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NSC 2009 Commentary: Round 1

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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 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament.

Round 1

Jim Hughes (Austin, TX) started the event surrounded by the wonder of synchronicity. He and roommate Michael Donegan (Austin, TX) were lucky enough to be playing at the same table with two "babes" who also happened to be roommates. I asked who said babes were and just at that moment, the announcement came that division 3 pairings had been redone. When I found him later during the round, his new round 1 opponent was Ossie Mair (Lauderhill, FL)!

We have two orthodox players at this event that are playing on their sabbaths. Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) uses a Travel SCRABBLE set of tiles to track and the a book from the 1960s by Dr Spock to keep score with two bookmarks (one for each player). The other player is Zach Pekarsky (Madison, WI). He is playing Pete Zeigler (Medina, OH) this round and the NSA's Megan Mills is keeping score for Zach and depressing his timer after each of his plays. After today's games neither player will need extra equipment or help to play.

Bryan Pepper, the division 1 director this year, saunters by for his first comment of the day. Early into this round three tables feature the same bingo: ETERNALS.

Joe South (Piqua, OH) is a local yocal. His town's newspaper, Piqua Daily Call, is doing a piece on him and his participation in this event. I took 11 glamour action shots of him playing his end game (long after his real game was over) to see if one was just right for the article. As luck would have it, these photos were taken at the end of a very good game for him, a 561-377 win against Roberta Wechter (Westfield, MA). Roberta opened with QI and Joe responded with ANIMALS/QIS for 73. He later played DIOPTEr for 82, VESTIGES for 65, and the 91-point, double-double LABIATED through the second A. Great game!

Alyssa Faria (Cambridge, MA) trounced Alan Stern (Shadow Hills, CA) this game, 451-333. Alan admits to finding NoDULES, but in addition to some other great plays, Alyssa played IRONIES and later SUAViTY for 85. What a suave move!

I see a small plane flying toward me in my periphery. No, maybe it is just a large bird. As it draws closer, I see the rainbow colors and then it registers: the giant scoresheet of Sam Kantimathi (Sacramento, CA) is about to land. He's just had a monster win against Ravee Joradol (THA), 534-387. A very pretty game, indeed. Sam played VENOMING for 76 (which drew a challenge), ROSULATe for 74, PENSIONE to the E for 83, GUTTLES for 76, and the phoney (in our dictionary) DIEBALD# for 72.

Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA) played Jeff Martin (Albuquerque, NM) (of the blue, blue eyes) this round. As I glance at his board, he says, "I lost to a real wise guy." Then I see it: Pakorn made the fun outplay of WISEGUy from the W and through the G. Jeff played TINGLER and Pakorn played REEDIER, OUTAGES, and the oh-so-pretty SNAPPILy. A 467-358 win for the man from Thailand.

Dave Leifer (Atlanta, GA) had the luck of being the one to play Nigel Richards (MYS) this round at the annotated board 1 in division 1. He held his end of the game, losing with a 347-404, to last year's NSC Champion. Each played one bingo: Nigel's rAREFIER and Dave's POLENTA. Check out their game in this round's annotated game!