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NSC 2009 Commentary: Round 8

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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 8

We started games at 9 sharp this morning. We are hoping today runs a bit more smoothly than yesterday where we have a player A, player B, player C, and player D incident. In round 1, A was supposed to play C and B to play D. But, instead, A played D and B and C sat around and played no game for round 1. So, we had two people that needed to make up a game after hours. We wanted B to play C, but lo and behold, they thought A should play C and a game was already underway! GASP! Poor Wendell Smith, who is running division 3, the largest one here. Sometimes it can be like herding cats! In the end, it all worked out and games are even. Let's hope we have no more of that kind of excitment though, okay?

In a normal week, Nigel Richards (MYS) bicycles 600 kilometers. Not knowing this, when he told us his hotel for the NSC was a 1 hour and 15 minute walk each way, we were startled. He assured us that 2.5 hours of walking per day was barely enough exercise and that he was taking the long way to make it stretch out even more. And some of us complain about having to walk across the street from the Crowne Plaza!

Undefeated this morning, Rafi Stern (Seattle, WA) played Bradley Whitmarsh (Attleboro, MA) in the annotated board 1 game. At the end of the round I looked at Bradley and he shook his head. I'm going to chalk this up as another Rafi win.

Game in progress between Vince Castellano (Fairfax, VA) and Nigel Richards (MYS). I see Vince's EVENTIDE from the first E to the triple and ENNEADS. Nigel has played GRATINEE. Some other stuff went down because it was Nigel's win, 501-321.

EARWAX jumps off a game between Alex Fiszbein (South Lyon, MI) and Cesar Del Solar (Redondo Beach, CA). Glancing at scoresheets, Cesar opened with the early rack cleaner of VACUA. I see SATIATE and NOiSETTE on their board.

On a Steve Oliger (Holtwood, PA) vs. Trish Harrop (Knoxville, TN) board I see Steve's FITMENTs and WANTONED.

EQuABLE. That word on a Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON) vs. Gabriel Wong (Vancouver BC) board made me stop and look it up. It is good!

Table 1 in division 2 this round features Joel Horn (Boston, MA) vs. Thomas Reinke (Middleton, WI). I see Joel's PaRODIES for 86 and Thomas' METALING for 74. It appears from the lines through the scoresheet that Thomas lost a couple turns due to plays he made being challenged off.

Table 1 in division 3 was Dave Leonard (Buffalo, NY) vs. Stephen DeBacco (Weirton, WV). I see Stephen's PLAISTER and ETESIAN and Dave's ATTUNING, TOUGHING, and FOLDERS.

Table 1 in division 4 was complete by the time I reached it. Gail Opperman (Marion, WI) defeated Max Karten (Barrington, RI), 416-393. I see the game's three bingos, all hers: INCITER, GAUNTEST, and BEMIRES (which drew a challenge from Max). Max is now 6-2.

Christopher Walleck (Lakewood, OH) vs. Aaron Daly (Sioux Falls, SD). Aaron played mEALIEST for 66 and GLASSED for 81. Chris got down INERTIAE for 67. Chris' win, 415-403.

Bouncing with happiness, Noah Lieberman (Charlotte, NC) tells me that he has won four in a row, this most recent round by bingoing out with AIRIEST in his game with Nola Hembrook (Marshfield, WI).

Joev Dubach (Somerville, MA) is 6-2 and he has won four in a row, too. His average score is about 398, which includes being beaten like a rented mule by Bradley Robbins (Windham, NH) earlier in the tournament. Joev didn't even break 300 in that game.

Matt Canik (Austin, TX) is 7-1 and he thinks some of this has been a gift. In this last round, he played TnRNKEY*. He, of course, meant to designate the blank as a U, but he said N and neither he nor his opponent noticed! Late in the game, still under the illusion that it was a U, Matt played FND* and they still did not notice! I assure him that once he moves up the ranks, "not noticing" will be less common!

Gene Tyszka (Mississauga ON) has a "Mike Wise" story and I always have time for a story about Mike. Gene played Mike many years ago and Mike tried REHIT*, which Gene challenged. Mike said, "give me your hand" and he proceeded to slap Gene's hand twice. He then said, "there, I rehit* you!" So, in this round, Gene's opponent tried REHITTER* and Gene didn't even hesitate to challenge!

Hannah Lieberman (Charlotte, NC) had a very exciting game with round with Linda Nervis (Dayton, OH). They used only half the board and LInda won by 21 points with a mere 2 seconds left on her clock!

Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA) vs. Adam Logan (New York, NY) table 2. A very closed board yielded a 330-32 win for Adam. Talk about defensiveness on both of their parts! I see that Adam got both blanks at the end and he played ReTINa for not much. Each player got down a nice bingo: Adam's MARROWS for 81 and Panupol's CRAVENS for 87. Panupol made two plays: LIBIDO and FONDING, where one did an overlay creating many small words.