August 15-18, 2003

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SCRABBLE ALL*STARS 2003 Commentary: Round 6

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 6

As Joe Edley (Coram, NY) leaves the room he says, "I started 0-3 and now I'm 3-3. I'm back in it!" He had a 200-point win against David Gibson (Spartanburg, SC) in round 5 and he defeated Randy Hersom (Morganton, NC) by 100 this round.

Challenge slips are mounting this round. I see seven for this round. Two ruled acceptable: GAUDERY and SATIRISE and five ruled unacceptable: AQUALINES*, KINNED*, ERICOIDS*, BUTYROSE*, and BUTRYOSE*. The latter two were tried by Marlon Hill (Baltimore, MD) one after another. Charlie Southwell, who took both of these challenges, points out that both BUTYROUS and BOTRYOSE are good so Marlon was close, but just no cigar.

The news of this round has got to be all about Chris Cree (Dallas, TX). He is undefeated 6-0 +384! He just defeated David Gibson (Spartanburg, SC), 338-334, a squeaker. I opted for hugging Chris and moving on, giving him the chance to decompress from the game instead of grilling him for game details. From the score it sounds like a fight. Look for a photo in this round's selection.

The room has seemed unchanging today and I just hit on why. Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) has played at Table 1 all day today as has Jeremiah Mead (Chelmsford, MA) at 2, Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) at 3, and John Luebkemann (Charlotte, NC) at 4 during this round robin portion of the event. Proving that he is indeed SUPER, Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) defeated Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN) this round, 497-273. Jim said, "Anything good on this board was played by Dave." So, I'm going to just assume that SWAnNED for 81, INDIGEN for 78, and SUpERMEN for 60 are David's plays! Jim did get down SOCKO for 30, which I think is a good double-O play!

A complicated win at table 2 with David Boys (Dorval QC) defeating Jeremiah Mead (Chelmsford, MA), 517-276. This massive win came despite David passing up on playing the triple-triple CLUSTERY. He held CUTESYL and there was an R one short of the top right triple word score. He thought of CLUSTERY, but didn't know for sure if it was good. If it wasn't, he'd lose his turn and let Jere have a try at that plum opening. So, he opted to play the safer CUTLERY in that spot and was "rewarded" the next two turns with natural bingos: EMERITUS through the I for 72 and OVERTOOK from the O for 98. Earlier in the game he'd gotten down POWERING through the I for 70 and DIStEND for 77. For his part, Jere added an RE and created REPOWERING and he made solid X and Z plays: OXIM for 46 and SIZED for 34.

At table 12, Jerry Lerman (Foster City, CA) played Joe Weinike (New York, NY). They were both intense but smiling and I couldn't tell who had won. It was Joe's two-point win, 381-379. They both had enjoyed the game a lot. Nothing like a well-played game, even if you lose! Jerry got down MISTAKER from the M for 80 and OPIATING through the A for 69. Joe played FLaVORED for 72 and PROTYlS for 76. Jerry ended with that famous "no time penalty" final clock of 0:00!

It is early yet for predictions, so I'm not going to go in that direction, but it does give us all a little hope for our games when the 20th seed is undefeated in 1st place!

Time for tea and then two more games. One more round robin paired game and then the last round will be swiss paired.

This round's recorded game matched Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) vs. Sam Kantimathi (El Dorado Hills, CA).