Round 1 vs. Patrick Litunya (Kenya) at Board 18
Patrick started the game with a bingo, DILATOR (68). I got down REHEa(T)ED, a four timer on my third turn. Later, the word was extended to PREHEATED after I played PUPA. Things were still even after his MARTINS (84) and my TRiENES (67). I managed to squeeze a win using my X to play TAXON in the triple to win the game. |
| Patrick Litunya (Kenya) vs. Ronald Credo (Phi) |
Won: 451-417
Round 2 vs. Adam Logan (Canada) at Board 17
I had a chance to play Adam Logan. I heard so much about his Scrabble achievements. We started slowly and got down ENERGID for him while eRRANTS for me, 148-170 his lead. Things were getting out of hand until I laid down ZESTs (73) using the blank, trimming down his lead, 263-277. The board was too cramped as it was very difficult for me to find a decent scoring play. Adam managed to protect his lead, and won. |
| Round 2 vs Adam Logan |
Loss: 366-400
Round 4 vs. James Kramer (United States) at Board 07
James Kramer (United States) sings the praises of the 5-point challenge rule. In his game this round, his opponent, Ronald Credo (Philippines), opened with BOyLIKE*. As Jim tells it, he wouldn't have wanted to loose his turn so early on, so he might have had to let that play go. But, he challenged, and it was ruled unacceptable and came off. Ronald's next play was BODyLIKE*, which Jim also challenged off. Jim says, "before long I was winning by 200 points." End score, 578-369.
Loss: 369-578
Round 8 vs. Suresh Chinnaiyah (Sri Lanka) at Board 38
Won: 469-421
Round 10 vs. Isaac Apindi Adhero Lang'o (Tanzania)
I walked up to table 34 to discover a game that was declared over after 6 passed plays. I overheard Isaac Apindi Adhero Lang'o (Tanzania) say to his opponent, Ronald Credo (Philippines) , "That was one hell of a game!" The game ended 342-267 in Ronald's favor. From what I can reconstruct, Ronald had a play, but feared playing and picking the Q, so he kept passing. " Issac, who had no play that he could see, kept passing as well. And the rest, as they say, is SCRABBLE® history.
Won: 342-267
At table 27, Trevor Mark Hovelmeier (South Africa) was playing Ronald Credo (Philippines). I see the play SEATMAte go down for 87, it is challenged and ruled acceptable. Ronald is a careful player, dutifully checking the play counts to verify scores. After winning the challenge for his two-blank bingo, he put down JIVeY through the blank E for 50 points. As their game ends, I see Ronald pull out a calculator as the players try to agree on the game's score. This game's S-tile recipient, Ronald got down TRAPEZES for 88 from the T and LEOTARDS through the E for 72. Trevor got down TRIDENT on the triple lane.
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Mary Rhoades taking a challenge in a game between Ronald Credo (Philippines) and Trevor Mark Hovelmeier (South Africa). Won: 462-393 Round 21 vs. Joel Sherman (USA) at Board 17  And it's now time for a meeting with the former World Scrabble Champion, Joel Sherman of the USA. Before we put the tiles in the bag, he made sure that the tile distribution was accurate, so he began counting letters from A to Z. He was wearing a headset during our game and I was not sure whether or not he was hearing my scores, maybe he was doing it by himself. Anyway, the game went smoothly, and I made the first bingo CHORALS but he countered with AIRTHiNG. From there, it was nip and tuck until Joel opened up with FAILLE. I challenged it just to make sure if it was a valid word. Sure enough, he was rewarded with 5-points. I used that opening to bingo with cATENAS. Then, he replied with BAH in the triple lane emptying the bag, going to this board position our scores stood at 359-338 in my favor.  I had ORSTUVY and in time trouble, I was still reviewing what was the other tile aside from DEIORV based on my tracking sheet. I was about to play (I)VY but I would leave the L open. Due to this, I wandered on blocking the O-file and the 12th row. The actual moves were: Ron: VO(L)TS (12j) 8 -> 367 Joel: VI(S)OR (n10) 32 -> 370 Ron: YU (f2) 31 -> 398 Joel: DEE(M) (i5) 20 20 -> 390 Joel: (R) +2 -> 392 Final Score: Ronald-398; Joel-392 In our post mortem, Joel realized that there was a winning move for him if he just played OE (f2) after my VOLTS, blocking the YU spot, and at the same time setting up his VIRED/VOE or DERIV(E) (13g) forming other words DAB, ETA, REH, VIN, ODA. In my home review, I discovered that VOLTS was indeed a big blunder! When worried about the two bingo openings as I was having trouble with my tracking during the tournament, then (L)UVS at 11L threatening (S)TROY would have been better. In case of (S)ERVO block then OY/ NY could win even after play out of IDE(M) (i5). Below was my memorable scoresheet:  Won: 398-392 Round 22 vs. Ganesh Asirvatham (Malaysia) at Board 14  Ganesh and Michael Tang   Won: 427-346 |
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