2016 CNSC

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

Back to CNSC 2016 Live Coverage

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, After the Tournament.

Round 4 Auto-Commentary

Max Panitch (Toronto ON) remains in the lead, 4-0 +632, on a 4-game winning streak. Michael Fagen (Montreal QC) is +607, on a 4-game winning streak, #2 climbing from #3. Eric Tran (Calgary AB) is +541, on a 4-game winning streak, #3 climbing from #6. Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON) is +446, on a 4-game winning streak, #4 improving from #5. Dean Saldanha (Richmond BC) is +341, on a 4-game winning streak, #5 leaping up from #10. Mike Ebanks (Calgary AB) is 1 game behind at 3-1 +586, #6 climbing from #12. Jason Li (Dollard-Des-Ormeaux QC) is +362, #7 down from #2. Tony Leah (Ajax ON) is +339, #8 slipping from #4. James Leong (Vancouver BC) is +304, #9 dropping from #8. Ryan Chepita (Ottawa ON) is +269, #10 rising from #14.

High Win: Andre Popadynec (Toronto ON) 544-368 vs. Marcela Kadanka (Toronto ON). Low Win: Sary Karanofsky (Cote Saint-Luc QC) 388-215 vs. Nicholas Schneider (Pickering ON). High Loss: Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON) 426-436 vs. Andrew Golding (Montreal QC). Low Loss: Nicholas Schneider (Pickering ON) 215-388 vs. Sary Karanofsky (Cote Saint-Luc QC).

Round 4

After a pretty warm and sunny day yesterday, the Canadian spring has resumed with cold rain today. The natural refrigeration keeps the blossoms on the trees longer!

Global News at 5:30 did a great piece on the School SCRABBLE challenge against Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON). You can see it online at:

http://globalnews.ca/video/2700941/a-scrabble-master-takes-on-the-beat-middle-school-players-in-the-gta-ten-teams-at-once

An ever-ambitious Jackson Smylie is attempting to annotate board 2 by himself this round. Lisa Kessler and Risa Horowitz are annotating table 1. Jackson has his laptop at the end of the table where he’ll hopefully be able to lean from side to side to glance at the racks. I’ll keep my eye on him to see how he does!

This Bond Place Hotel is nearly perfect for this event: each game at its own table with comfy chairs. But there is one problem: the tables are ever so slightly narrow from side to side. This means the players have to be careful when turning the board to not dump their opponents’ tiles and racks onto the floor. They will get better at it as we go, but so far I’ve seen many go off the table each round.

I wandered into the playing room, about 10 minutes in the round, when Joshua Sokol (Montreal QC) leaned forward to tell me something with his clock running. I almost wanted to stop him, but I heard him say “water in trophy.” I looked over to the alcove about 6 feet behind him and sure enough, water was pouring INTO the CNSC trophy! It was coming through the holes around an embedded light at the top of the alcove. I ran out and the hotel staff came in with buckets, towels, and before long we were catching what we are assured is “air conditioner condensation” into the large white bucket they’ve now placed into the alcove. The silver cup was removed from the trophy, emptied, and dried to a mirror bright finish by the embarrassed hotel staff. “See? Just like new! All better, all fixed!”

A sort of slow start to the James Leong (Vancouver BC) vs. Matthew Tunnicliffe (Ottawa ON) game. I see James’ AWARDERS and a lot of thinking, so I move on. About 15 minutes later, James’ NETTiNG and Matt’s SWErVED have gone down and a nonbingo but pretty FEUDALIST. It was a tense, close endgame and I’m told that before I arrived, James tried REAWARDS* which came off. In the end, a win for Matt, but one he sweated to earn, a good game.

On the Joshua Sokol (Montreal QC) vs. Eric Tran (Calgary AB) board, I see qUESTED. After about 15 quiet minutes, Eric played bITSIER.

A 10-point in for Adam Logan (Ottawa ON), 391-381, against Mark Edelson (Toronto ON). Back-to-back Mark bingos: aNGLICE for 75 and TRAILED for 94 created an early lead that Adam had to overcome. I saw his UTILiZED for 78, but missed the very end, which was probably good, because he was well behind then! Other fun words: MINIMA and KENCH.

Christopher Sykes (Cambridge ON) vs. Ryan Chepita (Ottawa ON): ARTSIEST, rEAGENTs, and LOITERS.

KaNTELE, COOLING, and MOMENTs jump off the Anna Miransky (Toronto ON) vs. Carl Madden (Brantford ON) board.

A barn burner went down this round between Trevor Sealy (Oshawa ON) and Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC). I see Trevor’s NoODLES and UNMUTED and then Jesse’s INSIDERS and GRATINEE. A bit later, Jesse played OUTRAGES to get the last E. Trevor slapped down AAHING for 35, taking the lead. Jesse then played out, but it was a tie game: 412-412!

Ross Brown (Ottawa ON) vs. Eli Shupak (Toronto ON): EMOTIONS and FILAREES.

Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON) vs. Andrew Golding (Montreal QC). Sam may have OUTDREW him, but it was a 10-point win for Andrew, 436-426. The game ended just as I walked up and they smiled and shook hands with a lot of gusto, happy about their “great game.” I see RETICEnT, REPENTING through the PE, AUCtION, and the fun nonbingos BARFI and HANSE.

Water was contained until a glass spilled across the room from the dripping alcove. Fern Lindzon (Toronto ON) to the rescue with 120 napkins. The drenched Mike Wise Memorial Tournament tilebag will need some squeegee-ing and drying out, but we found a NASPA bag for the nonce.