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)

Clash of the titans vol 8 (Lodz, September 24th)

Our ultimate Clash of the Titans played before the WSC 2011 was special in the fact that the weather was very sunny and warm. 

Just like during our first meeting we played most of our games in the Źródliska Park in Łódź in a very peacful and quiet setting disturbed only occasionally by old men's quarrels, children's shouts, birds' singing, squirrels' climbing up and down the trees and wedding couples taking photos at the chess tables.

The last four games were played in Sycyliana Pizzeria - one of its specialties was a pizza called Good Father.

Very similarily to our last Clash Wojtek managed to play another brilliant game scoring 600+ points with me playing 400+ which resulted in our best combined score ever of 1045. Just like the last time Wojtek played 5 bingos and I only 2. Final score: 639:406.
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=9494

With exception of the above and maybe a few other games the Clash was tight. I won the first game, Wojtek won the next five, then I won another four and the score was tied at 5-5. In the 11th game I got blown off the earth surface by 224-538 in my lowest scoring game ever.

And the last game went to the wire. In a brilliant and lucky endgame Wojtek outscored me in his last move by 9 points.

And so Clash no 8 went to Wojtek.

The Clash of the Titans thus ended tied at 4-4.

The STATS:

Games won: 5

Games lost: 7

Spread: -445

Average for: 398.2

Average against: 435.3

Blanks: 11/24 = 46%

S's: 22/48 = 46%

Games won:

2 blanks: 1/1 (100%)

1 blank: 4/10 (40%)

0 blanks: 0/1 (0%)

Bingos for: 22 (1.83 per game)

Bingos against: 21 (1.75 per game)

7 letter bingos: 12 (55%)

8 letter bingos: 10 (45%)

Bingos with blanks: 9 (41%)

Bingos without blanks: 13 (59%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 3

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 513

Low game: 224

Highest combined score: 1045 (639-406 for Wojtek)

 Game 1 395-377

Game 2 379-386

Game 3 352-418

Game 4 384-485

Game 5 389-401

Game 6 406-639

Game 7 413-428

Game 8 423-366

Game 9 393-379

Game 10 498-375

Game 11 224-538

Game 12 422-431

the final clashdown

6 months after our first encounter and 18 days before the start of the World Scrabble Championship 2011 in Warsaw I meet with Wojtek for the final 8th Clash of the Titans. It's 4-3 for me, so today's clash will decide if it's a draw or my win.

The venue is still not known as the weather forecast predicts the maximal temperature of 17 C and we're planning to play indoors.

For the first time I'll be testing the tweeting capabilities of my new mobile phone by reporting live scores and game photos through twitter.

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

Clash of the titans vol 7 (Warsaw, July 30th)

Game 7

won by Wojtek by 675-351
Highest combined score: 1026
7 bingos (Wojtek 5, Bartek 2) 
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=9027 

We met in Warsaw for the 3rd time and for the second time I managed to win in this city.
This Clash was somewhat special because:
1. I won it by 7-5 despite the negative spread of -348
2. I came back from 2-5 down.
3. I won all of the close games - including one by 2 points.
4. In our 7th game Wojtek scored 675 points landing 5 bingos: VALIDLY, BEFOaMS, GAPIEST, S(O)ROrATE and (F)AWNIEST. With none of the S's or blanks I still managed to play two bingos myself: DIG(E)RATI and (B)RAUNITE (fitting nicely under 5 letters -  just see the picture!)
5. In the same 7th game we achieved our highest ever combined score of 1026.

The Clash is once again in my favor: 4-3.
I'm looking forward to our next Clash played in September.
 
The STATS:

Games won: 7

Games lost: 5

Spread: -384

Average for: 394.2

Average against: 423.2

Blanks: 10/24 = 42%

S's: 25/48 = 52%

Games won:

2 blanks: 3/3 (100%)

1 blank: 4/4(100%)

0 blanks: 0/5 (0%)

Bingos for: 23 (1.92 per game)

Bingos against: 19 (1.58 per game)

7 letter bingos: 10 (43%)

8 letter bingos: 13 (57%)

Bingos with blanks: 8 (35%)

Bingos without blanks: 15 (65%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 488

Low game: 316

Highest combined score: 1026 (675-351 for Wojtek)

Game 1
337-494

Game 2

472-372

  

Game 3

386-495

Game 4

316-384

Game 5

335-435

Game 6

416-373

Game 7

351-675

Game 8

488-361

Game 9

377-375

Game 10

444-361

Game 11

380-370

Game 12

428-383

Clash of the titans vol 6 (Lodz, July 16th)

Just like 1,5 months ago we played in the Staromiejski Park in Lodz. The weather was a mix of sunshine and clouds - 20C - probably the best weather we we've been yet to encounter during our Clashes.

Despite getting 59% of the blanks and 48% of the S's this one goes into history as my second worst performance after WSC 2009. It must have been due to my tiredness with work and is a clear sign for me to do something about it.

Just like in Warsaw two weeks ago we were almost unseparatable as regards the wins and losses: 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 2-3, 3-3, 3-4, 4-4, 5-4, 5-5, 5-6, 6-6, 6-7, 6-8, 7-8 and 7-9.

The STATS:

Games won: 7

Games lost: 9

Spread: -220

Average for: 390.3

Average against: 404.0

Blanks: 19/32 = 59%

S's: 31/64 = 48%

Games won:

2 blanks: 5/6 (83%)

1 blank: 2/7 (29%)

0 blanks: 0/3 (0%)

Bingos for: 26 (1.63 per game)

Bingos against: 25 (1.56 per game)

7 letter bingos: 12 (46%)

8 letter bingos: 14 (54%)

Bingos with blanks: 14 (54%)

Bingos without blanks: 12 (46%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 3

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 497

Low game: 285

Highest combined score: 982

Game 1 323-395

Game 2 492-385

Game 3 382-411 

Game 4 428-394

Game 5 379-456 

Game 6 445-340 

Game 7 285-358 

Game 8 410-382 

Game 9 400-375 

 

Game 10 343-433

Game 11 285-477 

Game 12 497-325 

  


















Game 13 427-555 

Game 14 376-384

Game 15 430-401 

Game 16 342-393 

 

Clash no 6

Date: 16 July 2011

Time: 10:00AM-19:00PM

Location: Lodz

Clash of the titans vol 5 (Warsaw, July 2nd)

I met with Wojtek for the 5th time. This time in Warsaw in a beautiful setting of Herbaciarnia GANDERS tea-house in 12 Francuska st. We played in the backyard and were accompanied by very brave sparrows who had the guts to jump on the table and kibitz our games :)
The weather was awful - only 12 C and raining but we were lucky to sit under a plastic roof - 8,5 hours non-stop. And we played and played -  13 games in a row :)
The games were very close, none of us managed to edge the opponent by more than one game: it was 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 2-3, 3-3, 4-3, 4-4, 5-4, 5-5, 5-6, 6-6 and finally I won the decisive 13th game !
So the Clash is now at 3-2 in my favour. Next meeting in two weeks in Lodz.
And in three weeks it's Peterborough All-Nighter for me.

The STATS:

Games won: 7

Games lost: 6

Spread: +145

Average for: 407.3

Average against: 396.2

Blanks: 12/26 = 46%

S's: 25/52 = 48%

Games won:

2 blanks: 1/2 (50%)

1 blank: 4/8 (50%)

0 blanks: 2/3 (66%)

Bingos for: 29 (2.23 per game)

Bingos against: 19 (1.46 per game)

7 letter bingos: 18 (62%)

8 letter bingos: 11 (38%)

Bingos with blanks: 9 (31%)

Bingos without blanks: 20 (69%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 3

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 1

High game: 481

Low game: 354

Highest combined score: 881

Game 1

L: 386-451

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8884

Game 2

W: 397-346

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8885

Game 3
L: 421-439
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8886

Game 4
W: 481-344
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8931

Game 5

L: 362-432

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8933

Game 6

W: 406-356

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8934

  
















Game 7

W: 448-414
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8935

Game 8

L: 384-470
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8936

Game 9

W: 454-354

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8937

Game 10

L: 354-442
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8938

Game 11

L: 358-378

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8939

Game 12 
W: 384-303
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8967

Game 13

W: 460-421
http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=8968