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Congratulations to the 2001 World Champion, Brian Cappelletto!

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WSC 2001 Commentary: Round 12

Go to: Before Round 1, 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, Final Game 1, Final Game 2, Final Game 3, Final Game 4.

Under the intense media glare of at least four film crews, Adam Logan (Canada) defeated Brian Cappelletto (United States), 391-350 at table 2. Both players were in time trouble with less than 1 minute on their clocks. In fact, Brian went overtime by 8 seconds and lost 10 points on his score. There was a camera about 7 inches from his ear while he was debating his outplay. I overheard Adam say to David William Boys (Canada) that he won the game "despite an unclever play at the beginning." Adam is sitting down with me explaining the game. Adam's unclever play, in fact, was the nonword UNCLEVEr, which Brian quickly removed from the board. Soon after, though, he played tUNICLE, but was still behind as a result of Brian's consistent scoring. However, he then played TAWPIeS, to which Brian replied with AROID parallel for 36 points. Brian was then slightly ahead, but Adam took a strong lead with EXEMED# for 56. Brian fished off an O with two tiles in the bag, and had he picked the I instead of the F, the game would have been his. But that was not to be. When asked afterwards if they could provide us with their racks so that we could recreate the game, Adam complied but Brian said that he did not find the game interesting enough to merit annotation.

At table 8, it turns out that "HONESTY is,/i> such a lonely word..." Peter Sinton (New Zealand) opened up his game against Michael Gongolo (Kenya) with the play for 84 and went onto lose 406-461. Michael got down CuRRIES on the triple lane for 87, SNORING for 74, and MIsHAPT for 88 (it was challenged and stayed on the board, so he actually got 93 for the play). Peter played BEIGELS for 68 and claims that at one point he could have played, but missed seeing FIGLEAFS*. But, it turns out to be no good, so perhaps it is just as well that he failed to see it! Another fun play on the board is Michael's ZANJA for 42 (another Chambers word!).

Slipped onto my table was a note from an unknown author. It reads, "For you Harry Potter fansk, HAGRIDS has an anagram. Joel Sherman (United States) finds DISHRAGs through an A (also had DIGRAPHS and HEADRIGS in the same spot).

Naween Tharanga Fernando (Sri Lanka) fell to Joe Edley (United States) this round, 421-324. This is Joe's third win in a row and the loss stops Naween after his third win in a row. The board was scooped up before I could say "boo."

James A. Cherry (Canada) wins big this game over David Acton (England), 523-362. James got down ORDINAR for 68 (later a parallel play with Y was played for ORDINARY, of course), EARLIES for 65, and FAThErS for 86. David got down ROBURITE through the B, which James agreed was a great find.

In speed SCRABBLE^® news, the Bahranian team of players, Chris Abordo (Bahrain) and Mario Shalendra Ranasuriya (Bahrain) met up this round. They are so used to playing each other that they bombed through their game and finished it as the other players were finishing up Round 11! Mario won, 385-317. I guess they'll have a long lunch break.

Steven Gruzd (South Africa) says, "You haven't heard from me in awhile because I've lost the last 6 games. However, I did get the chance to play VArOOMS in one game!"

Two Thai teammates met up this round, Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand) and Jakkrit Klaphajone (Thailand). Pakorn edged out a win, 461-436. While Jakkrit got down TEAMWISE from the T for 101 on the triple and APrICATE for 67, Pakorn played BRAIDING through an A for 74 and REpLATES for 71. I kept trying to overhear their endgame discussion to see if I could glean a juicy bit and realized the reason I wasn't "hearing" them was because they were speaking in Thai! Soft-spoken or not, I was out of luck in the eavesdropping department!

In a Brit on Brit match at table 7 between Brett Smitheram (England) and Andrew Fisher (England), Andrew pulled out a monster win, 470-377. Andrew played REEFIEST through the I for 62 which he followed with INTERIMS for 72. Then Andrew got both blanks. He played GLiTZ for 72 with one and then played INARAbLE for 64 next play. Brett got down GAITERS for 76. Brett asked Andrew why the latter had not considered playing RAILMAN on the triple lane and Andrew admitted he hadn't seen the play.

In a tight, tight game between Robin Pollock Daniel (Canada) and Ganesh Asirvatham (Malaysia), the winner seesawed back and forth three times. As the game ended, the score reflected a win by Ganesh by 5 points. However, during a recount, Robin found two plays that awarded her first 2 points and then 3 to tie the game. They both pushed back from the board in disbelief at this tie. It wasn't long lived, however, because Ganesh found two more points that then gave him the win. It turns out that the challenge rule swung the result of this game. Robin played RoSTRAL for 66 and then Ganesh played SEROTINE through the R for 64. Later, Ganesh played NOVITIES and Robin challenged. The play was ruled good and it cost her the game.

Players are now milling out for lunch break. There are more onlookers today and many folks with big ol' hats on in the hallway. The rodeo folks have come over to our place to watch for a spell. I overheard one women begging for rodeo tickets. The response she received was this, "The rodeo sells out more than one year in advance and it seats 17,000 people each night. You are never going to get tickets this year."