Go to: Commentary Games Players Photos Reports Standings

Back to NSC 2009 Live Coverage

NSC 2009 Commentary: Round 13

[ ]

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 13

One of the first games to finish this round was between Joel Elkins (Los Angeles, CA) and Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME). I make to go look at the board and Joel assures me there is nothing to see at table 9.

John Robertson catches me up on another episode of "As the Stomach Turns" in division 2. At the end of round 10, Connie Creed (Philadelphia, PA) and Laura Scheimberg (Littleton, CO) wrap up what was then a tied game. Both wanted a recount, but even more, both wanted a quick dash to the restroom. Running back to get their board, they discover to their horror that not only were their tiles picked up but a game was IN PROGRESS on their board. They called over John who wisely said, "Well, we can't do anything right now. Can you recreate it do you think?" They agreed they could so after round 11 and before heading off to lunch the two re-setup their game and sure enough, there were a few addition errors and Connie went on to win by more than 10.

Erica Norris Bodrazic (Phoenixville, PA) tells me of her 72 point PIROJKI play "sometime yesterday."

Sporting a crisp new T-shirt from Worldwinner.com that spells out SHIRT in large tiles across his chest, Ben Schoenbrun (Ardsley, NY) tells me about his round 11 game with Judy Horn (Boston, MA). After a recount, he lost, 346-347. She caught him with four tiles on his rack: HORN. Cute! And in round 4, Ben was happy to find CONTINENT through the EN for a 98 point double-double! He recalls having a 561 game against Marty Fialkow (Moorestown, NJ).

Worldwinner.com is a site for the 18 and over set, because players can earn money (which qualifies as gambling) for playing online games. One of the games is called SCRABBLE Cubes and it is widely popular. The company sent Tina here to set up shop in the after-hours room last night and tonight to show SCRABBLE Cubes to the players. It caught on like wildfire. Player who earned 700 points or more received a T-shirt for their efforts (the games in the after-hours room were open to all, even the under 18 players, just for the two after-hours sessions). Ben won a shirt for a score of 850. Tina tells me she watched him play and she was astounded. She said, "he found words I've never even heard before and they were all acceptable!"

Joel Horn (Boston, MA) tells me about playing his Lexington, MA, clubmate, Jamie Ryan (Raynham, MA) yesterday. Jamie played JUNIOR through the N for 42 and atop it, Joel played MAX/MU/AN/XI for 64 points. He says, "I was MAXimizing my score."

One more round to go today!