Crescent City Cup 2022

A fabulous tournament with some excellent game coverage from Will Anderson and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard. The post-game analysis is a must-watch. Dave Koening ran out the winner. Here are some game boards from organizer and runner up Austin Shin:

Game 1 was a 476-410 win for Austin, Conidian was a nice play:

Game 2 ended up in a 418-451 loss. Interestingly at one point, both players had the exact same rack AEIMORT. Tribunal or turbinal would have clinched it:

Game 3 ended up in a 408-431 loss:

Game 4 was a huge 528-312 win, aided by the 9X ferrites:

Game 5 was a 407-493 loss:

Game 6 was a big 576-372 win, thanks to 5 bingos:

Game 7 was a good 486-389 win:

Game 8 ended up in a 546-384 win:

Game 9 resulted in a 401-445 loss, Fedayeen was nice:

Game 10 was a 468-326 win, and the scoring never stops en route  to an 8 game win streak:

Game 11 was a narrow 417-408 win, veratrium was a phoney but terrarium would have been a valid 9:

Game 12 was a come from behind (125 points) win, after surviving the 9X play staggier:

Game 13 a game between National champions ended in a 472-377 win. Parquets would have scored 137: 

Game 14 was a 512-392 win, prosely was a phoney, only leprosy in that rack:

Game 15 was a come from behind (135 points) win, the parallel play of brownest was nice, acini almost stopped the comeback blocking wiremen. Quins left no vowels and resulted in a VVJ rack for the opponent, which secured the 477-470 win:

Game 16 was a 506-420 win, meadowed was a phoney:

Game 17 was a 464-437win, budgies secured the win:

Game 18 saw the 8 game win streak come to an end with a 352-452 loss:

Game 19 began a 2 game series with the eventual champion and ended in a 416-525 loss:

Game 20 shows you why scrabble can be a game of inches, the play of iodic would have stopped anhedral that came right after agio was played and completely changed the game resulting in a 352-454 loss:

All in all a great tournament, with some great coverage.

Wordaholix Scrabble League 2021

The 2021 edition of the Wordaholix league concluded in September. Team Vorago ran out the winner. Here are some game boards from the participants Ishika, Rahil, and Samrath:

World Blitz Scrabble Championships

The world blitz scrabble championships finals will be contested by two scrabble legends David Eldar and Will Anderson. Both players advanced with hard fought 7-5 wins in the semi finals. Here's how they got to the finals courtesy @cocoscrabble:

Will Anderson runs out the winner 10-6:

Scrabble Word Study Tools

 My colleague Ishika takes you through some useful tools for word study namely Zyzzyva, Aerolith, and Anagram Quizzer. I chip in on my favorite tool for word study Xerafin:

Mu Sigma International Scrabble Tournament 2020

Here are some recorded games from the recently concluded Mu Sigma International Scrabble Tournament:

Nigel's Incredible Run in International Scrabble Tournaments in Bangalore

The double world champion has had an amazing run in in international scrabble tournaments in Bangalore. He takes a 10 title streak into the MuSigma International scrabble tournament to be held in January 2020. This must rank among the best title streaks in all of scrabble. Here is a look at Nigel's dominance:

Tournament	Year	Winner	Games Won	Spread	Runner Up	Games Won	Spread
iGATE 2009 International	2009	Pakorn	19	1469	Nigel	18	2794
iGATE 2010 International	2010	Nigel	19	1522	Sherwin	18	1628
2011 iGATE International	2011	Nigel	25	3354	Sherwin	18	1095
2012 iGATE International	2012	Nigel	21	2298	Akshay	17	797
2013 iGATE International	2013	Nigel	26	1610	Olaiya	25	1494
2014 iGATE International	2014	Nigel	29	1891	Alastair	24	1257
2015 iGATE International	2015	Nigel	32	3723	Douglas	23	996
2016 iGATE International	2016	Nigel	28	3614	Hubert	26	1531
2017 Capgemini International	2017	Nigel	30	2413	Pichai	23.5	1097
2018 Capgemini International	2018	Nigel	28	1936	Hubert	24	921
2019 Capgemini International	2019	Nigel	25	1763	Goutham	24	927

2020 MuSigma International

2020

Nigel

23

2246

Hubert Wee

22

1917

Source: WESPA

WESPA World Scrabble Championship Goa 2019 - Division A

Heres a recap of my games in Division A of the WESPA World Scrabble Championships in Goa. Coach Tikolo won it. Yours truly in second:

Game 1 against a rising star in Indian scrabble and a fellow chemical engineer and he dominates from start to finish my rotchies not withstanding and a desperation phoney oralise:

Game 2 against my good friend and I just about bingo more than him to take it:

Game 3 I start with readily, then bingo 3 more times to take it easily:

Game 4 my only highlight was a double double with Organza. It was all him the rest of the way to win by 100 plus:

Game 5 was my worst loss to a very good player from New Zealand. Her warpaint and rejoneos were nice indeed:

Game 6 was a good win for me. Was pleased with my unsawed and chinones:

I loose by over 100 in this one despite my phoney aven staying on the board against my good friend and end day 1 on 3-4:

Start well day 2 but give up spread as I try booteed needlessly after challenging off trialings. Just pushed through in the end:

Did take the next one with very good tile flow:

Talking about what you should not do in scrabble, phoneyed thrice trying winkier,minkier and tarsy,changed twice and blew a 100 point lead to lose by over 60:

Lose the next one to my good friend, who led all the way through so now at 6-6:

The next one was a very good game against a very good friend. The crucial blank pickups in the end meant that I found my only 9 letter word of the tournament with believers  and was able to extend  locating to relocating and go out in 2 and eke out a smallwin:

Was lucky not to lose by 150 plus in the next one as he phoneyed with a blank and an s, he did block my bowlines earlier on. Just happy to reduce spread:

7-7 now and I kind of wake up. This was a multi bingo game for me and I extended water on the board to topwater. Unakites was nice and an easy win in the end:

End the day on a high note with a good win against a good friend, 9-7 after day 2:

Day 3 starts good but I needlessly chicken out of medlars mid game and sizers towards the end to give up valuable spread in a narrow win:

Finally a good game against the brilliant New Zealander who had dominated me thus far. Kinda picked everything, gobshite was nice:

So from 7-7 I have pulled it back to 11-7 and enter a close game which he should have won had he played vom instead of mob, instead I win by 5:

Now I play the king and start with a double double with upstates and bingo 3 more times to just about win:

Now I meet my good friend and fellow chemical engineer yet again. I challenge doably and cabalers off (the anagram was berascal) and still find myself down 57. I hit Nandines which he challenged. It let me win by 5 in the end:

Up against yet another rising star of Indian scrabble. Started by changing 2 ee's and ended up picking an a and another e, thought I should change again but suddenly see chaetae, vidames came next and two more.He minimized spread with godetia and I am on an 8 game winning streak:

Well all good things have to come to an end and they certainly did that in the next game. My 3 bingos to his 1 not withstanding, Coach Tikolo runs out a winner by over 100 and wraps up a well deserved title. Playing for second:

From coach to chief and I build a 150 point lead with virando and trephine. He comes back well with subtones and takes the lead with a few moves to go. It was all his if he had hit any one of bi/tri/re cycles. He was under a bit of time pressure and missed and that's the only thing that prevented a Nigerian 1-2-3. I finish 2nd winning 9 out of my last 10: