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DO 2008 Commentary: Round 10

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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, After the Tournament.

Round 10

Joey Krafchick (Roswell, GA) had a tough game against Stuart Goldman (Riverhead, NY) this round. He didn't play well, he thought, and he lost again. Bryan Pepper explained to him that Stu is among our earliest competitive SCRABBLE players, that playing him is akin to playing a living legend and that it is an opportunity to be cherished. It was sage advice and was followed with other tidbits about how we learn through losing and adages that 12-year-old budding superstar was keen to hear. Good job, Bryan.

So, in his round-by-round updating, Michael Early (Fort Worth, TX) lets me know that he played NODoSITY this round and David Gibson (Spartanburg, SC) challenged. He liked David's 75-point LINECUT and thought his last gasp play of GASP for 45 was pretty nifty, too.

Carole Miller (Houston, TX) vs. Siri Tillekeratne (Calgary AB): TOWNIES for 77, DOWNIER for 67, and VAMOOSED for 95 by Carole and bUGBANE for 65, VARICES for 82, and tETANIZE for 68. This latter play eked out the win for Siri, 447-443. What a game!

Eric Harshbarger (Auburn, AL) vs. Geoff Thevenot (Austin, TX): OuTRAVED, PLEURONS*, MISTRAiN, and JOSHED for 50 for Eric and DANDIER for Geoff. 408-323, Eric's win.

Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) vs. Winter Zxqkj (Houston, TX). Getting out of them what went down was nearly impossible. I think Chris played SEnSUAL, and bingoed out with ARBOrIZE through the B for 82. Winter played ENTREES and VIPERINE to the E. I mentioned that it was a great play and he said, "I have been waiting 4.5 years to make that play. Mark DiBattista at the Manhattan SCRABBLE club took me to school with that play long ago and I've been waiting ever since to play it!"

Rod MacNeil (Cambridge, MA) vs. Amit Chakrabarti (Hanover, NH). I see that in the middle of the game a flurry of four bingos went down: Rod's SEINERS for 79 and ARANeIDS for 61 and Amit's OXIdANTS for 82 and DIPOLEs for 80. I see that Amit tried the sowpods-only AURIOLE*, which Rod challenged off. Amit said that he knew Rod had been doing some sowpods studying (to play in the Worlds last November in India) and hoped that there was some dictionary confusion going on. Rod laughed and said, "yeah, some studying, but not that much confusion!"

Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA) is crimson red. He just won his game at table 1, the live game that his mother is watching.... I sense the embarrassment when he explains that he played both BROTHEL and TROLlOPY in that game.

Wayne Clifford (Calgary AB) vs. John OLaughlin (Cambridge, MA), they end with :04 and :05 on their clocks and Wayne was left with the blank. I want to ask questions, but they are having trouble reconciling the final scores, so I walk on by.

From the "you go girl" department, Diane Firstman (Brooklyn, NY) has just TIED Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) in her first-ever tournament game against him, 426-426. She was sitting down and he was sorta kneeling in his chair across the table from her smiling while they discussed the game. It struck me that as Brian gets a bit more silver, he is beginning to look more and more like SCRABBLE's own George Clooney. I suspect I'm not the only one pleased by this. Oh, yes, back to the game... um.... Brian played DINTING for 82 and Diane played OBELISkS for 80, rOARERS for 73, and QAT for 65. As I was writing, Diane deadpanned, "I know, it isn't lost on me that it took BOTH blanks and a GIANT Q play to tie him..." She slays me.

John Chew sends me an IM: Round 10: We had our first ties this round, unusually late for a tournament this size, thanks to the larger number of mismatches in an open format event. Surprisingly though, there were two ties: Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) and Diane Firstman (Brooklyn, NY) tied at 426, and Lindsay Crotty (Metairie, LA) and Paul Mulik (Joplin, MO) at 368. Brian was heard grumbling about his wasted effort building up a +1105 cume.