game four, that the crucial move had been at this stage in game three when he had the rack EGGILNS. Amongst a number of bonus plays (would someone like to list all the possibilities?), [M2 NIGGLES/GINGLES, M1 SNIGGLE, N5 LEGGINS/NIGGLES/GINGLES, 2F SNIGGLE, 2G NIGGLES, 15G NEGLIGES, 15B NEGLIGES] Joel needed to find a spot which did not open up too much.
After much contemplation, he muttered "Oh my!" and contemplated further. Finally he played GINGLES at m2. Mark Nyman challenged and the word judge, Wilma Vialle, started to leaf through the pages of OWL. "It's in yours" said Joel, and so Wilma looked in OSW and found it sure enough.
It is interesting that often Scrabble players in their postmortems will feel proudest about a move they found which was hard to find and perhaps the undeniably best move.
Perhaps we can all learn by this case, that once you have found a bonus, you should not relax your vigilance in looking for even better possibilities.

Kevin Burfitt overheard Joel say "You are very creative" when Mark made his desperate WINTERED/PHAGEI play. Mark sighed heavily and ran his hands through his hear before playing OURIE, but had a big smile when he made KINETICS. His reaction to Joel's QUIEt was to sigh again and bury his head in his hands.

Online Kibitzing

Several expert players followed the game online. An edited transcript of their commentary is provided below. Players are identified as follows: Andrew (Golding), Ann (Sanfedele), avajillion (Keith Cejmer), avigator (Avi Moss), DanielG(oldman), diane1 (Firstman), j(ohanna)laite, Joey (Mallick), krusty (Jakob Teitelbaum), leolard (Nick Deller), Luise (Shafritz) martin (Reed), marvin42 (Amit Chakrabarti), p2 (John Chew), panchax (Randy Greenspan), paulsid (Paul Sidorsky), plant (Fern Lindzon), Rich (Baker), Robin (Daniel) SallyR(icketts) SOPH (Ebrima S Saye), Steven (Alexander), stevenz (Brown), taqi (Edward Okulicz), travc (Travis Chaney) Wolf (Zev Kaufman), zem (Martin DeMello),

martin says "so what time is it for you guys?"
diane1 says "7:30 pm"
p2 says "19:41 EST"
martin says "00:40 here"
paulsid says "5:41pm MST"
zem says "3:14 internal time"
Robin says "hi all!  I can't see my typing, I can't see the board, help!"
Ann says "I guess that last little tip helped ;)"
Ann says "maybe jsut lag"
Steven [to Robin]: "Yet your typing is perfect.  Perhaps Ann could learn from that."
plant says "yeah- it is lagging"
Ann says "-steven give it up ;)"
p2 welcomes robin, is glad she made it here.
p2 says "Robin needs to turn echo mode on in her telnet emulator"

> JoelW:  8d   ZOEAL           +48   48  

Joey kibitzes: "zoeally? :)"

> MarkN:  7e   JAY             +37   37  JO, AE, YA

Ann says "as Pfieffer would say -- the play is indicted"
Robin kibitzes: "OK, echo is on, I see my words, I see your words, I see the board.  HI ALL!  I miss you all very much and am glad to be here."
marvin42 kibitzes: "good start"

> JoelW:       -FLMYP           +0   48  

plant smiles robinward
p2 . o O ( now if only we can get her to come out to the club )
diane1 says "ply 6g???"
Joey says "moxbib probably has no idea this is going on..."
paulsid says "Yikes, nasty racks for both."

> MarkN:   d8  ZAMIA           +32   69  
> JoelW:   c9  NOX             +27   75  NA, OM, XI

Robin wonders whether donutte is another french term for beignet
Ann says "donutte go gentle..."
plant says "donuttin till you hear from me"
diane1 says "duncan donuttes"
Ann -plant i guess i sdeserved that
zem says "donuttin even though it torus apart"

> JoelW: 11b   OXID            +24   99  

Wolf checks TATTOOER in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
martin checks AMORETTO in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
avajillion checks COROTATE in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
zem says "tomato 10b?"

> MarkN: 10b   TOMATO          +19   88  TO, AD

Ann [to zem]: "hey no helping"

> JoelW: 13b   VEST            +31  130  ZAMIAS

zem checks YARO in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.

> MarkN:   e5  DOJO            +24  112  

paulsid checks UNVENT in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
diane1 checks UNDERVENT in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
Andrew [to brenda]: "Hi Brenda & Libero - I'm only here sporadically"

> JoelW:       -NUVT            +0  130  


Wolf kibitzes: "d2 aurei"
SOPH checks BORNITE in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.

> MarkN:   d3  URAO            +13  125  AD, OO

zem liked audio better - are was a nice leave
Wolf kibitzes: "ob osw"
martin checks PELORIA in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
diane1 checks PORLIATE in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.

> JoelW: 11g   BORNITE         +72  202  OB

martin checks EPILATOR in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
paulsid checks YABO in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
SOPH checks PETIOLAR in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
zem checks ROPETAIL in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
martin checks PELORIAN in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
diane1 checks PROLIATE in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.

> MarkN:   l6  EPILATOR        +72  197  

diane1 checks LIPORATE in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
plant says "bushy"
zem checks BOOH in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
p2 says "there goes the last O (says Kristen)"
Wolf kibitzes: "epilator takes the D on top , i think"
zem kibitzes: "yep"

> JoelW:  3b   BRUSHY          +36  238  

martin says "with a Q mark has CRITIQUE"
taqi says "then it takes a Y on the end after it"
diane1 checks EPILATORY in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
avigator checks LEGGINS in TWL98.
The word is acceptable.
taqi says "i meant dEPILATORy actually"
martin checks GINGELS in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
plant checks SNIGGLE in TWL98.
The word is acceptable.
marvin42 checks NIGGLES in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
Joey checks NIGGLES in TWL98.
The word is acceptable.
diane1 says "yes I know taqi"
SOPH checks GINGLES in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
martin checks LEGGINS in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
Wolf kibitzes: "eucritic thru a C"
Joey kibitzes: "diuretic with a d"
paulsid says "NEURITIC if the N were higher up..."
martin says "neuritic with the N"

> MarkN:   h11 OURIE           +18  215  

Wolf kibitzes: "8j iritic is one choice"
Wolf kibitzes: "bing time"
SOPH kibitzes: "kinetics"
Ann says "unpleasant thought stickin"
krusty kibitzes: "gingles d 2m?"
martin says "NITPICKS"
marvin42 kibitzes: "good find soph"
Wolf checks GINGLES in TWL98.
The word is unacceptable.
diane1 checks STICKPIN in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
krusty checks STICKPIN in TWL98.
The word is acceptable.
Robin kibitzes: "sniggle 2f"
Rich checks NEGLIGES in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.

> JoelW:   m2  GINGLES         +79  317  EL, PE, IS

p2 says "kevin says "it is good, but Joel didnt know that!""
diane1 checks TICKINGS in OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
paulsid says "Wow."
Joey checks NICKIEST in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
MarkN checks GINGLES in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
p2 says "MarkN challenges"
Joey checks NEPILATOR in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
p2 says "It is ruled acceptable."
Ann says "oh wow"
krusty says "free chals, right?"
paulsid mutters, "Damn free challenge rule..."
Ann says "yay!"
Wolf kibitzes: "mark knew that 99%"
Ann says "oh right :("
diane1 says "ooofffff"
JoelW high5's ann
Ann says ":)"
Luise says "is this best of 5 or 2 out of 3?"
krusty kibitzes: "quince?"
travc joins panchax.
diane1 checks NITESTICK in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
Wolf kibitzes: "5"

> MarkN: 15e   KINETICS        +65  280  

Ann says "yup"
paulsid says "QUIEt"
jlaite says "HEY out there - Ive been offline.  What time does game 4 start?"
zem [to paulsid]: "nice one"
marvin42 likes QUIEt
krusty thinks they're breaking for lunch
zem says "let game 3 end first :)"
Wolf kibitzes: "nice"
p2 [to jlaite]: "lunch break after this game"

> JoelW: 14f   QUIEt           +69  386  QI, UN, ET, tI

SOPH kibitzes: "classic ..definite pro play"
diane1 says "mark N SPAHEE"
paulsid says "_That's_ why I love SOWPODS..."
diane1 says "WOW!!!!"
Wolf kibitzes: "2j peage perhaps"

> MarkN:  2j   PHAGE           +34  314  

paulsid says "Hmmm...D(IS)C to set up the blank?"
p2 says "MN plays thru V or N"
diane1 says "HOW LONG A LUNCH BREAK DO THEY HAVE???"
Wolf kibitzes: "antiweed doesnt fit"
JoelW says "disci dangerous"
avigator disco why
zem says "they'd have just as long a break in lowercase :P"
p2 [to diane1]: "ONE WHOLE HOUR"
paulsid says "Err FISC sorry"
p2 says "maven likes DOOM - what does DOoM like?"
Joey says "how can anyone like DOOM"
marvin42 likes FOOD - so do the players i'm sure
Wolf kibitzes: "doom nice"
diane1 says "sorry for the upper case"
Joey says "my mood would have to be backwards"
p2 says "too bad KINETICS not at 15h to allow 7-letter front-extension"
Wolf kibitzes: "or food"

> JoelW:  6c   COOM            +25  411  MAE

diane1 says "hyperkinetics"
Wolf learns coom
diane1 says "coom what mae .... :)"
diane1 checks PHAGED in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
paulsid was wondering about PHAGED too...
avigator wised
diane1 says "nice play avi"
paulsid nods
SallyR joins rogertx.
Wolf kibitzes: "l2 wade doesnt give him a chance to comeback"
Robin wedge 5j also possible
avigator  is ap,ep,ip good
paulsid says "None."
leolard says "no"

> MarkN:  8k   WISED           +27  341  

Wolf checks WEDGER in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
paulsid claps
paulsid checks PEL in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
diane1 checks FIREWATER in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
p2 says "bag EEINU"
marvin42 checks WAFTIER in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
taqi checks WAFTIER in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
diane1 checks FIREWATER in TWL98.
The word is acceptable.
avigator checks DELF in OSW3.
The word is acceptable.

> JoelW: 10k   DANG            +15  426  DI, NE

zem checks USQUE in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
zem checks EFFLUVIA in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.

> MarkN:  2a   FA              +18  359  AB

p2 checks FLUXIVE in TWL98.
The word is unacceptable.
p2 checks FLUXIVE in OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
SOPH checks ENTWINER in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
marvin42 checks EFLUVIA in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
DanielG checks FAB in OSW3.
The word is acceptable.

> JoelW:  1h   FLU             +22  448  UP
marvin42 says "he missed!!"
diane1 checks FAB in OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
krusty says "It's all academic as long as mark doesn't bingo."
stevenz checks PHAGEI in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.

> MarkN:   o1  WINTERED       +101  460  PHAGEI

DanielG says "heh :)"
avigator elf 1A
JoelW says "Hold the play."
MarkN plays out.
MarkN pauses the clock.
krusty laughs
JoelW checks PHAGEI in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
diane1 checks PHAGEI in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.
MarkN starts the clock.
It is JoelW's turn.

> MarkN:       --             -101  359  

jlaite checks FAB in TWL98+OSW3.
The word is acceptable.
diane1 says "joelw sounded JUST like Verna Richards Berg"
diane1 checks INTERFLUE in OSW3.
The word is unacceptable.

> JoelW:  4k   VINEs           +14  462  

Wolf lol
JoelW plays out.
JoelW pauses the clock.
MarkN ends the game.

> Final scores: JoelW 472, MarkN 339

jlaite says "Now can we find out how long to the next game???   Please?"
p2 says "both players 1 min overtime"
Ann says "yayayay!!!!"
paulsid cheers
JoelW says "1hr, i think"
p2 says "next game in one hour, at 21:45 EST"
stevenz disconnects.
Ann says "ann waves long island flag"
Ann says "just to annoy Martin :)"
krusty waves
paulsid goes to make something to eat...see ya in 60!
panchax kibitzes: "lol"
JoelW pages you: "see you then!"
Steven [to Ann]: "what does one look like?"
Wolf kibitzes: "same situation as in '93 now , joel needs one of two"
panchax says "yep"
Robin kibitzes: "you can be sure he won't make the same mistakes again."
MarkN's impersonator will take a break too
Ann says "steven I dont know -- Ill ahve to invent one :)"
panchax says "and we remember what happened"
panchax says "oh hi robin"
Ann says "r" yes I think he will be fine"
Robin says "just playing obviate tells me he's playing differently this time"
Joey not even existent at the time
Joey at least not on here
Ann says "joey it wasnt THAT long ago!"
panchax says "was there"
Ann says "will someone find out what Joel is wearing?"
Ann says "if he is wearing "lucky' shirt"
Robin says "tiger woods red?"
Ann says "yes that's what I think -- red with hoorizontal stripes"
Robin says "ann, didn't he wear that in Chicago when he won Nats?"
Ann says "no its true he didnt"
Ann says "but i have a picture of him wearing it somehwere"
Steven [to Robin]: "were you playing abck in 1983?"
Ann says "" and i see Jane had a picture of him this time"
Robin says "on the back of his book I thought he was wearing red horizontal striped shirt"
Robin [to Steven]: "No, but see above comment"
Joey says "see you all in awhile"
Ann says "yes that is it"
Ann says "also in Reno I think"
Ann says "back of book of course not in color"
Robin says "my memory is"
Luise says "oh well, so long for awhile I hope"
Ann says "robin however ann has original :)"
Ann says "I didnt start taking color pics of scrabblers till much later"
Ann says "seems like old times here"
Robin says "now you're dating yourself!"
Robin says "who is p2?"
p2 is a copy of p.
Steven says "Why would anyone date themselves?  Oh, I see."
p2 says "p is in his office getting info directly from playoff room."
Steven [to p2]: "by what device?"
Ann says "p2 or not p2 ..."
p2 [to Steven]: "Kevin Burfitt is in the room running the ShockWave coverage,"
p2 [to Steven]: "he is also logged on here as kevin, and telling me whatever I need to know."
Steven ahthankses
Ann says "I'm going to go check my ebay stuff and wash dishes ..."
Ann says "see youse kids a bit later"
Ann says "but think ill stay logged on here incase it gets too crowded"
SOPH [to all]: "when does the next game start"
p2 says "in 44 min"
Robin says "i'm going to go rest my back; does coming back at 9:30 seem reasonable?"
p2 says "9:40 is plenty"
Ann says "im here but not here -- gonna go do some chores"
plant says "when's the next game?"
Ann says "I think 9:45 our time"

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