CNSC 2011 Commentary: Round 6

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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, Award Ceremony, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3.

I catch on slowly. I keep correcting Chris' colour to say Dean, but it really is Deen. "Blame it on my father," he says, "He wanted to spell it that way and my mother agreed. Let's just say he wasn't a SCRABBLE player." I learn about Deen from Juraj Pivovarov (Calgary AB). He said, "You don't know Deen? He's an International Master! And, he plays bridge, too." I walk over to Deen and reintroduce myself. When I'm sitting down at my laptop later, I ask Adam Logan (Ottawa ON) what level of chess master Deen is. Adam said, "I don't remember, let's check his wiki page." Sure enough, Deen has a wiki page. I exclaimed at this and Adam said, "you don't?" I took this to mean that Adam probably has one and sure enough he does. He let someone take a full frontal photo of him at some point in his life, I'm astonished! We continue to talk about Deen with passersby and others remark on the spelling of his first name (frankly, I need help spelling his last name, too!) and Adam says, "Well, just look at it as the Collins version of Dean." I love word jokes :).

Of Juraj's game, I notice IIIU on the side of the board. I ask if it was left on his rack, he said, "Isn't that better than trying to play with them?" This caused me to think... yes, I think he's right. He explains to me that his name isn't actually supposed to be pronounced like Yuri, but too many folks have trouble with the proper enunciation of his Slovak name. It is supposed to be pronounced YUR-eye, but most people end up saying yur-EYE and he just can't stand it, so he says, "call me Yuri." And, most of us can manage that. In this board, I see STANnATES (an iron ore), ROADIEs, and ETAMINES. Also the fun IONONE (dump that junk) and GHOST, which he then played GYP down to the triple making GHOSTY. He admitted that it wouldn't fly in this room, but sometimes it draws a challenge, GHOSTY. He is an Expert chess player, as opposed to Deen (who was, at his height, the third-highest rated chess player ever in Canada).

David Wood (Thunder Bay ON) quietly discusses the horrible day being had by Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON). They had a very close game, and toward the end, there was one bingo lane but the play had to end in an A. He held AEIFNT?. Can you guess his play?* Chris adds: I notice LIPE on the board. "Hi, I'm right here!" Robin picks up VIOLATE on her rack but it doesn't go anywhere. David wins, 408-380.

Chris writes:

Vera Bigall (Toronto ON) has an elegant bingo on her rack, but it won't play in her game against Mark Edelson (Toronto ON). No, really, Vera's rack is ELEGANT.

Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom (Montreal QC) and Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa ON) have combined to make what looks like a triple-triple, but a glance at the scoresheet shows that Gab played HERDS and Jeremy added -MAN.

Andy Saunders (Guelph ON) had an opening rack of AAEINO? against Jason Ubeika (Mississauga ON) and turned it into AEOLIAN (with a blank L). Jason came right back with RACEcAR*, which should be good, but is only in the book as two words.

Dielle Saldanha (Richmond BC) is holding EENORS? against Craig Rowland (Mississauga ON) and I espy a spot for SENOREs/AXES. She's scribbling furiously on her scoresheet as her clock ticks, though...

Ron Hoekstra (Surrey BC) is sitting patiently with an empty rack as Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) holds his play of PIROQUE. The play is accepted. Zev has previously played a two-blank DRoUTHs, hooking the S on CYMLING. A minute later I come by and Ron has bingoed again with DEADFALL. That sounds like a much less attractive tourist destination than Niagara!

Now I see what Dielle was concentrating so hard on — she's played a 3x3 RESOfTEN though the T. Craig came right back with LONGERS/AXEL, though — it's still a close game.

Ben Lam (Toronto ON) is playing Sam Hollington (St. Catharines ON), and he has his rack arranged to spell AM I RED (plus another I on the side). No, Ben, but your wild pants are every colour but!

Andy has finished with Jason, and it's Jason's win, 405-352. The crux of the game was his not challenging RACECAR* and then losing a turn with a bad bingo of his own.

Shan Abbasi (Mississauga ON) pulled out a squeaker against Betty Bergeron (Calgary AB) 366-362. Betty is at 2 wins, having a great time. Her goal is the 2 1/2 wins which will give her rating a boost, and after six games, she's almost there!

Dielle's game against Craig has finished — Dielle bingoed out with UpRAISE to win 442-361.

Ron has finished against Zev with a 496-405 win. This leaves Ron as the last undefeated! PIROQUE, DEADFALL, and REACTORS were Ron's bingos. DEADFALL drew the challenge from Zev and allowed Ron to play BLITZ for 51, which Zev later extended to BLITZING for 60. "I'm glad I found DEADFALL," said Ron. "I was about to played FARLED* instead." "FARLED*," said Zev, "that isn't good. FARLE is just a noun." "Really?" asked Ron, "I thought it was embalming a horse!"

*David played ANTEFIxA.

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