WSC 2011 - the summary

This has been my second World Scrabble Championship appearance after the 2009 WSC in Malaysia. All my goals have been achieved:
1) to win 12 games  - I won 15 games
2) to finish in the top 100 - I finished 93rd.

All in all it's been a Championship full of surprises for me.
I managed to beat two good players in games where I got no blanks.
I also managed to lose a game to a Czech player, who's never played at this level before.
This just goes to show how unpredicatable this game can get.

The two games I will remember most were the last game on day 3 which I lost to Nick Ball (CAN) by 3 points (511:514):
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=9621

and the first game on day 4 which I won against Gunnar Anderson (SWE) by 1 point (374-373):
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=9622

I will also cherish the game I won against Alastair Richards (AUS) (who finished 10th in the overall standings). I went into this game with a memory of my previous 3 games against him (all clearly lost) played in a recent tournament in Coventry not even a week before (381:446, 273:498 and 337:570 - a game with 6 bingos for my opponent). I had no blanks in this game but thanks to good fortune I managed to win this one by 395-361.

My other happy game was against John O'Laughlin (USA) - this time I got 4 S's and a blank and won by 417-385.

And then there was the lucky finish of the tournament. After beating Phil Robertshaw of England I won the remaining three games of the tournament - against Keichiro from Japan, then against the current Polish champion Wojtek and finally against a Canadian - Andrew Golding.

I'm really happy with my four wins against native English speakers from USA, Canada, England and Australia.

I'm happy with my overall performance despite getting only 40% of the blanks.

I think it was a very good idea to play in the Cock of the North tournament in Coventry just before the WSC.

I now feel strong and confident about my chance of doing well in my 5th (after Mannheim, Peterborough, Coventry and Warsaw) and last Scrabble tournament this year - the ultimate Causeways Challenge 2011 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia in 40-days' time.

The STATS for WSC 2011:

Games won: 15

Games lost: 19

Spread: -318

Average for: 406.0

Average against: 415.3

Blanks: 27/68 = 40%

S's: 77/132 = 57%

Games won:

2 blanks: 6/6 (100%)

1 blank: 5/15 (33%)

0 blanks: 4/13 (31%)

Bingos for: 63 (1.85 per game)

Bingos against: 60 (1.76 per game)

7 letter bingos: 36 (57%)

8 letter bingos: 27 (43%)

Bingos with blanks: 21 (33%)

Bingos without blanks: 42 (67%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 546

Low game: 292

Highest combined score: 1025 (lost to Nick Ball by 511-514)

WSC - final day

And so came the final day of 2011 World Scrabble Championship.

And finally I was able to sleep for as long as I wanted. And I did - until 7:30 AM.

I left the Sluzewiec Hostel at 8:30AM, bought my return tickets at the train station and then hurried towards the Hilton for the grand finale. On my way there I met the 2005 champion Adam Logan who was also running a bit late. We managed to get to the hotel at 9:30AM sharp. In the playing room which was now turned into audience room there were about 30 players seated and ready to watch the final games on the big screen. I really liked the fact that unlike in Malaysia in 2009 this time the screen has been divided into 4 parts, with two of them showing the players' racks, one showing the board and one showing the players.

I took out my laptop to analyze the racks and the fun began.

Nigel Richards won the first game, Andrew Fisher won the second and going into the lunch break the score was tied at one game each. 

Then I had to leave for a Scrabble PR event called "Day with Scrabble" in the city centre. From 12PM till 1PM I entertained the spectators with anecdotes from my Scrabble life and commented on a Scrabble game played in English by 8 students of a well-known Polish language school Empik. It's been great fun to watch those guys play English words I knew the meanings of: QUIT, WIN, TOY, HERO or DIET. I also helped both teams to play out two bingos: REVERTS and OTARIES.

After the competition was over I was presented with a Prestige Edition of Polish Scrabble which features a revolving board with black racks, black bag and black tiles.

Then I was driven back to the Hilton to see the end of game 4 won by Andrew who tied the scores again - this time at two games each.

The final game was a bit of an anti-climax as half-way through the game it became obvious that Nigel would have done it again.

Nevertheless I was happy to see my predictions come true and it's really fabulous to see a 44-year-old guy achieve so much in this sport. I predict that in 2013 it is going to be much tougher for Nigel to win as it looks like he cannot go any further while the rest of the field still has some potential.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to see Nigel collect his cheque as I needed to hurry for the train back home.

I really enjoyed the last day of the Championship as well as the whole tournament. I really like the fact that the players have liked it too.

I'm greatful to the organisers as well as all the Polish helpers for making this event a success.

And big thanks to Mattel for organising the WSC in a prestigous hotel with delicious lunch and coffee. I really liked it!

WSC 2011 - day 4

After an interesting day 3 came an amazing day 4 - my last and at the same time best day of the tournament. 

Today I won 6 out of 9 games despite getting only 39% of the blanks. And I managed to beat an Englishman and a Canadian.

I had an amazing end of the tournament. 

After beating Phil Robertshaw of England I was happy and ready to call it a day - after all I have won the 3rd game of the day and the plan was done. I then told myself: "Now any extra game you win will be a bonus". And luckily enough I won another 3 games :)

In a 33rd round game with Wojtek I was very lucky to get the S before my opponent who's played O(V)ERBEAT stopping short of square O15. I then played PARS for 78 and after that kept the lead on a closed board.

In the last game against Andrew Golding of Canada my play was very relaxed. I got 2 blanks and played 3 bingos: MA(L)TOSES, REUNIt(E)S and BATONED. Towards the end I even played ZEMSTV(O) for 46 points.

I managed to win the last game and won the Scrabble board!

This has definitely been my happiest day in my Scrabble career :))

The STATS for WSC day 4:

Games won: 6

Games lost: 3

Spread: +158

Average for: 412.0

Average against: 394.4

Blanks: 7/18 = 39%

S's: 23/36 = 64%

Games won:

2 blanks: 2/2 (100%)

1 blank: 2/3 (66%)

0 blanks: 2/4 (50%)

Bingos for: 15 (1.67 per game)

Bingos against: 13 (1.44 per game)

7 letter bingos: 9 (60%)

8 letter bingos: 6 (40%)

Bingos with blanks: 5 (33%)

Bingos without blanks: 10 (67%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 546

Low game: 337

Highest combined score: 887

WSC 2011 - day 3

Third day of the World Scrabble Championship 2011 in Warsaw was very interesting for me. And here is why:

1) I managed to lose to 4 lower rated players including one guy from Czech Republic (rated 0) who killed me with two nice plain English bingos: (S)HOOTERs and (s)WINGINg

2) I won one game by 306 points.

3) I lost one game by 511-514 - the highest losing score of the tournament.

4) I finally managed to get 50% of the blanks.

5) Despite winning only 3 out of 9 games I finished the day on positive spread of +181.

Wojtek had a great day today winning 6 games!
After round 23 he was in 53rd place - a position which would give Poland one extra place in the next World Championship (!!!).
Zbyszek finished the day on 4-5 and Rafal and myself on 3-6.

Tomorrow is the final day and we are confident we can improve our positions, which are currently:

73

Wojtek Usakiewicz

12.0-13.0

-759

88

Zbigniew Wieckowski

10.0-15.0

+64

98

Rafal Dominiczak

9.0-16.0

-346

99

Bartosz Pieta

9.0-16.0

-476

Keep your fingers crossed for Team Poland tomorrow :)


The STATS for WSC day 3:

Games won: 3

Games lost: 6

Spread: +181

Average for: 421.3

Average against: 401.2

Blanks: 9/18 = 50%

S's: 22/36 = 61%

Games won:

2 blanks: 3/3 (100%)

1 blank: 0/3 (0%)

0 blanks: 0/3 (0%)

Bingos for: 15 (1.67 per game)

Bingos against: 18 (2.00 per game)

7 letter bingos: 8 (53%)

8 letter bingos: 7 (47%)

Bingos with blanks: 8 (53%)

Bingos without blanks: 7 (47%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 534

Low game: 292

Highest combined score: 1025

WSC 2011 - day two

I started the second day of the WSC 2011 with an unexpected win against a highly ranked American named John O'Laughlin. Four S's and one blank did the trick - a close but precious win of 417-395.

Then I played Gareth Williams who surprized me by telling me that he has already visited the first historical Polish capital called Gniezno. With so many of the WSC players going to visit Cracow (Poland's second historical capital) it was surely something unique.
In the endgame Gareth set up a floater which I tried to block (to no avail). SAR(S)NETS did the damage.

This loss started an unlucky streak of 5 games lost in the row.
In the next game I lost to Naween Fernando when he played out with a bonus and won by 471-424.
Then I lost to a guy from Trinidad and Tobago (just like in 2009 when I lost to another guy from this country).
Next it was the only Ghanian in the field who beat me.
And then came Chris Cree from the USA, who had no mercy on me and presented me with my highest loss in the tournament so far of 309-533. Luckily this was the last loss in the series.

In game 14 I eked out a win against a Malaysian. I won by 20 points - in the end sacrificing a bonus just to make sure I'd win.

In game 15 I played Mihai Pantis from Romania. It was a very nice and close game. The endgame belonged to the opponent and I lost it by 32 points.

In the last game I met with my countryman (living in the USA since 1991) - Zbyszek. It was a strange game of three letter words mixed with vowel dumps. In the end Zbyszek played one bingo, but unfortunately got stuck with the Q which helped me win by 7 points. This game is sure to count as this years' WSC's lowest scoring win. I beat Zbyszek by 325-318 :)

So the plan of winning 3 games today was achieved.

I have the same plan for tomorrow and I'm hoping to finally get to play representatives from Poland's neighbouring countries - Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia :)

What is also worth mentioning - today I got even less blanks than yesterday - only 33%. The level of S's stayed consistent at exactly 50%.

And just to hold a snapshot of today, here are the standings of Polish team members after day 2:

87

Zbigniew Wieckowski

6.0-10.0

-227

91

Rafal Dominiczak

6.0-10.0

-500

95

Bartosz Pieta

6.0-10.0

-657

97

Wojtek Usakiewicz

6.0-10.0

-791

...which is exactly the reverse order of the standings of the Polish WSC qualification tournament :)

 

The STATS for WSC day 2:

Games won: 3

Games lost: 6

Spread: -440

Average for: 386.6

Average against: 435.4

Blanks: 6/18 = 33%

S's: 18/36 = 50%

Games won:

2 blanks: none

1 blank: 2/6 (33%)

0 blanks: 1/3 (33%)

Bingos for: 16 (1.78 per game)

Bingos against: 16 (1.78 per game)

7 letter bingos: 11 (69%)

8 letter bingos: 5 (31%)

Bingos with blanks: 3 (19%)

Bingos without blanks: 13 (81%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 3

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 456

Low game: 309

Highest combined score: 895

WSC 2011 - day one

I arrived at the Hilton Hotel at about 9:50am and met Rafal there. We were asked by a few radio stations (Anty-Radio, Radio WaWa, Polish Radio 3)and two TV stations (Onet.tv and TVP Info) for interviews and we happily obliged chatting about the background of this game.
Then there was the official opening mixed with a press conference like stuff.

We have learnt what has brought this World Championship to such unlikely venue as Poland and got to know that it was all about honouring of good sales of Scrabble sets in Poland (some 700,000 sets sold in the last 5 years). Then there was also some talk about the first ever bilingual Polish-English version of Scrabble.
The most successful Polish Scrabble player Tomasz Zwolinski talked about his playing Scrabble in Polish and there were some questions from the audience about English words allowed in Polish Scrabble ("help") and Polish words allowed in English Scrabble ("zloty", "grosze").

The games started with a delay of about 20 minutes but nobody seemed really to care. Overall the tournament looks to have a rather relaxed atmoshere with players starting their games amidst noise from the outside room where other Scrabblers still discuss their past games over cups of coffee. The media was allowed to walk between tables and nobody seemed to be too distracted by that either.

I'm very happy how the games went today for me. I won 3 games and lost 4. I beat the Scotsman Simon Gillam and Kuwaiti Shakir Reshamwala. But the sweetest win of all was against Alastair Richards - an Australian who virtually destroyed me in the recent Coventry tournament just three days ago. I beat him by 395-361 despite having no blanks and only one S at my disposal. That was something special.

On the downside I could have probably won a close game against the 16-year-old youth champion Jen Ho Ker have I challenged off the phoney *YSLAKE (for 66 points). In the end I lost this game by 65 points.
Challenging off phoneys is what I still need to work on.

What's also very interesting is that my good averages for the first day like 2,43 bingos and 403 points per game were achieved with only 36% of blanks and 50% of S's. This means I've been very lucky today.

I wonder what tomorrow brings.
One thing is for sure - we start at 8:30am and are going to play 9 games.

In the first game I'll play an American John O'Laughlin (the co-inventor of Quackle) and then I'll play a Welshman Gareth Williams.

Keep your fingers crossed please :)

The STATS for WSC day 1:

Games won: 3

Games lost: 4

Spread: -217

Average for: 403.4

Average against: 434.4

Blanks: 5/14 = 36%

S's: 14/28 = 50%

Games won:

2 blanks: 1/1 (100%)

1 blank: 1/3 (33%)

0 blanks: 1/3 (33%)

Bingos for: 17 (2.43 per game)

Bingos against: 13 (1.86 per game)

7 letter bingos: 8 (47%)

8 letter bingos: 9 (53%)

Bingos with blanks: 5 (29%)

Bingos without blanks: 12 (71%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 2

High game: 461

Low game: 366

Highest combined score: 980

Cock of the North 2011

And so I flew to Coventry for my second ever tournament played on British ground. I actually flew only to Luton and then took the National Express coach to Coventry where after some sightseeing I took a 1-hour-walk to the venue.

I got paired in the first two rounds with numbers 2 (Alastair Richards) and 1 (Wayne Kelly) of the tournament and found out I was the 7th ranked player as Theresa Brousson hasn't made it to the tournament.

As was to be expected I lost the first two games but they were quite close - too close considering the fact that in none of them had I seen any blank. Then I won game 3 and finished the day on 1-2.

I haven't slept well this night, the room was cold as I hadn't turned on the heating on time. After I have turned it on in the night it made me wake up with a headache.

But after all it all didn't seem to matter. I played one of my best 12 games in history, won 9 out of 12 games and finished the day 5th with 10-5.

Then I went to bed again - the room was perfectly warm and for the first time in days I slept very well.

But then again it didn't matter at all. I lost first five games in the row and just when I was hoping to make up for my bad luck in the sixth game it turned out that my opponent would be the gibsonized tournament winner whom I'd be playing for the 3rd time in this tournament.. You can imagine the look on my face then. As if it wasn't enough I got smashed by Alastair again by more than 200 points. I played one bingo and he played 6. Great one!

Without any hope I went on to play my last game which I accidentally won.

And so I finished the tournament in 8th place with 11-11 and -566.

This tournament performance is my poorest since the beginning of my recording in December 2009. Very poor average number of points and poor bingo statistics.

I was somewhat relieved after I have learnt that I only got 43% of the blanks and 40% of the S's in the whole tournament. Unfortunately this only goes to show how unpredictable this game is. You'd think that 22 games would be enough to eradicate the chance factor. Well it isn't and I suppose neither will this be achieved by playing 34 games at the Worlds.

But after all it is the game of luck and should stay this way.

The more unpredictable it is the more people will try to do better at it by trying their luck. For me too, this defeat is a signal that it may not get so bad at the Worlds after all. I may hit the lucky streak and finish higher than I normally would...

And now I shall forget Coventry and for four days concentrate on my goal for the World Championship this year, which is a top 100 finish or 12 games won.

Incredible as it may sound for many of my friends this goal is very ambitious...

 

The STATS:

Games won: 11

Games lost: 11

Spread: -566

Average for: 386.8

Average against: 412.5

Blanks: 19/44 = 43%

S's: 35/88 = 40%

Games won:

2 blanks: 4/4 (100%)

1 blank: 6/11 (55%)

0 blanks: 1/7 (14%)

Bingos for: 32 (1.45 per game)

Bingos against: 41 (1.86 per game)

7 letter bingos: 13 (41%)

8 letter bingos: 19 (59%)

Bingos with blanks: 15 (47%)

Bingos without blanks: 17 (53%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 3

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 488

Low game: 287

Highest combined score: 909

wordless two

Just when I thought one player disallowed an entry into Poland because of his passion for Scrabble was bad enough the history repeats itself. This time it's Philip Edwin-Mugisha from Uganda who has been denied a visa.

What has this world gone to...

10 days of Scrabble heaven

http://twitter.com/#!/euoi79

So this is my plan for the next 10 Scrabble days:

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Coventry to play in a weekend tournament called the Cock of the North. This will be 22 games in a relatively short field. I'm the number 8 seed while Theresa Brousson is the top seed. Incidentally it will be Theresa who is going to play the same three tournaments as I: Cock of the North, the WSC 2011 and the Causeway Challenge.

After Coventry on Monday I will have a one-day break from Scrabble only to leave for Warsaw on Tuesday, where on Wednesday the great event begins - the World Scrabble Championship 2011. I'm going to stay in Warsaw until Sunday.

So 10 great Scrabble-packed days ahead of me :)

You can follow my progress in both tournaments live on twitter at:

http://twitter.com/#!/euoi79

Wordless

Waseem Khatri from Pakistan who was willing to participate in the World Scrabble Championship 2011 in Warsaw has been denied an entry visa by the Polish government.

It looks like a person playing Scrabble and coming from Pakistan is posing a risk to Poland's safety.


Just to think that only 22 years ago many Poles were not allowed to travel abroad beacuse of political reasons...

(...)