WESPAC 2023 - Moments

WESPAC 2023 is in the books now with David Eldar crowned champion. A great venue in Las Vegas and some insanely good Scrabble played over 5 days. Here are some game gameboards courtesy of Josh Greenway, Ricky Purnomo, and Hubert Wee:

Adam Kretschmer extended kings to hijackings scoring 74 in a 492-370 win:

Balogun and Toh combine for 1151 in a 613-538 win for Balogun:

Ben Schoenbrun scores over 400 in his first 4 moves en route to a 600-466 win:

Dennis Ikekeregor with a 221-point 9X stocking play that secured a 601-405 win:

Who says you have to score in Scrabble? Matthew O'Connor secures a -6 to -11 win after he and his opponent failed to score for 6 consecutive turns:

Some boards from Ricky Purnomo:

A narrow loss in a high-scoring game 460-462:

A huge 656-447 point win:

The very nice play of baptisia:

A good opponent play of the 9 villainry:

Some magic from Hubert:

A 159-point comeback:

A very nice find of didactyl:

The brilliant overlap of exodes for 110:

The nice find of unbishop:

The dream find of zlotych:

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:

WESPA World Scrabble Championship Goa 2019 - Main Event

Here are some of Nigel's game boards and a few other game boards from the main event in the recently concluded WESPA World Scrabble Championship in Goa:

Here are some game boards from the finals: