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)

Causeway Challenge - farewell to Scrabble (day 5)

I went into day 5 with the same positive mindset which brought me so much success yesterday. And the magics still worked plus it was aided by good fortune seeing me getting almost 60% of the blanks and 70% of the Ss (which is by the way almost the reversed stats of the dreadful day 3, where I got 40% of the blanks and 30% of the Ss).
So the fortune has been fair to me after all.
In the end I got 50% of blanks in the whole tournament and 44% of the Ss.
I won 4 games today and lost 2. The two games I lost were by 1 and by 30 points...

My highlights today:

PR(OF)ITErS
where I thought I had won the game on the last move but was quickly brought down to earth by my oponent who advised me that there was still one letter left in the bag ;)

(JAR)OVIZED  
not a bingo but I was still very happy to play that off the rack DEIOSVZ leaving an S and scoring 40+ points.


tEASPOO(N
simply a nice word to play :)

After the tournament there was the presentation of the prizes.
Premier division has been won by Pakorn Nemitrmansuk to the great joy of all players who probably wished him this win to make up for his missed WSC final in Warsaw.

After the presentation I got a nice white Causeway 2011 T-shirt and then hurried to the taxi. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do any more shopping in Johor Bahru as I had been hoping to and was left with 66 Malaysian ringgit which I exchanged for 26 Singapore dollars at the airport. Just a little less then 4 hours until a take from Singapore. I'll be flying an LH779 Lufthansa Airbus A380 to Frankfurt, then by plane to Poznan and from there directly to Lodz by bus.


This journey concludes a magnificent Scrabble year for me, in which I have played a total of 5 tournaments (1st German Open, Peterborough All'Nighter, Cock of the Northt in Coventry, WSC 2011 in Poland and Causeway Scrabble Challenge in Malaysia).
It has been a Scrabble year for me which which was sparked by the decision to hold this year's WSC in Poland.
I'm very happy to end the year on a high note by celebrating my 17th place in Masters division of the last ever Causeway tournament.

This concludes my Scrabble journey.

It's been 4 unforgettable years and I'm happy to say that the last tournament made me a complete player.

Without further word knowledge, I will not go any further...
And if I have no time to acquire this knowledge, I will not go any further...
I don't have time to acquire word knowledge...
...

The STATS for CC day 5:

Games won: 4

Games lost: 2

Spread: +308

Average for: 417.3

Average against: 366.0

Blanks: 7/12 = 58%

S's: 16/24 = 67%

Games won:

2 blanks: 2/2 (100%)

1 blank: 1/3 (33%)

0 blanks: 1/1 (100%)

Bingos for: 12 (2.0 per game)

Bingos against: 9 (1.5 per game)

7 letter bingos: 6 (50%)

8 letter bingos: 6 (50%)

Bingos with blanks: 6 (50%)

Bingos without blanks: 6 (50%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 1

High game: 487

Low game: 378

Highest combined score: 842

Causeway Challenge - the enlightenment (day 4)

What a day it has been. After an unlucky streak yesterday today everything has changed. And I have changed some things, too.
For a starter I decided to give my lucky charm (a nameless beagle mascott) a chance to show his magical qualities and pulled him out of my rucksack for the first time during the tournament. It seemed to work as I won the first two games comfortably. 

Another change: I used the free Thai scoresheets to record my scores as I had just run out of space in my Tilefish score book. And I used a pencil which made recording racks and scores so much easier than with my pen. Another change: in the first two games I gave up on tile-tracking just for the fun of it. And it also worked - I was more relaxed and I concentrated on my racks more. It also made some very quick and painless games possible.

Another change: I decided not to go to lunch today, as I remebered that yesterday I hadn't won any game after this meal. Instead I went to the shopping centre and bought some colourful scarves for my girl friends back in Poland.

Today something amazing has happened. After countless Scrabble games I had played before I finally managed to apply the rule which I had known long before. It says that this game is all about making each move the best possible. Full stop.

Thinking about needing to win, worrying about losing games, about opponent's rating, about his/her great luck - it all got me nowhere before.

Today I went into each game with a fresh mind and a thought: "I can play just as good as this guy. So why should I lose this game? If he's/she's luckier, so what, that's his/her good right, isn't it? I have also been lucky before. Would I rather never get lucky so that nobody gets lucky, too? Why care if he/she knows more words than I do. This just means he/she had spent more time learning them and deserves to win a bit more"

It's all that simple. But during my earlier games I seem to have always concentrated on the emotional aspect of this game. Emotions are good for spectators. When you're playing your game you need to concentrate on the game. That's it. You can enjoy the result afterwards, and this is what I'm doing right now. I'm just very very happy that I managed to achieve something.
Tomorrow is the last tournament day. It all went so quickly. I feel like I've just arrived and I already have to leave. I will miss the Zon Hotel and I will miss this amazing tournament.

Thanks Michael Tang for your great idea of organizing the Causeway Scrabble Challenge.
To be a part of this wonderful event has been an honour to me.

 [...]

The STATS for CC day 4:

Games won: 8

Games lost: 2

Spread: +428

Average for: 429.0

Average against: 386.2

Blanks: 11/20 = 55%

S's: 16/40 = 40%

Games won:

2 blanks: 4/4 (100%)

1 blank: 3/3 (100%)

0 blanks: 1/3 (33%)

Bingos for: 21 (2.1 per game)

Bingos against: 14 (1.4 per game)

7 letter bingos: 8 (38%)

8 letter bingos: 13 (62%)

Bingos with blanks: 8 (38%)

Bingos without blanks: 13 (62%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 526

Low game: 298

Highest combined score: 906

Causeway Challenge - day 3

[Appologies for the lack of daily reports. The challenging number of daily games plus the jet-lag contributed to the fact that I am no longer able to report as I need to have some rest...

I hope to report the games herein when the tournament is finished.]

Day 3 was just as amazing as day 2 because it started with two consecutive wins, one loss and another win. Then there was lunch and ... I have lost 5 games in a row. This has pushed me down to 48th place.

I have lost 4 of 7 games by a margin smaller than 40 points: -25, -25, -33 and -37. Another lost games were -56, -76 and -101. This means that despite negative record of 12-17 I'm still in positive spread of +332.
I was very unlucky in all of my endgames today but luck too has played its part. I got only 40% of the blanks and 30% (!) of the Ss.
You can't do anything about it and I accepted it without any grief.

I'm hoping for a better day tomorrow - for the third and last time we'll be playing 10 games. 

 The STATS for CC day 3:

Games won: 3

Games lost: 7

Spread: -144

Average for: 407.4

Average against: 421.8

Blanks: 8/20 = 40%

S's: 12/40 = 30%

Games won:

2 blanks: 1/2 (50%)

1 blank: 1/4 (25%)

0 blanks: 1/4 (25%)

Bingos for: 16 (1.6 per game)

Bingos against: 22 (2.2 per game)

7 letter bingos: 9 (56%)

8 letter bingos: 7 (44%)

Bingos with blanks: 5 (31%)

Bingos without blanks: 11 (69%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 3

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 1

High game: 466

Low game: 355

Highest combined score: 901

Causeway Challenge 2011 - day 2

[Appologies for the lack of daily reports. The challenging number of daily games plus the jet-lag contributed to the fact that I am no longer able to report as I need to have some rest...

I hope to report the games herein when the tournament is finished.]

As to two day two it has been amazing - I won 6 out of ten games despite being very tired due to sleepless night before (with jet-lag taking its usual second night toll).

The STATS for CC day 2:

Games won: 6

Games lost: 4

Spread: +383

Average for: 430.7

Average against: 392.4

Blanks: 10/20 = 50%

S's: 18/40 = 45%

Games won:

2 blanks: 1/1 (100%)

1 blank: 5/8 (63%)

0 blanks: 0/1 (0%)

Bingos for: 18 (1.8 per game)

Bingos against: 18 (1.8 per game)

7 letter bingos: 12 (67%)

8 letter bingos: 6 (33%)

Bingos with blanks: 8 (44%)

Bingos without blanks: 10 (56%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 1

High game: 503

Low game: 374

Highest combined score: 894

Causeway Challenge 2011 - day 1

What a tournament, what a day.

You have to fall in love with this tournament the minute you start playing or even before that. And exactly this happened to me yesterday when I first entered the enormous Grand Ballroom of the ZON Regency Hotel in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

The view was simply breathtaking - just imagine 97 Scrabble tables with ample space between them - no usual hassle with other players sitting too close next to you or touching your back when leaning back too comfortably in their chair behind you ;)
Another thing which stroke me was that although the number of players is almost double as during the WSC 2011 in Warsaw the room is much quieter here. It must be the polite Asian players who seem to respect other players to greater degree than their European or American counterparts.
Apart from one organisational disaster* everything went smoothly forward.

*Just after round 1when players in the Masters division neeeded to wait for one whole hour just for the draw to be made out and then chase the rest of the field resulting in reduced time for lunch)

All went so smoothely that I even managed to lose 5 minutes on my clock in the last game today despite showing up on time. It looks like the Causeway Challenge tournament has the rule, that you always need to be there ready for the next game to be anounced even if the timetable would suggest something contrary. Funnily enough in this last game I got so motivated by the lack of time that I won it by my highest margin yet - 531:220. Thanks for that, Michael - I would probably have won more games today had my clock been started more often ;)

As to the games I'm now completely sure it was worth coming here. Why?

1. Just to play with Asian, Australian and African players.
2. To experince two consecutive games without a blank nor an S.
3. To experince shortly after that two consecutive games with both blanks and 4 Ss...
5. To lose a close game by 3 points.
6. To play out DDEGLNU for 86 points - (I)NDULGED
7. To overdraw DEEIXOH?, get an E put back into bag by the oponent and play OXHIDEs afterward and then facing AEGINNN use the X of the former word to play ANNE(X)ING and then later in the game face EEEORSS on the rack and spot a floating V to play O(V)ERSEES and win the game by 311 points :)
8. To take a risk playing a Thai player and lose the game in the last move when he played (G)LOAMiNG.
9. To taste delicious Asian food for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
10. (...)

It's been a great day and I'm happy with my games, though as usually my standing doesn't seem to reflect my good mood. I'm currently 41st (out of 56) with 3-6 and +93.

I'm looking forward to 10 even better games tomorrow.

As usually please keep your fingers crossed for me - the games start at 1:30am CET and end at 12:30pm CET...



The STATS for CC day 1:

Games won: 3

Games lost: 6

Spread: +93

Average for: 420.3

Average against: 410.0

Blanks: 9/18 = 50%

S's: 17/36 = 47%

Games won:

2 blanks: 2/2 (100%)

1 blank: 1/5 (20%)

0 blanks: 0/2 (0%)

Bingos for: 20 (2.22 per game)

Bingos against: 14 (1.56 per game)

7 letter bingos: 11 (55%)

8 letter bingos: 9 (45%)

Bingos with blanks: 7 (35%)

Bingos without blanks: 13 (65%)

Highest no of bingos in a game: 4

Lowest no of bingos in a game: 0

High game: 531

Low game: 295

Highest combined score: 893

Causeway Challenge 2011 - the journey

Today at 19:00 local time I arrived in Johor Bahru, Malaysia for the 10th and the last ever Causeway Challenge 2011.

This tournament which had begun as a battle between two Scrabble nations Malaysia and Singapore (connected by the Causeway on the Johor Strait - thus the name) is known to have attracted very good players in its past - mainly due to its prizemoney comparable with the Worlds but mostly thanks to it's geographical placement - close to Scrabble giant Thailand and also relatively close to Australia. It has also attracted some good players from Europe like Helen Gipson, Mikki Nicholson, Craig Beevers or Theresa Brousson.

I have decided to come to Malaysia again (after my World Scrabble Championship 2009 appearance) because I liked the Zon hotel and it's facilities plus I liked the way the Worlds were ran (with the great participation of Michael Tang).

So exactly 2 years after I left Malaysia in 2009 I came back here again.

And I must say - pretty much is the same as in 2009 but some things have changed, too.

1. The flight.

Despite the fact that unlike in 2009 this hasn't been my flight ever and I haven't experienced any extra stress the journey was just as awful. It looks like my stomach is not able to cope with digesting unfamiliar food in the state of total lack of body movement. I was very glad when we landed in Singapore after an 11,5h torture-flight.

2. The journey Singapore-Johor Bahru

Got very surprised here. Unlike in 2009 when all went very smoothely (I was picked up Michael and the taxi driver at the exit) this time nobody has shown up. After some texting with Michael plus an answered roaming call from him (will prove costly for me) I was picked up almost an hour later than agreed. Then the driver drove to another airport terminal and left me in the cab for 15 minutes. All this meant I arrived at the hotel 2h10 minutes after the arrival in Singapore and didn't make it for the registration (or at least that's what I thought) only to find out at 20:30 that the registration has been prolonged.

3. The hotel.

I'm staying on the 13th floor - just like in 2009 and, yes, there are still the same songs being sung on the stage situated in the middle of the hotel. I was very glad to hear Lionel Richie's "Hello" again :)

The hotel has changed on the outside - it is now more colourful, but on the inside it doesn't look as fresh as in 2009. Plus this time my room window isn't facing the Causeway and it's beautiful sunsets, which is a shame.

And one last confusing thing - I was surprised by the reception guy who told me, that only breakfast is included in the price of the stay. This is contrary to what has been stated on the Causeway Challenge site and I'm hoping it gets clarified asap.

I've already met some known faces here: Nicky Huitson, Amy Byrne and most notably the reigning World Champion 2011 - Nigel Richards.

I'm betting on Nigel to take this one, too.

The games commence tomorrow at 8:30 AM - just like during the WSC 2011 in Warsaw

Neverthelesss this tournament is going to be even more exhausting than the Worlds - the level of play will be much more even plus the prospect of playing 9/10 games for 4 days in the row is really challenging.

I hope I can make it through to Sunday.

And I can't wait to do some shopping :)

It's 22:50 here, so I'll have a rest now. 

Please keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow and wish me luck!

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

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...

(...)

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