Selected News from the 1995 World Scrabble Championship, held in London. Johnny Nevarez and Jeff Widergren, both from the Silicon Valley area, are participants in the 66-player field. ##From: Steven Alexander ##Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 20:42:58 -0500 (EST) WSC is under way, with the reception and head count having occurred this past evening. All 64 showed. Players were gathered together by country and then announced by name and marched in front of the stage for a photo opportunity for several present journalists. (The representative of one domain was said to be too indisposed to stay for this, apparently having recklessly indisposed himself.) They were posed with a national flag per player; after, these flags were taken away to be positioned at the tables during play. The ballroom which was the center of the reception and in which play will occur is airy and bright, and visible from several vantage points one story above. The reception was short. The organizer, Phillip Nelkon, was the only speaker and was not long-winded, and players went off to a late dinner, in too many instances, with those they already know. People are thinking about this, and so there should be more mixing soon. As you generally know, the NSA sent me here as an alternate. This confers no status on me with the organizers. Each contestant may name a guest; as Robin Pollock's guest, I may join the players in breakfast and lunch at the hotel, and at the opening and closing festivities. I also will be one of two assistants to the on-camera commentator at the finals. Spears' reps apparently liked the idea that I report on site to the Internet, so Graeme Thomas arranged that I be given a phone line in the press room. So I now have a WSC `Press' ID as well. When John Williams learned this, he expressed the desire to see what I'm putting out. Although he's not in charge of things here, if you hear an occasional gurgling sound where speech should appear... On the day before the reception, my journalistic equipment, this laptop, had the top half of its screen go blank. It now shows only yellow, so I will be using stupid Windows tricks to be able to see enough of my screen to type these reports. Steven Alexander stevena@interport.net ##From: Steven Alexander ##Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 07:47:08 -0500 (EST) Before game 1 The tournament director, Graeme Thomas, announced that players need not use the supplied sheets for tracking or scoring; that the value of leftover tiles is to be added and subtracted; and that one starts opponent's clock on the going out move. One of the few subsequent questions was whether one subtracts double or adds and subtracts at the end. Pairings are to be done, among players with the same win- loss record first to be able to even up the number of times each has gone first. Within such groups, pairings are random, subject to assurances of not repeating. Steven Alexander stevena@interport.net P.S. I sign in on the press register each day listing the organization `Internet'. A member of Spears' publicity agents, John Starr has kindly lent me his laptop for communication, and I'm keeping my half- screened one in the playing room for note taking. ##Round 1 (Top 10) Posn Code Name Score Spread Points 1 7 David Boys 1 377 603 2 1 Roger Blom 1 223 525 3 19 Clive Spate 1 174 497 4 55 Brian Cappelletto 1 172 478 5 9 Libero Paolella 1 136 436 6 63 Jeff Widergren 1 134 473 7 10 Robin Pollock 1 119 437 8 26 Sam Orbaum 1 106 467 9 17 Allan Saldanha 1 105 521 10 29 Gitonga Nderitu 1 100 442 58 59 Johnny Nevarez 0 -119 318 ##From: Steven Alexander ##Subject: WSC report after round 1 ##Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 07:57:36 -0500 (EST) Impressions of Round 1 Romany[Trinidad]/Simmons opened with JEW Pollock/Nevarez, Pollock moved ahead 206-70 with OXIDATE, and held on to win handily 437-316 Grant/Rosenthal, IMBRUES to open, THYrOIDS, CHORINES after 5 moves. Boys/Arreola, Boys is ahead 262-48 after 7 plays; the opening play was MOUSILY. Also on the board are SOCIALLY and FREAKED. Boys wins 603-212. Byers/Wapnick, Byers leads 127-58 after 6 plays. Wapnick goes on to win 389-342. In Springer/Sim, the game is very even, and Springer challenges Sim's moderately scoring GENIAL. Saldanha/Scott, Scott lags 348/364; but Saldanha wins 521-416, though this is not the high loss. Polatnick/Lao[Philippines], Polatnick lags 242-277, but wins 409-368. And Nditeru/Felt, Nditeru upset Felt (though I haven't actually asked) 442-342. Nditeru ascribed this to the fact that Felt challenged off his POWINE (thru I), but then didn't make good use of his knowledge to block. >From his explanation, it seemed to me that Nditeru expected prescient sacrifice to preserve what was a small lead, so the explanations many of us can imagine Felt making are likely true. Early in game 1, a pair of players were noticed by the directorship not to be using clocks, and were instructed in their use. Besides having to have someone point out that an external modem (with the lent laptop) needs turning on, I've faced an external phone line that wasn't. (Poor hotel operator that kept getting squealed at.) Instead of my own phone line, I'm sharing the publicity office's fax line. But having overcome these hurdles, things should be getting smoother. I didn't get any impressions of Round 2, as I was leaping them. ##From: Steven Alexander ##Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 08:13:59 -0500 (EST) WSC Player table after round 2 Posn Code Name Score Spread Points 1 55 Brian Cappelletto 2 417 1016 2 1 Roger Blom 2 296 986 3 37 Blue Thorogood 2 287 864 4 40 Ifeanyi Onyeonwu 2 249 943 5 8 Adam Logan 2 168 855 6 9 Libero Paolella 2 167 830 7= 28 Shafique Thobani 2 142 865 7= 23 Chrys Placca 2 142 836 9 17 Allan Saldanha 2 137 955 10 10 Robin Pollock 2 122 856 22 63 Jeff Widergren 1 94 839 56 59 Johnny Nevarez 0 -125 659 ##From: Steven Alexander ##Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 12:35:56 -0500 (EST) In game 2, clock problems predominated. Their mechanical clock kept stopping, and one pair of opponents called the director over. He replaced the tournament-supplied clock, then wound it. At another table, the director replaced a clock which persistently read 30 minutes on one side due to a loose hand. Also in Round 2, one player, the director's memory suggests Onyeonwu, triple-tripled with PETANQUE around TA. During round 2, I was mostly dealing with connection snafus. ##From: Steven Alexander ##Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 09:26:29 -0500 (EST) WSC Player table after round 3 Posn Code Name Score Spread Points 1 37 Blue Thorogood 3 316 1306 2 56 Joe Edley 3 308 1333 3= 10 Robin Pollock 3 296 1333 3= 58 Bob Lipton 3 296 1246 5 17 Allan Saldanha 3 213 1398 6 9 Libero Paolella 3 170 1142 7 25 Zelig Leader 3 165 1314 8 6 Naween Fernando 3 105 1224 9 55 Brian Cappelletto 2 388 1429 10 7 David Boys 2 365 1345 33 63 Jeff Widergren 1 73 1211 45 59 Johnny Nevarez 1 -69 1034 ##From: Steven Alexander ##Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 12:36:19 -0500 (EST) Through Rounds 1-3, players going first went 63-33. Awowade ahead 363-360, with 5 on his rack (and an unknown amount of time left) challenged ELATING Russell Byers turned 87-152 into 512-290. Sam Orbaum of Israel said he believed his game against Bhandarkar of Bahrain was the first time the two countries had met playing anything. Lipton knocked Leader out of undefeatedness. Thorogood against Fernando, behind 374-376, with Fernando on move. Pollock beat Edley 461-389 in a game in which Edley lost a turn playing RADDING/GU to a triple. Both players normal dictionary is OSPD. The word is OSPD only, and was first looked up by an OSPD-native official who is a practiced tournament director. The second opinion, by an OSW native, also failed to find the word using OSPD. The tournament director agreed it would be best to have an OSPD-conversant second adjudicator for such cases, and to have the runners notify the adjudicators that it was a second opinion request. (The two who ruled suspected they were merely seeing the same word from two boards.) At first, he asked this reporter to be available for such adjudications, but now it seems he'll have the OSW staff employ a Franklin Electronic OSPD. Gitonga beat Appleby 416-404. Nevarez challenged STARRING right near the end of the game. (In an earlier round, Boys challenged LIT near the end, admittedly short on time, but also a moementarily uncertain about what coin it was that justified LITS.).) ##From: Steven Alexander ##Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 12:13:48 -0500 (EST) WSC Player table after round 4 Posn Code Name Score Spread Points 1 58 Bob Lipton 4 417 1722 2 10 Robin Pollock 4 368 1794 3 17 Allan Saldanha 4 229 1757 4 6 Naween Fernando 4 129 1653 5 55 Brian Cappelletto 3 494 1911 6 7 David Boys 3 460 1865 7 37 Blue Thorogood 3 292 1711 8 56 Joe Edley 3 236 1722 9 1 Roger Blom 3 188 1738 10 8 Adam Logan 3 159 1613 45 63 Jeff Widergren 1 42 1592 56 59 Johnny Nevarez 1 -198 1349 ##From: Steven Alexander ##Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 12:36:42 -0500 (EST) Grant/Felt was 147-39, went to 224-110 when Grant played GALOPiN, which came back good. Samarasundera[Oman]/Placa[Ghana] the former played off RES when he had SEERESS double-double if he knows LUVS, EAUS (OSW only), and RE. Polatnick/Blom is 452-274. Sherman comes back from 60-80 points behind for more than half the game to beat Scott 502-467. Nyman/Thobani Thobani struggled to 361-390 against the champ despite sticking him with JN at the end, due to lively blocking by the player with the clogged rack. Boys and Felt, in a discussion, agreed that holds should be about 1/4 as common here as under double-challenge. ABoys reported holding twice, and challenging only one of those times. ##From: Steven Alexander ##Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 12:23:49 -0500 (EST) WSC Player table after round 5 Posn Code Name Score Spread Points 1 58 Bob Lipton 5 594 2246 2 10 Robin Pollock 5 544 2284 3 7 David Boys 4 515 2280 4 55 Brian Cappelletto 4 497 2294 5= 34 Jeff Grant 4 332 2125 5= 22 Joshua Addo 4 332 2058 7 61 Steve Polatnick 4 303 2109 8 29 Gitonga Nderitu 4 219 2035 9 5 Akshay Bhandarkar 4 134 1918 10 17 Allan Saldanha 4 53 2071 37= 63 Jeff Widergren 2 65 1939 58 59 Johnny Nevarez 1 -237 1695 ##From: Steven Alexander ##Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 13:46:15 -0500 (EST) WSC Player table after round 6 Posn Code Name Score Spread Points 1 10 Robin Pollock 6 573 2662 2 58 Bob Lipton 5 565 2595 3 7 David Boys 5 548 2691 4 29 Gitonga Nderitu 5 391 2504 5 34 Jeff Grant 5 358 2578 6 61 Steve Polatnick 5 315 2495 7 17 Allan Saldanha 5 287 2569 8 55 Brian Cappelletto 4 485 2668 9 39 Sammy Okosagah 4 338 2794 10 3 Bob Jackman 4 331 2387 47 63 Jeff Widergren 2 10 2316 53 59 Johnny Nevarez 2 -164 2069