Devil and His pacts

The Devil offers good things, ah but with caveat. Sacrifices. Painful Sacrifices. Won my first 2-day Scrabble tournament in ages. But His Royal Lowness had to set it for an unrated tourney. Where if it were rated, my 13-2 record on a strong field apparently would have propelled me to 3rd in the country. Just enough for qualification for Causeway team. If it were rated. Oh the Dirty D always dangles temptation, forbidden fruit too far to bite.

Temptation and suffering. Payment for the win was 3-days of medical leave on food poisoning. 2 days of hourly toilet visits (meaning no sleep longer than 60 minutes), plus 1 day of total drain-out, flat out with no energy to even go to toilet (which I fortunately no longer needed by then, THANK GOODNESS).

I don’t feel like winning another tournament for some time.

Still here, still like Collins

I have just used the newly-allowed Scrabble word GREENLIT in an official email.

I will repeat again how I love the new words. Beyond the local dialects e.g. Maori absorbtions, they really are practical words. Have been seeing more and more of them in print and usage.

Scrabble: Day 1 and 2 King’s Cup 2007

Day 2 of King’s Cup has just wrapped up, with 13 out of 27 rounds played. Lack of wifi access and charger for my laptop had prevented me from putting up any updates. But now that I have the necessary adapter, I should be able to update in the evening.

Several changes to the format: usually players are paired in groups of 4 to play 2 games, with Player 1 playing Player 2 and P3 playing P4, and then winners play each other and losers likewise and the next round. This year, there are alternating sets of 2 games and 3 games, where in the latter all 4 players in the group play each other. I haven’t managed to identify the pattern when sets of 2 or 3 would apply, but the sets of 3 have allowed people to catapult up by winning all 3 games in their group. Or plummeting by losing all 3.

Day 1 saw 5 rounds of action, and at the end of the day 3 people left unbeaten and all were Thai players: Jakkrit K, Thacha K, and Thien T.

Among the favourites who were upset in the first day, Pakorn N (THA) fell to Karen Richards (AUS) in the first round, Panupol (THA) fell to Thien. Thacha accounted for 2 big guns: Nigel Richards (NZ) and Charnwit S (THA) in games 4 and 5.

Day 2 ended with 5 people on top with 10-3 records: Pakorn, Komol, Panupol, Nigel, and Thitipol B.

Pakorn stormed to the top on the back of an 8-game win streak from round 5 to 12, including a 4 games sequence where he amassed 945 spread by scoring 609, 512, 525, and 579. He had 7 games above 500 out of 13 played so far.

Femi Awowade (NIG) had the misfortune of having his flight delayed in the first day, and hence missing the first four games, forfeiting all by a spread of 100 each. He arrived at the venue only in time to play and lose against Visan V (THA), hence starting far back in the field with 0-5. Today, having sufficiently recovered from jetlag, Femi was making up for lost time, winning 7 out of 8 and making his way up to the front tables. He will start tomorrow at 26th place, with the best spread among players with 7-6 records.

This King’s Cup saw the rise of a new generation of young Thai players. Led by Thai’s best placer in the recent World Youth Scrabble Championship, 16-year old Thacha K (who is now ranked 7 in Thailand), they were jostling for place with the more experienced player at the top. Some other WYSC reps who have surfaced at the top were Chaiwat W and Thanapong K. And there were also some non-WYSC rep like Weera S (Thai no. 8), and Thitipol B, who was being dubbed Nigel-killer for having beaten him twice in this tourney.

I unfortunately didn’t have time to walk around picking up interesting words to post, most of the time being busy ruing my own bad performance. Was 3-7 at one point, before winning last 3 games of day 2 to get to 6-7. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Will post my own game when I’m back in Singapore.

Top 20 rank below. Michael Tang (SIN), Odette Rio (PHI), Marlon Prudencio (PHI) and Femi Awowade (NIG) are all just outside top 20.

# Name Record Spread
1 PAKORN N. 10 – 3 1342
2 KOMOL P. 10 – 3 1111
3 PANUPOL S. 10 – 3 961
4 NIGEL RICHARDS (NZ) 10 – 3 892
5 THITIPOL B. 10 – 3 175
6 NAWAPADOL S. 9 – 4 985
7 JAKKRIT K. 9 – 4 748
8 CHEAH SH  (SING) 9 – 4 708
9 THACHA K. 9 – 4 594
10 TONY SIM (SING) 9 – 4 356
11 GERRY C. 9 – 4 329
12 BRO.ARUN M. 9 – 4 4
13 LEONORA LABOG  (PHI) 9 – 4 2
14 ROONGROJ H. 8.5 – 4.5 208
15 WEERA S. 8 – 5 836
16 MARTIN DEMELLO (INDIA) 8 – 5 805
17 CHARNWIT S. 8 – 5 627
18 HUBERT WEE (SING) 8 – 5 559
19 KAREN RICHARDS (AUS) 8 – 5 437
20 CHEW HAN EI (SING) 8 – 5 435

This wordgeek loves Collins Scrabble Dictionary

I have been having fun with the new Collins Scrabble Wordlist (CSW). I believe I am the first in Singapore, nay, South East Asia to own it as the rest had to wait for shipment from UK to arrive. I owe this “honour” to a friend who had delivered it back from UK. The book is unlikely to hit book stores here until the second half of the year (as the Scrabble Association found out from the local Collins distributor).

The new wordlist, almost 10 years since the last major Scrabble word updates, have absorbed much more dialectic slangs e.g. Aussie and Maori words. But I particularly love Collins because there are many words which are instantly recognisable to me. In fact there were some that I had already played before: SOBA, UDON, MAKI (!!!! darn you Henry !!!!), the lovely portmanteau TANKINI, CORRODER. I know, I’m ahead of my time 🙂

In general the major additions in Collins that are familiar to me are:

+ terms from IT world. From the technical (e.g. SERVLET, SPAMBOT, MOBLOG, etc) to the slangy (WAREZ, GROK, APPS, etc)

+ they finally recognise some Malay words, like MEE, ROJAK, SATAI, JAGA, RIBA, WUDU (the last two admittedly can be construed as Arabic, the true root of the word).

+ food, food glorious food. Beside the Japanese and Malay foods above, there are at least the following that I have eaten myself and are now good: HALOUMI, FISHCAKE, CHIPOTLE, PANINI, ROSTI.

+ brand name and proper nouns. Joining words like XEROX, now we have KLEENEX, FEDEX, PYREX, LINUX (there’s something about brand names ending with X),   TEFLON, VELCRO, STETSON, BENADRYL, FORMICA, etc

+ words catching up with how lifestyles have developed in the last 10 years: PRENUP, UPSIZE, JETLAG, LADYBOY (hur hur)

+ slang, many generated by the SMS and online chat generation: ENUF, DIFF, KEWL, HOMIE, LAYDEEZ. And there are some that I attribute as Jadeite words: GAYDAR, FUGLY, SUCKIER, ATTAGIRL, TIGHTASS, PARAPARA …

Another thing about the new CSW is that it has a section on long words. I like browsing it to discover fun long words – something that one can’t do with word search software or the old SOWPODS dictionary. Browsing has uncovered words from the IT realm again (e.g. CYBERSQUATTER), fun words (e.g. GAZILLIONAIRE, WHATSHISNAME / WHATSHERNAME / WHATSITSNAME. And their plurals.), the utterly useless (e.g. AMAKWEREKWERE), and the unspeakables. STARF?CKING. CLEVERD?CK. GANGSHAGGED. Enuff said.

Now to get to play them. Extending F?CKING. Or even, extending KING. Lovely thought. I love new words.

Scrabble tournament report: Lim Boon Heng Cup day 2

A belated report on my 2nd day in LBH Cup, which was much less fun and much more like me

Game 10: Marcus Goh.
Before the game, he said I could have all the S’s as long as he got all the blanks. How prophetic. In the next 6 moves from turn 4, I had at least 2 S’s on my rack. And at most 1 vowel 😦 By the time I got rid of the last pesky S (keeping 1 useful one), he bingoed with both blank, nEURoID (85). The game was still close when he created a second bingo opening with 3 tiles in the bag. I played what I believe would be the best move to make it difficult to use both bingo lines and keeping 1 in the bag, but it still allowed him to bingo AILETTE (76). L 374-401

Game 11: Lim Li Wei.
My first rack had a single E. After using that, I didn’t see any other vowel but I’s until turn 6. In the meantime Li Wei had played STATION (73) and ENFLOWE(R) (74+5) to lead by 142. I did get the blank, and missed CUTESiE (only knew CUTESY) before eventually bingoing SEVrUGA (81), and picking the second blank with vowels aplenty and 3 in the bag. Too little too late. L 339-416

Game 12: Jessie Lim.
Good early draw gave me MODELED (67) and BEDS(O)NiA (71) by move 4. She then misplayed NOAI* instead of NAOI, which left the spot for my HUGE (45). She then got hAIRLIN(E) (74) and a string of high scores to close the gap to 45. With 4 tiles in the bag, bingoable tiles and the J unseen, she had a chance of overtaking me by either having the tiles to play JEST (73) or a bingo to one of the several openings elsewhere. I decided to block the JEST spot with low score (could have scored 47) but leaving one in the bag in case what she had was a bingo instead. Turned out that blocking JEST was correct. I proceeded to trap the C in her rack and played out slowly. W 481-413

Game13: Andy Kurnia.
He lusted for revenge for his earlier loss of more than 200. He got it. TRIONES (85), UNLASTE (78), HANDHEl(D) (95), and VULGATE (87) overpowered my SOLiCIT (79) and PRISONE(D) (76). And he had other high scorers like OX (56) and JOTA (46) while I scored badly while balancing and opening – besides the bingo I only had one other move scoring above 30. L 358-596

Game 14: Jocelyn Lor.
Her score from move 2 onwards: 65 (for bingo NOTABlE), 107+10 (TALKIES hooking NOTABlE), 40, 39, 33, 64 (TRAINEE), 59. I thought I did OK playing through racks with OOOU scoring 33, 48, 32 – but that’s nothing when she reached 442 by move 8. I did get 50 for just playing ST, but other than that another bad washout. L 364-525

Game 15: Marcus Goh.
My opening rack was DEIJOY? . Was pleased when Marcus’s opening allowed to play off JO(E)Y (30) leaving a nice leave of ?IDE, when it hit me as I drew replacement tiles that JOY + ?IDE = JOYrIDE. It’s downhill from that point. I replied his AZuRINE (85) (missing URbANIZE) with ArSE(N)IDE (70), his MINTERS (89) with FAULTING (76), but I had no reply for his SERVICE (77). L 355-472

So in these last 3 games, my opponents had averaged 531 against me, and took away 516 spread points. Sigh.

Game 16: Victor Chua.
He changed after my opener QI, and then lost a turn bingoing but hooking SLINT*. That allowed me to run away with consecutive REDIALS (64), PANEL (43+5 for challenging PREDIALS), MUX (44), PUBES (43+5) despite his REEDI(E)St (70). We exchanged phoneys later with his (O)UTRAISER* and my (C)OVENiNG* both going off, before I got down (D)OVENiNG (duh!) for 89 and him (A)RIETTAS for 77. W 495-360.

So after going 6-2 in the first half, I went 2-6 in the second half. Sigh. Well at least I can derive pleasure from having beaten the eventual champion Guo Cong. And having played my first CSW word, YURTAS, which Jessie didn’t challenge (YURTA doesn’t take S in SOWPODS, heh). On to studying CSW now.

Scrabble tournament report: Lim Boon Heng Cup day 1

I haven’t written a Scrabble tournament report for some time and I actually quite missed it. Since I am doing quite well so far by my standard in Lim Boon Heng Cup today, thought I’d write again 🙂 The field is quite small with only 18 players and 4 of top players not participating. I am seeded 8th despite those absentees – I’m definitely past my prime, rightfully.

Game 1: Suhaimi Khalil.
Suhaimi took the early lead with SOLARIA (63) followed by WIZEN (50) in moves 3 and 4. He continued to score steadily that my DECREAS(E) (72) was not enough to overtake him. He however overlooked that his play NOME takes a front G hook, leaving the triple world line open until I managed to get HOUTiNG down (91, +5 penalty for his challenge). That was played with only 9 left in the bag, and my pick of 7 from that was CESSTY? . Very lucky indeed. He blocked my bingo, but I still got down the singular SCYThE for 56, which gave a better-than-should-be final score. W 455-372.

Game 2: Chia Guo Cong.
He opened with FIVE, and I saw but chickened out of the 4-timer JERREeD (117) and settlerd for the safe JEER. Fortunately Guo Cong later let me redeem myself by opening the triple line for my nine-timer DEL(E)gATE (122). He fought back valiantly and overtook me after he had AEONIAN (71) and MATISSE (84). However I immediately replied with ElEGANC(E) (77), chickening out from ENGrACE(D) across the triple line (86). It was lead-preservation from then on. W 484-427

Game 3: Hubert Wee.
I need luck to win against Singapore no. 1. It started very well with my opener CAPIZ (56), but he immediately replied with OR(A)RIUMS (63+5). I later phoneyed GOUDA* (darn those cheeses) to fall behind, and got desperate and phoneyed again RAMIOUS*. Here I got lucky. Hubert phonied TONNELS*, missing the trickier spot for INSOLENT, and giving me a lifeline. I managed to get down (E)tAGERES (77) before his TONITES (85) to keep close. We were scoring tit-for-tat with me inching closer and closer, as both our scores got smaller and smaller as we fish towards the end. We both were obviously fishing with our penultimate scores being 4 for him and 6 for me. Then the interesting part begun. Both of us obviously had good tiles. There was only 1 left in the bag, and it was his turn. He bingoed ANESTRI (73), which gave me the bingo out CtENIDI(A) (89) for the win. This was a tricky endgame where passing may be the best option for Hubert. He will analyze this and report it in the next edition SA News. W 465-448

Game 4: Henry Yeo Kien Hung.
Henry and I were the last two unbeaten players. He bingoed first with OESTRAL (74). I later got PROTeST (73, +5 for his challenge on NEMNS). Then I missed DDIIAV? to an L [1, answer below] that I didn’t know, and he got down RETCHES (76) to pull away again. I was pleased to find MArIGO[L]D (72), the only playable bingo with that rack, but Henry scored high consistently to keep away. Then my crucial mistake came. I lined up NODI for 42, had doubt about NODI, didn’t want to play NOD for 36 since I got too many eyes, so I played NIDI (42) instead. Problem was, changing O to I changed the hook from MAKO to MAKI*. Which was challenged off and immediately blocked. Now quite far behind, I was forced to open the board with a low-scorer, which Henry immediately piunced with his (D)ERIVATE (89). A neck-to-neck game became a 100+ blow out. bah. L 371-486

Game 5: Andy Kurnia.
His first move was change 7, while mine was KARTED* for 32 – it was a phoney, but it stayed because both of us knew KARTING is good. Good sign. Andy struggled with scores in the teens for the next 5 moves while I scored steadily to build a 92-point lead in without bingoing. Then came my BOXY (60) and SEaGIRT (69). He replied with (D)ENTARIA (65) which gave me HULA (52). He continued to fish, I got JETS (57), and in the end game holding all consonants, I managed to block his bingo lines for a flattering win. W 472-251

Game 6: Tony Sim.
I got the first bingo O(B)TAINER (74). He replied later with STRI(P)IER (60). We exchanged high scores until I got stuck with consonant problem, and I made a risky scoring move that opened the triple word line. I was duly punished by his D(R)AIsENE (131). Only 6 tiles in the bag. I was reduced to fishing and opening. He phonied HoUDADS*, missing two valid bingos [2]. Knowing all his tiles only frustrated me more, since I could see whatever bingo I played he would score very high. I gave up, played HIRAGES (83) and he secured the win with SHADeD (53). L 405-479

Game 7: Quek Sim Ho.
He started hot with with QUARE, ZIG and COS, hitting 119 in 3 moves. In those 3 moves, I had a total of 3 consonants :-(, playing off 2 of them and 9 vowels to lag by 60 behind. He got DECANTER (76), I got back-to-back VIRTUES (77) and GERANIOL (70) . And the role reversed: now he struggled with his tiles while I got JET (35), EXPAT (66) and LANDInG (7) to pull away. He fished, futilely, and giving me a nice spread. W 515-363

Game 8: Cheah Siu Hean.
On the third move we exchanged natural bingos: my (O)CHREATE (84+5) and his (C)OUNTIES (72). Then I phonied B(E)LTIEST*. Siu Hean on his next move scored 34 and more importantly blocked all 3 spots where I could have played B(E)TITLES, which I belatedly saw. I eventually managed to put RETRIALS (70), which he immediately countered with KAIM (60) to still lead by 24. By the time there was one bag in the tile, I had managed to regain the lead by 2, courtesy of having one more turn than Siu Hean (since I was the starting player). But more importantly, with one in the bag, both blanks were unseen. We both held one. The situation was almost similar to Game 3 against Hubert: Siu Hean bingoed ANNElID (70), I replied with a bingo out ARGYlES (70) to win by 4. The difference from Hubert’s game was that Siu Hean couldn’t pass because I was leading and my bingo could potentially block the spots where his bingo could be played. In the end what made the difference was his challenge of my hook PRETRIALS (he thought PRETRIAL is an adjective), costing him the crucial 5 points. W 460-456

Game 9: Liew Kian Boon.
This game was punishment for all the good tile-drawing I had in earlier games. I had only one E in the game, and one more at the very last draw when it was already useless. While Kian Boon bingoed with DOWIEsT (76), I had to do clunky PINGUID (67) and later the rack clearer ANALOGA (71). In between I had racks with consonant problems, and after ANALOGA it was all consonants again. Kian Boon in the meantime scored consecutive 43, 42, 46, 32, 38 to regain the lead while I struggled. My blank arrived without vowel support, and by then it’s too late. But I did chicken out of the bingo PROLING midgame which may change the game, so can’t blame it all on luck – I suck too. L 349-409

Game 9 was actually for tomorrow morning, and officially only 8 rounds were completed. After 8 rounds, Henry led with 7 wins, and Guo Cong, Hubert, and myself with 6. I’m quite pleased that I had played 6 of the 7 people in the field rated above me and split the games 3-3, and didn’t lose to people rated below me. I hope this will do my rating good.

[1] DIVIDuAL
[2] bUDDHAS and sADDHUS.

Correction to CSC annotated games

The game between Andy Kurnia (SIN) and Chris May (AUS) has been wrongly named Pakorn vs Ganesh. That has been fixed, and Pakorn vs Ganesh has been added accordingly. Andy vs Andrew Fisher has also been added, and that makes the 14 games that will be posted up for CSC 2006.