Prague 2012

 I decided to go to Prague for the MSI Mindsports Festival after doing well (placing 6th and winning 100 EUR) in the 1st Romanian Open Scrabble Tournament (ROST) in October earlier this year.
[sorry for the lack of report on that tournament - it looks like my second hobby (dancing) is taking up all of my free time ;) ]

What I saw in Prague was a world-class tournament featuring the former world champion Adam Logan and the current champion Nigel Richards. The field was very international with top-class players from Australia, Singapore, UK, Canada and the United States.

I really enoyed the magnificent setting of the 5-star Corinthia Hotel playing Scrabble on the 24th floor with a nice view over the beautiful city of Prague. And I also witnessed the premiere of the first ever RFID Scrabble board worth 30 000 USD (http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/10192/) which is capable of broadcasting the Scrabble games live on the internet (almost) without any human intervention.

The tournament itself turned out a bit unlucky for me - I placed 31st out of 41 recording a record of 11-13 and -199. I'll blame this performance on 40% of the blanks I got and an extreme tiredeness on the 1st day when after a sleepless night on the bus from Lodz, PL (9 hours) I played 12 Scrabble games from 9 AM until 11 PM.

Despite this mediocre performance I still had my happy moments like winning a game by 537-504 and recording the highest combined score (1041) of the tournament:

This tournament will also go into records for me as the one with most 8-letter words played - 67% of my bingos were 8-letters-long.

Some nice words I have played during the tournament:
SIGNORIA, DIAZINES (124), AUTOCUES, DEGAUSS, FOUNTAIN, FAVICONS, GNASHERS, EGLATERE, GAUNTREE, CYANISE, UILLEANN, AUDITION, KALINITE and ICESTONE :)


And finally some great piece of news regarding the two other Polish players who played in Prague, too.
Wojtek won 300 EUR for finishing as the top player in group E.
But the greatest surprize was an outstanding performance by a new Polish player Ewa, who won the "overseed" category by finishing in 26th place despite being ranked only as 40th. Ewa won 500 EUR.

Congratulations to both Polish players!

The next tournament of the Mindsports Festival series is taking place in Vienna on 16-18 February 2013.

Although this is very tempting I guess I'll need to pass on it, as I already have some dancing plans on the same weekend in Poznan, PL.

And I need to save money for the possible World Championship appearance in 2013... :)


The STATS:

Games won: 11

Games lost: 13

Spread: -199

Average for: 402.2

Average against: 415.3

Blanks: 19/48 = 40%

S's: 50/96 = 52%

Games won:

2 blanks: 3/3 (100%)

1 blank: 6/13 (46%)

0 blanks: 2/8 (25%)

Bingos for: 43 (1.8 per game)

Bingos against: 43 (1.8 per game)

7 letter bingos: 14 (33%)

8 letter bingos: 29 (67%)

Bingos with blanks: 14 (33%)

Bingos without blanks: 29 (67%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 537

Low game: 296

Highest combined score: 1041 (537-504 for me)

Lucky in Berlin

Berlin has always been THE city for me.
I came here first when I was 11 years old - in February 1990 (after the fall of Berlin Wall but still before German reunification) and I 've been coming back to the city ever since. During those visits not only have I been experiencing the changes in the city itself but mostly in my view of reality.

This time I returned to Berlin to play Scrabble.

The occasion was the German English Scrabble National.
The event was organised by Peggy Fehily (who already hosted the 1st German Open in Mannheim last year) and featured a 10-round tournament played over the weekend (7-8.07.2012) on the 13th floor of the Internationales Handelszentrum high building in the former East Berlin.

There were 12 people playing - among them 7 people from Germany, 3 ladies from Ireland and 2 lads from Poland (Wojtek and I).
I rallied through the first day winning all 7 games - a lucky streak greatly aided by an unexpected spell of good fortune seeing me getting 57% of the blanks and 75% (!!!) of the S's. On the second day I beat Wojtek in round 8 which meant the tournament was all mine. In the final 10th game I played Wojtek again and he denied me a 10-0 tournament win by blocking my final rack bingo SENIORS with a naughty VROT.
Nevertheless I was happy to see Wojtek finish 2nd in the tournament - two wins behind me.
My final record was 9-1 and +834.
As anounced by Peggy this GESN tournament series is to be held annually and I'm really eager to come back to Germany next year to try to defend my first ever German title.

The STATS:

Games won: 9

Games lost: 1

Spread: +834

Average for: 431.9

Average against: 348.5

Blanks: 12/20 = 60%

S's: 27/40 = 68%

Games won:

2 blanks: 3/3 (100%)

1 blank: 5/6 (83%)

0 blanks: 1/1 (100%)

Bingos for: 21 (2.1 per game)

Bingos against: 10 (1.0 per game)

7 letter bingos: 8 (38%)

8 letter bingos: 13 (62%)

Bingos with blanks: 11 (52%)

Bingos without blanks: 10 (48%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 1

High game: 496

Low game: 325

Highest combined score: 831 (465-366 for me)

Clash of the titans vol 10 (Łódź, June 9th)

I met with Wojtek for the 10th Clash of the Titans in the place where the series had started 14 months ago - at the Park Źródliska in Łódź.
Despite a very cloudy sky in the beginning there was no rain and the warm weather made the play a Saturday afternoon joy.
This time we were accompanied by a curious spider resting on the edge of the board, a hungry squirrel looking for treats, two pigeons making noise high up in the tree and countless breeds of dogs leading their masters to the walk. At one of the other tables sat a group of friends who noisily discussed some interesting philosophical issues like the end of the world etc. But we didn't care and so we played, and we played...
In 7,5 hours without any breaks we squeezed in 15 games.
I'm happy with my overall performance, though (as usually) not with the final score. Despite getting half of the blanks and the S's and playing more bingos than Wojtek, I still lost the Clash by 6-9.
I will remember this match by some nice words I have played:
SHAIRNS directly followed by TWINKLE(S), DRA(I)SINE, FA(L)LOUTS, ZEoLITE and PA(T)TREss - a new word added in 2012.
And... most notably - both of us had played a word EURO - a good occasion to commemorate the current football event :)

I hope to do better next time we meet in Warsaw or Berlin (during the German National Championship on 7-8 July 2012).

 
The STATS:

Games won: 6

Games lost: 9

Spread: -229

Average for: 401.7

Average against: 417.0

Blanks: 16/30 = 53%

S's: 29/60 = 48%

Games won:

2 blanks: 3/4 (75%)

1 blank: 3/8 (38%)

0 blanks: 0/3 (0%)

Bingos for: 28 (1.87 per game)

Bingos against: 22 (1.47 per game)

7 letter bingos: 16 (57%)

8 letter bingos: 12 (43%)

Bingos with blanks: 14 (50%)

Bingos without blanks: 14 (50%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 496

Low game: 320

Highest combined score: 901 (456-445 for me)

Clash of the titans vol 9 (Warsaw, May 6th)

5 months after my last live Scrabble game, 8 months after our last Clash of the Titans we met again - former 2009 champion Bartek against the current 2011 champion Wojtek.
This has been our 9th meeting overall and the first one this year. Although it's a non-tournament year in Poland I decided to give it a shot as there is still some Scrabble to be played in 2012. In July I'm going to play in a small tournament in Berlin - the German Nationals. And then in October it's time to head to Bucarest, Romania (never been there before) for the first ever Romanian Scrabble Tournament. It is the second in the series of continental European tournaments after Mannheim, Germany in March 2011. And if all goes well, next year Poland will be represented at the 2013 Nations Team Tournament (former Four Nations) which will by then hopefully feature 8 teams including Poland and Romania.
As regards the Romanian Tournament in October it looks like all three of us Poles are going to play there: Wojtek, Rafał and I. This gives us a good chance to compare our strengths before the National Tournament in 2013.

Back to the present though.

Today we met (again after July 2011) in a romantic setting of Ganders Teahouse in Francuska Str. in Warsaw. The weather was awful as usual - rain and cold weather have become a trademark of the Clash of the Titans series. This time it was a mix of torrential rain and sunshine, cosy 20 degrees and chilly 12 degrees.

5 months of lack of match and word studying practise have taken its toll on me and I recorded my worst stats ever. Lowest average score, lowest average number of bingos, you name it. I won only 3 out of 10 games despite getting 50% of the blanks and 55% of the S's. I missed some unmissable bingos like TUNICAE and BASANITE but I guess I could say I was a bit unlucky with my racks, too. Imagine AOOOOTU, AABEEOO, EEEIIKW and FIINNUU on your rack and you'll know how I felt ;)
And yet my best bingo was played with an awkward combination of AEIIIRT. Thanks to Wojtek's R laid on the board I squeezed in (R)ETIARII, which made me a believer again.

All in all I'm content with my performance. I still remember (some of the) the words and my play is very focused.
I'm confident I can only go up from here. My goal is to get back to my Causeway 2011 level of play by the end of year and even improve on that. I only need some practise and the sky will be blue again.

The STATS:

Games won: 3

Games lost: 7

Spread: -332

Average for: 378.5

Average against: 411.7

Blanks: 10/20 = 50%

S's: 22/40 = 55%

Games won:

2 blanks: 1/3 (33%)

1 blank: 1/4 (25%)

0 blanks: 1/3 (33%)

Bingos for: 14 (1.4 per game)

Bingos against: 12 (1.2 per game)

7 letter bingos: 10 (71%)

8 letter bingos: 4 (29%)

Bingos with blanks: 7 (50%)

Bingos without blanks: 7 (50%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 3

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 446

Low game: 288

Highest combined score: 926 (492-434 for Wojtek)