Scrabble Bilingual Edition

With 38 days to the start of the first ever World Scrabble Championship taking place in Poland Mattel decided to celebrate this fact with a special bilingual Polish-English edition of Scrabble.

What's so special about it? In addition to the standard Polish edition they added an English set of tiles plus an extra rules leaflet in English. It isn't much really but I suppose this little effort could finally help Scrabble on its feet in Poland. We'll see...

Anyway, a good try Mattel :)

World Scrabble Championship 2010

It starts in exactly one week from now in Montepellier, France. Mind you - it's Scrabble in French.

For the first Poland will have its representative there. It's Milosz Wrzalek - a nice guy from Reda who refereed the English Scrabble Championship in Poland last year.

He will complete in both tournaments - regular and duplicate Scrabble.

All the best, Milosz!

http://www.montpellier2010.fr/

Scrabble deluxe

Can anyone explain to me why the usual (Polish) Scrabble slogan "Liczy się każde słowo" (= "Every word counts" with an emphasis on counting) got changed in the Scrabble deluxe edition to "Każde słowo się liczy" (= "Every word counts" but with an emphasis on words)

And what's the use of creating a grid which doesn't hold the tiles in place because it's too shallow?

Łódź Tournament - day 2

The tournament resumed with round 8 at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning.

Game 8
against Andrzej (122.24). I started the game with an English word UPDATE :) I got two blanks in this game and bingoed twice with cYGANKI (the gipsies) and SZ(Y)NKOWA (of her - ham-like).
W: 394-340

Game 9
against Marek (126.13). Poor racks and a blank I got as the last letter from the bag made this game weak. Two bingos for my oponent. Zero bingos for me.
L: 325-374

Game 10
against Rafal (120.30). Zero blanks, zero bingos, nothing to write home about.
L: 326-486

Game 11
against 3rd of my Lodz Scrabble Club colleagues - Anna (115.79). I played Anna on Friday and lost to her. But the revenge was prefect. One blank, one bingo and a narrow win by 8 points.
W: 335-327

Game 12
against Beata (112.38). Beata was lucky in this game bingoing three times. My bingo came way too late on the last move - SZePT(A)NI (of males - whispered).
L: 347-394

Game 13
against Andrzej (115.31) - 4th of my Lodz Scrabble Club colleagues. No blanks, no bingos - my weakest game of the tournament.
L: 238-414

I finished the tournament in 42nd place with 5-8 record.

Blanks: 14/26 (53%)
Bingos: 16 (1,23 per game)

All in all a disappointing finish only sweetened by the fact that the two top places were taken by guys from Lodz - Jakub and Jarek. Well done, guys!

Łódź Tournament - day 1

It started oh so well and ended in pure frustration...

Game 1
against Michal (rated 123.01) from Lodz Scrabble Club whom I played and beat in yesterday's first tournament game. It was the same old story today. I got two blanks again and won comfortably bingoing three times with IdIOTKO (you female idiot!), TAWERNY (taverns) and PODPISu (of the signature).
W: 452-332

Game 2
against Dorota (124.58). One bingo for me AKAN(T)AMI (with acanthi). The rest of the game was a struggle for me to bingo again. As one of the observers told me I had a bingo on my rack which I hadn't spotted SOLNYmI (with salty things).
L: 282-369

Game 3
against Julita (103.28). Each of us had one bingo. I got two blanks which turned out crucial in the last move when I went out with CZEśĆ (bye) for 30 points to win the game. My only bingo was WYRAzIE (about the word).
W: 367-341

Game 4
against 2003 Polish Scrabble champion and current no. 3 on the rating list (rated 146.73) - Kazik. I hadn't expected to win this game and I didn't. Yet I bingoed twice with A(M)BONAMI (with the pulpits) and PRASO(W)eJ (of the press thing) and am quite happy with that. Kazik got almost all high scoring letters and managed to score well with them.
L: 310-404

Game 5
against current no. 6 on the rating list (rated 145.01) - Michal. A one-sided encounter. I bingoed once with RoDZINK(A) (a small family) which my opponent countered immediately with GRODŹ for even more points.
L: 288-467

Game 6
against Piotr (111.07). Two bingos for me - ZMYKANI(A) (of the running away) and ZMYLeNI (the confused ones). In the end the tile-tracking I did helped me win by 6 points.
W: 384-378

Game 7
against another of my Lodz Scrabble club colleagues - Grzegorz (122.80). Our club record was 2-1 for me before this one. And it was going again my way after I bingoed with (N)AGONIło (it has chased enough) and ZAW(I)SACH (of the hangings?). And then my opponent bingoed with PILICIE (no idea what that means...) opening much space. I tried to close it but forgot about the major hook to MAŻ - SMAŻ. On came my oponent's four letter word taking 57 points and equaling the score. In the end I was faced with vowelless racks and the defeat was complete. I was kicking myself after that game, in fact I still am. How can you lose a game like that... D@#$% !
L: 359-388

In the end of day one I'm on 3-4.
The good news is I was lucky with the blanks. In each game I had at least one.In two games I even had both, which means 9/14 (64%). Not bad!

Playing Scrabble in Lodz today

please keep your fingers crossed for me :)

Live scoring at: http://live.pfs.org.pl/

The King is dead, long live Scrabble

Polish President inearthed, mourning is finished.
Now let's get back to the usual stuff.

Next weekend there's the official Scrabble tournament in Lodz. I'll be taking part in it. Additionally on Friday there is the regular club tournament. This means 18 games of Polish Scrabble during 3 days. Should be fun :)

Scrabble in Boat (2)

...and so I hurried to the Scrabble club directly after work (yes I sometimes have to work on Sundays...).
It all started at 15:00. 6 games a 20 minutes with free challenge.
And it went like this:

Game 1 Grzegorz
W:365-362
Grzegorz bingoed twice, I only once but still managed to squeeze the win.

Game 2 Urszula
L: 305-311
One funny situation in that game -I was facing DEEIRS? on my rack and what came to my mind was DRESIE and I was struggling to find a valid bingo. After the game i found out i could have played aDRESIE and was devastated by the obviousness of that bingo. In the endgame I panicked seeing the clock hand reaching twelve and disregarding the small hand showing me the last minute. I lost with a blank on the rack...

Game 3 Grazyna
W: 364-411
Oh, I was lucky in this game. Grazyna told me she had bingos all the way through and ended plying only one with me always blocking the right spots for her :) What I found especially exciting was her playing ODYMANI on the double-double for 97 points when I stroke back with UBOJAMI with the A extending her bingo into ODYMANIA (whatever that means) for 94 points.

Game 4 Maciej
L: 274-385
No bingos in that game for me. When I tried to play DERBACh it got challenged off because I hooked his phoney *TENT to *TENTA...

Game 5 Jarek
L: 327-390
A nice bingo for me from Z to the TWS - (Z)AMGLONO for 92 with another possibilty to play GALONOM. In the end my opponent bingoed and I found myself with an awkward rack, having to exchange, then he closed the board and it was game over.

Game 6 Adam
L: 355-368
Could have gone either way. Adam went into the lead on the first move and I was chasing him all the way. I caught him in the middle by playing (C)IEŃCIEż for 103. This word is so awkward nobody would ever use it, Adam challenged it but it stayed on the board. When I look back on it, it was a miracle I found it - you just need to imagine facing CEEIIŃ? on the rack and making 100+ points of it. On the last 4 moves of the game I was mirroring Adam's score with 18 and 36 trailing by 1 point. He played out with 10 points got 2 points from we and won by 13. I wasn't a bit sad...

I'm quite happy with my performance. I beat one strong player again and spotted some nice bingos like SZWALN(I)E meaning LATHES which is a word you immediately associate in Poland with LODZ as this city used to be the main textile production centre in Poland.

More about Łódź:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%81%C3%B3d%C5%BA

My bingos:
GnIDZIE, SEdANIE, SZWALN(I)E, UBOJAMI, (Z)AMGLONO, (C)IEŃCIEż

So only 1 bingo / game
50% blanks

Scrabble in Boat*

I'm happy to anounce that the Łódź Scrabble club reported on my good performance in the recent tournament on Friday. They even linked to my blog :)

http://www.scrabble.lodz.pl/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=510&Itemid=2\ (Polish)

On Sunday 15:00 there is another meeting, I'm coming :)

Łódź (pronounced "would" like in a phrase "would you") - name of Poland's second third biggest city (744 500 inhabitants)
łódź - Polish word for boat

Scrabble can be fun!

Yes, that's true! If you play it in your native language in the club with no need to prove anything to anyone - especially yourself. If you don't care about winning or losing, about the ratings, spreads, high scores, numbers of bingos etc. You play Scrabble for fun and that's what all games should be about.

I've just come back from the Scrabble club. I have played my first ever club tournament and I feel great! I placed 2nd out of 10.

Game 1 Andrzej
W: 382-287
2 bingos: STYLOWA and WAB(I)oNYM


Game 2 Kuba
L: 321-400
1 bingo: GrUNCIE


Game 3 Grazyna
W: 427-264
3 bingos: UB(R)ANIEM, W(Y)PNIESZ, ŚWIETNI


Game 4 Radek
W: 376-274
2 bingos: UTRACIE, NAGI(Ę)TEj

Game 5 Grzegorz
W: 382-285
2 bingos: BONANZO, RYCZA(Ł)Em

Spread +378
for 378 - against 302
2 bingos per game


I actually made some use of my English Scrabble vocabulary by playing ATONIO and BONANZO.


NB:
I was willing to go to the Rammstein concert in Lodz today but I decided to save money this month and passed on it. As it turned out on the day of the concert I went to the Scrabble club. The building was exactly opposite the Atlas Arena where Rammstein was giving its concert today. When I came there I found it impossible to park my car and I almost gave up but somehow found a parking space. Later when I got out of the club I could here the distant sound of "Engel"...

Fight in Walcz

Last weekend I attended my first full Polish Scrabble tournament since Szczecin in March 2008. It took place in Walcz (www.walcz.pl)- a town 120 km NW from Poznan. Although it is quite small it still can boast two lakes direct in the city centre.
The Scrabble tournament was magnificent - great hospitality, highest ever prize money in a Polish scrabble tournament - almost 500 EUR for the winner and prizes for each attendant.
I was 82nd and yet got a book worth about 8 EUR.
It was my second best tournament ever. I won 6 out of 13 games. The highlight was my win against Mariusz Skrobosz - the current ranking list leader. I won by 4 points! My ranking at that time was 100, Mariusz's was 149...
After that tournament my ranking is 103.50 and officially I'm now no 271 in Poland :)

and the winner is...

Not exactly English and not exactly professional Scrabble.
1st place for me in the Koscian Open in Polish Scrabble.

This is my 3rd Championship title in the Koscian Open.
Titles #1 and #2 came in 2006 and 2007.

This has been my last tournament in Koscian - I'm gonna let the locals win the title :)




More about the friendly city of Koscian:
http://www.koscian.pl/

History continued

And then on February, 23rd 2003 I started playing literaxx.
The game can be played on http://www.playok.com/en/literaxx and if you're lucky you may find me there - my user name is literaxx.

Playing literaxx I met my first girlfriend. Our relationship ended in 2004 when I moved to Szczecin (a city 200 km from Poznan) in search for a better job. A year after that my ex-girlfriend emigrated to Ireland, so I guess it wouldn't have worked out anyway.

Literaxx, due it's board structure forces a defensive and close style of play. This is the place where I learnt my 3's - after two years of playing I could say, I knew all of them.

In October 2005 I played my first official live tournament. It was Polish Scrabble in Poznan. I placed 30th out of 70 with a 7-5 record. This brought me the prize for the best debutante. Proud as I was back then, it remains my best performance ever in a Polish Scrabble tournament.

Earlier in 2005 I was willing to play in the English Scrabble Championships in Poland in Nowe Miasto Lubawskie. I even signed up for it, but due to a lucrative job offer (as an interpreter for two German insurance detectives) I was forced to withdraw.

This meant waiting the next two years for my first chance to play in an English Scrabble tournament in Poland (...)