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2007 Dallas Open Commentary: Round 20

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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 20

So, I'm still trolling for round 19 news when Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA; 1922) and Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX; 1734), perhaps hoping to add a few minutes to their lunch break, start playing at table 7. The first play slapped down, by Mike, is VISZLA*. Frankly, I'm ignoring them in my mad dash to find something/anything to say about 19, when Sam Kantimathi (El Dorado Hills, CA; 1800) does one of those psst sounds and beckons me over to the corner of the room by a fake potted tree. I follow him and he whispers, "It's VIZSLA!" It takes me a good 10 seconds to figure out what in the world he is talking about. Once it registers, I nod and start to write it down. Now I kid you not about this next part. Scout's honor, Sam then said, "I know my dogs, I'm a dog myself." Rim shot.

Later on, Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX; 1734) explains that he and Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA; 1922) both missed the misspelling and an S did get hooked on it and was unchallenged. So gentlemanly, Mike proceeds to point out all the nice plays Jason made: CASEFIED through the S, eSPALIER from the first E, and cONATIVE through the V. Mike's best play was TENORITE to the last E.

Chris Cree (Dallas, TX; 1870) was being very quiet as his game ended with Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR; 1961) this round. I quickly gleaned that it was another loss for Chris and I think he was exercising his "if you can't say anything nice, say nothing at all" muscle. The game itself was beautiful to look at. There were the requisite bingos: Dave's LITERaTE for 74 and DISRATED for 82. But, the game had an interesting band through the middle, a series of parallel words: STROP, VIXEN, WICCA, and EIKONS, which looked almost like a belt across the board's middle. Seeing EIKONS made my eye go up. Chris had played TENDANCE, hooking the E in front of IKONS to make EIKONS for 77. Very nicely nestled, very nice find. Uncharacteristically, Dave said, "the board does have an unusual look, we used every triple word square." And sure enough, they had!

Paul Holser (Wylie, TX; 1737) brings me to a board where Jim Hughes (Austin, TX; 1412) is sitting. He sighs and says, "I'll let him tell you," and off he went to lunch. Paul proceeds to tell me about Jim's ATTUNeS for 61 and the other plays that were Pauls: REDuCING to the G for 92, VAGABOND through the first A for 82, ENHALOES from the first E for 65, TONELETS for 60, and MAX on the triple for 69. It was, no surprise, Paul's win, 531-365.

Lindsay Crotty (Metairie, LA; 976) smiles as I walk by and I ask her how she's doing. She said, "It's been a tough morning, but if I get a chance to play people like Mike Baron (Corrales, NM; 1755), then it is a good day." Mike won their game this round, 382-335.

At table 21, the tiles are being put into their corners, when I ask if the game was interesting. At first they say no, but then both call me back over. Turns out that Chris Lipe (Rome, NY; 1717) has a fun play against Frank Kashuk (Edmonds, WA; 1435). He put down ZEES to the triple, creating FEZ/OWE for 100 points. Chris admits that he had GEEZERS that would have played elsewhere, but it was for less points. And I chimed in that it would have been less style points, too.

A crowd gathers around Kent Nelson (Sandy, UT; 1832) and Michael Willis (Midlothian, TX; 1801). Mike played a bingo: NEURONE on the triple, hooked beneath WOVE to make WOVEN. He got the last tile out of the bag, a Z, and had two places to go out, and did, winning the game, 453-397.

Darrell Day (Richardson, TX; 1773) defeated Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX; 1854), who just kept shaking his head and running his fingers through his hair, 404-343.

Both players long gone to lunch, I see a completed game between Steve Pellinen (St. Louis Park, MN; 1693) and Nathan Benedict (Tucson, AZ; 1850). I see Steve's RESIDUE for 75 and FINDERS that hooked the D to make RESETTLED for 98 points. Nathan opened with MUDCAT and played RESETTLE for 68. Nathan walks in eating a sandwich and I ask him what the game score was. He says, "ah... um.... 450ish to 320ish?"

Whoa mama! Carol Kaplan (San Diego, CA; 1630) destroyed John OLaughlin (Sun Prairie, WI; 1882) this round, 522-271. Both players are at lunch, so I sneak a peek at papers left behind. All I see is Carol's OVERMANS for 66, HETAIRAI for 76, SUBDUED for 75, and SERIEMA for 70. Good playing, Carol!

At table 2, both Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL; 1974) and Jim Geary (Phoenix, AZ; 1854) have slanked out, and all they left behind was Brian's scoresheet, which means they left a puff of air (there is nothing to be gleaned from a Brian Cappelletto scoresheet, nothing). I see that it was a close game, Jim's win, 376-365. Some fun words: NAMEABLE, SOLONETZ, and AVERAGES.

Darrell Day (Richardson, TX; 1773) widened his lead to two wins after he beat Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX; 1854) and Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL; 1974) lost to Jim Geary (Phoenix, AZ; 1854). Darrell (17-3 +1531) now only needs to win one of his two remaining games, and the only players who can catch him are Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR; 1961) at 15-5 +1729 and Brian at 15-5 +1460, either of whom would need to win both their games. After lunch, Darrell will play Dave and Brian will play fourth-place Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA; 1922). If both Dave and Brian win, then Darrell will likely be paired with Brian in Round 22 and Dave will play the high 15-5.