From: Joel Sherman <icenine@panix.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 22:20:13 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Reno Diary, Part I:Albany
Message-id: <Pine.SUN.3.94.970716203340.29820A-100000@panix3.panix.com>

From the desk of G.I. JoelGERNAUT:

I have this funny little superstition that what goes around comes around, tile-wise. So I wanted to get a bunch of bad tiles out of my way before playing for the big bucks in Reno, hence the trip to surprisingly green and lovely upstate New York. I ride with Matt Graham in Ron and Susi Tiekert's car, and along the way, we hit every rest stop on the New York State Thruway because Susi remembers seeing something bizarre at one of them when they went to this tournament's inaugural last year. Okay, they have some nice rest stops on that road, and at one there is a sign telling some of the history of the region on which half a line has been censored, presumably because it contained some politically incorrect term for some folks who descended from a mixture of German, French, Native American, Dutch and English inhabitants. We can't quite figure out what the term might have been, and the alteration of the sign left no marks behind to draw a clue from.

Completely out of context Quote of the Day, and don't ask me to explain: "I could have sworn Dudley Dooright came first." -- Susi Tiekert

We arrive at the hotel, only about an hour and a half later than we should have considering what time we planned to leave NYC, but still in plenty of time to have dinner before playing the evening games. Ron and Susi go eat at a seafood restaurant while I munch on salad left over from my roadside Sbarro pizza lunch. Too bad I didn't have a bigger appetite, because they took me with them to this restaurant the next night and Wow! did I have a great meal. It is called the Real Seafood Co. and is literally three blocks down the road from the Holiday Inn. The grilled swordfish salad appetizer was scrumptious.

Anyway, after meeting and greeting all the folks from Canada and Randy and Patty Greenspan, we get started around 9 PM and play 3 games. My hopes of getting the bad tiles out of my system are quickly realized as I lose the first two games to Ed Halper and Heather Drumm. In round three I am paired with Vicki Kahn who is one of those people I hardly ever beat, and I am hopeful of losing three in a row now. I open with BINAL 8d (20) and she responds with IRONCLAD h3 (62) so things are looking up already ;-), but alas I find SUDATION 9e (71) with a 3 tile underlap, and after I get CREASIER down next turn, and ORDURES forming IRONCLADS which drew a long hold but eventually was accepted a couple of turns later, I escaped with my first victory of the tourney, by 96.

Next morning, I get to watch Martina Hingis beat Jana Novotna in the Wimbledon final. Then I start off with a protracted tight board battle against Andrew Golding; thru 9 turns I manage to build a 193-145 lead, then he exchanges and I play B-ARE-FOOTEd, which he challenges, and I'm off to the races, a 159 point victory after 17 turns. I survive a tense battle and record a +71 against Shirley Fliesser in game 5. Then Graham and I start round 6 with a slugfest; thru 5 turns I lead 265-260, my plays are VAUNT (24), UPHOLDER (64), OUTLAYs (83), QUAKY (82 tl-dw) and JEED (12), while his are SCENARIO (90 4x), THULIA (29), JOHNS (46), FOB (16), and VESTINg (79). But he lets the game get away from him when he challenges my TEGMEN (33) on 6th turn and later tries the phony CORNDOGS*. I win 507-391.

After lunch, Eichenbaum opens BIOTINs, I respond PROVIsOS, I begin to build a lead when he has to exchange on turn 8 and scores 7 points on turn 9. My lead goes to 90 when I play CREMAT-IONS for 30 on turn 10. Finally I fish off two tiles trying for a tws off his Q on next to last turn, in a position where he could respond with JOTS on my opening for 60, and of course, he has it, but then I bingo out with UPRAISED catching some VY action for 28 points from his rack, and a +111.

Now I'm 5-2 and moving into contention a game behind the hot and talented Logan and I play Ron Tiekert. I open with CROFT 8d, OPHITIC d2, and JUTE 6b for 81, Ron's first 3 are OOZY f8, PLENTIES h4, and MIM 5c for 125, then I play LEANEST i3 with 6 overlaps for 85 to take the lead ever so briefly, but he immediately retakes it with SLANTINg 11h (64). Now comes the weird part, I play OIDIA e11 (22), and he counters with... OIDIA thru my D! The rest is a tricky strategic dance, I take the lead briefly with AQUaE (71) but he draws the X and K down the stretch and outruns me by 32. Last game of the day is against Randy Greenspan. He passes three tiles to start, I open with AnCONAL for 72 and after ZEIN (52) on turn 5, I have a 108 point lead. Randy fights valiantly, closing to within 21 with GODOWNS (82) on turn 11, but it's not enough, and two turns later I emerge with a 49 point victory. 6-3 and a fair spread leaves me in contention for some prize money, and I go to dinner with a good appetite. I have a great meal, spend a couple of hours playing the piano, as Sherrie noted, and then score 746 in one game of Clabbers with Ron before hitting the hay.

In the AM, my first game is against David Abolafia, he of the aforementioned FUCK play. I challenge off his phony bingo try on turn 6, play and get away with my own phony bingo on turn 9, he comes back with a good one same turn, and we have a tight game until he makes an ill-advised opening with EXTrA 8a (37) and I slap down SEPALINE a1 (83) to seal a 66 point victory. Next comes Adam! I PLONK 8h (32), he WRONG k5 (18), I OUTRAGE 9b (65), he ARoYNTS m2 (82), I MADAME 2j (34), he OH 1n (34), I FEASTER 3e (68), he HAO 2f (31), I INJURIES e5 (110 4x), and I'm up 144. Adam gets AdOPTION b7 for 80 and LEZ a13 for 40 on next two plays, but I still cruise to a 95-point win. This sets up a situation where Ron Tiekert or I could actually still finish first if we can knock enough off Adam's margin. I get AZOTISE and ENDnOTES against Ed Halper in my first 4 turns after exhcanging on turn 1, and cruise to a 90-point win, but it's not enough. Adam still has a couple of hundred points on me, and David Boys wins his last game to sew up third.

A fun and interesting tourney, amazingly well run by Annette Tedesco and Steve Pfeiffer, with John Morse and David Goodman doing pairings. I have to admit I went there with very low expectations, but was pleasantly surprised, and I hope to return to this event in future. And oh, that seafood! During the awards ceremony, Annette had the 6! North American WSC representatives (myself, Tiekert, Graham, Logan, Boys, and Wapnick) stand up and be recognized, and she gave us all bright blue fanny packs, with little metal plaques bearing our names and the inscription "1997 World Scrabble Championship." A very nice gesture, and the pack is something that I've needed for a long time and made good use of in Reno!

9-3, a win over Logan, and 2nd place; now what am I supposed to do to get those bad tiles out of the way? Obviously, I have to play in a warmup in Reno. Stay tuned for part 2.

G.I. JoelGERNAUT