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NSC 2009 Commentary: Round 3

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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 3

A new sabbath assistant has been employed for this round: Chris Wiegand. Zach Pekarsky (Madison, WI) is playing Frank Lee (Cincinnati, OH). Even if you couldn't recognize Frank by his hat (distinctive, brightly colored, and wizardly, despite being flat topped), you have to know him by his chair. He travels with his own rolling office chair, high backed, leather, comfy looking. I'm suspecting that he drives to events I see him at because the chair would not fit in an overhead compartment on a plane!

I miss the board, but can't help but see the smile. Bruce Adams (Rochdale, MA) has had a 661-346 game with Tony Leah (Ajax ON) this round. Bruce credits two plays: CRAWLErS through the first R for 167 points (triple-triple) and JAILS as an 84-point nonbingo.

I look around my desk for a rubber spatula as I'm soon going to need to peel Jason Keller (Highland Park, NJ) off the ceiling. He's just had his very first 600 game in a tournament. A 625-230 win against Scott Jackson (Milwaukee, WI). I guess Jason's five bingos were a big help in this monster win! SAPONITE, FuMBLES, JALAPENO, DIVErSE, and VOYEURS. When I ask about his first non-tournament 600 game and he says it was against his brother. I want to ask more, but all I see are his orange Crocs as he goes off to share his great win with others.

Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX) defeated Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) this round, 481-356. Per usual, Mike's game was one of the first in the room to finish and they are both gone.

Frank Tangredi (West Babylon, NY) points out the eight bingos on his board. He's just played David Whitley (Monrovia, CA). David opened with AUdITEE and also played REWArMED through the first E and TERRINES. Frank played BLOOdIER, LOWERED, SANDBAGS through the D, LACTATED through the first A, and RETILING through the E. Frank's win, 564-447. His second 500 game in a row. He could get used to this kind of thing.... Last NSC it took Frank three days to get three wins. He likes this year's winning progress much, much better!

Adam Logan (New York, NY) played Ross Brown (Kanata ON) this round. I asked it it was better to play a Canadian, if they used secret hand signals to keep score taught to them by the Mounties. They assure me there is no difference other than that they both love playing with the navy blue Canadian SCRABBLE Championship Protiles with maple leaf blanks. Ross opened with VARIA and Adam played ABILITY from the A. A nonbingo, nonevent play until the thought of front hooks crept in! Adam was busy thinking of them his mind in overdrive, until he put down DIS to create DISABILITY. Adam could have played ADORABILITY but didn't have the tiles. When the game was over, glancing over Ross' racks, Adam pointed out that Ross could have played OBSERVABILITY! That would have been a wowsa moment for sure! Adam's win, 476-343.

Despite having two bingos (TWEEDIER for 76 and DIASPORE for 65) to one (DEvEINS for 68), John Viloria (New York, NY) fell to Nigel Richards (MYS) this round, 356-419. Check out the whole game in the annotated game section!