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PC 2007 Commentary: Round 3

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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, 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: Pakorn Nemitrmansuk vs. Dean Saldanha.

Round 3

Our more round before lunch and things continue to move along smoothly. The most undefeated players are in div 5, with 16. Divs 1 and 3 have 13 undefeateds and div 2 has 9 and div 3 has only 6. I wonder how many will remain so by the day's end?

One of our undefeated players in div 5 is Joey Krafchick (Roswell, GA). I know Joey because he was one half of the final two teams who squared off this past April to become the National School SCRABBLE^® Champions. He and his partner Dorian Hill played a closed circuit finals game and lost in a close game to a team from Ridgefield, CT. ESPN will be airing a show on this championship, which will be premiered August 18, 2007. Check your TV guide for times, etc. This round, he squared off against Wendell Smith (Myrtle Beach, SC), and won big, 556-164. While Wendell clearly struggled with several exchanges and difficult racks, Joey made hay in the sun and played GOITERS for 74 and got away with JAUNTIES* for 88.

Joel Horn (Reading, MA) often runs up to me with funny little anecdotes. This round it was, "My opening rack was EIOOBTX and I momentarily contemplated BOTOX*."

Charmaine Wolfe (N. Tonawanda, NY), doing what she does best, defeated Richard Lauder (Madison, WI) this round, 431-356. Richard played FLANKEr and STARTLES and Charmaine got down ATRIUMs and BENEDICT. She confessed that Richard's second bingo got her thinking. It was one short of the triple word square and she had an S, so she contemplated STARTLESS*.

Jesse Day (New Haven, CT), a Yale student who hasn't been playing SCRABBLE^® all that long, is now in division 1. Hard to believe that not that long ago, he was a burgeoning beginner.... This round, he got a shot at former National SCRABBLE^® Champion, Dave Wiegand (Portland, OR). It was Dave's win, 451-367. They were intent on a midgame play, so I just wrote down a few words I spotted: AREOLAR, ASTRIDE by Jesse, and MoRCEAU, and EELpOUT, played by Dave. Jesse later told me that he though EELpOUT was a great play that was well positioned and gave him no reply.

Funny guy Doug Brockmeier (Yorba Linda, CA) fell to Robert Linn (Potomac, MD) this round, 386-439. I spot Doug's FRONTIER, Bob's QuIFF for 78, and see other fun plays: PUPUs, LUTEINS, and TANTO.

Dee Jackson (Deerfield Beach, FL) and James L Kille (Philadelphia, PA) played at their assigned table this round on a Malaysian World SCRABBLE^® Championship board. Beautiful as it was, it is designed for square "World" tiles (see protiles.net if you don't know what they are!) and Dee and Jim were using standard North American tiles that are slightly rectangular. So, their nearly completed board had the look of a badly composed mosaic tile job with the pieces of tile laying at odd angles in many different directions. It bothered the players not at all, but made for an odd-looking board.

I wanted to take a look at a completed board between David Gremaud (St. Louis, MO) and David Johnson (Decatur, IL), but their endgame analysis was so intent and took place inches above the very center of the board, complete with folders, flying hand gestures, and heads tilted in toward on another, so like a kid at a candy store, I went on to other boards. I'll get them later on the event.

Dan Sereduick (Baltimore, MD) was in a tense endgame with Elana Lehrer (City Withheld, NJ). I see on their board OVERRAN, TICKETING, UNWITH*, RESUrGEd, and GrEASERS. Dan ended up winning by 70ish. This win left Dan 2-1.

Wallace Schultz (Las Vegas, NM) is wearing a brightly colored teal shirt today and playing at a board with vibrant purple tiles. The colors complement so well!

Verna Berg Richards (New York, NY) seeing me standing took ahold of my arm and led me across division 2, not letting go until I was standing in front of her round 1 opponent, Steve Krieger (Cincinnati, OH). She kept prompting him, "Tell her, Steve! Tell her!" Turns out they had a good game going, but he was solidly down by 20 points and both thought the game was herws. But suddenly, Steve, on a full and closing board, found INNERMOST through the MO for 62, which won him the game. Deep, huh?

Quiet guys, Jerry Lerman (Foster City, CA) and Jim Kramer (Roseville, MN) have just finished their game. John Chew sees their result slip, 447-446, and hunts me down. He says, "There has got to be a story here, find it out." Doing as I'm told, I stumble upon them in an endgame chat. Jerry opened with RELICTS for 74, and got down GAWKiER for 80, NATTINESs for 61, and IBEX for 41. Jim played RONDELET for 80 and HORDEIN for 102, and lost a squeaker to Jerry.

Amit Chakrabarti (Hanover, NH) finds me and pulls me over to his finished board with Zev Kaufman (Toronto ON). Amit opened with two bingos in a row: UVEITIS for 78 and STEAMING from the S for 74, then Zev came back with a 106-point double-double, NEoTYPES, which brought them neck and neck. Amit played off an OI and kept RATES, when Zev slammed down FROWnED/PIN for 77. Amit was now down 50. He found the lovely NARTHEX to the HEX down the triple lane for 51 (YES!). He then played SEVEN/YOWLS for 60 points, winning their game, 463-430. Nice game.

One more gme before lunch.