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Back to 2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage

2005 Canadian National SCRABBLE® Championship Commentary: Round 2

Congratulations to the first-ever two-time Canadian Champion, Adam Logan!

Go to: Registration, 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, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, Final Round 4, After the Finals.


Round 2

So, I luck into the moment that Lou Cornelis (Ottawa ON) discovered that he'd let a phoney get by. The game was just over and he had his dictionary out to check a hook. The players were discussing the definition of DORE (an adjective that means "gilded," definition less important than the part of speech as adjectives aren't pluralized) and both weren't quite sure. As it turns out, this uncertainty permitted Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON) to play INDITES for 82, hooking on to make DORES*. Lou admits that he held on the play, really wondering if it was good. Turns out he let a bad one slip by, something we all do more than we'd like to admit! Jason won, 399-364. I see Jason's other bingo, ORIfICE for 67, and Lou's INURBaNE for 70.

Albert Hahn (Calgary AB) continues his winning streak, defeating Chuck Abbate (Quispamsis NB), 361-306. I see no bingos on the board, but do spot GLUTEI, PaRDO, and OOZEs. Chuck walks up and says that the only interesting thing about the game was deciding who went first. Before the game began, they drew tiles from the bag and both got the letter R. So, they tossed those in and then both drew out Es, but then Albert won the third and last draw to go first.

Quiet and not at her board, Heather McCall (Toronto ON), defeated Sinna Vijayakumar (Mississauga ON), 449-373. He kindly points out her nice bingos: SOOTIEST, fOLIAGES to the S, and RETAINED on the triple lane. Vijay, (as we like to call him), appears to have played DIVIDERs.

Glenn Mosher (Toronto ON) defeated Evan Berofsky (Thornhill ON) this round, 386-347. Glenn got down REASONER for 61 and CHILlIER for 89 (if there is blank confusion with that word, it should read CHILLIER) down the triple lane, and ORIENTAL to the L for 60. Evan got down PEONIES for 70. Glenn had an endgame goof. He tried to play NITRITED* and Evan let him know it was a nice try, but called it off (the play Glenn may have meant to play is NITRIDED).

On the stage, Adam Logan (United Kingdom) defeated Timothy Anglin (Scarborough ON) this round, 431-292. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this game is I didn't get the chance to speak to Adam at all because a photographer asked him to bring his game to the better lit SCRABBLE® rug area. Adam agreed. Then, the photographer asked Adam to lie on the rug near his game to pose for a photo. The shot was made close and tight with Adam's face near the board with the rug as a backdrop. It was great! And the normally shy shy shy Adam actually went along with this without a single complaint! Turns out that this photographer had taken photos of Adam before and admitted that this time went much easier. Other players peered over and made comments about how they wished their games were worthy of such attention.

One more game and then lunch!