The end of the game!There are a number of websites with information on WSC 2003:
This is Paul's report of Helen's games in the event.
| Round 1 played Paul Allan (Scotland), and lost 374 - 452 (spread of -78). Current ranking: #74 |
| Round 2 played Sam Kantimathi (USA), and won 394 - 390 (spread of 4). Current ranking: #55 |
| Round 3 played Kevin Abela (Malta), and won 397 - 368 (spread of 29). Current ranking: #42 |
| Round 4 played Andrew Golding (Canada), and won 420 - 412 (spread of 8). Current ranking: #28 |
| Round 5 played Andrew Davis (England), and lost 254 - 562 (spread of -308). Current ranking: #44 |
| Round 6 played Walker Willingham (USA), and won 427 - 393 (spread of 34). Current ranking: #30 |
| Round 7 played Mark Kenas (USA), and won 523 - 351 (spread of 172). Current ranking: #20 |
| Round 8 played Ganesh Asirvatham (Malaysia), and won 396 - 389 (spread of 7). Current ranking: #13 |
| Round 9 played Robert Linn (USA), and lost 361 - 412 (spread of -51). Current ranking: #23 |
| Round 10 played Dave Wiegand (USA), and lost 363 - 367 (spread of -4). Current ranking: #33 |
| Round 11 played Howard Warner (New Zealand), and won 449 - 392 (spread of 57). Current ranking: #26 |
| Round 12 played Bob Jackman (Australia), and won 445 - 401 (spread of 44). Current ranking: #19 |
| Round 13 played Joel Wapnick (Canada), and won 450 - 383 (spread of 67). Current ranking: #14 |
| Round 14 played Keiichiro Hirai (Japan), and won 475 - 281 (spread of 194). Current ranking: #9 |
| Round 15 played David Boys (Canada), and lost 359 - 506 (spread of -147). Current ranking: #15 |
| Round 16 played Paul Cleary (Australia), and won 403 - 393 (spread of 10). Current ranking: #10 |
| Round 17 played David Boys (Canada), and won 466 - 393 (spread of 73). Current ranking: #6 |
| Round 18 played Joel Wapnick (Canada), and lost 358 - 525 (spread of -167). Current ranking: #10 |
| Round 19 played Phil Appleby (England), and lost 424 - 447 (spread of -23). Current ranking: #16 |
| Round 20 played Gareth Williams (Wales), and won 492 - 398 (spread of 94). Current ranking: #12 |
| Round 21 played Jim Geary (USA), and lost 468 - 475 (spread of -7). Current ranking: #17 |
| Round 22 played Steve Polatnick (USA), and won 506 - 300 (spread of 206). Current ranking: #11 |
| Round 23 played Ganesh Asirvatham (Malaysia), and won 499 - 355 (spread of 144). Current ranking: #7 |
| Round 24 played Mark Nyman (England), and lost 332 - 373 (spread of -41). Current ranking: #11 |
The draw for the first round ensured that you did not play someone from the same country, so Hels was a little unfortunate to draw one of the strongest UK players. Paul had most of the letters and Hels last vain attempt to comeback was the invalid SIALOIDS - unlucky as the word is allowed without the final "S" but she had to play the plural to get the bonus score.
Paul's view of the game was that they both played nervously. Since this game Paul has continued to play nervously and is currently frustrated in the middle of the field.
Sam is an American Indian who provides the timers and boards for the event. Hels came back at the end and won on countback, i.e., when you play your final tiles you get double the value of the tiles left on your opponent's rack. Here Hels finished ten points behind, but got +14 from Sam.
Hels should have won by 9 points as she forgot to claim the 5 point penalty when her last move was incorrectly challenged - in fact they both forgot in the excitement.
Hels plays Kevin's Dad regularly on the Internet so this was a game of great interest :-) - photos on the web site when we return. Hels established an early lead and largely controlled the game as Kevin made a late comeback.
The end of the game!
Hels was always behind and had to play for the last tile in the bag to be a blank (a 1 in 8 chance, as there are 8 tiles unseen to her - one in the bag and seven on oppo's rack).
The blank was the last tile and under time pressure her opponent did not consider that she would have a bonus word with two "U"'s on her rack, so did not block "unFurled" which won Hels the game ("F" was the blank, the "L" was already on the board). Again this was not sufficient to win the game on its own and it needed countback to win the game!
Hels was already bottom of the players on 3 wins due to her poor spread (points difference) but this defeat means that she may always be the worst of her group. As you might expect there was little she could do in this game.
The turning point in this game was when Walker wrote down a score of +50 for Hels instead of +15 (the play was only "AE"!). So in a game that Hels thought she was going to lose, Walker was already resigned to losing!
Walker also went overtime by 2 minutes, which accounted for 20 points, and played a final move that was the only play to allow Hels to play out at the end. A lucky win!
Although a large win Hels only had her fair share of good tiles. However Kenas has half his good tiles (blank, "S", and "X") in one move, which he then misplayed. Having challenged PONGY at the start of the game, he didn't know that you could put an "S" on the start of this (SPONGY) and so played ANTISEX elsewhere on the board; playing it onto PONGY would have scored 50 points more AND prevented Hels from playing her own bonus.
Ganesh is the top rated player in Malaysia. He built up a lead of 80 (to the delight of my Malaysian runners) but Hels came back slowly to win a tight one.
Hels & Ganesh on the same side before the
championship.
Unlike Game 4 where fishing for the last tile worked, here it didn't and Hels lost comfortably. A different last tile would have allowed victory, but clearly not great odds.
Hels had a lead of over 100 at one point, but in blocking two places for bonuses gave Wiegand the opportunity to make an eight letter word through an "I" which he took immediately. Subsequently scores were level at the end of the game when Wiegand played out and Hels was caught with "AI" left, so lost 4 points on countback.
Earlier in the game Hels had incorrectly challenged EDENIC and lost a 5 point penalty. In effect this cost the match. In checking around few of the UK players knew EDENIC - it is American (i.e., not in the UK dictionary) and it is "useless" six letter word, i.e., there are no hooks (to make a seven letter word) and it is not a hook of a 5-letter word, so it pretty low down on the list of words to learn.
The key move of this game was playing TOXINES for +112. However the dangerous part was that the "S" was played to make BLANKINGS which neither player was sure of. Luckily it was in the book so Hels established a game winning position.
Another game for the officials as all my runners were Australian this time! It was a tight game and probably turned when Bob missed MATILDAS, a little ironic. Hels also failed to play DAYBOOKS as she was unsure of it but was able to score well anyhow.
British positions after Round 12:
Wins/Spread
3. Andrew Perry England 9 716
4. Mark Nyman England 9 612
7. Gareth Williams Wales 9 308
12. Andrew Davis England 8 350
19. Helen Gipson England 8 -86
21. Di Dennis England 7 498
31. Paul Allan Scotland 7 -93
42. Karl Khoshnaw Kurdishtan Iraq 6 122
44. Stewart Holden England 6 86
48. Phil Appleby England 6 -86
49. Peter Finley England 6 -163
59. Terry Kirk England 5 -35
89. Bronagh Kenny Ireland 2 -1249
Joel was the winner in Melbourne four years ago, also a beaten finalist in the past, and was one of the favourites for the title here. I view him as someone who only comes to win the title and a tremendous competitor.
Joel got 130 points clear after five moves with two bonuses. Hels responded with a hattrick of BAILEES, EMICTION, and SERINGA to go 18 points up(!). In the endgame Hels had a more balanced rack (i.e., less than 6 vowels) and won comfortably in the end.
Hels started with DUMBING for +80 and never looked back, playing out with ARENITE to seal her first big win. KC, whose name is too difficult for me to spell without the book handy, never had the tiles to unblock the board.
David, like Joel, is a previous World Champion and a very tough opponent. Hels played a bonus between two bonuses from David but never had the tiles to make up the difference. A late bonus sealed a big loss.
A tough game for the runners, who were mostly Australian women and had been supporting Hels in many of the matches.
This was a close game throughout with Hels generally playing catch up. This was the start of Hels' "Z" bingo run as she played BONANZAS for +78 to equalise the game. Paul got ahead again with a bonus but Hels pulled out a great endgame, probably assisted a little by Paul who was short of time.
In the last eight games they played a modified "King of the Hill" - essentially playing the person next to you in the rankings. Repeat assignments were allowed throughout this stage (in fact, Kevin Abela, who Hels played earlier, played the same person 5 times in 8 matches!).
So Hels got her chance of revenge on David Boys. Hels got an early lead but got pegged back and then David went ahead with a bonus. Hels responded with DETAINED to essentially level the match but had REENABlE challenged off the board.
Now David tried SCRUBPOT for +185 which Hels challenged and luckily was not in the book! Hels eventually played SURFIER for +78 and sealed the game with TZAREvNA. David challenged this as he had misheard Hels say that the blank was a E, whereas she'd said V. David was far more sporting than a number of other competitors in accepting her word on this, especially considering that he had written E on the challenge sheet which would have been sufficient in his own country. In the end David also challenged the correct spelling of the word as he could not win if it was allowable.
By the way, I may be writing a book on how to use Scrabble rules to your advantage based on my experiences here!
Joel's turn for revenge this time! Suffice to say that Hels played FULGENT/GLUNCH for +100 and a play with the X for +36 in her last TWO moves to reduce the loss to 167 points!!
A close game that came down to the last tile in the bag. Phil had just played a bonus and had to take the last tile. There were two unseen V's and either of these would have lost Phil the game. Unfortunately they were already on Hels' rack and she conceded 18 in countback.
This was Hels' first win over a UK player in the tournament. Hels played TELERANS for +77 on move 2 and maintained a good lead until she played SCANTIER for +83 - Gareth actually had to change on this move so was clearly well behind at this stage.
Gareth responded shortly with a bonus but PAINTER for +74 from Hels kept the lead. Gareth has a late bonus to reduce the spread but was never really in contention.
Scrabble players are always looking to get RETAIN on their rack as this is the best six letter combination. Hels had this twice in the game which Gareth was quick to point out :-)
Hels made a +52 play with the Z on move two but opened up the triple line. Having PORTING on her rack but unplayable, she was able to play it down to the lower triple when Jim played ZELS.
Four bonuses, two each, were then exchanged in the middle game but Jim was also scoring more heavily. Although Hels got a bonus Jim entered the endgame +31 ahead and in a complex endgame Jim pulled out the narrow victory.
I then saw Jim and Hels spend about 10 minutes playing a variety of different endgames, none of which Hels won!
Steve did have some goodies but perhaps not his fair share and not fitting as well as Hels'. Hels played four bonuses, REsTORE, AUTOING, AEGIRINE and played out with BOXINESS for the huge win.
Ganesh's turn for revenge, but unfortunately (:-)) he failed to take it, despite starting with a bonus of rOSOLIO. Hels responded with MALTOSE and followed up with ERUPTION two moves later to establish a commanding lead.
FRIEZES another two moves later ensured total domination and a last ditch attempt to open the board from Ganesh allowed Hels to play BLUETTE onto the triple for +84 and another large win.
Mark beat Joel Wapnick in a previous World Championship final and also lost to Joel in the final in Melbourne.
This was not a classic game and was played alongside table 2 where a very tense match was in place that would determine the second finalist. So there were plenty of people around to see Mark's ASSHOlES appear on the board.
Hels' only real blunder of the tournament occurred when she failed to play WEAkLING (or WEAnLING) but announced that the blank was an S (WEAsLING) which Mark challenged off the board. This sealed defeat whereas a valid play would have ensured a tight endgame. A late bonus of GETTABLE reduced the spread but it was too little too late.
Mark finished in 4th place, having won his last six games.
Final British positions
3. Andrew Perry England 17 1202 4. Mark Nyman England 16 975 7. Andrew Davis England 16 188 9. Paul Allan Scotland 15 532 11. Helen Gipson England 15 317 14. Phil Appleby England 14.5 424 27. Di Dennis England 13 537 29. Andrew Fisher Australia 13 286 32. Gareth Williams Wales 13 132 46. Terry Kirk England 12 11 47. Karl Khoshnaw Kurdishtan Iraq 12 -173 48. Peter Finley England 12 -267 62. Stewart Holden England 11 -328 90. Bronargh Kenny Ireland 2 -3166Back to the homepage
