taking a break

i'm taking a break from my laptop. This means no more online Scrabble for the next 12 days, 12 days of no blogging and zyzzyva-quizzing. Sounds like fun...

my little secret

5 hours after Helen has declared to have 13000 questions due in her cardbox I happily inform, that after nine months of cardboxing holiday I'm back to my normal quizzing EINORTU again! Today I managed to finally come back to 0 due questions... for today, that is ;) I also upgraded my helpful Excel file to a 2007 version and was happy to see the macros still working fine :)

WE RULE ! (UK Open - day 5)

`
Rafal Dominiczak has won Division C at the UK Open in Coventry. After a grueling fight he ensured the title in his last - 38th game of the tournament. He won the tournament on spread of +2530.

Rafal wins 1500 Ł - the highest prizemoney won by a Polish Scrabble player ever!

CONGRATULATIONS!

In division B Mihai Pantis of Romania claims the title and 1500 Ł - six points clear of the rest of the field with a record of 31-7 +2203. According to Adrian Tamas this is the first prizemoney ever won by a Romanian player in a Scrabble tournament.
WELL DONE, MIHAI !

In division A Nigel Richards walks away with the 1st prize of 2100 Ł - two points ahead of Paul Allan (2nd) and Craig Beevers (3rd).

Helen finished 5th and gets 105 Ł.
After a good start to the tournament Adrian hit the lows and finished 18th.

A fascinating tournament and a lucky finish for two of my hot favorites.
It's fantastic that players from countries which could be called "underdogs of English-language Scrabble" managed to beat the native players on their home ground. I think this is an example that if we could start the movement of English Scrabble on a wider scale in Poland / Romania the success would be almost certain.

Scrabblers

If you're looking for photos of Scrabblers from around the world, you could check out: 
http://www.student.euv-frankfurt-o.de/~euv121088/scrabblers4.htm

Disclaimer:
The above file was compiled using a publicly available file:
http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/players/photos.txt

UK Open - day 4

Rafal  1st    (C)     26,5-9,5 +2520
Mihai  1st    (B)     30-6 +2166
Helen  5th   (A)     22-14 +725
Adrian 17th  (A)    17-19 +393

After a breathtaking performance Rafal went into top spot after round 31 and is still leading after round 36 with only two games left to be played. He is tied on points with Andy Gray but has by far the better spread (+2520 vs +853).
Today Rafal won 9 games and tied 1. Amazing!!!
To clinch the title Rafal needs to win 2 games tomorrow. If Andy Gray loses one game then Rafal can also afford one defeat.
In his final two games Rafal will be playing the current no 15 Ted Lewis. Andy Gray will be playing a theoretically tougher opponent Sam Beckwith who's in 9th place.
I can't wait 'till tomorrow. Rafal could win 1500 Ł. This would be the highest prizemoney any Polish player has won playing Scrabble...


Mihai Pantis has already secured 1st place in Division B - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
I hope Rafal can win division C - it would mean a double victory for Romanian-Polish Scrabble - and that on the English ground!

UK Open - day 3

Rafal  4th (C) 17-9 +1503
Mihai 1st (B) 20-6 +1311
Helen 6th (A) 16-10 +857
Adrian 13th (A) 13-13 +863

As I have predicted Nigel Richards is back to 1st place. He did it in impressive style winning all 8 games today, extending his spread by almost 1100 points to +2718, and going into the lead by two points over Paul Allan and Craig Beevers.

Trivia:
In round 19 Mihai demolished his opponent by winning 641:234 with a spread of +407 !

Harshan Lamabadusuriya's new photo:
http://www.centrestar.co.uk/10ukopen/html/pix/h/harshan_lamabadusuriya.jpg :)

WESPA Rating

Finally the new WESPA rating has arrived.
My new rating is 1600.
Due to the fact that I haven't played 50 internationally rated games my name is not featured on the main rating list, which is sad. Had I been there, I would be ranked in 345th place in the world.

The new number one in the world is Ganesh Asirvatham who hasn't played since June 2008. Nigel Richards (this year's WSC runner-up) is in 2nd place. Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (current World Scrabble Champion) is 3rd. Fair enough?

And here are the ratings of some of my 'friends':
11 Peter Kougi 2053
25 Helen Gipson 2007
42 Theresa Brousson 1978
51 Geoff Thevenot 1963
53 Jeff Grant 1962
79 Ong Suanne 1930
82 Allan Oyende 1927
87 Hubert Wee 1923
92 Ralph Lobo 1909
113 Charnrit Khongthanarat 1886
126 Michael Quao 1870
127 Leslie Charles 1868
129 Annand Buddhev 1866
132 Vannitha Balasingam 1863
133 Ayorinde Saidu 1863
147 Patrick Mpundu 1853
157 Waseem Khatri 1843
164 Dielle Saldanha 1838
169 Adrian Tamas 1835
216 Mihai Pantis 1784
252 Rodney Judd 1729
254 Chris Abordo 1727
258 Michael Tang 1722
330 Wojtek Usakiewicz 1632
375 Rohaina Tanveer 1537
393 Cecil Fernandes 1508
407 Warodom Geamsakul 1466
464 Anthony Gomes 1344


A full rating list can be found on:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/PBR.html

UK Open - day 2

After 18 rounds:
Rafal: 6th in Div. C with 11-7 +912
Mihai: 1st in Div. B with 14-4 +639
Helen: 7th in Div. A with 11-7 +775
Adrian: 13th in Div. A with 9-9 +622

In Division A:
1st Craig Beevers 15-3 +1341
2nd Paul Allan      15-3 +1291
3rd Nigel Richards 13-5 +1627

It's gonna be an exciting tournament!

Rafal the Fighter

My friend Rafal Dominczak (Poland) is having a go in the Division C of the UK Open in Coventry at the moment. He's doing very well. Currently he;s in 4th place with a record of 4-4 and +243.
Go go go, Rafal !!!

I also keep my fingers crossed for Mihai Pantis (Romania) in Division B and Helen Gipson and Adrian Tamas in Division A.

You can follow this year's action at:
http://www.centrestar.co.uk/10ukopen/html/index.html

And guess, who's in 1st place after day 1...
Correct! It's Nigel Richards with 7-1 and +984...

2010 - an outlook

So what can we accept Scrabble-wise in Poland this year?

my good Scrabble-pal Rafal Dominiczak is off to Coventry tomorrow for the UK Open. We wish him all the best!

I hope we can organize at least one Scrabble tournament in Poland this year.

I hope at least some of us can make it to tournaments played abroad. Our Romanian friends in Cluj Napoca would like to see us play there. And then there is this Peterborough in England offering a 24-hour Scrabble marathon for a reasonably small entry fee. Or maybe we'll fly to Malta... And how about Causeway 2010? (...)

And what about bringing new serious players to this game? I don't expect much can be done in this matter without a new organization dedicated to English-language Scrabble in Poland.

And here are my Scrabble New Year's Resolutions:

• shift the focus from Scrabble to more serious things
• spend at least as much time studying words as playing online
• finally learn all the 5's and master the hooks

Happy New Year!