2016 CNSC

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Commentary: Round 14

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

Round 14 Auto-Commentary

Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) remains in the lead for the 4th consecutive round, 12-2 +1095, on a 5-game winning streak. James Leong (Vancouver BC) is 1 game behind at 11-3 +892, remaining steady at #2 for 4 rounds. Eric Tran (Calgary AB) is 2 games behind the leader at 10-4 +1140, hovering at #3. Joshua Sokol (Montreal QC) is +447, #4 up from #6.

High Win: Steve Ozorio (Mississauga ON) 536-261 vs. Sary Karanofsky (Cote Saint-Luc QC). Low Win: Yvonne Lobo (Mississauga ON) 354-322 vs. Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON). High Loss: Chris Williams (Vancouver BC) 426-444 vs. Joshua Sokol (Montreal QC). Low Loss: Sary Karanofsky (Cote Saint-Luc QC) 261-536 vs. Steve Ozorio (Mississauga ON).

Round 14

More food has been wheeled in: Italian today!

Our savior of the day is Gary Sagara! When asked if he would run to the Best Buy and get me a new card reader, he said, "Sure, but doesn't her laptop have an SD reader slot on the side?" Duh, yeah, it does... The laptop is only 9 months old—how was I to know everything about it?! A crimson-faced thank you to Gary!

I asked Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) how his annotated game 1 had gone with Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) and he said, "not that well, for me!" I see Adam a bit later and ask him and he says: "You know it is your birthday when your rack is OUULLSV and your opponent opens with VOW, giving you VOLVULUS." We needed the drums to do that da-da-da! See the rest of the game in the annotated game section!

Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) and Eric Tran (Calgary AB) were at it this round. Eric opened strong with BYZANT for 48. A few turns later the spigots turned on: Jesse's UNLOADER through the N in BYZANT; Eric's DECIARE; Jesse's INDEVOUT; and Eric's ATROCITY through the I (and Jesse thought it was one!). Later, Jesse got down AUToPEN and Eric put the nail in the coffin with DOLESOmE on the triple line. Having tracked well, right before Eric's last play, Jesse predicted JINGLE and down came JANGLED for 48. Good night Irene, 483-419 for Eric.

CANOPIES, HYALINE (blank L), GASELIER, ABaTEMENT on an in-progess Joshua Sokol (Montreal QC) vs Chris Williams (Vancouver BC). I see Joshua's DECALOW rack and Chris' FREHSKE rack and both are checking the bag for how many tiles are left (just 1). They are in that "take 13 minutes to finish this endgame out" mode, so I walk on by. I find out after it has been picked up that Joshua won, 444-426.

I see Fern Lindzon (Toronto ON) and Deen Hergott (Ottawa ON) talking with their hands, heads pressed toward the middle of their board, endgame analyzing. As I get over to check out their board, there are about 35 tiles that have been moved to the sides as they try one word after another in the "what if" scenarios. It was Deen's win, 452-296.

Andrew Golding (Montreal QC) brings me to his game with Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON). He said it was overwhelming to see Chris make 76, 74, and 68 plays to start the game (PURDULIN*, PONGEES, and AIGRETTE—not sure the orders, sorry). Andrew said Chris had 270 after four turns. Andrew managed to get down POETrIES but then picked DRECK and played it: DRECK. That meanie Chris came back with LIMY/DRECKY on the triple lane for big points. Despite getting away with RABIETES* toward the end, Andrew lost, 416-508.

I walked by John Stardom (Ottawa ON) vs. Mark Edelson (Toronto ON) toward the end of this round. They were both low on time, but John was particularly low. Their board looked fantastic, but I stayed far away. Any sort of attention when time is low can be excruciating and hurt performance. Long after it is done, but still breathing with a big of difficulty due to the effort, John brings me over. Here goes my attempt at summing it up: Mark played DOW and there are not many tiles left. John had ANEACO?. He thought he had mist racked, was already over a minute over on his clock, when Mark said, "Hey John, I think there is something wrong with the tile bag. I think we are missing tiles." John exhaled and said, "Yes! I agree, I am missing two tiles, but I figured I just mistracked and with me being into overtime, I didn't want to take the time to figure out my error." So, they called Mad Palazzo over. She felt around the bag. Sure enough, there were two reachable tiles, but two more that had wiggled into the lining of the bag that were not easily felt or reached. She took the bag away and pried the tiles out and put all four into a new bag with no pesky liner. With this new lease on life, John opted to play OCA, drawing three new tiles. He was down by 71 at this point and 20 off on his clock to boot. Mark played HONOR somewhere and now holding ANE?XIO, Mark slapped down ANOrEXIA to an A for 110. Even with his time loss (still only 20 points), the tiles from Mark's rack, AINV, helped John win the game, 426-411. He thanks Mark for his fair play in calling out the tile problem.

Lunch was fab! Lots of conversations and laughter!