Go to: Commentary Games Players Standings Photos

Back to 2006 Dallas Open Live Coverage

2006 Dallas Open Commentary: Round 1

[ ]

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, After the Tournament.

Round 1

The great thing about an open is that anyone plays anyone and several players learned that up close in person for game 1. At table 1, was Nancy Scott (Schertz, TX; 1299), annotated by Pat Sanchez, facing off against Joe Edley (Coram, NY; 2007), annotated by Sue Hoehn. John Chew points out that Joe let Nancy's LOGMEN* go unchallenged so that he could get down DECRYING through the E in her word.

After the round was over, I caught Chris Cree (Dallas, TX; 1855) outside with Aldo Cardia (New York, NY; 1790). Chris admitted his first game against Marsha Gillis (Huntsville, AL; 989) was a "dogfight." He explains that it was odd because they'd played about 70 tiles before an I was picked. Thereafter, they spent a good bit of the game passing rack after rack of Is! Chris ended up winning, but admits that after an early lead, she caught up and they were tied!

Robert Gillis (Owens X Roads, AL; 1526) of Bob's Bible fame tells me that he got away with HAYIER* this round. HAYEY is a new acceptable word, but it doesn't compare. He says he challenged three times and won each challenge. A good way to start the day! I see one of his endgame racks and it is LCIREIB. All I can think is that it would be nice to get down INCREDIBLE!

Maureen Delgado (Houston, TX; 1461) received the first bye of the day. Undettered, she played by herself without a board, hooking tiles to one another on the plain tablecloth.

David Poder (Huntington Beach, CA; 1760) has on an interesting shirt that spells out in SCRABBLE^® tiles: FUNKY not GEEKY.

Robert Quigley (New Haven, CT; 1256) had a fun round 1. He played Lisa Odom (St. Louis Park, MN; 1870) but got to share the table with Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON; 1869) and Laura Landsbaum (The Woodlands, TX; 1092), too. As her game winds up, Robin admits she tried a 10 she wasn't sure of to stay in the game: LOdESTONES through the ONE, hooking XI to make XIS for 90 points. Her opponent thought the word was good and didn't challenge it. Good thing, it was good! Laura, with a rating almost half of Robin's was pleased to lose the game by a mere 16 points! I agree!

Jim Geary (Phoenix, AZ; 1942) had a strong win against Ruth Sawyer (Austin, TX; 1081) at table 5. I see five bingos: SLANTED for 66, REITBOK for 87, and WORRiER on the triple for 96 (played in a row!) and DEICIDIC played by Jim. Ruth got down fOGGIEST, the game's 5th bingo.

At nearby table 4, Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL; 1950) and April McCarley (Austin, TX; 1215) were pouring over their endgame. It was Brian's win, 551-274. As if to one-up Jim's bingo-bango-bongo, Brian got down four bingos in a row: GORGETED from the first G, BANNERET to the T, STANDPAt, and NASALITY. April was gracious about Brian's good play.

Lisa Slankard (Arlington Heights, IL; 1493) held her head in her hands bent over her board as I walked by. She lost game 1 to Iffy Onyeonwu (Austin, TX; 1774), 309-413. She challenged Iffy's play of SPOLIATE through the T for 62 (it is good) and failed to challenge his play of POTENTER* for 74. The only good thing she could say for herself was that she got down QI in their game.

Credit must be paid to John Chew and Mary Rhoades for helping to get the annotators up to speed prior to the event! This is the smoothest first round of annotation I've seen at any championship to date!

Mary Rhoade's director table has two items that catch my eye. The first is a miniature Texas State flag and the second is a person-shaped holder containing a giant size bottle of Purell hand sanitizer. Let's keep the DO germ free y'all!

First round had our first recounted game. Alyssa Faria (Washington, DC; 1499) defeated Winter Zxqkj (Houston, TX; 1626), 387-381. No details other than a challenge of FORGAT (it is good).