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WPC 2008 Commentary: Round 23

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, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23.

Round 23

Dave Wiegand (USA) is working his magic again. He just had a 544-454 win against Tim Adamson (USA). Tim made a great nine: UNBURDENS for 70 through the UR. He also played ANTLERED for 100, AIERIES for 76, and TONaLITE from the T for 71. Dave played BORACItE for 92, PARTITE for 71, and MADRASA for 89 + 5.

Another near 600 game for Travis Chaney (USA): 581-361, versus Amnuay Ploysangngam (THA) this round. I see HUARAcHE through the first A for 86 and ADJOINT for 96. He admits that he tried WAULKRIFE* and Amnuay challenged it off. He points out that WAUKRIFE is good. On his next turn, he played WAULKING to reach the triple. Amnuay played EMPTIES. Sam Kantimathi (USA) played Michael Early (USA). Their board is mostly torn up, but they still want to talk to me about it. At this hour, on this last day of the event, I need airline runway lighting to point me toward plays. I cannot write down "ABCZEDF, did I mention the M was blank, no I played through the W, no the T" without a lot of visual assistance. I've even forgotten player names. I flat out looked at Jim Kramer (USA) once and said, "What was your name again?" hahahah. Anyway, I glean that Mike played UNSERIOUS from the UN and FLATIRON. Sam played JATOS for 56 and gENSENG. Poor Sam had to spell that for me about three times. Anyway, the kinda cool thing was that PHOTO was on the board and Sam was ONE LOUSY TILE AWAY from PHOTOSYNTHESIS! Now, wouldn't that have been something?! Sam's win this round, 417-391.

Femi Awowade (Eng) is on fire, totally. He just, in this round suffered his first loss of the day. A couple of rounds ago, I saw him in the front row of tables and I commented on how nice it was to see a change of scenery. He agreed wholeheartedly! He played at the annotated board 1 this round and lost to David Eldar (AUS), 390-450.

Geoff Thevenot (USA) wants to relate how important it is to remember that there is no such thing as a totally comfortable lead. This round he played Nawapadol Sayavesa (THA).sam ZONER for 48 goes down for Geoff. A few turns later, Nawa played MIGS, hanging the M into the triple lane. The 158-point triple-triple pREADMIT played through that and Geoff was up by 150 points by turn four. Well, then Nawa had some better tiles and played TIPToED for 80 and IBEX for 58. Nawa was playing quickly and Geoff had used up a lot of time. In the endgame, Geoff's lead was down to 1 measly point. It came down to getting the J and knowing how to use it: JEDI for 31. In the end, it was a 465-416 win for Geoff, but he believes that he barely outran Nawa for that win. Earlier in the event, Nawa had beat Geoff, so he really wanted to settle the score!

I watch Robert Linn (USA) bending in, doing endgame chatting with Theresa Camilleri (MLT). His grin is wide. I can see he is enjoying playing her. She has that fun accent and she is so intense about plays made, potential plays not made, and the endless what ifs. She creamed him, he said, 449-354. I decide to not bug them too much for specifics so that the could continue to chat. I see cARPETED, SOURDINE, OUTRATES, and BEFOOLING. As I'm about to move on, I hear them mention that they will both be at the Causeway event in Malaysia.

Well, the game of the event took place midway through the field this round between Mark Kenas (USA) and Sam Dick-Onuoha (USA). By the time I find the game, Mark is nowhere to be found and Sam is busy chatting with others, apparently not about the game. Just so that you know I'm not typoing, this is a fantastically high score: 739-285. Mark started the rampage with a bingo-bango-bongo of SPEArED for 74, FAGOTERS for 77, and MOLESKIN for a 102-point double-double. He later played STANGED for 95 and then CORELATE through the R for a 140-point triple-triple. I see Sam's REOrDERS to the S and his attempt of YONGIES*, which Mark challenged off. This is a 454-point game difference. Most people don't even earn 454 points, set aside WIN OR LOSE by this many!

There is an air of efficiency punctuated with punchiness in the air as we ready for the last round. It has been decided that our step-in alternate ought to get a crack at Nigel Richards (MYS) for the last round. I can't wait to see that!

David Eldar (AUS) will play Geoff Thevenot (USA) at the annotated game 1 and Nawapadol Sayavesa (THA) will play Marty Gabriel (USA) to see who gets 2nd-5th.