For the last five days I've been in an even hotter location than Vicksburg, MS - I was in Phoenix for the US Scrabble Open, formerly known as the National Scrabble Championship. After playing in the top division in Providence (2000), San Diego (2002) and New Orleans (2004), I finally had a horrendous enough year to drop me low enough that I didn't even qualify to play in it, so division 2 it was. I went in as the 44th seed out of 106 players, facing 28 games over the next four days - four before lunch and three after.
After the initial announcements and a whole lot of chitchat between the 600+ players who had come from as close as 5 minutes away and as far away as Israel, Thailand and the Philippines, it was time to play Scrabble.
Game 1 was a tight affair thanks to me missing several bingos; some hard (fISHABLE/BLEAkISH, PLATINA) and some easy (HOSTILE). I did manage HOLLIES instead, as well as RAINOUTs (oddly, through the T of my opponent's RAINOUT) and survived a recount to win by 3, 385-382.
Game 2 saw me miss ALEVINS (freshly hatched salmon) after my opponent played LEADING, but I managed to "bingo-bango" with sOAPING for 93 and vITIATE (to make defective or ineffective) for 81 on consecutive turns. My opponent had a tough time after that, barely clearing 300 points while I ran up almost 500, finishing at 478-316.
Game 3 was quite the spine-tingler; after I passed up WHAMO to open with MONTH, my opponent immediately plays BIOGEnS for 71. After trading a few turns, I end up with CEEIRST on my rack, and turn it into HERETICS for 92, pulling me 40 points ahead at 254-214. Two turns later she plays DISVALUE through the I in HERETICS for 80, but three turns later I hold INOLRT? and play ReTINOLS (vitamin A; NOSTRILS also played) to the S in HERETICS to go up 36. She counters with REPAY for 59, but my miracle last rack has given me EEINRTZ - which I turn into ETERNIZE (the only bingo in that rack) for 61 and a 455-410 win.
Game 4 was probably my high point as a Scrabble player. After getting away with BETASTED for 66 on my second turn, my opponent played SPLINTER through the E, placing the S two spots above the bottom left triple-word score. I played SLY and then the game proceed to pretty much clog up the bottom-right half of the board. I gradually drew one blank, and then the other, until I had ??AINOR on my rack. I played off the I for 12 points...drew an O. Not what I wanted. He saw I was fishing, figured I had at least one of the blanks, and started playing very carefully - after all, he had the lead by 15 and didn't want to give me anything huge. I played off the O...drew an N. Still not what I wanted. Played off the N...and the E appears - one of four unseen to me in a pool of 23 (7 of which were in his hand). My heart starts pounding, and as soon as he makes his play, I spin the board in my direction, mark my blanks as V and U, and lay down RAvENOuSLY to the SLY for 83 points and a 40-point lead. Strangely, he challenged despite having fairly decent tiles that could have won him the game, but after he lost his challenge, three more plays sealed up a 424-335 victory and I sailed into lunch in 7th place at 4-0, +299.
It must have been something I ate, because the post-lunch games were not as kind to me. The eventual 4th-place finisher opened game 5 with BAZOOMS (one of the many terms for the female chest) for 110, followed that with a 51-point GROWNUP two turns later, PERGOLA (a shaded passageway) for 74 and DETAINEE for 70. I only managed a measly 120 points in my first 7 turns before gaining some speed withh SENATOR for 70m TUX for 35, QAT for 33 and VIS for 38. Still, I took a 520-308 trouncing and dropped to 19th place.
In Game 6 I didn't even manage a bingo at all, but fortunately my plays were high-scoring enough to keep me ahead - ENEMA kicked off a seven-play run of plays 30 points or better - ENEMA 33, WAWL 30 (to cry like a cat), ZEP 39 (a long sandwich), VISA 48, BOS 35 (sweethearts), FIX 39 and MELEE 34. He actually did manage two bingos - STRIDOR 85 (a strident sound) and FOLIATE 66 (to hammer into thin plates) but they accounted for nearly half of his score as I managed a 382-331 win to put me back into 10th.
Game 7 faced me against a regular opponent from the local club who had just won his first game to go to 1-5. His good luck continued even though I managed a double-double (a word on two double-word squares) PUnIEST for 92. He then began a seven-turn streak wher eevery other turn scored 77 points or better - FLOORED for 77, ETOILES for 82 (stars), RATLINES for 77 (steps in an rope ladder) and QUAKES for 84. I did manage 53 points for AX and 40 for TAJ (a conical cap worn in Muslim countries) but my 387 was no match for his 475, and I finished the day in 22nd place at 5-2, +50.
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