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2012 Prague MSF SCRABBLE ME Commentary: Round 8

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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.

Finally, Day 1 is over. I ask a few players if they want to help me test out the electronic board. A few flickers of interest fade into utter exhaustion, and finally it's just me, Craig Beevers and the ever-present Raymond Tate (Sco).

I suppose I should say a word about the standings first. Nigel Richards (NZL) finishes the first day undefeated, half a game above expectation, after a 422-341 win over Yi En Gan (DEU). Alastair Richards (AUS) wins his fourth in a row to remain a game behind, 7-1 +880. Adam Logan (CAN) loses to Edward Martin (Eng) and drops to fifth place, behind Graham Haigh (Eng) and Neil Green (Wal).

Back to the board. So I took turns playing against Craig with Raymond Tate (Sco), walking over to the control station to see how it looked. The video feed works fine, and the board sensors are doing not too badly, the tile rack sensors are having trouble. This board is going to get what it really needs tomorrow, which is a thorough shakedown in real tournament conditions. You're going to see some funny glitches on the live stream: tiles not being sensed, or being sensed twice, wild scoring errors, and an overall sense that what we've got here is a product in alpha testing. You should watch it if you can though, because you'll be watching history. The concept of a self-scoring board is just about the coolest thing I can imagine as a Scrabble player, and if this first attempt by Mind Sports International is a little glitchy or has a few rough edges; you're still going to watch it so that when they come out with the next version, you can tell your friends that you saw it when it was first released.

Play resumes tomorrow morning at 9:00.