Go to: Commentary Games Players Photos Standings Video tsh

Back to PC 2007 Live Coverage

PC 2007 Commentary: Round 28

[ ]

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, Round 23, Round 24, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, After the Tournament, Award Ceremony.

This round's annotated game featured: James Leong vs. Jerry Lerman.

Round 28

A photographer from the Dayton Weekly, Thomas R. Sheinbenberger, came by during this round. He seemed to take more shots of John and me than of the room. I wanted to tell him to turn around. He has offered to give me some of his photographs and I'll try to share them if I can.

At table 2 in div 1, Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME) defeated Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thailand), 429-411. This is Panupol's third loss of the afternoon. Joey's only lost one game since round 17 and he swept this afternoon. Joey played TEENAGED for 72, PERIGEES for 71, and AIRFIELD for 66. Panupol played UNSIZED for 78 and bingoed out iwth ANTIROLL for 77, getting TPOD off Joey's rack, but it just wasn't enough.

Marcia Wade (Muncie, IN) invites me to come see a game she played with Hubert Van Tol (Rochester, NY) despite the fact that she didn't win. She played well, getting down VIEWERS for 82 and PENSION for 69. Hubert played LAITIES for 62, GAZEBO for 84 to the triple (a high-scoring nonbingo), and DARTLES for 69. His win, 389-378.

The quiet KC Frodyma (Silver Spring, MD) wants to tell me about a game she played against Bryan Lewis (Erie, PA) last round. Brian played SCALLION for 89. KC got a bingo-bango-bongo with REDBAIT for 90, FILEMOt for 81, and SEASHELL to the second L for 88. Later on she played TAXA to the triple for 41 and then a fourth bingo, ENGAGES, for 86. The win was hers, 584-317, and it is her record highest-scoring game ever. Congrats KC!

Table 1 in div 3 featured a battle between Chad Harris (Clemson, SC) and Pete Zeigler (Medina, OH). After winning 12 games in a row, Chad said, "This was the best game I've played the whole event." Chad played THROwING to the G for 72 and Pete played ARTICLES for 72. Pete then drew REALIST with nowhere to play, so he fished off the L, got a D and then played STAIDER for 66. Chad played SUBRATe for 99, but it was Pete's win, 439-431.

Michael Wolfberg (Westford, MA) played Carlene Wallis (Sparks, NV) at table 2 in div 3. They were just finished when I happened by and they were questioning her play of TUFTIER. It is good. Mike played sTRAFED, SpOOLIE, and UNCITED* through the I. Turns out that it wasn't her who played the phoney! Mike's win, 444-327.

In div 2, Robert Crowe (Fort Wayne, IN) had a nice game with Alex Fiszbein (South Lyon, MI). I see URINATES to the S, dEMIVOLT played through the V for 80, and JARLDOmS played through the O for 66. Robert's win, 448-358.

Ben Harrison (Cambridge, MA) had a crack at Rafi Stern (Seattle, WA) at table 1 in div 2, but lost. Neither has much to say to me due to throng of others. I'll check some other games.

Cesar Del Solar (Pasadena, CA) is on his laptop playing a game? Gabriel Wong (Burnaby BC), who tells me he is from a division "over there" while he gestures across the room, is watching the screen, too. What did we do year's ago before all this electronic gadgetry? Smoke and look at shared dictionary pages? ha ha!

Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON) is happy to have played SHOWTiME in his game against Aaron Bader (Cambridge, MA). Zev is more mysterious than others about the entirety of his games, like who won or what other plays are on the board. He likes a targetted approach. I can go with it!

I see a Rod MacNeil (Somerville, MA) vs. Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (Moraga, CA) board. I get told to see it by two or three others in the area. Smack dab in the middle: DORMITORY through the first OR for 67, Rod's play and Rod's win, 434-391.

Scott Kitchen (Bridgewater, NJ) finds me to report on on a game he played with Anne Hay (Raleigh, NC) this round. She played MANACLED for 82 and AcARIDS for 68 and Scott played OUTRAGE for 72, INSANELY for 63. SECTIONS for 72, and OVeRTIRE for 64. Scott's win, 473-397.

Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) defeats John OLaughlin (Cambridge, MA) this round, 420-330. I see Brian's TURNOVERS played through the disconnected V and R. IGNEOUS is on the board, but I sooooo like John's FlAThEAD. What's next? JARHEAD?

I snap a photo of a board with noone at it. The word FORELAYS* just jumps out at me.

Angelina Scroggins (Minneapolis, MN), the one who had a bunch of us sign her board earlier in the event, asked me to photograph her montage of signatures. She flips over this very nice World SCRABBLE^® Championship board to reveal the black names. I snap the shot and then she explains that Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN) and Tim Adamson, experts who live in her area who attended the World SCRABBLE^® Championship that year, gave her the board. But not just that, they gave her racks, tiles, even scoresheets. They knew she'd had her car broken into and that all her equipment had been stolen. So they replaced it with the very best. Sweet gesture.

Joan Mocine (Oakland, CA) comes over to check on her spouse, Lester Schonbrun (Oakland, CA). He confesses that he's "been swept" this afternoon. She asks if any game went particularly worse than any other and he laughs and says, "Oh, Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) complained about his tiles when he got ??ZQX and played a natural bingo!" We all laughed.

Mike Baron (Corrales, NM) and Dee Segrest pose for a shot and talk about the Denver Open championships they've won in the past. Her Spring of '82 win, his Fall of '82 win, etc.

Joel Sherman (Bronx, NY) is banging around, I hear him shout and mutter, "Come on experts, you're literate, READ!" He appears to have lost his rack. So, he is combing the room picking up every rack he can see. A minute or two later, he apologizes and says, "Never mind, I found it." Reminded me of that Gilda Radner SNL character....

From somewhere secret, Brian Cappelletto (Chicago, IL) brings out a plastic container of cookies and offers them to a small group of folks. They are cookies his wife, Wendy, made, with two kinds of chocolate, Heath bar bits. Heavenly.

Our dear Jerry Lerman (Foster City, CA), a guy who we are almost certain used sand timers earlier in his career (apologies for outright stealing this idea from cgp!), has toppled James Leong (Vancouver BC) at table 1 in div 1. TENOuRS for 92, OZONE for 72, TROIKa for 44 are Jerry's plays. His win, 385-295.

John Chew writes:

James Leong (Vancouver BC) ends Day 4 at 21-7 +1061, one game ahead of his nearest rivals, Jerry Lerman (Foster City, CA) and Joey Mallick (Cape Elizabeth, ME), two games ahead of Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand), with three games left to play tomorrow.

tsh's instructions are to allow no more than eight players in the top pairings flight this round, but since there are only four players in contention, the eight-player cap does not matter. A more interesting question is why the four players at 18-10 are considered out of contention when they are only three games behind and Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR) even has 205 more points of spread than James. That's because the top flight is limited to four players in Round 30 and two players in Round 31. The best that Dave could hope for is that the 18-10 players will all play the top four players and beat them, giving a 21-8, two 20-9s and Dave leading several 19-10s. Then in the next round he would be in the top flight of four, could beat the 21-8 but one of the two 20-9s would still beat the other, giving two 21-9s who would face off in Round 31 for the championship, shutting out Dave or any other 18-10 player out. (It took me a few minutes of scribbling on paper to confirm and explain this calcuation by tsh.)

So tomorrow morning, James plays Joey, the only contender he has yet to play, and Jerry plays Pakorn for a second time. James will win if he goes at least 2-1, and has about a 10% chance of winning even at 1-2. Pakorn needs to go 3-0, and Joey and Jerry should of course hope to do the same to avoid relying on their opponents to lose to each other in convenient combinations.

Pairings tomorrow are round by round, not Portland (Fontes), so it's going to be a busy day for staff and an early night for me tonight.