The Pardubice Blitz & Qualification Tournaments 2010
Pardubice, CZ, Fri Jul 16 th – Sun Jul 18th, 2010
There was this blitz tournament the Friday before the two-day qualification one, and so, remembering the gold medal I had brought from last year's blitz one, I decided to take part in both of them.
There was no online list of participants to the blitz tourn, so I had to wait until I'd arrive to know who I was going to face. I posed a question on the Czech Scrabble Association website forum about whether anyone happened to know about any then list of participants, and even last year's National Champ, tourn veteran and best scrabble player in our eyes Martin Kuča – currently fourth on the Chart – was very busy finding such a list. It contained about twenty people – well, seems like nothing's left but to let myself be taken by surprise when I arrive.
Taken by surprise. As if the surprise of the participants at the blitz tourn were not enough, a first unwelcome surprise awaits me right on entering the Trutnov – Hradec train. As I sit down in the coupé and stick out my mp3 player, I soon find out all (and I mean ALL) my batteries are dead. WTF...?! I swear I recharged them the night before...!
Well, apparently I didn't. I sought to buy some "dirt cheap" non-rechargeable ones, as I pointed out to the saleswoman, but she didn't have any cheaper ones than for CZK 16.50. Oh well, I'll have four of them, at least they're gonna last.
"Please get onboard the Hradec Králové – Pardubice passenger train. The train is about to depart."
What...?!
I flew down the hall as if there'd been a rocket installed in my ass. I saw the conductor walking past the train and closing the doors of all its cars, so the speaker probably meant what he said. I reopened one of the door the conductor had just closed, sneaked in, and slammed it again. Ooooophhhh! What a relief to throw myself on the seat and turn the music up.
Having arrived in Pardubice, as I walk towards the place where the tourn took place last year, I notice there being suspiciously few people around the building. Like, I do know that the tourn takes place somewhere else, but I just thought the two places were close to each other.
I ask some by-passers about the way to the cultural house where the tourn was to take place and they sent me nearly a kilometer further. Has my way to this last-year place of event been futile – well, I'd almost say footile!
Having asked about three other people for direction on the way, I finally find the house and, drenched with sweat, drag in. The first thing I look for surprisingly ain't the registration spot but a bathroom to splash some fresh cold water on my fucking face and armpit, not giving a hoot about staining my whole vest with water. It's gonna evaporate anyway and keeps ya fresh.
On my arrival there were still some forty-five minutes left until the beginning of the tournament. The room on the door of which there was a sign saying "scrabble" was still dreadfully empty and it almost made me think I was in the wrong place despite all the SCRABBLE signs all around. Luckily, soon Dana Kučová, the organizer of the tourn and IT manager, came in with her nice daughter Petra.
"So glad to meet you, Tom – could you help us move things from the car upstairs?"
"Sure."
The "things" included several heavy cardboard boxes. Not that they'd have been heavy themselves but they were bursting at the seams with tournament items – one of them with clocks, another one with bags of letters, yet another two with boards and racks.
We hauled them into the tourn room and dropped them on the floor. Ya think the work is done? Nope. We gotta move the tables now, luckily not into the room but in the scope of it.
"How wide should the gaps between the tables be?" thought Dana aloud and suggested the width.
"That's too little," opposed Petra, adding a killing note. "They gotta be wide enough for Kuděj to go through."
We laugh our asses off, having to admit she's right. The triple National Champ, Katka Rusá's uncle Milan Kuděj is ahm... kind of well-built so he'd probably have a hard time finding his way to the dictionary.
As soon as the work is done, the first participants typically start to arrive.
"Thank you for your help," says Dana to me. Well, I gotta say – if your daughter didn't look so good today, God knows whether I'd have been that eager to help, ha!
"Gladly... no prob."
There was about thirty minutes left so I decided to go to a nearby pub and have a cuppa iced coffee. I apparently wasn't the only one to get that idea, as I met Ivo Hradský and Jindřich Sikora there over a mug of beer. The sun was shining so I let them inspire me and I order a beer too, and only then the coffee. Beer as a source of inspiration and coffee to work me up – hell, I guess I'm mucking ready!
Of about thirty people applied for the Blitz Tourn, only twelve have arrived. Even Luboš Vencl, an every-year finalist and about the biggest threat to the Blitz Tourn, called Dana the IT manager that thez he didn't manage and that he wouldn't come until the next day, i.e. to the qualification tournament.
Starting the tourn at table #4 sounds good, eh? But hey – with regard to the total of participants, there aren't more than six tables altogether.
My first blitz opponent is the tourn veteran Martin Vacek who is actually the first scrabble player to read my translation of Stefan Fatsis's Word Freak. We had a nice non-bingo fight even in spite of the fever typical of blitz tourns. It wasn't until the final phase that the winner was apparent.
Apparently the winner wasn't going to be me, though. The even game started to lean towards him towards the end and he finally 310:348.
For my second opponent I get the bachelor railroad engineer and 1998 National Champ Zbyněk Burda from our Parnas club.
Our games are always great fun, spiced by ironical cuts from both sides. Always when you jam a triple-word square with low-point move just to be the one to go there, or if you sixtuple a high-point letter, you're asking for a "what a primitive one..." note from his side accompanied by an ironical grin.
Me getting a blank, the mere minute allowed for a move at a blitz tourn doesn't stop me from forming and throwing a tripled bingo – neržáli, "they didn't neigh", and as the ž falls on a double-letter, the whole bingo winds up to be for no less than 101 points. He runs after me dangerously, but luckily soon I feel another bingo in the air. Spending the whole minute thinking, I work out a pure doubled navodíme, "we will create the atmosphere of", using the E from my previous bingo as a hook. Guess I've created the atmosphere of loss for him!
As if this had not been enough, I get the other blank, too. Using it in another fat move, I win 451:335, creating one of the best blitz tourn scores. My next opp, Barbora Červenková, is someone I had hardly ever heard the name of before, but in spite of that and her low rating, she keeps me busy. The game gets finally decided in the worst possible way – by one of us getting both blanks at once.
Luckily the one of us is me. I use 'em in two killer moves and sneak out with a win of 319:355.
But I don't need to feel ashamed for any blank luck, as in the next round I get Ivo Hradský and he gets 'em both this time. Composing a bingo with them and getting a pure one right after that, he wins 309:382. At least he confesses he just was fucking lucky – like, as if a player of his format ever needed it...
I meet Zbyněk Burda again during a pause between the rounds, who has been pursued by bad luck.
"I've finally gotten among the first ten," he cuts with a grin. The first ten sounds gorgeous – until you realize there isn't more than 12 players here at the blitz tourn altogether, ha...
To my surprise, my fourth opponent was to be Viktor Hagenhofer. The hardly 1400-rated bearded freak and the organizer of the spring tournament in Kadaň doesn't shine much but loves the game enough to turn up at most of the tournaments.
Shortly after the beginning I compose a pure bingo – spojeno, a neuter passive of the verb "to connect" but don't let him rest even after that – the bigger the difference between us at the end of the game, the better, it gives you a good TurČAS criterium. Being worked up by the loss in the previous round, I beat him mercilessly and he's glad to at least scrape over 200. I don't even get a blank until the very end, but that doesn't stop me to push it over 400 – playing axisově with the latecomer blank for the S for 26 points – the possessive form of axis, which apart from being a name for one of the vertebrae (actually even in English – for the second cervical one) is also a kind of deer – towards the end of the game helps me to get rid of the leftover quickly, and so I smash Viktor 205:414. Fifth of 12 in the continuous ranking – ain't that bad, but let's get even higher in the last round (not to mean I'm currently high!). Who do I get to play against?
Věra Majtánová – ohh, I sure did smell danger. But at least a nice opponent to lose to... by which I don't mean I'm giving it up in advance.
No, I really don't. I put her through a neck and neck fight not letting myself be influenced by the strenuous games I've played up till now. I'm fifth in the continuous ranking – I'm aiming higher...
Looking at us, you wouldn't dare guess it was the very last round of the blitz tourn. We fought fresh without pausing for breath, one getting ahead, the other getting close in no time. I work out a tripled 80-point bingo podzimní with a blank for the M, an adjective derived from the fall (the season of the year).
It wouldn't have been Věra if she hadn't made up for the difference quickly. Soon we were fighting neck and neck again.
The game gets decided in the worst way it can – by me getting the other blank. It helps me go out first and take her out by 10 – 340:330. As I learn later on, thanks to this game she ends up as "low" as bronze. The tourn gets won by the tourn veteran Martin Vacek. Silver went to Ivo Hradský who pulled it out against me in the fourth round.
"... the fifth place goes to Tomáš Rodr..."
Well ... none of the last year's first place, but good. I win a bottle of good wine and say to myself, the upcoming qualification tourn is a more important one – let's put off the shining until then.
I offered help to Petra and Dana rearranging the tables for the upcoming weekend's qualification tourn – I couldn't stand the idea the two would have had to do it all by themselves. The train is due in more than two hours anyway – what would I have done with so much time on my hands?
The answer came by itself. We finished rearranging the tables and parted, drenched with sweat, when, right on going out of the building, I saw a known face coming – riding a bike towards me (well okay, the bike was ridden by known legs).
"How did ya wind up here?" Katka Rusá's sudden appearance here has drawn a smile on my face.
"I've mucking ridden all the way from Prague here," she wipes the sweat off her forehead. She doesn't know yet how the "mucking" ride's gonna pay. We walk together towards the station and I offer her a drink, seeing she needs one badly. We hug each other goodbye as my train is due in a few minutes, saying we'd meet soon – actually the very next day at the qualification tourn.
Standa, a Pardubician friend of mine from the university years who was then staying at the same halls of residence as I did, told me to get to the main station after the tourn and if I go to the Černá za Bory suburb of Pardubice by the last available night train, we could meet right on it as he'll be on his way back from Jihlava where he works as a supervisor over archaeological excavations.
We did meet on the train indeed. Coming to his place, we stuck the Trutnov beer I had brought along into the fridge to cool out and I suggested opening the wine I had won. Standa had currently no mind for wine though and so we waited for the beer to be consumably cool.
With cheers we drank it up together, spending the rest of the evening talking as we hadn't seen each other for a year. I had to hit the sack around one AM to be fresh for the weekend's qualification tourn.
In the morning I at first try to refuse the breakfast offered to me, but finally have to confess it did hit the spot. After all I'm gonna arrive just on time and may not have time for refreshment.
Haha – refreshment! All there was was a dish of apples. Thank God I had had the breakfast. I poured me a cuppa coffee and was glad to have at least something to work me up. Who's gonna be my first mouthful?
Holy crap – Katka Rusá. So much have I teased the fate by hollering at her "let's have a game together" that I now got her right in the first round.
"Well hello," she grins ironically. Almost makes one pleased that I seem to represent a threat to her. I wrote her name into my scrabble tourn notebook and drew a circle between her and me, inspired by Jirka Kracík's notes: if I win, I'll color the circle blue, if I don't, I leave it as it is.
JUST as we were ready to stick our hands into the bags, raised Dana her hand.
"PLEASE DON'T start playing – the pairing is wrong."
"What a shame," I sneered at Katka. "I looked forward to a good game of ours." I didn't forebode we actually were going to play against each other later on – and that it would be anything but a good game.
In her stead, my first opponent was to be Barbora Červenková. Rings the bell, eh? We played against each other the day before at the Blitz Tourn.
I start the game by a 42-pointer – playing oryxů with a blank for the R, the genitive plural case of the oryx antelope. I don't regret the blank – be it just my confidence against her which is going to be punished accordingly. Not only is she neck and neck with me in no time – especially when I'm slowed down by getting shit for letters and having to swap 'em – but on top of that the 1438-rated loser that she is manages to play a pure bingo midway through the game. A primitive one as Zbyněk Burda would say – nevadili, "they didn't matter", as any bingo starting with ne- is primitive according to him, especially if composed of one-pointers like in this case. She kept me busy the day before and she does now, again. I can't really say "they didn't matter" didn't matter! It did. It did so much it even enabled her to resist until the very last move. It made my brains rotate hard and count the probabilities of what she might have left in her rack and gather I was going to have to go out first.
Luckily there was a way. With a sigh of relief I play my last move, and adding her leftover, I win by three points – 389:386.
"You're becoming dangerous," I say with recognition. You bet she is – according to our rating difference I was expected to win at least by 58 and not by mere three. But oh well – still better than to lose like some of the favorites did. Katka Rusá came and complained she had burned it closely against 1540-rated Eva Baďurová.
"She'd been moaning all the way that she was getting bad tiles, and was hoarding both blanks in the meantime!" To lose by seven points against both blanks – doesn't it juss suck!
Oh well, had I known what was awaiting me from Katka's side the next day, I wouldn't have regretted this unlucky loss of hers, ha.
Walking past table #3, I see something hardly credible. The 1800-rated every-year Championship participator Ivo Hradský, who won the tourn back in Hradec, is losing to about 1000-ish Drahomíra Venclová, the mother of another regular championship fighter Luboš Vencl but apparently not by far a player of half the quality of her son. Ivo is desperately hiding his red-bearded face in the neckline of his T-shirt, perhaps to conceal his pissed off expression. She beats him 327:276
I check the continuous ranking, expecting to be of the worst winning players. Indeed – 24th of 52. Let's get up there. But hey – looking closer at the 1st round results makes my eyes pop. Not only Katka but also other favorites have lost, including the 1800-rated scrabble site ghost Petr Vejchoda for whom the Pardubice tourn is the only one in the course of the whole year he feigns to attend, preferring to sit on his ass at home playing scrabble online. And holy moley – like Katka did, he lost to Eva Baďurová. For a second time already...
Ya kidding... ya fuckin' kiddin'!
I've just afforded to win by three points over a much lower-rated player – and who do I get? A triple National Champ...!
"Well... come, bro!" he already hollers at me from table #5 (what a leap!). Milan Kuděj, Katka's uncle and a triple National Champ whom I have already once managed to beat.
God forbid.
But hey – we've already seen that the first step to success is to throw away any fear of the particular opponent you might have. We like to play against each other after all – why not again?
You wouldn't believe how good a prescription it is, to throw the fears away. Soon I felt a pure bingo in the air, calmly composed it and threw it onboard – vpeřeny, a plural feminine passive of an impossible but valid bookish verb vpeřit, "to plunge into" or whatever. Right in my very second move. As soon as he catches up, I shove another one, with a blank this time, "n(e)líhnou", a negative third person plural present tense of "to emerge", "to engender". Looks like anomther win of mine over him is soon going to emerge...!
And it does. Getting the other blank, too, and using it in a 45-point tripled word epoxid, epoxide, for the D, I finally win 318 – 413.
"Pulled it out with luck," I say on receiving a congratulation from this triple National Champ and Katka Rusá's uncle – I mustn't forget not to tell her with joy that I had beaten him, ha, like I did last time I managed to do so. She sure wouldn't share my joy this time.
"Nope – well played," he praises me. And he must know...!
"Oh, thanks."
Jumping to 9th place of 52 in the continuous ranking sure delights – just like the words from the triple National Champ.
But I kinda feel I'm gonna get a thrashing now.
Sort of illogically I'm sent to a lower table – #7 – for the third round.
Jiří Kučka – another of my secret wishes for an ooponent come true. He's the one to have beaten me twice with both blanks by five points (in both cases!). A lot to retaliate for.
The neck and neck game gets spiced in the fifteenth move when Jiří plays a bingo, vstrkán ("pushed into") for 64 points with a blank for the K, and I answer with one of mine (nevymaň – "don't get out of") for 83 with a blank for the Y.
But then the bag – guess I'm gonna call it a SCUMBAG from now on...! – started playing against me. A slight jump I had gotten was levelled up and vanished, while he started getting his. Me getting shit for letters, the gap between us started to widen, and I didn't even have the mind to swap letters – to let it widen even more. The game ends 382:328 in his favor, but oh well – let's get an easier opponent in the upcoming round.
Well, I'm glad to have particularly this one. Jirka Kracík from our Parnas club ain't no piece of cake but he's manageable – and someone who loves the game so the games against him are always worth it. After all, he's beaten me at a tourn only twice while I did him five times.
"Who's to start the game?" was the obvious question. We did look at the schedule but you sort of always tend to forget it right on your way to the designated table.
"Dunno. You, I guess," I said and wrote his name in the "1st player" column.
"Are you sure? I guess it's you."
"I'm not." So I had to pick myself up from the chair again and go have a look at the schedule.
"It's me, you're right." I had to stroke out the names and write them in the reverse order.
"Listen to me, y'all," tried Dana the IT manager out of the blue to outshout the introductory tile rattle. To no avail, the rattles were louder.
"Silence!" shouted a player near her who had heard her. He had a stronger voice than she did so we shut up this time.
"We just wanted to say," her daughter Petra takes the floor, "that should anyone wish to have a mug of tea heated, we're able to oblige."
A lot of us couldn't help chuckling, taking it as a good joke. There was such a scorcher outside that the players were almost dropping, so Jirka Kracík cut in:
"It's just enough to put the mug out on the window sill."
"... or go to a gay club with it," he adds with a grin. Just wait – gonna put ya through such a fight that your laughter's gonna freeze – even in spite of the scorcher.
How do you heat a mug of tea in a gay club? Something an Anglophone reader might not get: the Czech word for gay in the homosexual sense is teplý, which actually literally means "warm"...
Right in my sixth move I stick out a bingo – netknul, "he didn't touch", which he accompanies with his traditional "for Jesus's sake".
He levels it up in no time though, not even needing a bingo, and so I become clear about the fact that I'll have to rely on my killer endgame again.
And I do. Going out first and adding his leftover, I win by three points – 337 – 334 – , breathing a deep sigh of relief. Jirka shakes my hands with congratulations and his "well then, thanks a lot", making the thanks intentionally sound ironic.
Moving to 16th place of 52 and to table as high as #2, I knew I was asking for trouble. I did get one. Its name was Michal Sikora. He being a bingo thrower always ready with a bingo shower – always making me wonder where the heck he gets them from – , he didn't surprise me at all when throwing a bingo right in his fourth move. I challenge, chafing my hands: I once played this bingo on the site and it got challenged off.
... what?! What the fucking FUCK?
It was valid.
"Dunno – it may have been added during the last dictionary update," he shrugs at a loss. Not apparently meaning the loss of the game. Three turns later he plays another bingo, a pure one this time, and gets the other blank, too. Another of those games in vain in advance, eh? Almost makes me glad for "just" a 106-point difference: 329 – 435.
"Congrats."
"Thanks ... just luck." Glad he's at least able to admit it.
Falling to 20th place in the continuous ranking, I learn at least one piece of good news – I have a good average score so far. 359 points. And hey – second piece of good news ... this tall bearded not-even-1400-rated freak Viktor Hagenhofer to become my sixth opponent.
"Don't say you got three wins so far," I grin unbelievingly – which was clear as players are mostly paired according to their current number of wins.
"Yeah," he confirms to my utter surprise. "I've beaten Katka Rusá, Radim Hyršovský..."
What...? Just wait. Gonna put an end to your lucky streak – be it only to take revenge for Katka.
And I did as I promised. Making almost 400 points without even needing a bingo, I beat him 279 - 395, using a blank in a 50-point tripled pleň, a 2nd person singular imperative of "to plunder".
Glad to shake his self-esteem and help myself "among the first fifteen" in the continuous ranking – I mean to 15th place, heh.
Seating yourself at table #6 sure makes you feel good – and I didn't know I was going to end up even higher. In this seventh round I was to play against a regular finals participator Břeťa Basta. This young handsome guy my age is a pleasure to play against, even if you lose.
Sweat was flowing off us in streaks – the heat just wouldn't drop; it was rather us who were about to drop. But I didn't let it influence me or my game. Right in my 3rd move I play a bingo upitími for 75 points (the instrumental case of "sips of a drink") with a blank for the I, but he goes after me soon. In my 12th move I escape again with a 40-pointer gnosí, a genitive plural case of gnose, "gnosis".
"Nice," he says. Thanking him, I have to agree – it's even nicer than the bingo I had before.
The neck and neck game gets decided in the worst way it can, though – I get the other blank, too, which enables me to go out first and win by 17 points – 306 – 323.
At the neighboring table, something incredible hasd happened. The scrabble site ghost Petr Vejchoda, a top scrabblist who, though, doesn't enjoy playing "live" tournament scrabble much and prefers butchering people at the site, has just been smoked by Ivo Hradský. He did not even pile up 300 points.
Seeing me having moved "among the first ten" in the continuous ranking – yeah, I mean to 10th place – , a few top players stare at the ranking sheet unbelievably.
"Rodr has gotten into the Finals – for the first time in history," says Jiří Kamín for the ones standing nearby to hear. He being an every-year participator of them for nine years already, he must know by the look at the sheet when this happens to someone. I later asked him whether he meant what he said – he did, especially provided that participation at tournaments has been decreasing, wherefore nowadays it's enough to end up twice in the first ten and then keep up your "average" in further tourns until the end of the year to be able to get into the Finals.
That's a real music to my ears.
By winning over Basta, of course, I asked for even more trouble. This time in the form of one of the biggest tourn veterans, Jana Vacková, who has been at the scene since 2000.
Luckily I'm still in the perfect condition I seem to have been since the beginning of the tourn – neither the hard fights nor the sweltering heat being able to wear me out. And speaking of the heat – hey! Just as I thought we wouldn't make it if the heat goes on like this, there was a roll of the thunder outside, lightning stroke and a hell of a pouring rain started pissing on the streets of Pardubice. We welcomed it with one unisono sigh of relief.
Nor did Jana seem tired, though. We race neck and neck the whole game through, me spicing it with a pure bingo in my 8th move (negoval – "he negated"), she bingoing right back with a blanked one (činného – the genitive case of the adjective činný, "active"; the blank went for the I). We whoosh towards the end in a blitz tempo, only to change it into a tw-minutes-by-two minutes brain war in the endgame. We still being close, we rack our brains over what's still left in our racks. Apparently, who manages to go out first is gonna be the winner.
I watch every new move of hers with my heart pounding: is she gonna go out? Hell, she sure is – she's got the other blank, too.
She didn't. I played my move and didn't either.
She played hers...
... and didn't go out yet either.
Now I can't the heck go out yet... either, in spite of there remaining three tiles in both racks.
Heart pounding, I play off one of the tiles, quietly coming to terms with having to say goodbye to a chance of close win.
She...
... plays TWO of the tiles she has left. INCLUDING the other blank. Yes – YES – NOT three! Apparently the three were not very compatible.
So, who's gonna go out AND win now? Say – who? Ha – me!!! Without a blank!!!
Breathing out deeply, I add her one-tile leftover and win – by three points. 366 – 363.
Phewwww.
I share my fresh win with Katka Rusá who looks done in. "I rely on my autopilot," she uses her fave brilliant metonymy. Needles to say, the autopilot of such a master scrabble player as her seems to be pretty high-tech, though... "I don't even know how I managed to beat Vacek," she refers to the seventh round. "I rather guess he beat himself." I burst out laughing. "Nothing laughable, I mean it," she sneers. "I was just throwing tiles on the board without thinking. Now I suddently have a look on the sheet – and find out I've won."
Somebody slap me – I have more wins than Vejchoda as of now, he being 5 – 3 while me 6 – 2. Seventh in the continuous ranking...! But hey – what sort of a butcher am I going to get to play against now?
9th round – you may think we should leave the rest of the tourn until tomorrow. Which we originally planned to do, but we agreed with Dana the IT manager that we would stay as long as possible due to the kind rainy weather.
I get Jarda Buksa. Awright – another dangerous but nice opp whom I've already managed to beat at a tourn (at the last team league tourn in Prague and, before that, last year – right here in Pardubice! Is history gonna repeat itself?).
He respects me as an opponent – you sure remember what he said last year at the tournament in Volyně. "He's a strong player." Let's confirm that one!
There's a drawback to his respect – he pushes. And he pushes hard. In his 13th move he throws a bingo, nesvědíš ("you don't itch") and then gets the other blank, too. How do I know? Well, I just suspect (and rightly). But at the same time I feel my pure rack to be pretty bingo-prone. Of course I've already evened up the difference made by his bingo, but it's not good to have to endure another nack and neck fight. Let alone with such a bingo-prone rack.
The rack makes me rack my brains for the whole two minutes allowed for a move. I shuffle and shiffle the letters like insane. No bingo coming? There must be one.
I was pretty well aware of this move being the deciding one. I kept steaming with the thinking toil, shiffling and shuffling the tiles to and fro within the rack. When there's no blank, the bingo is, needless to say, much harder to make.
Now – I got it! I knew there was one. Neplítáš, the 2nd person singular of the colloquial negative verb neplítat, "not to knit", will have become mz best move of the tournament by the end of the 15th round. 92 points – gets me over 400 and assures me of there being another win within reach. I take the last remaining letters out of the bag, turn it the wrong side up to prove its emptiness (in accordance with the tourn rules) and work out a 30-pointer to crown the damn good game. Adding Jarda's leave, I win 329 – 439. Daaaamn gooood. Fifth place in the continuous ranking! But I pretty well guess the very first table awaits me now at he upcoming round – with a good executioner and maybe even gallows installed!
Of course. Table #1, says the schedule, and – who else would I get but 2008's National Champ and a sixtupled silver medailist from the finals, Martin Kuča? He's considered the best Czech scrabble player ever by many of us.
He stands up for (even if sitting) this title of his right from the beginning. In his 8th move he sneaks a weird pure bingo past me which I don't challenge just because I believe the best Czech scrabblist knows what he's doing. After all, I soon answer with a pure bingo of mine. For awhile, before whacking the clock, I hesitate between titanová (feminine adj: "made of titanium") and titánova (the possessive form of titán, "titan", the poetic expression for a giant). I decide in favor of the former one – the other one "sounds better" but the first one is "safe". And it's better to vote for safety, eh? (Both are valid, but with the scrabble dic[k] you never know... you know that yourself.)
Where the heck are the blanks? We've both played a pure bingo, so he either holds them both – why do we all always first think of the worst option... – or they're still in the bag.
I draw a handful of fresh new letters – we scrabble veterans usually grab seven of them without counting, having gained a "feel" for ther number – and think I would die. Both blanks at once!
I don't quite get who most scrabblist curse getting them both at once. Such an advantage... the only reason I curse doing so is that I consider it kinda unfair towards the opponent. But hey – against the best Czech scrabble player – ain't two blanks just a necessity!
At the neighboring table, #2, a hard fight is taking ploace, too. I hear Ivo Hradský, apparently influenced by the fever of the game, challenging the obviously valid word kom (the locative case of the pronoun "who"). Haha – is it the influence of the recent heat? Well, it just happens.
I keep thinking for a minute and then play off an unsuitable letter. Luckily he jams the "more probable" spot for a bingo – he didn't count on me going for a triple.
And ya bet I went for it. I played vylétne with the blanks for the L and the N – the 3rd person singular of "to fly out" and catch 77 points which fly out of this bingo. Drawing the last remaining letters, I empty the bag and turn it the wrong side up. Going out, I beat this former Champ and sixtupled "vicechamp" 335 – 409.
"Ain't never even dreamed of such something," I say with a shining smile, receiving his congratulation. What a coronation of today's part of the tourn – to be remembered for the rest of my life!
I finish the game early as usual due to my blitz style and watch the game at the neighboring table for the rest of the time. The red-bearded scrabble wizard Ivo Hradský is being beaten by the amiable charming Hana Lukáčová. Ivo is so nervous he does something to make your eyes pop at – he challenges Hana's word kom (yeah, a three), a word every little child knows – the locative case of the pronoun "who".
I use the town bus to get to Standa's home this time. We drink to my fourth position in the continuous ranking – the dark side of it being the curiosity about who I'd get the next day for my next opponent. Who faces the one who's just won at table #1? Well I wonder...!
I pack my things and leave with my rucksack on so I don't have to come back – Standa's leaving to the south and his parents do to their cottage. I say goodbye and promise to come back in a year – hopefully there's gonna be a tourn in Pardubice again.
Just like I expected, I couldn't find the place. The house is so inconspicuously hidden in spite of its size that I had to ask for direction several times. Then luckily I saw some scrabblists smoking in front of the building – seeing them first and only then the building! Just go on smokin' – before I'll be smokin' you!
If you expect that I now wonder who I'll get for my 11th opp after beating THE Martin Kuča, you're mistaken – it was easy to figure out. I'm currently fourth in the continuous ranking of the tournament and I've already beaten two of the three people above me, so I'll get the third one now – the charming and amiable Hana Lukáčová. The funny thing is that she dates Martin Kuča so she§s gonna take revenge for him on me now, eh? No. I ain't gonna let her.
As if to confirm my words, I start off with a pure bingo for 82 points. It wouldn't have been her though if she hadn't stood up to that bravely with a crux and an ex the quadrupled X of which contributed to 47 points for her. I, though, get the other blank straightaway and cook another bingo with it in my fourth move – zavázali, the 3rd person plural past of "to bind", but again, she confirms her renown and soon gets neck and neck with me again.
Under the quick-game pressure I still manage to crack jokes. As I played off a tile in my third move, creating the word vor ("raft"), I utter "that's something in Russian, ain't it? (Which it really is – "a thief".) Yes it is but the word is still good in Czech scrabble, ha ... just like the English word screening. Later on, I play the word vót (plural genitive of vótum – a term for a promise made to God) and sneer again: "That's also Russian." (vót, transcribed from the cyrilics, really being the Russian for "here" or "well" in the interjectional sense).
The bag is finished and turned upside down. Ya think the game is already decided in favor of one of us...?
It's not.
It's only now, over the last two racks of seven of our game, that we're starting a real mental war.
But I sort of know I'm lost. As always – lack of vowels towards the end. But let's resist for as long as we can. I play off all tiles worth more than one point...
Now the pre-result when she goes out is 365 – 365 .... grrr, how I hate to have to deduct the two one-pointers!
363 – 367. She breathes a deep sigh of relief and grins at me, receiving my congratulations: "... that was a hell of a tough getting up."
At the neighboring table, Katka Rusá had just lost to her uncle, a triple National Champ Milan Kuděj.
"You just turn on your autopilot and then you hit the sack," she uses her superb metonymy again with a sneer.
"No wonder – I got a talented hostess," he returnd her sneer.
Jirka Kracík came complaining to me like a beaten dog – literally, having been beaten by Břeťa Basta by no less than 302 points: 547 – 245. Last year's National Champ Martin Kuča got beaten again – this time by 1757-rated Michal Přikryl.
The continuous ranking was printed out and pinned up again and players crowded at the wall where the result sheets were hanging. The 1831-rated every-year Finals player Jiří Kamín looked at it and seeing my close loss to Hana, he commented on it with a cut:
"Rodr has finished his killing streak as I can see – he's exhausted..."
Just wait, I'll show ya. (I didn't know yet that I'd really show him in one of the following rounds how sadly mistaken he was.)
Falling as "low" as to sixth place of 51 in the continuous ranking, I move to table #5 to play against Hana Filipová, the "Young Shrew".
She gets a blank early in the course of the game and plays a bingo right in the third mi, naražené, "broached", the blank for the Ž. By playing this bingo, though, she opened a triple for me, and so I went there with a 33-pointer. Thus minimizing the difference between us to just a couple dozen points, I then put an end to her leading position by playing jógu, the accusative case of YOGA, for 30 points.
I do not enjoy this slight lead for long again. She had gotten the other blank in the menatime and composed another bingo with it. I, though, had a smart answer straightaway – she opened a lane to a triple by her bingo again, and there being an E of the bingo right to the triple, I played EX veritcally next to it and thus quadrupled its value. Together with the by-words created it gave me no less than 50 points so even though she had already used both blanks in two bingos, I was breathing on her neck again. Now, you couldn't foretell the winner at this point again.
The 13th turn was a most unlucky one for her. She played the word háčí – I gaped at it like a fool, having never seen it before.
"What the heck is that?" I grin at Hana.
"A form of the verb háčit – a slang shortened form of háčkovat, to crochet."
"Don't say," I don't seem convinced. "Gonna challenge that one."
The word wasn't valid (of course – such a horseshit...), so she had to take it back and pass, which in fact decided the game – I made sure to make a fat move she couldn't catch up on anymore. Winning against two bingos and two blanks with no bingo and no blank – doesn't it just warm the cocks, I mean cockles, of your heart...!
I knew I was asking for this kind of trouble. Petr Vejchoda...! The scrabble site ghost. But hey – as far as I know, he's had seven wins of twelve so far, while I have nine, so what the heck made him be here at table #5...?
"Dunno – you may have played with all the nine- and eight-point players."
Which I have to gather he's right about.
I knew there's no use to even try and beat him cuz it's just impossible. But hey – you just don't need to manifest the impossibility right away...! He starts the game with a primitive bingo traceny, the iperfective plural femininine passive of "to lose", with a blank for the C (yeah, the worst letter in the whole bingo was substituted by a blank, to take the biscuit). At least he confessed it was just pure good luck.
Of course he gets the other blank, too, and uses it for a tripled X-word to get 48 points. There's a harsh Czech saying, literally that "there's always just one heap that luck shits on". The heap was now apparently on Petr's side.
I don't even make it to 300, losing 348 – 282. To my amazement, he says it was "just luck", although top scrabble players of his kind are always able to find a mistake on the losing player's side.
Ain't this a little strange – if you lose, you cause yourself to experience a fatal fall through (a Durchfall, as the Germans would say, eh – oh nope, that's diarrhoea in German...), but if you win, you skip up just a mucking little... so now after the loss to Vejchoda I'm as "low" as seventh. And taking into consideration that I've played with all the people currently above me in the continuous ranking of the tourn, I can't even be comforting myserf with the cheap "easier upcoming opponent" comfort cuz if you're killin' 'em all like I am now this rule just doesn't apply.
And so I get 1833-rated Jiří Kamín. God forbid...! Another every-year Finals participator and every-month winner of the Czech scrabble site player league. But hey – let's not get intimidated.
Jiří, quite like Petr Vejchoda, is not a frequent bingo thrower (that sounds even more intimidating than a flame thrower, at least to a scrabble player, eh) but relies successfully on getting the shit out of each and every move of his. The best way to get such an opponent is to adapt to their tactics. I use my blank for a 74-pointer which, quite surprisingly with me, is not a bingo – znuďte, a 2nd person plural imperative of "to get somebody bored", gets me as much as 74 points thanks to the sixtupled 8-point Ď (the blank goes for the Z).
It wouldn't have been this scrabble tourn veteran Jirka Kamín if he hadn't made up for the point difference quickly, so I have to rely on the common "ace up my sleeve" – my "killer endgame". I planned on expanding the word krmí, a 3rd person singular of krmit, "to feed", into ukrmí, ukrmit being a bookish verb meaning "to feed sate". Jiří tries challenging, although he knows it's "probably good". It is. It gives me 31 points – towards this very end a good lead. I beat this every-year Finals participator 377 – 338 – what did he say, about me after the 11th round? "He's exhausted?" Ha!
I check on the averages made after thid last but one round. I played 366 points per game on average – sure not bad!
Ten wins! Hell, I ain't even hoped for such a success. Jiří's probably gonna be right in saying I have already practically been qualified – it's just enough now to "keep my standard".
Now who's gonna be the icing on the tourn cake?
An icing on the cake in the true sense of the word – hopefully she's not gonna ice me! My dear friend and 2003 National Champ Katka Rusá against whom I originally was to play in the 1st round.
We're actually gonna fight each other for a medal!
Well, although I had already won over her once at a tourn, this time I somehow knew in advance that it was gonna be in vain. Indeed – but hey, such a clear demonstation wasn't really needed...! She starts off with a blanked bingo dadaisto, the vocative case of dadaista, "dadaist". Then right in the second move, she springs with another blanked bingo – ponechán, a masculine passive of ponechat, to keep or to leave (alone). Be it anyone else but her, I'd consider fucking such a game – but okay, I'll endure. Just cuz it's you...
What do you think – in the 11st turn she makes a third bingo on top of that. Oh well – I resisted as best as I can, losing 327 – 470, promising her with a grin to declare a Mafia War against her on Facebook. (I did and was beaten within five minutes, lol). But oh well – I'm glad at least to help her to silver medal. Me I finished seventh (of 52) and was confirmed the fact that if I stick to a good standard I have the participation at this year's Nationals in my pocket. Yeah!
Zbyněk Burda finished 24th, Jirka Kracík 28th – I sought to get out of here and for the train home or they would sure have dragged me to a pub and make me pay all the expenses "as is the custom with that member of the team who ends up the best of all its members!"
linkuj.cz vybrali.sme.sk
poslal scrabblista,
17.08.2010 19:32:00
