Naween Fernando who placed Runner-up behind Nigel Richards in the January-2000 Edition of Thailand Open shared his thoughts and experience about this tourney:
I got to Thailand two days before the event and spent my time at the I-MaxCinema Complex watching the Bone Collector, Anywhere But Here and The Bachelor - i.e until Nigel Richards showed up at my Hotel or Motel but we weren't really sure what to call it.
We play a friendly before the reception as Ravee gets stuck with a flat tyre and Nigel creams me by 250+ with opening moves of VARIOLE and VITILIGO - a sign of things to come. Nigel is undefeated on day 1 and 2 with 7-0 with Amnuay in 6-1 and a horde on 4 and 5 wins - well actually it was only about 40 players in the OPEN DIVISION.
The tournament is still wide open though as myself, Jakkrit and Tony Sim step up a gear. I had the unusual experience of beating Nigel 4 games one the trot and one by 270+ including six bingos - yeah in one game. They were HOELIKE, INSOMNIA, HETAIRAI, NONOWNER, RUINATE and GIUSTED to Nigel's RAILLERY and DESPITES - needless to say NIGEL didn't challenge any of mine and I challenged both of his just to be sure - yeah right!
So Nigel convinces me to watch this Fantasia 2000 thing which I understood to be a cartoon and Ravee the organizer had told me that I would enjoy it if I liked Mozart. Unfortunately I fell asleep during the Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse Part. However Nigel is into Classical Music just as I am into pop.
Anyways back to the tournament - I win 12 games at a stretch and am fairly comfortable going into the final day's play of 6 games. I gift Nigel a game midway when I play "ALM" despite being handed a 3 letter word list. That was just the break Nigel needed and convicingly won the last game of the tournament to move into the finals against me as Jakkrit won his last game against Tony Sim. Cheah Siu Hean and Sam Kantimathi didn't have the best of tournaments but certainly showed their class both off and on the Scrabble Board.
The finals will probably be sent to the mailing by the organizers but just for the record I don't think I had a say in the 1st game and I missed "TAILARD" in the second - which was probably payback for "MURRIES" in Singapore. Some impressive 9 letter plays by Nigel during the tournament were "CAPSULATE" and "INDECORUM" onto UM and "ELOINMENT" through EN in the friendly against me.
On the whole the Thai Tournament was superbly organized as usual considering the 3000+ school kids which took part this time. There was a grand opening ceremony - I haven't seen anything like it in any part of the World of Scrabble - although there is scope for improvement in the use of English. Prize money was given from 1-8 places and in the end the best player won it. And now I'm off to Sydney to do battle in the Sydney Masters.
-Naween
No comments:
Post a Comment