Causeway bye bye

A sad piece of news arrived us yesterday - Michael Tang announced that due to personal reasons the 2012 Causeway Grand Slam is being canceled and that this year's 2011 Causeway Challenge will be the last ever.

He also announced that changes in prizemoney and division structure in the latter will take place. This could mean that there would be less prize money involved. Nevertheless I suppose that still a lot of players would be willing to take part in the tournament.
I went to the Lufthansa website and found out that the return flight from Poznan to Singapore would cost 30% less than the amount i have paid in 2009 when flying for the WSC. The prospect of returning to Johor Bahru is now very tempting indeed...

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/world-scrabble/message/9782

clash no 5

Date: 2 July 2011

Time: 11:00AM-19:30PM

Location: Warsaw

The score is 2-2 in the Clash of the Titans series played out between the Polish Champion Wojtek and Vice-Champion Bartek as part of the preparation for the 2011 WSC in Warsaw later this year. Let the best win...

Clash of the titans vol 4 (Skierniewice, June 18th)

We met for the 4th time. his time - halfway between Warsaw and Lodz - in a small town of Skierniewice.

We played 12 games altogether: 8 games in front of the Culture House and then 4 games on the balcony of the Alhambra restaurant, where tradionally we ate shawarma :)

Wojtek won the first 2 games - it was 0-2, then I won the next 6 games  and it was 6-2, then Wojtek won another 3 games and it was 6-5. 
Fortunately I won the the last game to win the clash by 7-5. 
This meant that the head-to-head in the Clash of the Titans is now tied at 2-2. 

The STATS:

Games won: 7

Games lost: 5

Spread: +416

Average for: 420.3

Average against: 385.7

Blanks: 13/24 = 54%

S's: 23/48 = 48%

Games won:

2 blanks: 4/4 (100%)

1 blank: 2/5 (40%)

0 blanks: 1/3 (33%)

Bingos for: 22 (1.83 per game)

Bingos against: 18 (1.5 per game)

7 letter bingos: 15 (68%)

8 letter bingos: 7 (32%)

Bingos with blanks: 11 (50%)

Bingos without blanks: 11 (50%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 3

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 1

High game: 506

Low game: 355

Highest combined score: 892

Game 1
LOST 423-469

Game 2
LOST 420-431

Game 3

WON 404-332

Game 4

WON 506-305

Game 5

WON 451-346

Game 6

WON 446-375

Game 7

WON 419-399

{ no photo }


Game 8

WON 449-316

Game 9

LOST 401-443

Game 10

LOST 365-387

Game 11

LOST 355-437

Game 12

WON 405-388

the Championship 2011 - the games

Game 1

Wojtek - BP 461-384

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8750



















Game 2

BP - Mateusz 414-398
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8751

Game 3

Zbyszek - BP 388-359

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8752

Game 4

BP - Rafał 523-346

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8760

Game 5

BP - Mikołaj 393-365

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8761

Game 6

BP - Wojtek 365-380

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8762

the clash commences..

Tomorrow in Skierniewice - a city halfway between Warsaw and Lodz the Polish champ and vice-champ are meeting for the 4th Clash of the Titans. The head to head is 2-1 for Wojtek. I hope I can repeat my success from three weeks ago when I won 8-7...

the Championship 2011 - summary

So the Polish WSC qualification tournament has been decided.

The new Polish champion is the 2007 champion Wojtek.
2nd place goes to the 2009 champion Bartek.
3rd place was stolen away in the last round by 2009 bronze-medalist Rafał with great help from 2005 champion Mateusz who despite playing only for prestige beat Zbyszek in the last game of the tournament.
4th place (WSC reserve) goes to Zbyszek who came  especially for the tournament from USA and who impressed everyone with his solid Scrabble skills.


The STATS: 

Games won: 9

Games lost: 6

Spread: +778

Average for: 426.2

Average against: 374.33

Blanks: 15/30 = 50%

S's: 29/60 = 48%

Games won:

2 blanks: 4/4 (100%)

1 blank: 3/7 (43%)

0 blanks: 2/4 (50%)

Bingos for: 34 (2.27 per game)

Bingos against: 18 (1.2 per game)

7 letter bingos: 17 (50%)

8 letter bingos: 17 (50%)

Bingos with blanks: 14 (41%)

Bingos without blanks: 20 (59%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 1

High game: 529

Low game: 359

Highest combined score: 869

the Championship 2011 - day 1

So here are the standings after day 1:

1. Wojtek 7 +768 3525 

2. Zbyszek 5 +228 3184 

3. Bartek 4 +219 3234 

4. Rafał 4 +64 3092 

5. Mateusz 4 -187 

6. Mikołaj 0 -1092

So a very surprising order indeed. 

I hope this changes dramatically tomorrow :)

No comments about he quality of my racks today - I played my best and made only a few mistakes plus I lost three close games plus I was lucky with the tiles when I played Rafal plus I'm at 4-4 and in 3rd place. That's enough :)

The quest for the Championship

Follow my struggles in the quest for the crown of the best Scrabble player in Poland live on:

http://twitter.com/euoi79

two days to go

In 2 days it's showtime again - the 5th  Scrabble Championship in Warsaw.

My goals this time are pretty modest:

I'm aiming for the 2nd place.

3rd place would be ok, too.

4th place would be a disaster

and if I place 5th I will definitely quit Scrabble :)

Supernova is gonna shine in Poland this Autumn

Mihai Pantis has won the WSC Qualification tournament in Cluj-Napoca and will represent Romania in the WSC 2011 taking place in October 2011 in Warsaw, Poland.

In the best-of-nine final Mihai has beaten Catalin Caba by 5 games to 1. Interestingly enough the first game was won by Catalin.

Romanian WSC Qualification AD 2011

Just received an update from Catalin Caba on the ISC about the progress of the WSC 2011 Qualification tournament in Romania.

Semifinals finished as follows:

Catalin Caba 7-4

Mihai Pantis 6-5

Dan Sandu 5-6

Ovidiu Tamas 4-7

The final is taking place tomorrow and it's going to be a best-of-nine between Catalin Caba and Mihai Pantis.

How exciting! 
I wish I could live to see such final one day in Poland :)