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WPC 2010 Commentary: Round 27

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Go to: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29.

Round 27

Puneet Sharma (USA) vs. Kunihiko Kuroda (JPN) is a monster win, 530-304, for Puneet. He plays RELINING for 70, DAUtIES for 77, YONNIER* for 71, and the pretty pretty pretty TOLLGaTES from the TO for 68. I see Kurado-san's BLANK for 42 and MEADS For 42, perfectly placed in top left and top right sides for maximum points one row below the triple lane. Kurado-san was caught with XECIENT on this rack. Icky!

A Nigerian tree fell in the forest, but no one heard it because the Nigerian players picked up the tiles. That said, it was a game I longed to see between Fidelis Olotu (Eng) and Ebikeme Adowei (NGA). The only got to meet at this event! Fidelis is here for/from England, where he lives now. In the Nigerian match, Fidelis is worth about 50 points more, 477-427. It will be Ebikeme's turn to win next time.

"Well, I lost by 160," said Geoff Thevenot (USA) in response to how it went with Nigel Richards (MYS). This despite Geoff opening with HERsELF. Now, I ask you, are there no certainties in life? You open with a bingo, you are bouncing on your toes, you think you are a contender, you find out that you are wrong. I leave Geoff to the Chex mix on the kitchen counter. There's healing powers in food!

Eric Kinderman (USA) lost a game with Bradley Robbins (USA) the round based on a series of no vowel endracks. I see Eric's SOVRANs and Bradley's MEALIESt through the I and GANGLIER. DIXI was on the board and Bradley wasn't sure about it. A 440-364 win for the School SCRABBLE Champ. He is up to five wins in the event!!

"Sherrie Saint John, come here please." Yes sir, coming! Chris Cree (USA) calls me over to see a marvelous play by Brian Bowman (USA). Chris removes about 37 tiles and asks me to take a photo, I do. Then he says, okay, show her. And down went ADVECTION through the separated T and O for 106 points (including a challenge, I think). This turned out to be Brian's win, 537-450. Chris said, "Great job!" and shook Brian's hand.

WONKIER just jumps up and grabs me. It is on a Mark Kenas (USA) vs. Steve Polatnick (USA) board. This one is painful: it made my teeth hurt. The board has fun plays: aNTENATI, RUBIGOS, aLLEGES, ENGRIDS, and then, well, having to hope that Steve has ONE of the bad tiles left in the bag, Mark plays and draws 4, the last in the bag. The score is 389-345 in Mark's favor. From this plum opening, Steve slapped down LEADIEST for 72, catching Mark with such DREK: ZXTRENY, so add another 52 for that. And, well, Steve wins. I think Mark still had a fork in his eye as I walked away. This game... I tell you....

Travis Chaney (USA) vs. Bob Lipton (USA). Ah, pretty dEUTZIA, INDITERS, ONSHORE, IODATES, and TREACLE.

Darrell Day stopped by for a short visit today. I mean, he wasn't even here one full round! He looked around, poked at a few games, gave us hugs and then was off.

I decided to snoop. On one sheet of white paper (so both sides are unused), Nigel Richards (MYS) can fit a total of 8 games. A whole day's worth!