Go to: Event home page Commentary Games Players tsh Reports Scoreboard Standings Photos Prizes

Back to 2013 Yokohama ST Live Coverage

2013 Yokohama ST Commentary: Before the Tournament

[ ]

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, After the Tournament.

First, a few words of explanation about the genesis of this event. When Tokyo board game expert and journalist Mihoko Terasaki learned that the Japanese Brain and Mind Sports Organisation were planning on hosting a Brain and Mind Sports Festival in Yokohama, she quickly got the local Japanese Scrabble community enthused about a Scrabble event in the festival. Then, as it gradually turned out that the festival was inadequately managed, eventually resulting in its cancellation two weeks before it was due to take place, Mihoko and other event organizers scrambled to find alternate space for those players who had committed to play. The end result, for Scrabble players, is a first-ever international tournament in Japan, featuring six Japanese regulars from each of the country's Scrabble-playing regions, Kien Hung Yeo (MYS) from Malaysia, and an alternate team filling in each round, alternating among Mihoko, her husband Tomu, or recreational player Masanori Yasoshima. We will play for three days under WESPA v2 rules with 5-point penalties per word, but the event is not rated.

I should point out that the festival organizer here is not associated in any way with the successful Mind Sports International based in the U.K., which has organized several events in Europe and the United States, and will be putting on the Scrabble Champions Tournament in Prague this December as a successor to the World Scrabble Championship.

We start a few minutes early, with introductions from event organizer Mihoko Terasaki, followed by brief translations for Henry by director John Chew. We will play three games, break for lunch, play three more games, and then adjourn to the Mielparque hotel for a party.