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WPC 2008 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, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23.

Round 4

Michael Early (USA) vs. Dave Wiegand (USA). I get pulled over to the completed game by Bryan Pepper who is particularly excited by Dave's last two plays. He hooked ED atop QUID, knowing that Mike held AEO. There was nothing Mike could do. So, Dave's outplay was DIGIT/TED to win the game, 390-384. Mike wanders over and points out Dave's 112-point REZONES. Midway through the game, Dave put a D into the triple lane. Holding AEEIONP, Mike slapped down OEDIPEAN. Dave drily quipped, "You're welcome." Mike also played OuTSPELT. What fun!

Cultural lesson #13. There is a guy here from Kuwait: Shakir Reshamwala (KWT). Everytime I see him, I expect him to start shaking his whole body while I hum a Shakira tune. Holding back until round 4 to confess this, he stroked his beard and smiled at me. "Well, the names are similar. Just add an A." I nod and he says, "Shakir means grateful, so it follows that Shakira is a female grateful." He did say this, just in case you think I'm misquoting. I mention that the Shakira pop star we know is of Latin descent, and then worry that I'm wrong. He tells me that she is actually Lebanese. And, there was a game I was at, right. I see Shakir's sPORTING and John's PETECHIA from the P, RADISHES, RELAXINs, and the fun COULTER. It wasn't a bingo, but it drew a challenge and went from a 26-point play to a 31-point play. John jokes that Shakir frustrated him by blocking John's WEIGELIA to the last A.

Michael Early (USA) tells me that of his four games two were recounts today.

I see some pretty purple and white SmoothTiles. Chris Cree (USA) says, those are the colors of my daughter's school: Texas Christian.

Albert Hahn (CAN) also has a Bob's Bible. His is softback but flipped open the second his games are over. In this round's game, he lost to Jean McArthur (USA), 389-405. I see RIOTISE, dRONING, and TINDERS on their board.

Femi Awowade (Eng) vs. Steve Polatnick (USA): ReTINULA was played to the A, then the E was added later.

A 600 game! Peter Armstrong (USA) vs. Nick Ball (USA). A 602-366 win for the British astronomy postdoc. Chris Cree (USA) wanders over and maes fun of Peter, saying he lost his blowout by less than Peter did. There is humor in shared misery, I think. I see Nick's GLADSOME played through the D, INSTEAD, JAVA/JA (for tons o' points), LESIONED, OLEaRIA, and ROnDINO. Peter played LUXATION and wants me to note his lovely rack of QWWEEIG.

David Eldar (AUS) vs Amit Chakrabarti (USA), one of the last games to finish. I see David's GALLOPED and ORGUE, the latter drawing a challenge. He also played DESIRES and Amit got down ReNNASE.

Time for lunch!