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PC 2007 Commentary: Round 9

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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: Brian Cappelletto vs. Lester Schonbrun.

Round 9

Su Edwards, div 4 assistant, slipped me a post-it note saying, come see this triple-triple in our division! So, I trot over to the board furthest away from our Internet table in that division. I wasn't disappointed. One of the Reinke twins, Charles Reinke (Middleton, WI), had a monster game this round, defeating Hubert Van Tol (Rochester, NY), 581-351. I Now, lest you think I'm kidding when I say "one of the Reinke twins," I'm telling you that these two kids are so indiscernable from one another (look at the photos this round!), that I flat out told one of them, I'm going to smile and wave and pretend I know which one you are, but I will never be able to tell you apart. I wanted him to tell his brother this so they don't get frustrated if I confuse them. I don't think I've ever seen two twins so alike..... and unusually alike. Always in tie dye shirts, long dark hair the very same length, same tall thin frame.... Anyway, back to the board... Though Hubert got down BOoTIES for 82, it really was all about Charles this game. He played INTERLAp for 74 (challenged, too!), pEROXIDE on the triple lane from the blank p for 119, and the truly lovely GLADIEST through the D for a 140-point triple-triple. While we were gabbing, Thomas Reinke (Middleton, WI) came over to see what all the fuss was about! We had a Doublemint photo op!

Daniel Stock (Rocky River, OH) always does those 100 tile stories and he made one for today that celebrated Victor Li (Columbia, SC) from division 5, the only player with a perfect record as yesterday's games ended. Congrats to Victor and thanks to Dan for the creative job!

Back to Hubert Van Tol (Rochester, NY) for a second. This guy has had some really bad luck. In two recent tournaments, his last round opponents, misreading the tournament schedule have left the venue before the last game, giving him a bye. This happened to him yesterday for round 7. His opponent was a no-show! And last round, he lost to someone with a higher score than Charles' this round. The guy can't get any respect! He is the Rodney Dangerfield of SCRABBLE^®.

Channel 22 is here this morning. They film for both Fox and ABC. They had an off-camera interview with Mary Rhoades and an on-camera interview at the end of this round with Chris Cree (Dallas, TX). I caught John D Williams (Greenport, NY) walking across the room in an old SCRABBLE^® T-shirt and in jeans. I said, "Hey John! Someone else has your job this event," as I gestured over toward Chris, who was under the bright lights. John smiled and said gracefully, "I'm happy to see him doing it!" John is not winning as much as he is losing, but he is hanging with us, being one of the people, getting into small groups between rounds, complaining about his tiles. I think I even spied him eating a Crispy Creme donut! His diet!

Rose Kreiswirth (East Northport, NY) brings me over to her finished game with Steve Tier (New York, NY). These fellow New Yawkers had a really fun game that they were both sure was Steve's win. In the endgame, Rose picked up ALLUDED and was bemoaning that she had no place to put it. And then, as if guided by some magical force, the lower right side of the board began to pulsate. It said, "Rose, come here..." And sure enough, not only was there a spot, but a SEVEN-TILE OVERLAP spot TO THE TRIPLE! I mean, were her planets in perfect alignment or what? ALLUDED fit right beside TAENIAE, which created ETA/AL/EL/NU/ID/AE/ED for 104 points and led her to a 397-370 win.

John OLaughlin (Cambridge, MA) vs. Chris Cree (Dallas, TX) and it was John taking a POTSHOT for 89 to ol' Uncle Chrissie, winning, 437-367. Chris got down ENTERINg and John played TERRIES.

Have I mentioned how happy we are to have all the donations? One person in particular is worth mentioning. We had a need for a wireless laptop so that one of our data entry folks could help out with getting data in for the event. Stephanie Steele (St. Paul, MN) came to the rescue, loaning her laptop for the whole event to Karen Lee. The thing about this loan is that Karen's need for it means she needs it before the event begins and long after the players have gone and Stephanie has been willing to laptop-less this whole time. Thanks for being such a peach, Steph. While I was thinking these good thoughts about her, I saw her long lean frame draped in a wrap of some sort. She was chatting with Steve Pellinen (St. Louis Park, MN). Turns out that, once again, they find themselves with the same mediocre record at yet another event. They are both 4-5. It beats 0-9, though :).

Amy Krafchick, helping in division 3, comes over to tell me about a great game between two of her division's players. Ryan Fischer (Charlotte, NC) had a 509-347 win against Julia Bogle (Indianapolis, IN). I think part of the key to his success was EGESTION through G on the triple-triple lane for 140 points. Wow!

Jeff Reeves (Woodworth, LA) played Tony Leah (Ajax ON) this round and had a totally inspired outbingo find of CATBrIER from the C for 73 points. With 19 seconds on his clock, he managed to find this play, get it down, and wrestle the win from Tony, 459-436.

Teresa Schaeffer (Potomac, MD) brought a foreign exchange student with her to the Players Championship. Alba Vazquez is a 19-year-old pre-med student who studies at Zaragoza. She is staying with Teresa for about 1.5 months and as part of her experience of the US, she has been brought here! What must she think of us in the US! Alba has been a tremendous help to us at the event, distributing the pairing/standings to every director (this room is bigger than a football field: a lot of walking involved). She has also posted pairings and standings in an even further away room. At the end of each round, she double-checks all the data entry scores. She has also been collecting all the result slips from each director. This, perhaps, does not seem like much, but it has been enormously helpful for the event, because it keeps directors at their tables, in their divisions, and helps them save their feet and legs for other event walking, like director calls. In addition, John Chew insists that I mention that she is acting as an auxiliary brain for him, helping him realize that the last page of each round's pairings should be printed (he keeps forgetting).