2013 CNSC

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Commentary: Round 7

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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 7

Bloated and full we resume the afternoon session 15 minutes early, or most players do. There will be no penalty for those that start on time, but the vast majority was ready to go early so Mad did as the mass wanted.

We have another annotator this round, Jim Wallenberg. He is shadowing Lisa Kessler this round and will be emancipated to do a game by himself pretty soon since I think he's annotated before. We have an embarrassment of riches in terms of annotators at this event.

Jim Nanavati (Burlington ON) s. Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom (Montreal QC). They are up to their elbows in an endgame chat, tiles all over the place on the sides of the board, the table. I see OXIdATE, CANDIDER, BANNERET, HOARIEST, HEADMAST, and NEPHrITE.

Morris Greenberg (Brookline, MA) slips by me and says "5-2." Hearing impaired, I hear "502," and run to his board to see. Well, it was a 442-399 win against Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON) that got Morris to 5-2, +411. I see Morris' early DOTTINg, TOLLERS, and INNERVE. Late in the game, Chris played a bingo bongo: EXTERGES* from the E and AdRENAL. As I'm writing up notes, Chris comes back from the zyzzyva machine to tell me that his E bingo was not good. Morris says he was not liking it much, but he didn't want to take the chance.

I am going all Chicago Manual of Style on Chris Lipe, which is making him mock grumble on me. I've been very light with his stuff, actually, promise! So much colour, it just radiates off the guy!

Jackson Smylie (Toronto ON) vs. Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON). The clock is running for a long time on Jason's side. The score is 356-294 with one in the bag. Jason holds AADGGIV and Jackson has AADIIQS. Jason needs a miracle. I see his ENTOILs and Jackson's CoNTRITE and RESULTS. Jason ends up playing GAD, draws a last tile G out of the bag and it is all but over.

Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) vs. Dean Porporo (Nepean ON): Dean plays WARFARIN and a couple turns later SEASIDES, hooking to make WARFARINS. Jesse gets down oUTSETS and NAVIGATE and loses by 8. He has a complicated situation whereby if he'd gotten the Q he could have won, but Dean got it.

I watch the last two plays in the Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) vs. Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON) battle. They play fast and the annotators are barely keeping up so it takes a few for the dust to settle. I glean some things: Adam got away with DODDLES# because she wasn't totally sure (a direct quote, "I admit I'm a bit rusty on my three D bingo studying...") and she got rid of some drek by playing OIDIA. In the endgame she had to play through some ugly consonants for her win. Second to last rack: GEHRRWY to which she played WHERRY and then DGNTVWQ. They are both now 6-1. Hearty congrats to Robin for being the first one to give Adam a loss.

"He got me good," says Randall Thomas (Calgary AB) of his game with John Stardom (Ottawa ON). Early on, Randall played INVIRILE and John replied with VAnISHED through the I. A fe turns later John played AZEL/EVAnISHED for 52. He also go away with FoMATES* which neither of them knew was bad until an after-game lookup. John was blushing a bit with embarrassment, but he always kind of blushes. It was a 446-353 win for the one with Star in his name. :) On the realistic side, John had ONLY ONE I in that whole game. A trophy to Randall for dealing with 8 others!

Sue Tremblay (Carlsbad Springs ON) runs by in her flowery sundress and whispers, "I beat Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) last round!" She is beaming, she is smiling so wide.

Chris Lipe writes:

Postprandial Opening Rack Quizzes:

John Robertson (Cambridge ON) holds EFIJKL? going first. Lilla Sinanan (Stoney Creek ON) holds EEELOT? going first. Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) holds AAEHNP? going first. Jackson Smylie (Toronto ON) holds ABDELSX going first. Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) holds ENNRW?? going second. Tony Leah (Ajax ON) opened with WIGHT. And you can't play GNATWREN#. Mark Edelson (Toronto ON) holds ALNSUU? going first. Kristiina Overton (Maxville ON) holds ERRSVWZ going first. Juraj Pivovarov (Calgary AB) holds EILNNOT going first.

John played KIF. Lilla played OE. Jeremy played HANAPEr. Jackson played AXLED Joel played ReNoWNS Mark played UNUSuAL Kristiina played REV Juraj played LINO

Which of these are best and which would you play differently?

Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) is playing Dean Porporo (Nepean ON) and WARFARIN is on the board. Dean plays SEASIDE putting the mouse on WARFARIN. Don't put the G on it, though, unless you're playing Collins. Max Panitch (Toronto ON) vs Allen Pengelly (Waterloo ON), EUXENITE is on the board. Nice play! That's a five-vowel eight I haven't thought about in a long time. Funny how some things, you know, and review, and then don't hear about the word for years. I hope I haven't missed that bingo since I last reviewed it.

As I walk by Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON) playing Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON), Matthew shows me his rack. It is, um, he would have had FUNCKIa #, except the letters were spelling the TWL bingo. The only place to play the bingo was into is S, so of course, you HAVE to try it. Down goes F***INGS#, and up it comes again. "I'm going to switch (to CSW)" Matthew said afterward. "I'm never picking that word up off the board again."

Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) and Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON) are heading to the challenge computer -- Dielle's outbingo TRICLADS is good. Sadly, it means she only loses by 24.

What do you do with a drecky rack with three A's and two G's? Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) cleaned it up with (H)AGGADA, but Andrew Golding (Verdun QC) ways right there to put the mouse on it, playing RUBS/HAGGADAS for a bunch.

Roger Cullman (Toronto ON) had an exciting end to his game against Andy Saunders (Guelph ON). With 11 seconds on his clock, Andy did not block Roger's EN(R)ICHeR for 90 and out.....to lose by 4. After the game, Roger immediately saw that aRCHINE played for 98....those eight points were pretty important in context. Had he taken the time to find the better bingo, Roger said, he would have gone overtime and lost anyway. Alas.