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2012 Prague MSF SCRABBLE ME Commentary: Round 18

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Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, After the Tournament.

As the top contenders can't play each other without repeats anymore, the tsh pairing software has determined that repeats will begin this round: Nigel Richards (NZL) vs. Rik Kennedy (NIr), Adam Logan (CAN) vs. Alastair Richards (AUS) and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (USA) vs. Helen Gipson (Sco), all for the second time.

A contender's ability to place well depends on their being paired with opponents ranked higher than they are: if they win, they inflict a loss on a competitor. The desire to be fair to lower-ranked players has to be balanced however by the need to have the top contenders play each other as often as possible, to minimize the error in their final ranking. The approach used by this software was developed about 10 years ago, and has been used since then at the Canadian and U.S. National Championships, and the World Scrabble Championship.

Nigel Richards (NZL) finishes his game with Rik Kennedy (NIr) first, winning 567-305 and finishes the second day 16-2, with either a three- or four-game lead over the field. With six games left to play tomorrow, there's a good chance he'll be Gibsonized.

It's a 3.5-game lead over Adam Logan (CAN), who beats Alastair Richards (AUS) 403-357 to return to second place.