August 15-18, 2003

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Back to SCRABBLE ALL*STARS 2003 Live Coverage

SCRABBLE ALL*STARS 2003 Commentary: Round 4

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, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, Final Round 4, After the Tournament.

Round 4

In an attempt to keep the playing area as quiet as possible, Laura has been starting each round at the same time to keep the players on the same schedule. As she was ready to start this round, one table had no players. She craned her neck around looking for them and then said, "Well, it is the last round before lunch, I suppose it doesn't matter." And the games began, though a bit more staggered this round.

Joe Edley (Coram, NY) said, "I finally won one!" So, he goes to lunch 1-3. Rita Norr (Danbury, CT) was the unfortunate loser this round, 413-334. On their board I see ARBUtUS and DiVERTED.

At the next table, Jeremiah Mead (Chelmsford, MA) and Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY) comb over their game. It ended in Joel's favor, 452-415. Kristen Chew, Jere's annotator had a beautifully clear scoresheet from which I read that Joel opened with EAUX. Jere responded with ANNEALER for 61. Later Joel got down MITOSES for 77 and PARVISE for 81. Jere played HELLcAT for 75 and DEmONIAN for 60. Jere got stuck with the Q and had to pass his two last turns.

Paul Epstein (Ann Arbor, MI) lost a heartbreaker to Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) this round, 417-453. She says she was able to get down WIVES/SAITH for 50 in the endgame. Her final rack was EJL. Paul missed the AY hook for JAY and she got that down and then went out with LEZ. They both agree that had he blocked her J play for 28 points, he might have won that game. On the board I see HaRMINS for 84 and TWIGGIER played through the first G for 76 by Robin. He challenged the play and it was ruled acceptable. Paul did get down AlIDADE for 78 and FUBSIER for 73. Stefan Fatsis was watching their game and saw that Robin could play SAILABLE at one point. She saw it, but doubted the word was good. It is!

Looks like Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME) goes to lunch with a 2-2 record as he just lost to Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL), 410-443. From the game's annotation sheet I see that Joey played FITCHEw for 80 points and PRELUDE for 80. Brian got down STIRRED for 81 and ROTATEs for 68.

We are blessed with a great team of annotators today. Gregg Foster and Milt Wertheimer have been working at table 1, Kristen Chew and Paul Avrin at table 2, and Kate Doe and David Johnson at table 3.

In a game between Randy Hersom (Morganton, NC) and David Gibson (Spartanburg, SC), Randy lost by a mere four points, 354-358. On their third moves of the game each bingoed for 76 points: David's QuIETEN and Randy's REFOUNDS through the U in David's bingo. Later in the game, holding IGGLED?, David couldn't find a bingo, so he played HIGGLED from the H for 34. He wasn't able to get another bingo down, but in a tense endgame with Randy in the lead, David found PEErIE/PIS/EN for 37.

Challenges this game: SAUTED and TWIGGER, ruled acceptable and UNWILTED* and NARIA* ruled unacceptable.

Now we lunch!

This round's recorded game matched Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME) vs. Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL).