Nationals 2013 final day
Final day, and I had drawn the soaring Carmel Dodd to start. I would generally expect to beat her - she had defeated me twice in twenty Australian games (ignoring a couple of other overseas encounters including a memorable comeback on my part in Bangkok involving OOMPAHING), and indeed I got off to a great start. Holding Q and blank together, I started trying to massage the board to my advantage, e.g. here…
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Carmel Dodd ??????? 196
------------------------------ -> Andrew Fisher AEEPQX? 274
1|= ' = ' =|
2| - " " - |
3| - ' ' R - |
4|' - ' N O '|
5| H O A A W |
6| B O R I N G S " I " |
7| ' ' O U T V I E D |
8|= ' F R U G E ' H A O|
9| ' ' ' T ' |
10| " " G U " E " |
11| I N K L I N g S |
12|W E E N Y ' - '|
13|I - ' ' - |
14|F - " " - |
15|E ' = ' =|
------------------------------
…I went for EX/NOX, which restricts Carmel a little but permits QUARE, QUATE, QUALE etc at 2J if I get the right tile, then here…
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Carmel Dodd ??????? 216
------------------------------ -> Andrew Fisher AEEEPQ? 306
1|= ' = ' =|
2| - " " - |
3| - ' ' R E |
4|' L O A D ' N O X '|
5| H O A A W |
6| B O R I N G S " I " |
7| ' ' O U T V I E D |
8|= ' F R U G E ' H A O|
9| ' ' ' T ' |
10| " " G U " E " |
11| I N K L I N g S |
12|W E E N Y ' - '|
13|I - ' ' - |
14|F - " " - |
15|E ' = ' =|
------------------------------
…it was EPEE C12, which proffered the additional QUEME B10 if picking M or U. These all sim strongly, but it went horribly wrong when Carmel found OPIATED 2I for 99, I was forced to spend blank and S in EQUALS 15C, she grabbed a cheap ZA play on top for 64 and it was virtually all square. Holding CCDERST I pretty much had to cover row 1 with CRED/DO, then she drew the bloody M herself to make BREME at B10 for 49, taking the lead and turning all my plans tooth-achingly sour. Now I was sitting on CLRSTTV, and after a couple more moves I was in this woeful position:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Carmel Dodd AIIJNTU 452
------------------------------ -> Andrew Fisher CLMORST 423
1|= ' C R E D ' V =|
2| - " O P I A T E D|
3| - ' Y A R E T |
4|' L O A D ' N O X '|
5| H O A A W |
6| B O R I N G S " I " |
7| ' ' O U T V I E D |
8|= ' F R U G E ' H A O|
9| ' ' ' T ' |
10| B " G U " E " |
11| R I N K L I N g S |
12|W E E N Y ' - '|
13|I M P ' ' - |
14|F E E Z A " - |
15|E E Q u A L S ' =|
------------------------------
The only salvation was that Carmel was very low on time. There are out-in-twos such as CR(AW) then MOLTS, but after deep thought I opted to prevent her deadly TAJ 3B with CLOOT. She could then have attempted a setup with something like BUT B6, but after further cogitation JA 10D was too seductive:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Carmel Dodd IINTU 477
------------------------------ -> Andrew Fisher LMRS 439
1|= ' C R E D ' V =|
2| - " O P I A T E D|
3| C ' Y A R E T |
4|' L O A D ' N O X '|
5| O H O A A W |
6| B O R I N G S " I " |
7| T ' O U T V I E D |
8|= ' F R U G E ' H A O|
9| ' ' ' T ' |
10| B J A " G U " E " |
11| R I N K L I N g S |
12|W E E N Y ' - '|
13|I M P ' ' - |
14|F E E Z A " - |
15|E E Q u A L S ' =|
------------------------------
Here I blocked ETUI with LEHR M6, Carmel settling for TI/GIT 12H and going nearly a minute over:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Carmel Dodd INU 488
------------------------------ -> Andrew Fisher MS 447
1|= ' C R E D ' V =|
2| - " O P I A T E D|
3| C ' Y A R E T |
4|' L O A D ' N O X '|
5| O H O A A W |
6| B O R I N G S " I L " |
7| T ' O U T V I E D |
8|= ' F R U G E ' H A O|
9| ' ' ' T R |
10| B J A " G U " E " |
11| R I N K L I N g S |
12|W E E N Y T I - '|
13|I M P ' ' - |
14|F E E Z A " - |
15|E E Q u A L S ' =|
------------------------------
Rather than playing out I opted to surprise Carmel with JINS/IMPS, thus sending her more than sixty seconds over. Luckily in the time pressure she didn’t spot UNCI 3A, and after her UN 3F I was able to drop the M at 9E for nine points, enough for an astonishing one-point win after her twenty point penalty. An amazing, unexpected outcome, one of those 1% shots that sometimes come off.
Anand faced me very soon thereafter. Obviously he’s a great prospect and still coming up the ratings, but he really plays too quickly. I’m sure he’s a very quick thinker, and he makes some bold plays including setups, but when you make a move, record the details and draw tiles only to find that his next is already on the board, that’s a sure sign that he is not weighing up the position sufficiently. It might fluster some and get a couple of cheap wins here and there, but I was able to play fairly quickly myself to combat it. In this game he spent three or four minutes on his first ten moves, then seven or eight minutes trying to work out how to salvage the losing spread. A bit like a young Alastair, who realised a while back that you have to think about this game rather than making kneejerk plays. REALLOT, KIRPANS, HALIDES vs GREETED, INSPIRED, WATERIER, SAVANTE. Anand, if you read this, please try and weigh up two or three alternative plays at every juncture, especially with a difficult or unclear rack. Admittedly your strategy got four bingos in this game, but it wasn’t enough.
Game 20 was with Chris May, who had had rather a nightmarish couple of days in his effort to guarantee WSC qualification, but was back among the top boards. My opening rack EFIINOT should have given me FINITO but I missed it, selecting the weak IF instead; played impeccably thereafter, except for failing to find a bingo from GIINRSY with floating G and N on offer. He had the better tiles for the board including a 75-point SLEWED hooking DISLOIGN and won by 40; DISLOIGN, INTRIGUE vs SUDAMEN, NEROLIS.
As we headed towards the end of the tourney I was keen to get back to winning ways, with Eldar about three games and a huge spread differential ahead. I was up against Edie Mueller, again an opponent I have usually been able to beat. All was looking good until she shocked me with a late ASTHENIA 86 onto a terminal A; I then had to weigh up whether to score 56, leaving myself almost certainly with five consonants, or to go more conservatively and keep one back. I went for the score, ending with BNPTV while she held ILMMRTT, and fortunately I was able to cling on by a meagre nine: AIRBOUND, LURRIES vs SOAPIEST, ASTHENIA.
A low-scoring encounter with Michael McKenna ensued, involving a fifth missed bingo on my part (COLLEGIA), but fortunately I had the better tiles on a very tight board. SUNBEAM, SNOWIER vs 0. In round 23 I faced Peter again, and the generous run of tiles let me deliver further misery to him. I was up by 108 points after two moves, Peter having changed, then kept piling on the hefty scores assisted by a phony that left him unable to break 300. AERIFIES, ANDIRONS, NACARATS vs ISOTHERE.
So we were at the final game, and remarkably David had lost his last two to Peter and Edie (I was next to him, and he had few resources to deploy). I was still about 550 behind him on spread, so a tourney win was the slimmest of slim chances. Bob Jackman greeted me, and I clawed about 100 in front with OUTLEAD only for Bob to underlap five tiles making VERSION for 98. I still had the tempo to outrun him, winning by 30: TREASON, OUTLEAD vs GRINDERS, VERSION. David lost again in another unwinnable encounter, and I had locked in second place on 18/24.
The presentation dinner was pleasant, but couldn’t match the bounty of Hobart 2012. Prizes were in the form of grotesque ceramic owls, perhaps appealing to some but not destined for display in my home. Second place was a strigine cookie jar with a detachable head, and as mine was handed to me at an oblique angle, the head started to come away. I tried to catch it as it came loose, but my hand-eye coordination has never been a strong point and it fell to the wooden floor, smashing into a hundred pieces. The crowd loved it, and I was quite happy with the cheque.
The WSC race is interestingly poised now; Chris underperformed, but still has a reasonable qualifying statistic. By my quick calculations, Michael Cameron needs to reach 1892 by 30 June to overhaul Chris, while Trevor Halsall needs 1914 to do likewise, or 1892 to get past Michael as things stand. Both are in the low 1800’s at the moment, so it seems unlikely that the two of them will beat Chris; but whatever else happens, one will be awarded a slot.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Carmel Dodd ??????? 196
------------------------------ -> Andrew Fisher AEEPQX? 274
1|= ' = ' =|
2| - " " - |
3| - ' ' R - |
4|' - ' N O '|
5| H O A A W |
6| B O R I N G S " I " |
7| ' ' O U T V I E D |
8|= ' F R U G E ' H A O|
9| ' ' ' T ' |
10| " " G U " E " |
11| I N K L I N g S |
12|W E E N Y ' - '|
13|I - ' ' - |
14|F - " " - |
15|E ' = ' =|
------------------------------
…I went for EX/NOX, which restricts Carmel a little but permits QUARE, QUATE, QUALE etc at 2J if I get the right tile, then here…
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Carmel Dodd ??????? 216
------------------------------ -> Andrew Fisher AEEEPQ? 306
1|= ' = ' =|
2| - " " - |
3| - ' ' R E |
4|' L O A D ' N O X '|
5| H O A A W |
6| B O R I N G S " I " |
7| ' ' O U T V I E D |
8|= ' F R U G E ' H A O|
9| ' ' ' T ' |
10| " " G U " E " |
11| I N K L I N g S |
12|W E E N Y ' - '|
13|I - ' ' - |
14|F - " " - |
15|E ' = ' =|
------------------------------
…it was EPEE C12, which proffered the additional QUEME B10 if picking M or U. These all sim strongly, but it went horribly wrong when Carmel found OPIATED 2I for 99, I was forced to spend blank and S in EQUALS 15C, she grabbed a cheap ZA play on top for 64 and it was virtually all square. Holding CCDERST I pretty much had to cover row 1 with CRED/DO, then she drew the bloody M herself to make BREME at B10 for 49, taking the lead and turning all my plans tooth-achingly sour. Now I was sitting on CLRSTTV, and after a couple more moves I was in this woeful position:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Carmel Dodd AIIJNTU 452
------------------------------ -> Andrew Fisher CLMORST 423
1|= ' C R E D ' V =|
2| - " O P I A T E D|
3| - ' Y A R E T |
4|' L O A D ' N O X '|
5| H O A A W |
6| B O R I N G S " I " |
7| ' ' O U T V I E D |
8|= ' F R U G E ' H A O|
9| ' ' ' T ' |
10| B " G U " E " |
11| R I N K L I N g S |
12|W E E N Y ' - '|
13|I M P ' ' - |
14|F E E Z A " - |
15|E E Q u A L S ' =|
------------------------------
The only salvation was that Carmel was very low on time. There are out-in-twos such as CR(AW) then MOLTS, but after deep thought I opted to prevent her deadly TAJ 3B with CLOOT. She could then have attempted a setup with something like BUT B6, but after further cogitation JA 10D was too seductive:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Carmel Dodd IINTU 477
------------------------------ -> Andrew Fisher LMRS 439
1|= ' C R E D ' V =|
2| - " O P I A T E D|
3| C ' Y A R E T |
4|' L O A D ' N O X '|
5| O H O A A W |
6| B O R I N G S " I " |
7| T ' O U T V I E D |
8|= ' F R U G E ' H A O|
9| ' ' ' T ' |
10| B J A " G U " E " |
11| R I N K L I N g S |
12|W E E N Y ' - '|
13|I M P ' ' - |
14|F E E Z A " - |
15|E E Q u A L S ' =|
------------------------------
Here I blocked ETUI with LEHR M6, Carmel settling for TI/GIT 12H and going nearly a minute over:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Carmel Dodd INU 488
------------------------------ -> Andrew Fisher MS 447
1|= ' C R E D ' V =|
2| - " O P I A T E D|
3| C ' Y A R E T |
4|' L O A D ' N O X '|
5| O H O A A W |
6| B O R I N G S " I L " |
7| T ' O U T V I E D |
8|= ' F R U G E ' H A O|
9| ' ' ' T R |
10| B J A " G U " E " |
11| R I N K L I N g S |
12|W E E N Y T I - '|
13|I M P ' ' - |
14|F E E Z A " - |
15|E E Q u A L S ' =|
------------------------------
Rather than playing out I opted to surprise Carmel with JINS/IMPS, thus sending her more than sixty seconds over. Luckily in the time pressure she didn’t spot UNCI 3A, and after her UN 3F I was able to drop the M at 9E for nine points, enough for an astonishing one-point win after her twenty point penalty. An amazing, unexpected outcome, one of those 1% shots that sometimes come off.
Anand faced me very soon thereafter. Obviously he’s a great prospect and still coming up the ratings, but he really plays too quickly. I’m sure he’s a very quick thinker, and he makes some bold plays including setups, but when you make a move, record the details and draw tiles only to find that his next is already on the board, that’s a sure sign that he is not weighing up the position sufficiently. It might fluster some and get a couple of cheap wins here and there, but I was able to play fairly quickly myself to combat it. In this game he spent three or four minutes on his first ten moves, then seven or eight minutes trying to work out how to salvage the losing spread. A bit like a young Alastair, who realised a while back that you have to think about this game rather than making kneejerk plays. REALLOT, KIRPANS, HALIDES vs GREETED, INSPIRED, WATERIER, SAVANTE. Anand, if you read this, please try and weigh up two or three alternative plays at every juncture, especially with a difficult or unclear rack. Admittedly your strategy got four bingos in this game, but it wasn’t enough.
Game 20 was with Chris May, who had had rather a nightmarish couple of days in his effort to guarantee WSC qualification, but was back among the top boards. My opening rack EFIINOT should have given me FINITO but I missed it, selecting the weak IF instead; played impeccably thereafter, except for failing to find a bingo from GIINRSY with floating G and N on offer. He had the better tiles for the board including a 75-point SLEWED hooking DISLOIGN and won by 40; DISLOIGN, INTRIGUE vs SUDAMEN, NEROLIS.
As we headed towards the end of the tourney I was keen to get back to winning ways, with Eldar about three games and a huge spread differential ahead. I was up against Edie Mueller, again an opponent I have usually been able to beat. All was looking good until she shocked me with a late ASTHENIA 86 onto a terminal A; I then had to weigh up whether to score 56, leaving myself almost certainly with five consonants, or to go more conservatively and keep one back. I went for the score, ending with BNPTV while she held ILMMRTT, and fortunately I was able to cling on by a meagre nine: AIRBOUND, LURRIES vs SOAPIEST, ASTHENIA.
A low-scoring encounter with Michael McKenna ensued, involving a fifth missed bingo on my part (COLLEGIA), but fortunately I had the better tiles on a very tight board. SUNBEAM, SNOWIER vs 0. In round 23 I faced Peter again, and the generous run of tiles let me deliver further misery to him. I was up by 108 points after two moves, Peter having changed, then kept piling on the hefty scores assisted by a phony that left him unable to break 300. AERIFIES, ANDIRONS, NACARATS vs ISOTHERE.
So we were at the final game, and remarkably David had lost his last two to Peter and Edie (I was next to him, and he had few resources to deploy). I was still about 550 behind him on spread, so a tourney win was the slimmest of slim chances. Bob Jackman greeted me, and I clawed about 100 in front with OUTLEAD only for Bob to underlap five tiles making VERSION for 98. I still had the tempo to outrun him, winning by 30: TREASON, OUTLEAD vs GRINDERS, VERSION. David lost again in another unwinnable encounter, and I had locked in second place on 18/24.
The presentation dinner was pleasant, but couldn’t match the bounty of Hobart 2012. Prizes were in the form of grotesque ceramic owls, perhaps appealing to some but not destined for display in my home. Second place was a strigine cookie jar with a detachable head, and as mine was handed to me at an oblique angle, the head started to come away. I tried to catch it as it came loose, but my hand-eye coordination has never been a strong point and it fell to the wooden floor, smashing into a hundred pieces. The crowd loved it, and I was quite happy with the cheque.
The WSC race is interestingly poised now; Chris underperformed, but still has a reasonable qualifying statistic. By my quick calculations, Michael Cameron needs to reach 1892 by 30 June to overhaul Chris, while Trevor Halsall needs 1914 to do likewise, or 1892 to get past Michael as things stand. Both are in the low 1800’s at the moment, so it seems unlikely that the two of them will beat Chris; but whatever else happens, one will be awarded a slot.