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DO 2008 Commentary: Round 16

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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 16

The last round of the day and boy is it beginning to show. We are all dragging it a bit.

After being afraid some sort of mistake had been made about her pairings ("excuse me, but why am I being paired with Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA) at board 1?"), Laura Scheimberg (Littleton, CO) won her game! The game had been picked up by the time the news reached me, but it can be seen in the annotated game for this round. Her favorite play, she says, is OUTGUEsS from the O. When I asked her for the score, she said, "376-355, and he got real darn close for having no Ss or blanks!"

Mary Aline Stevens (Berkeley, CA) vs. Wallace Schultz (Las Vegas, NM), 411-387, her win. Her favorite play of the game was HEDGY, which drew a challenge from him. He smiled wide and said that he thinks that was the game losing move for him. When I asked him for his favorite play, I think he took me sarcastically and said, "CINEOLE." I asked why and he said, "Well, I had two places to play it. I could have made 75 here, but I played it for 7 less there (as he gestured at the board), because I thought it was 'safer,' only to have her play ZINC from the triple for 45."

Scribbled notes on a Nathan Benedict (Tucson, AZ) win against Doug Brockmeier (Yorba Linda, CA), 429-411. Doug played REFRONTS, which drew a challenge from Nathan. I see Nathan's BONNETED played through the first E and Doug's LAXITIEs played through the X. I like this play and Doug says, "Well, it is just LAITIES plus an X..." I hush him and insist that we all get to define what is nice!

After the games are completed, John Redding (Grand Prairie, TX) came by (btw, have you seen John lately? He is looking FINE!)to tell me about his 7-challenge game in Round 14 with Mary Snider (Austin, TX). She challenged him five times (3 were good plays, 2 were not) and challenged her two times (one good play, one not). This kind of game reminds me of word judging before the advent of laptop self-adjudication. Word judges would want to just leave their books at tables like this, saying "look them up yourselves!" John won this game, 396-359. He was 1-7 yesterday and 7-1 today! Talk about a turnaround!

Lots of people meeting up for dinners here and there. Two games being made up in after-hours time, and then the Mike Baron (Corrales, NM) book signing. I lied earlier, he is doing that signing alone. It is at BAT that he is doing the book signing with Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL). Can't wait for tomorrow!

And, one more thing, Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA) caught a look at the standings as they came out of the printer. He said, "wait! I'm not winning anymore?" Dry kid.... :)