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NSC 2009 Commentary: Round 12

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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 12

Alan Stern (Shadow Hills, CA) greeted the players after lunch with an anagram of Dayton, Ohio: I don't yahoo! And then he said, clearly not a technology hub.... I'm not sure everyone got it!

Stuart Goldman (San Francisco, CA) played Sam Rosin (Bernardsville, NJ) this game and lost by only one point, 373-374. I see Stu's FEiGNING through the second N. Sam played CaTERANS and ABAYA on the triple for 42 points. Stu made one good challenge, calling off Sam's SPEINED*, and one bad challenge, SOFTS.

FLESHMENT through the EN (and it drew a challenge). Nigel Richards (MYS) found it in his game with Sammy Okosagah (Baltimore, MD), and won, 494-354. By the time I got there the board was gone and so was Sammy, a scribble of despair left in the middle of his scoresheet.

Well, the sole remaining undefeated player at the 2009 NSC fell this round in a doozy of an annotated division 1, board 1 matchup between Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) and Adam Logan (New York, NY). Congrats to Dave for his 411-389 victory. When asked how the game was, the annotators just wiped the sweat off their brows and said, "terrific." Not that they might have been avoiding real work or anything, but all three computers at the data entry table belonging to Andy Saunders, Steve Pellinen, and John Chew were focused on the Wiegant/Logan match and Andy only breathed out when the last play was made.

Beautiful, big, and oh so phoney: QUAVERINGS* appeared in a game between Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN) and Ben Withers (Houston, TX). I see ODONATES, IrITIS on the triple (goodbye cruel Is), and the fun play of JIBER by Ben for 67 and CAsH/JIBERs response by Jim on the triple for 47. It was Ben's win, 401-385, but passersby wonder how different the outcome would have been had Jim, who held DUR (after playing CAsH), had not emptied the bag with VWZL.

It wasn't his win, but everyone had to give Brian Bowman (Villa Hills, KY) props for PERITONEA through the separated R and second E in his game with Marlon Hill (Baltimore, MD) this round.

Joev Dubach (Somerville, MA) hands me a slip of paper containing info on two plays. "Round 1: OUTCRIED from the O for a 94-point double-double vs. Connie Breitbeil (Cincinnati, OH); lost, 413-408. Round 7: last play with GKNNRT?, KNIGhT through the I for 30, opponent went out, left with NR and won, 375-325 vs. Thomas Tremont (Glen Ellyn, IL).

It took a couple days, but I finally got a final tally. This year's NSC has 486 players! With unlimited playup, the divisions settled down to: Div 1-123; Div 2-90; Div 3-128; Div 4-93, and Div 5-52.