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WPC 2008 Commentary: Round 8

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 8

Michael Early (USA) vs. Travis Chaney (USA) and all Mike wanst to mention is Travis' find of ORANGIER for 80. I like it, too! Mike played COBbLERY or 84, ALIENEES for 62, GENDARME for 78, and STOOPER for 69. A big win for Mike, 541-273.

Theresa Camilleri (MLT) played Peter Armstrong (USA) this round. As I walk by, I see her gingerly place down oUTGUARD through the A for 77. Peter held and then challenged her. As she walked back from the machine, she did a huge "phew" gesture to me and Wilma. Other Theresa plays: CORELATE for 83, KINDLIER for 92, and EUTROPIC for 69. I see Peter's FLAVINEs and SODAINE. I also spot RAVELIN on the board.

"The nicest game I have ever played," said Amit Chakrabarti (USA) of of game this round against Phil Robertshaw (Eng). I'm drawn to Amit's POLJE for 30. He also played TAPHOLE for 67, MANGEAO for 76, and LOTOSES for 76 (which drew a challenge, so toss in 5 more!). Phil played ACETONES for 90 and P?YRIDINE for 76. Amit's win, 457-419. Phil is such a lovely guy to play and had Amit lost, I bet he still would have thought it the nicest game. There is just something to trying your hardest against someone else also trying his hardest. I think we need to make SCRABBLE an Olympic sport!

Some people call Adrian Tamas (ROM) "Tamas" and others call him "Adrian." Seeking to call him the "right" name (with a nod toward cultural sensitivity), I asked him which it was. He sussed me out, probably listenting to my accent and said, "Okay, think "Rocky" and think about 'Yo! Adrian!' That is my name." I'm like, I got it, I got it! An aside about Adrian, who speaks English better than me. He claims to be from Romania, but he lives in Japan and speaks fluent Chinese.... Go figure this "child of the Universe" out! This round, he had a big win against Michael Quao (GHA), 511-350. Looking over their board, I see BEMOANER, ARMOZEEn, SUGARIER, and DESPITE: All for Adrian. XYSTI jumps out as a word that garnered someone a lot of points based on its positioning.

Nick Ball (USA) and Joanne Craig (AUS) take a word judge machine field trip. SPINOSE is good!

Tim Adamson (USA) vs. Femi Awowade (Eng). I see URANITIs, GUILEFUL, and LEATHERS on their in-progress board. As I watch, Tim puts down PRONAtE/TE, designating the blank before he hits Femi's clock.

So, a great game is going on between Howard Warner (NZL) and Dave Wiegand (USA). The only thing I really care about, though, is the top row of the game. On the left side is the word ROMANTIC and on the right is VIEW. It looks like a real estate ad! Turns out that Dave won that game and played both of those words! 89 for one and 30 for the other!

Chris Cree (USA) squared off with Anthony Ikolo (NGA) this round. I see DIAMONdS, AIRFARES, WONINGS, CYTOS?NE, and BOOZEY on their board.

John Luebkemann (USA) is a punchy mood today. His luggage has been missing for two days now and he's frustrated with things outside of SCRABBLE. He was beginning to get frustrated with things INSIDE SCRABBLE when he was down 128-10 to Nawapadol Sayavesa (THA) this round. Then, they exchanged bingos: Nawa's UNPOSeD for 79 and John's TAWNIES for 75. And then, pants on fire, John got a bingo-bingo and slammed down ELEGITS for 76 and RUTURIEr from the first R for 74. It was his win, 405-359. Fortunately, a good game can distract us from having no toiletries or clean clothes.

John O'Laughlin (USA) ends his playing day with a big win against Geoff Thevenot (USA), 515-396. I see Geoff's BEATHED and John's KNITTER, as a double-double through the first T. Other fine words: Geoff's NACEINE and INTURNED and John's EPIScIAS and TENAILLE.

Shakir Reshamwala (KWT) has a shirt on that says Kuwait Times. I ask him about it and he tells me that he is employed there as a writer, that they helped underwrite part of this trip to get an article from him about it, and that they have done this before. I say: Nice work if you can get it! Way to go Shakir! On his game this round vs. James Sekyi (GHA), I see DIALECTS and HISTOnE.

"I've had five blanks thus far today," says David Eldar (AUS). I do the math and figure that is out of 16. Not a good ratio. He went into this round as the only undefeated player in the room. And he got Nigel Richards (MYS) at board 1. He tells me he lost by 50 or so. Both he and Nigel end the day 7-1, which isn't a bad thing at all!

Carmel Dodd (AUS) played Sam Kantimathi (USA) this round. I see EVILEST and REoRDERS on their board. He explains that he had to try to draw to a bingo toward the end and it didn't work out.

Sanmi Odelana (Eng) wants to make sure that I know that he played TRIZONES wtih the Z on the triple letter and that he made 124 points for it!

About 13 of us head off to see the new James Bond flick tonight! How positively "Americun" of us!