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2007 Dallas Open Commentary: Round 1

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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, After the Tournament.

Round 1

Talk about lucky draws, seeded 121, Peggy Altazan (Zachary, LA; 925), got to face off against Ben Withers (Houston, TX; 1714) at the annotated board 1 this round. She was a bit nervous going in, but did get Dee Segrest, Ben's annotator, to take their photo. Her moment in the sun!

Table 2 was empty this round, because Stuart Goldman (Riverhead, NY; 1624) was scheduled to play there. Stu has his own table, near the room's entrance, right by Mary Rhoades, so she can respond to his every whim. She even made him his very own table identification card with his photo on it! This makes Stu a very happy fellow!

I see a "pretty in pink" game in progress. Draped in a pink shawl is Deborah Gaudier (Houston, TX; 941) and she is playing with bright pink tiles, too! It is a close game, too, against Rod MacNeil (Somerville, MA; 1873). I spot Deborah's STINKED for 81, TRAILED for 81, and an attempted THEORIED* that came off the board. Rod has played ABALONE for 73 in their close-scoring, in-progress game. I find out she won: 451-415. Good going Deborah!

Mady Garner (Sevierville, TN; 1192) tosses her hands up in the air as I walk by. She just lost to Frank Kashuk (Edmonds, WA; 1435), 332-359. Her favorite play of his: rENEWAl.

I catch Robin Pollock Daniel (Toronto ON; 1856) in the foyer. Despite playing three bingos in a row, one being ACORNED that was challenged (it is good), Robin lost the first round to Phyllis Owen (Plano, TX; 896), 433-476. I adore Robin dearly and don't like to see her lose (I silently pull for her at every Nationals!), but I must say, WAY TO GO Phyllis! The fun side of an open tournament format for the lower-rated folks is not only the chance to play the best (Robin is the highest-rated female player in North America and is currently ranked 41st overall).

Peggy Altazan lost to Ben Withers at table 1, however she did make a great play. After Ben bingoed with GRINDERS (the S being on the triple lane), Peggy responded with QUIVeRS to that S (the Q doubled) for 84 points. Ben smiled and said, "she ended up making more points on that play than I did with my bingo!" His favorite find overall was BIENNiAL with a three-tile overlap. See their game in the annotated game section.