Scrabble Bubble: March 2011

Saturday, March 26, 2011

200 days until WSC 2011

I decided to play one more tournament before WSC 2011.

This will be Peterborough "All Nighter" on 23-24 July.

Yesterday I've booked a return ticket from Poznan to London for 73 EUR. I'll be flying to London on Ryanair on July 22nd and returning on July 25th.

Together with the railway tickets, entry fee and 2 nights at the hotel the cost will be around 270 EUR which is similar to the money I paid for the Mannheim trip.

The tournament itself is one of the kind we call "Le Mans" in Poland. It is 24 games of Scrabble in 24 hours played non-stop.

This should be a good test for me before the WSC where I'll have to play 9 games a day for four days in a row.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Mannheim - miscellaneous

I was pleasently surprised by the post on the German Scrabble-Blog which featured my prize for the best German word played, mentioned my blog and the forthcoming WSC in Poland.

Danke schön!

http://www.scrabble-blog.de/2011/03/israeli-siegt-in-mannheim/

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Philip Nelkon has just announced that no "significant reduction on the Hilton room rates for WSC participants beyond what is available on their website and elsewhere on the Internet" has been possible.

This is very sad news.

But anyway: what can you expect from probably the most exclusive hotel in Warsaw?

And who's idea was it to organize WSC in such expensive setting in the first place?

I'm afraid that someone has forgotten about the most important ingredient of the World Scrabble Championship - the players.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/world-scrabble/message/9607

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Mannheim - the stats

So here are my ultimate statistics from the First German Open in Mannheim.

Final standing: 7th

Games won: 13

Games lost: 9

Spread: +932

Average for: 426.81

Average against: 384.45

Blanks: 24/44 = 55%

S's: 46/88 = 52%

Games won:

2 blanks: 7/7 (100%)

1 blank: 6/10 (60%)

0 blanks: 0/5 (0%)

Bingos for: 41 (1.86 per game)

Bingos against: 33 (1.50 per game)

7 letter bingos: 25 (61%)

8 letter bingos: 16 (39%)

Bingos with blanks: 21 (51%)

Bingos without blanks: 20 (49%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 1

High game: 606

Low game: 309

Highest combined score: 987

Highest standing: 4th (rd. 6)

Lowest standing: 19th (rd. 15)

Luckiest table: no 7 [6/7 games won (86%)]

Unluckiest table: no 4 [0/3 games won (0%)]

My bingos (41):

AGENISE (71)
EMOtION (79)
GUSTIER (78)
VENDoRS (71)
DIEtINE (61)
ONSTAGe (79)
ENVIrON (74)
KAI(S)ERIN (66)
GAPIEsT (71)
APIA(R)IsT (86)
ENERGID (76)
ETESIAN (76)
(I)NERTIAE (78)
(S)eNSORIA (79)
(C)ONTRATE (59)
URINATE (77)
FE(A)sIBLE (63)
UNITAG(E)S (74)
ERRANDS (65)
OTArINE (68)
PORINAs (70)
RET(I)NTED (61)
CrAPIES(T) (77)
STAND(I)NG (72)
WELdERS (74)
OUTLIES (69)
EERIEST (67)
FUGL(I)Est (83)
REGINAS (77)
LA(R)IATED (68)
bRONZES (91)
RILIEsT (64)
OLEINES (70)
GRANITE (64)
EU(L)OGIST (62)
(T)EDISOmE (82)
TRIPTAN(E) (77)
ENdBR(A)IN (69)
ETEsIAN (83)
HAVIORS (90)
AIRIESt (75)

Opponent bingos (33):

OUTLIER (77)

GARNeTS (68)

CAUTION (76)

LATRINE (68)

CRITtER (73)

(S)UNnIEST (83)

ENTRAPS (74)

UNFILEd (87)

OBVIAtE (73)

gRASSED (79)

MOLINET (96)

ENsNARE (77)

STANDEE (79)

cOUNtED (75)

ARCHEUS (96)

REENACT (70)

SHEITAN (88)

EASIEST (74)

IMmUNIT(Y) (89)

EUCAINS (66)

MITTENs (73)

ECHIDNA (99)

ANGoRAS (86)

RALLIEs (65)

(O)RANGESt (62)

ReTSINA (73)

SPiTTEN (73)

VOTEENs (76)

ANISeED (73)

UNNE(R)VES (74)

*GAUNTI(E)R (72)

MEANDER (83)

Monday, March 21, 2011

CSW, rule the waves

An interesting article by 2001 World Scrabble Champion Brian Cappelletto about why the US should switch to CSW (SOWPODS):

http://bricap.livejournal.com/8172.html

Friday, March 18, 2011

finally... the ABSP rating

Wojtek has one, Rafal has one and now Bartek has one, too :)

Since 15th March I'm now officially rated with 153 ABSP rating points which is the same as Wojtek. Rafal is at 156. This means Poland has quite a good team of Scrabble players.

I hope there will be no more moaning about Poland being a non-Scrabble land as some have suggested when commenting on Mattel's decision about the venue of 2011 WSC...

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Annotated Mannheim Games 13-22

The rest of my annotated Mannheim games (13-22) can be found under following links:

13 Anand Buddhev - BP 377-373

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8200#0
14 BP - Nicky Vella Laurenti 399-444

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8201#0
15 Ovidiu Tamas - BP 460-309

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8202#0
16 BP - Jim Wilkie 414-285

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8203#0
17 BP - Cody McCormick 465-299

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8204#0
18 Ray Tate - BP 365-431

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8192#0
19 Dianne Ward - BP 401-384

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8205#0
20 BP - Pramit Kamath 579-338

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8206#0
21 Nikki Sedlmeyr - BP 381-606

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8207#0
22 BP - Omri Rosenkranz 430-351

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8208#0

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Annotated Mannheim Games 1-12

My annotated Mannheim games (1-12) can be found under following links:

Links to games 13-22 will be announced as soon as I have quackled and uploaded them to http://www.cross-tables.com/annoupload.php

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Mannheim - day 3

I love MAnnheim and I love my MA, too :)

What did I say about the logic in the previous post?

Today I got 67% of the blanks and 71% of the S's and the skies were blue again. Just like on day 1 I won 5 games and lost only one. Delving deeper into this subject one could say - why bother and play Scrabble - you might just as well flip the coin to decide who's the best... But it's not that simple :)

Again, let's see what the stats have to say:

Day 3:

Games won:5

Games lost: 1

Spread: +760

Blanks: 8/12 (67%)

S'S: 17/24 (71%)

Average for: 482

Average against:355

Bingos: 13 (2.2 per game)

I don't mean to brag but those stats are simply breathtaking :)

Here are my spreads in consecutive games today:

+166, +66, -17, +241, +225,+79

The most thrilling moment today came when after beating Pramit Kamath by 579-338 (my highest score ever) I managed to do even better in the next game against Nikki Sedlmayr. I was looking with amazement at all the good letters springing to my rack in know combinations without any difficulty and was feeling like in Scrabble heaven (if there is such thing, of course)...

Here's how game 21 went:

Move 1: DIIOONR: exchanged 5 (DIIOO)

Move 2: BEINNR?: played ENdBR(A)IN (64+5 PP)

Move 3: AKHJOS?: played KHO(d)JAS on double-double for 4x20=80 points!

Move 4: AEEINT?: played ETEsIAN on double-double for 83 points

Move 6: played MAX for 50 points

Move 7: played ZO(EA)L for 68 points

Move 9: AHIORSV: played HAVIORS (85+5 PP)

Move 11: played QUIT for 55

JQXZ plus both blanks plus 3 S's in this game helped me achieve my highest score ever: 606 points!

My opponent bingoed twice in this game and finished on 381 points. Our game became thus the one with highest combined score of the tournament: 987 points.

So my amazing run today made me jump from spot 16 after round 16 up to spot 7 overall :)

And if it weren't enough luck for today I won a prize for KAISERIN (the best German word of the tournament) - 25 EURO!

I happily spent the money on buying goodies from Tilefish store: A SamTimer (electronic Scrabble clock), fancy brown tile bag and a set of fridge magnets ;)

This day goes into history as Bartosz Pieta's luckiest 13th :)

Game 17 Cody McCormick: win 465-299

Game 18 Ray Tate: win 431-365

Game 19 Dianne Ward: loss 384-401

Game 20 Pramit Kamath: win 579-338

Game 21 Nikki Seidlmeyer: win 606-381

Game 22: win 430-351

Thanks everyone for reading this, I hope you've enjoyed it at least as much as I did.

Next Scrabble stop is WSC 2011 in Warsaw!

Good morning day 3

I've slept very well this night but awoke with a headache.

The skies are dark but I'm optimistic. If yesterday I got 40% of blanks then today I should get the other 60%.

This is logical, ain't it? :)

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Mannheim - day 2

Looking at my today's record one could say: "What a disaster, this guy must have had an awful day today, probably due to a hangover or some food poisoning by a vicious Bratwurst..." :)

I will let the stats speak for themselves:

Day 2:

Games won: 3

Games lost: 7

Spread: -168

Blanks: 8/20 (40%)

S'S: 16/40 (40%)

Average for: 395

Average against: 412

Bingos: 17 (1.7 per game)

Interesting facts:

In game 7 against Ray Tate (number 7) I scored 400 points with only one S and no blanks.
Then in game 9 against Dan Sandu (number 4) I even topped this achievement by scoring 405 points without any S's or blanks.
And finally in game 12 against Evan Cohen (numer 1) I scored 401 points again without any S's or blanks.

I lost all three above games despite scoring 400+ points.

Getting philosophical, I might even pose this question:

Can you win your games against stronger opponents when all you see is a single S in three games?

my excuse for today's poor performance is: "Blame it on the tiles"

I'm still in a chance for 25 EUR prize for the best German word. In my opinion my KAI(S)ERIN is the best but it's for the German judges to decide :)

My record against Romanian players is now 0-3. In the last of the games I got slaughtered by Ovidiu Tamas by 309-460

In game 9 I was leading against Dan Sandu by 405-315 when he played out with ARCHEUS for 96 points (incl. 5 PP) and took advantage of letters on my rack (EKTOV) adding another 24 points thus recording a magnificent win by 435-405.

And finally the highlights of today:

In game 7 I played out with (I)NERTIAE building 4 additional words - funnily enough this left Ray Tate sitting on a rack of ACEIRST giving me extra 18 points. Unfortunately this wasn't enough for a win: I lost 400-465.

In game 10 against Suzanne Dundas I bingoed four times with FE(A)sIBLE, UNITAG(E)S, ERRANDS and OTArINE. I finished the game with a great spread of +197.

In game 12 against Evan Cohen (current leader) i played GAZOO for 78 points. Evan replied with EASIEST (sic!), IMmUNIT(Y) and EUCAINS which soothed the pain of another lost game for me :)

Game 13 against Anand Buddhev was very unlucky for me (I wonder why..). First I let Anand off the hook by letting him play *VYTTA and then falling into the trap by trying to extend it to *VYTTAS. To add injury to insult I then didn't challenge off NUS / *ACERBS and lost the game on the last move by agonizing 4 points 373-377.

Last game of day 2 against Jim Wilkie seemed to want to make me forget about all the pains I suffered today. I got blessed with two blanks and four S's which I happily converted into two bingos: EERIEST and FUGL(I)Est. Understandably my opponent wasn't very happy to see me so greedy - especially when I played BUSTS in the penultimate move for 32 points.

So a happy ending to a long and not necessarily satisfying day. I finished the day with a tournament record of 8-8 and +172.
I hope tomorrow the blanks and S's will come back to where they belong - Bartosz Pieta's rack :)

Game 7: loss against Ray Tate by 400-465

Game 8: loss against Mihai Pantis by 350-514

Game 9: loss against Dan Sandu by 405-435

Game 10: win against Suzanne Dundas by 545-348

Game 11: win against Nicky Huitson by 358-338

Game 12: loss against Evan Cohen by 401-456

Game 13: loss against Anand Buddhev by 373-377

Game 14: loss against Nicky Vella Laurenti by 399-444

Game 15: loss against Ovidiu Tamas by 309-460

Game 16: win against Jim Wilkie by 414-285

Good night!

Good morning day 2

I slept well but with many distruptions - probably due to high coffeine and adrenalin levels in my blood. Nevertheless I feel good and am ready for the next challenge. Ten games ahead of me. I have never played that many games on a single day so this will be something new.

It all starts at 9:00 and finishes at 22:00.

Scrabble is hard work, I tell you folks ;)

Friday, March 11, 2011

Mannheim - day 1

Wasserturm - Mannheim 11.03.11

What a day!

There is so much to report and so little time, so I'll stoop to my favorite thing - the stats.

I'm in 4th place with 5-1 and +340

I played 11 bingos:

AGENISE, EMOtION, GUSTIER, VENDoRS, DIEtINE, ONSTAGE, ENVIrON, KAI(S)ERIN, GAPIEsT, APIA(R)IsT and ENERGID.

Two remarks:

1. I have played APIARIST in a recent game with Rafal on ISC (triple-triple for some 90 points) and back then I wasn't sure if the word even existed and now I've played it live at double-double (for 86).

2. There is a special prize for the best German word played in the tournament. My only 8-letter word today KAI(S)ERIN (66) is currently top of the list. I hope nobody comes with anything better, though I think DIRNDLS has good chance if it gets played too :)

And now to the highlight game of today - round 5 on table 5.

I played number 2 seed Terry Kirk of England (WESPA-ranked 1857).

All went well for me in this game.

I countered Terry's bingo (S)UNnIEST (83) with KAI(S)ERIN (66) using the second S of his word. Two moves later Terry tried to play a phoney *COENOBI which I challenged off and promptly replied with HUDNA (36+5) which Terry unsuccessfully challenged. Then some smart moves from me like STANGED (45) and a phoney (uniwllingly) *WITOL (39) and in the end Terry was forced to open the board - right when I had AEGIPT? on the rack and could play GAPIEsT.

It is by far my best game ever.

OK and one last thing I need to mention. During the first moves of my 1st tournament game (with Paul Dundas) I experienced the strangest racks of my life ever.

Rack 1: BEJKMWY: played JEW (26) leaving BKMY

Rack 2: BKMQRSY: played KY (33) leaving BMQRS

Rack 3: BMQRSSS: exchanged BMQR, leaving SSS

Rack 4: DGSSSST: played ST (16), leaving DGSSS

Rack 5: DDGRSSS: played DR(A)GS (18), leaving DGSS

Rack 6: DGINRSS: played DR(A)GS (22), leaving INS

Rack 7: AEEGINS: bingoed with AGENISE (71)

This just goes to show that no matter what letters you get, if you wisely balance the rack you'll always end up with a bingo... eventually :)

And you may even win the game, I know i did... ;)

Schedule for tomorrow:

10 games starting at 9:00.

Game 7: Ray Tate (current number 1 but ranked 7)

Game 8: Mihai Pantis (current number 5, ranked 5) - this will be my first game ever with a Romanian :)

PS.

My stats for day 1:

bingos: 11 (1.83 per game)

blanks: 8 (67%)

S's: 13 (54%)

Average for: 423.5

Average against: 367

Thanks for all your comments and for keeping your fingers crossed!

Game 1 Win against Paul Dundas (NL) 431-355

Game 2 Loss against James Wilkie (SCO) 361-485

Game 3 Win against Pramit Kamath (NL) 421-285

Game 4 Win against Cody McCormick (ENG) 458-303

Game 5 Win against Terry Kirk (ENG) 442-375

Game 6 Win against Nicky Vella Laurenti (MLT) 428-398

Good night!

Mannheim, here I am

at 12:00 I have arrived at the hotel.

And the best news of all - the internet access is free and working.

Now a quick shower and off to Augusta Hotel on the other end of the Quadratenstadt :)
Keep your fingers crossed for me :)

Thursday, March 10, 2011

15 hours to go

So here's the plan for tomorrow, 11.03.11:

04:55 wake-up

05:20 bus to Poznan

05:50 tram to city centre

06:10 bus to the airport

07:35 flight Poznan-Frankfurt

10:44 ICE train Frankfurt to Mannheim

11:30 walk to the hotel

12:00 check-in at the hotel

12:30 walk to the venue hotel

13:00 registration

14:00 6 games of Scrabble

22:00 back at the hotel

22:30 write my blog

23:00 go to sleep :)

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

where the streets have no names

World's first bicycle and automobile was bulit here
Steffi Graf was born here
It's Germany's warmest city
1st German Open starts in two days here

Do you know this city?
You guessed it, it's Mannheim.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannheim
http://www.scrabble.org.il/firstgermanopen.htm

Saturday, March 5, 2011

See you at the WSC 2011 in Warsaw

The impossible has happened.

The World Scrabble Championship 2011 will be held in Poland.

In a country with 3 "serious" English language players whose ratings average around 1600 (160).

In a country where a Scrabble tournament in English language takes place only once every two years - with no prize money and rarely more than 10 participants.

An yet it's not a Scrabble desert as one might think. Poland has probably one of the strongest Scrabble scenes - it's Scrabble played in Polish.

Almost every weekend there is a tournament taking place somewhere in Poland. The prize money isn't usually big (rarely more than 100 $ for 1st place) but it's enough to attract on average 40 participants.

And the best thing of all - almost all tournaments are scored live on the Polish Scrabble Federation web page (www.pfs.org.pl). And after a tournament there is always a full report with photos.

Scrabble is very popular in Poland and I'm sure it will get even more popular because of the coverage it's going to get in the Polish media.

I will be very happy to welcome all the great Scrabble players in Poland.

Do come to Warsaw in October. This city has by far more tourist attractions than Johor Bahru and is certainly worth a visit!

See you all in Warsaw in 221 days!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

YES, YES, YES :)

It's official:
I'M NOW THE HAPPIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD :)

Wanna know why...?

http://www.wscgames.com/2011/

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

If I won't come to the Causeway...

the Causeway shall come to me :)

Just 3 hours ago Michael Tang has announced the Causeway Grand Slam 2012.

There won't be one Causeway played in Malaysia anymore, but 4 Causeways all over the world.

First one in Melbourne in March, the next one in Vancouver in May, another one in Manchester in August (I'll be there!) and finally in Johor Bahru in November.

Michael, you have done so much for this game, please never give up!

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/world-scrabble/message/9534