2013 CNSC

Go to: Commentary Games Players Standings Photos TSH Reports Scoreboard Prizes

Back to CNSC 2013 Live Coverage

Commentary: Round 10

[ ]

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, Award Ceremony, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, After the Tournament.

Round 10

During this afternoon tea break, which was pretty long, I caught Risa Horowitz sleeping on a coach right next to Joshua Castellano (Vienna, VA) who managed to play an entire game and beat his dad, Vince Castellano. The players really kicked back. Mad Palazzo again let players start before the break was over if they wanted. Peer pressure managed to get most games to start early.

James Leong (Vancouver BC) has chocolate again today. While his clock was running I stole a tiny bit from a bag on his table. His opponent, John Stardom (Ottawa ON) is having one of those games. He opened with GABBIER and then played MISENTER to the R down from the top middle triple. I swing by later and see James' CORSLET, but later on John played iNTERIOR and then PLEASURE and it was all over. A 520-373 win for John.

Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) looks great today in a ruffly linen blouse, low slung black jeans, a chunky black necklace, and a Star of David necklace (she tells me later she borrowed it from her son, Oliver). You can see this game in the annotated section, but I'd like to point out that early on there was RECIPES and YENTA on the board: a fitting board for Robin! The high point was her 158-point triple-triple BONDSMEN. She says she is looking for the highest scoring hotel related award. :) She visits us after the game is over and says, "This is my favorite tournament of all time. You want to know why?" We nod. She goes on, "I can talk about the letter zed as much as I want and no one laughs at me and they know what I'm talking about. And, I can end all my sentences in 'eh' and no one bats an eye." I kick Chris under the table because we may not count, but we think all this "zed" talk is weird. shhhhhh.

Morris Greenberg (Brookline, MA) vs. Eric Tran (Calgary AB). This game has Chris and me mystified. It turns out there is no mystery, it is just a phony: GOITERINg* was Eric's. He also got down TETRADS. Morris played ANTHELIA and LOCATERS. Eric's win, 463-402. There was so much chattering after this game, James Leong (Vancouver BC) joined in to check it out, that they were all shushed pretty strongly by nearby games.

Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom (Montreal QC) vs. Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON). I see AiRDATES, WEAZAND, and SPENdERS on their in-progress board. This is one of the last games to finish and Gabriel runs out and tells Chris that he lost and thinks he is out of it. He assumes Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) won, but he didn't.

Jackson Smylie (Toronto ON) sits down with a master this round, Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON), and they have a great game. I see REDEPlOY, ALAnINS, SARTORII, URALITE, and NOODLES. Zev wins, 421-404, but it was Jackson who ran the slip up to the data entry folks. He returned and Zev shared some insights about their game. Jackson listened intently.

I see Steve Ozorio (Mississauga ON) and Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) at the challenge machine and RELENTER* is ruled unacceptable. Jesse tells me later I can say it was him. He said that Steve played a really good game and endgame and went on to win that game.

Joshua Castellano (Vienna, VA) vs. Barbara Bultz (Dollard-des-Ormeaux QC): POUTING and SHaNTeYS.

Sue Tremblay (Carlsbad Springs ON) vs. Allen Pengelly (Waterloo ON): MOnGRELS and AXLETREE, which he played and she challenged!

Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON) vs. Chris Williams (Vancouver BC): THIMBLES played through an H, FElINES (blank L), SARCOID, and JAILERS/MIBS for 76 gets put down as I watch.

On a Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON) vs. Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON) board: SURGING for a 72-point Shan opening and then 75 for Chris' WHODUNIT (such a cool word!).

Yvonne Lobo (Mississauga ON) vs. Mike Ebanks (Calgary AB). She saw me take notes and then found me later on to bring me over to show me her board, which had been picked up. Thanks Mike Ebanks (Calgary AB)! Fortunately I had some notes. He played SMEWING and she got down MANURED and UREDIAL early on. Then later in the game, she played ACIDNESS and he replied with DIETING down the triple lane. Then the skies parted, the angels sang, and she picked QWERTYS right out of the bag and made an outbingo with it! Her win, 430-300, thanks to a bunch of points from Mike's rack.

Marilyn Wilkins (Richmond BC) vs. Chuck Abbate (Quispamsis NB): CONFIDER, RAMiLIES, EIDOLON, TEARERS.

Heather McCall (Toronto ON) vs. Lilla Sinanan (Stoney Creek ON). In a game where there are 9 Is, arguably, by many to be TOO MUCH, how funny to find both blanks designated at Is in this game! Eleven Is, do I hear 12? TERBIAS, ENCHAIN, ASINiNE, VELOURS, and iDEATING are on their in-progress game.

Roger Cullman (Toronto ON) vs. Priya Fernando (Mississauga ON): game is going, I see TIRADInG and RESIDUAL.

Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) v. Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC): MATUrES, LEATHER, INEPTLY, CARNIES, and VROUWS (love that dump!).

In his game against Sary Karanofsky (Cote Saint-Luc QC), Andrew Golding (Verdun QC) played RAMONAS. After it was over, he realized OARSMAN would have been better, but he is okay. A 122-point win can do that for a person!

Chris Lipe writes:

Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON) has just played ZLOTY against Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON). It's easy to forget that this word takes the mouse. Coming back a short while later I see WHODUNIT on the board, and I find that Chris is the answer.

Walking by Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON) and Chris Williams (Vancouver BC) playing, Jim looks at me and says, "The board was hit by an earthquake." Sure enough, it is one of the newer Mattel boards, probably from the last World Scrabble Championship in Poland, and these brand new commemerative CNSC tiles are just slightly too big to fit in the new minified Mattel squares. Each tile is slightly off, askew, or otherwise tilted, not quite securely fit in its space.

Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) is holding IRRRSW? against Sinna Vijayakumar (Mississauga ON), and gets down WoRRIERS through an E.

Okay, sometimes I feel like I should play Scrabble standing up and to the side of the board, because it's way easier to find things when you're looking over the player's shoulder. We've all seen this. In short order, Roger Cullman (Toronto ON), playing Priya Fernando (Mississauga ON) is holding AIILNQU and misses AQUILINE for 101. Then at the board across the aisle, Randall Thomas (Calgary AB) misses a natural TELEOST against Andy Saunders (Guelph ON). The appropriate response is already on this board -- AAR(G)H. I kinda wish you could play AAR(G)GHHH* for a 3x3.

Dean Porporo (Nepean ON) is holding CITTTY? against Kristiina Overton (Maxville ON). That rack is one T too many from having some awesome things in it.

Sue Tremblay (Carlsbad Springs ON) and Allen Pengelly (Waterloo ON) -- Mad Palazzo comes up to me and whispers, "AXLETREE?" Sure enough, someone has played it. Nice play!

Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) and Steve Ozorio (Mississauga ON) have a cool spidery-looking board. UREDInIA, WOODSIER, TERRAIN, ALIENERs, GALEATEs*.... wait that blank is an S and that's not good. As my eyes hit the last bingo, Steve and Jesse pop up from the table and head to the challenge computer. Scratch that last one, Jesse is picking up his tiles.

Shan and Chris Sykes are done, and sure enough, Shan hit RETsINA / ZLOTYS late, but it wasn't enough, as Chris won 438-366. Shan's downfall was playing PHONIST* against Chris, which came off the board, despite it being self descriptive -- what else would you call a player of phonies?

Jesse is holding BEATLES* now. Not even the Fab Four could help him on this board.

Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) and Bernard Gotlieb (Montréal QC) call me over to their board. They were discussing what Bernie's second play should have been. The game opened with BLINI at H4, OFF at I6, and Bernie is holding ABEIOSU. What would you do? I reckon either 10F BOUSE for 25 or 5E BOULE for 14?

Jesse has Steve Q-stuck, but nothing will pull this game out of the dumpster. The Q makes it close but Steve prevails 446-408.

I overhear Mark Edelson (Toronto ON) talking to his opponent. Mark had opened with OVOLI keeping S?. In most tournaments, the correct opening here is MOOLVIS# and then feign confusion as you walk towards the CSW challenge computer. There's no CSW division here, though, so OVOLI seems all right.