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WPC 2010 Commentary: Round 4

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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 4

Bradley Robbins (USA) defeated Ebikeme Adowei (NGA) this round, 563-250. The board had been picked up by the time he turned in his slip. When I asked how it went, he said, "Well, I played CORNERS and DARTLING, which drew a challenge.... and, well, the other two I played I just can't remember." I assured our current National School SCRABBLE champion that I understood and appreciated his ability to remember two! It is worth nothing, that at 1, Bradley just spent the last week here in Dallas at the NSC, competing in division 2. So, this is many games over many days and with this second dictionary thrown in, I'm just wowed. He's doing very well!

Philip Nelkon (Eng) vs. Thavachai Thivavarnvongs (THA). I see YEX, PULLEY, NIDGETS, TEREDOs, and WEARIES. We are amazed at how well Philip is holding up after being delayed at DFW with a "white powder" scare this early morning. He was expected at midnight, but it became much later when a container of artificial sweetener broke in the plane's luggage hold. After circulating the luggage that had the powder in the airport carousel, they bags were then retained to determine what the substance was. Poor Philip, exhausted and in need of sleep, had to wait until 3am or so. He still made it to breakfast before the first game today and has managed to make it this far.

Travis Chaney (USA) vs. Geoff Thevenot (USA), the latter's win, 531-423. Geoff played ALGaTES and TENTiGOS and Travis played ORGASMIC, POINTiER (he played through the I), RAINOUT, and INCUBATES.

Puneet Sharma (USA) played one bingo, FRINGES for 70, to his opponent's three: bOORISH, for 72, SNAPPED for 92, and RAMJETS for 104. The NSC champ came out victorious, 523-297.

After a morning of three straight Americans, Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA) got himself an opponent from Britan, who used to live in the US, but now lives in Canada, Nick Ball (CAN). In a nestle-y kind of way (check out this round's photos for the board), Nick played REDDEST. Pakorn in back-to-back bingoes played first pOESIES and then fLORIST alongside this bingo, making an indecent and endless amount of parallel plays. Other plays: LENTICEL and CANOEINGS. A 491-415 win for the World SCRABBLE Champion Pakorn.

Wilma Vialle is surrpised. Her countryman, Chris May (AUS), accepted a phony bingo in his game with Judy Newhouse (USA). The play was GEESERS* for 76. I see Chris' OUTWILED for 60 and ORDAINER for 65. Phony notwithstanding, Chris' win, 440-301.

Gene Tyszka visits the WPC today. He's decided to stay over for a short vacation after the NSC. He does a coffee run, which many of us appreciate and he ends up chatting it up with Bob Lipton (USA). In the old days, Gene was on the other side of the dictionary issue. And he and Bob had disagreed heavily. They greeted one another and ended up laughing and shaking hands!

Brian Bowman (USA) played a game with Jim Kramer (USA) this round. Jim got stuck with a two-blank, one S rack. I asked Nigel Richards (MYS) to look it over and even he couldn't find the magic play that Jim might have made to wrestle a win out of that loss, 303-350. Jim says he made two errors in the game and the first one may have been the nail in his coffin. He tried SPIRULAR* and Brian helped him learn it by calling it off. Then, with his final rack, he tried EROSIONED*, which was a play of total desperation. Brian called it off. Jim said, "I gave it a 1/2% chance of being good."

Steve Polatnick (USA)vs. Nathan Benedict (USA). The game started with FOODIE and then had a blank S added. Other nice plays: INSECURe, MELODIA, and DEcEITS. Tons of fun small words: LETUP and YUGO from the TWL and IGAP), BEVUE, SAV, HOH from Collins.

The lovely Dielle Saldanha, who extended her time in Dallas by a couple of days to visit family, came by today. John is figuring out how to have her annotate a game or three while she is here, doing one side and the other side being done by a player him/herself. We'll see how it works.

Bryan Pepper also stops by, recovered from his Division 2 NSC duties. A few of us met for lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, my new favorite restaurant in Dallas!