Kibitzing

Final 1 - Nigel Richards v Andrew Fisher

NR opens with WAB (Scottish web!)

AF plays BINGERS, which seems obscure until you soften the G, der.

NR hits back: ZENAIDAS. No idea.

AF has this rack INWATER, so hooks onto an R to spell INTERWAR. From 1919 to 1939 I presume.

NR does a Caribbean cherry, ACEROLA, and later, I'm waiting for TANGY with his letters, and he goes GUGA/GULY. Just like I'd go TRIKE for 42, he goes KIPES (punk slang for steals) for 51.

AF responds, after a tough vowel surfeit, with ER. Goes down 489-422.

(This is way too long as a report goes. Feel free to throw us the best word, the deepest mystery, the OMG mo.)

I'll have a go at Rd 15 - Wee v Richards. On the name alone...

Would you believe, Wee scored ACEROLAS, using a blank for the last to hook onto ZEA, for 86 points. Clearly, this is a championship word to remember! It proved to be the largest score of the game, though the margin of victory is better explained by Wee getting both blanks, and Richards grabbing the Q right near the end - with the Us gone, but the blank still in play. He could have dropped it back, leaving Wee a single tile...and a safe bet that Wee would hold his blank anticipating the gift.

Oddest word: VROW, a Dutch woman.

Final game 2 is stunning. Play it rack by rack and you'll be engrossed. Andrew gets a lead, but can he hold it vs Nigel-san?

Won't spoil the end-game (OMG), but from a BLOKEY/MOM start, the game gets kapow.

I saw a chance for NR to play FANCIER, with two blanks, but he went CANTREF, which describes half the umpires I've seen.

I had a look at the match between Ed Martin and Marut Siriwangso (Round 5/Board 2):

MS played WONGI – an Aboriginal word for a friendly talk, which, if I’ve read the play correctly, EM unsuccessfully challenged, giving an extra five points to MS.

EM also unsuccessfully challenged MS’s IMBODIED (the highest scoring word in the play, on a triple word score - 90) which must be an acceptable form of embodied?

EM played RATOO which went unchallenged, but what does it mean?

On the ‘using all seven tiles’ front:

EM had: PEREGAL, TANGIEST and HISTONE,
MS had: IMBODIED and using two blanks DRUGGIEST

Final Scores: EM 399 MS 528

In Final 3, we have five bingo plays (using all 7 tiles) including the global flavours of DAROGHAS (Hindi managers) and TOLARJEV (those coins of Slovenia), both by Kiwi sensei, Nigel Richards.

Could this last play be the move of Warsaw?

In the 4th Final, a game to open with NAW and KUDO, Andrew spills the SECRETS, only for Nigel to be ANGRIEST.

JEEZ, says Andrew, for 81 points. Though soon his rack is a nightmare: AAAABEE. He plays BAA to end up with AAAEEIO. Narrowly leading, a tile exchange creates FORGIVE, which the Kiwi converts into IRONIES/FORGIVEN. Yowch.

But the local bloke holds firm, easing away with PREPRINT. He wins 566 to 416. The last game the decider.

Marut Siriwangso returns in Round 6, this time against Sherwin Rodrigues:

Very open board, with each player going for lengthy words. SR played the most triple word scores including the lovely ROBOTISM (63) and EUROKY (39), meaning an organism which can live under variable conditions, thanks to MS setting it up with KHETS (34), an Ancient Egyptian measurement.

After SP played GJU (a knee?), MS countered with another unusual anatomical word INIA (plural of inion, the bump on the back of the skull near the neck).

Best word, I think, was MS’s ALMAGEST (a generic term for works on astrology or alchemy) scoring (64).

Other than Kentucky, does anyone know what a KY is (produced off of SP’s YOD)?

Other bingo plays (thanks DA):
MS: SCEDULE (without the H?), DANDERS
SR: INNOVATE, ELISION, PLAGUERS (highest score at 90)

Final Scores: MS 399 SR 522

KY is olde pastoral for cow, I think - the singular of KINE.

Looking at the last final (if that's not a tautology), oh so close for Mr Fisher: 208 plays 203, with half the tiles played. And then Nigel's REGRANTS and OMNIFIED one-two. (With URANITES still in the kitbag.)

Curiously, after the Kiwi's NEMNED opener (no idea), the Aussie rolled out too NZ words: DONKO (a tearoom) and POTAE (a hat).

Love the fact that Richard's coup de grace, OMNIFIED for 95, Fisher opts for JEE (17).

Dazzling set of final games, two grandmasters slugging it out.

Interesting to note that nearly all the competitors are male. Is this something you notice in the crossword world as well DA?

Game 30c Craig Beevers vs Pakorn Nemitrmansuk

CB started with ADDEEFL on the rack, and played FADED for 28 points. Excellent, I thought. I should be able to follow this.

Then came KUIA, EUOI and YEBO. D'oh.

IDOLIZE was the match-winning move of the game, with Z on a triple letter tile and D two ways on another. 102 points to PN in the sixth move.

PN's other bingos for the match were VAUNTER and ENVISAGE, while CB's sole bingo for the match was TURIONS (although QUOTHA played on a triple word tile mid-game earned 66 points).

The other word that had me scratching my head was WADT. I presume it sounds much like the word I shouted when I saw it.

Final scores: PN 488, CB 378

Round 7, Board 2 opens with controversy as Marut Siriwangso successfully challenges Chris May’s FOVAEA, only to then ditch his own letters allowing CM to open with FOVEA (a small pit or depression as in a bone), after which MS is VEXed – especially when CM later GYRATED fovea to FOVEAE scoring 79 for both. CM pulled a MOUE after MS played WADD (similar to your WADT Em!) as the lead went back and forth. Surely CM thought s/he’d won with MELTIEST on the triple word score for 80, only to have MS come back with POZ (44) and the last word ORDINANT (72) to win the game.

Other odd words included GLAUM from MS, meaning to grasp or grope an object ‘as in the dark;’ and ODAH from CM: a room in a harem. And QI has turned up three games running – along with FRYER in the last MS bout - hmm, quite interesting.

Not many other bingos in this round, but MS pulled OSTEOSES (65) and EUCAINES (72) which is apparently what vets use as a substitute for cocaine, presumably as a local anesthetic.

Final scores: CM 394 MS 461.

Thanks for the KY info.

Great summaries Em and Sam - funny how FADED can turn into WADT so quickly. (As for POZ and ORDINANT as closers: ker-ching.)

I checked out Round 34 - Andrew F vs Dave Wiegand, who must have been preening after a late ESSAYER to grab the lead, only for AF to play CORNLAND off the R.

Turning LIQUID into NONLIQUID was pretty sorcerous too. As for MILTZ, I can only think it's Mothers I'd Like To Zumba.

DA: It seems that MILTZ is a Yiddish term for spleen — usually in a foodstuff sense: stuffed and fried.

I'm going to be a bit curmudgeonly here, but my overall impression from the games I've looked at is that tournament Scrabble is not a game about words (and probably hasn't been for a long time) — it's a game about sequences of letters that appear in word lists. I wonder what would happen to the game if contestants had to be able to define the words they used, or use them correctly in a sentence. :)

(Obligatory I.T. Crowd reference: "That's a nice tnettenba")

It all makes me appreciate cryptic crosswords more, where meanings matter.

Marut Siriwangso is back, this time against Paul Gallen in Round 8/Board 2. Early on this game became gridlocked, causing MS to ditch his tiles twice, until PG climbed the board with the bingo RATLINS (68). Making use of the space MS countered with a bingo of his own, showing his green thumb, with ACONITES (72) – a subtle ploy, allowing him to play TITUPED (pranced), with the second ‘t’ forming TACONITES (a low grade iron ore) scoring the high grade of 79 for both! PG tried to keep up with a VIDE on the triple word score, but with consistent play, MS held the lead with KADE (30) – a wingless fly resembling a tick; ORIENTAL (70) and COZES (56).

PG’s VIDE made BINED in the cross letters, but not sure what it means? Bine is a climbing plant, but bined?

He also kept things nautical with AQUA (34), which he later hooked EAU off of, creating AQUAE (20).

Final scores: PG 378 MS 442

Paul Gallen? And here was I thinking our modern Kangaroo is a prosaic sort of lump. A dynamic player, but hardly a threat on the Scrabble board.

ACONITE/TACONITE must be bread & butter for these whizzes. BINED may be akin to VINED.

As for the blokiness, okra, there is a greater number of fellas in the xword setting racket, along with Scrabbling and even the L&N carry-over ranks. Though there are some stellar exceptions (Arachne + Auster in the G, and America's Emily Cox, Liz Gorski, Deb Amlen - plus some L&N czarinas), boys in general own the bigger slice.

Not sure why. Perhaps because we feel a deeper need to compete, or show off? Suggestions welcome.

Sam: No idea about BINED -- it's not in SOWPODS, nor the OED. Maybe he got lucky!

Andrew Fisher provides his perspective on the tournament over at his blog.

Game 30b Mikki Nicholson vs Andrew Fisher

After 11 moves, AF is 90 points behind with EEEEILT on the rack, and trades in EEEIL. MN plays DOZE to lead 247-122. Then back-to-back-to-back bingos (DETERRED, REDACTS, SYLVITE challenged unsuccessfully) see AF take the lead 389-300.

MN has a bingo-free match, but opens with QUEYN for 54 points, and earns 60 points when seemingly simple word BAAS also creates SYLVITES on a triple word score.

Words that had me scratching my head: IWI, BAGH, FAA

Final scores: AF 464, MN 421.

Just been kibitzing Round 11, Nigel R vs Adam Logan. A very knotty & close battle. Two observations:

1. Why didn't Adam play JAFFA for 52, instead of AUF for 1/2 that? Makes just as much sense strategically, as well as flushing his rack.

2. Quite something to watch the self-belief of Nigel in action. He plays WURLIE to flush his rack, create two free hooks, knowing that the remaining 11 tiles or so will offer him a crucial bingo. And it does - though not the DESTROY that any mortal may play...

'Suggestions welcome': DA, I can't speak for all of womankind, but in my case I'm just too impatient. We claim to be the ultimate multi-taskers; perhaps we just can't concentrate on one thing at a time!

DA: From my limited experience watching these games, I'd guess at the following reasons for not playing JAFFA:

1. Playing Jaffa there would leave the triple word score open, with a handy 8-point J in line to it. Not something to be done lightly!

2. In JAFFA, the J would only count four times. They are very fond of making it count six times where possible, with an each-way word on the triple letter score. (JO being a common choice.)

3. The J is the only remaining high-scoring letter, and just its possible presence in his rack might be enough to deter Nigel from some scoring plays that risk a high-point bingo in response.

4. A matter of value-per-tile. AUF scored 26 for AUF, while AFA in JAFFA only contributed 20 points to the total. (Well, 12, but I'm throwing in the 8 from the other F.)

5. Remaining letters: JAFFA would leave him with OUU, while AUF left him with AJOU -- certainl a better vowel mix.

Given how his next play runs counter to 1,2,3 in the same way that JAFFA does, I'd have to guess that 4 and 5 are the real reasons.

Brave play on the WURLIE -- Adam was unfortunate to be stuck with so many vowels. If the draws had gone slightly differently (J)ANITOrS, or any bingo really, would have proved difficult to overcome, and I'm sure that they were both aware of high scoring possibilities.

If you wish to experience a crazy-amazing game, then try the Round 4 bout between 2 Oz heroes, Chris May and Edward Okulicz, which features an astounding 8 bingos, only half of which are in my ken.

No wonder young Mr May ended up in Warsaw's top five. When those letters flow, he's ferocious.

Had a look at Marut Siriwangso’s last match in the tournament, this time against Brett Smitheram, which produced a fairly congested board with few bingos. These included BS’s HEADFUL and SALPIAN; and MS’s EREMITES (always odd to think of hermit in the plural). Two other bingos were successfully challenged: MS’s TRISEME (which is a fine metrical foot on its own, but created PINONE in the cross-tiles) and BS’s CONURBATE, which should have been CONURBATION? Other interesting words were TUYER (MS – variation of tuyère, part of a furnace), IRIDES (BS - plural of iris), VIRL (BS – Scottish for ferrule), and BS’s final word in the play, COURB (rounded or curved). BS pretty much held the lead the whole way.

Final scores: MS 267 BS 529

re round 4/4 - what is a stoneraw?

Sam: Apparently stoneraw is lichen, or a specific type thereof. See http://www.lexic.us/definition-of/stoneraw

Thanks Geoff, thought it might have something to do with tripping :)