there's lots of things happening at each and every scrabble tourn...







Odkazy:

**bez titulku**

The Třinec Qualification Tournament

Třinec, CZ, Sat Aug 28^th 2011

 

 

When the tournament in Třinec was first announced, I instantly thought “okay, that's nice that there's gonna be a new tourn in a place it's never been before, but it's too far away for me to go.”

Indeed, it couldn't be put more eastwards – it was because it was its organizer's, Michal Sikora's, hometown. I commented it in such a way that it was probably going to be one of those two to three tourns per year I traditionally skip taking part in.

“You're gonna have to go there – there's gonna be team league.”

Oh well. Why not after all – playing tournament scrabble is so much better than sitting on your ass at the comp playing it online. And I'll still need a bit more qualification points, anyway.

What a crazy idea to put the third team league to such a faraway town – but it may as well be on purpose, for this tourn in the faraway town to gain more attendance.

Thank God for the university studies – it gives you friends from all over the republic. So I called Radim, a friend of mine from the halls of residence at the time of my uni studies, and he agreed to put me up for three nights in his place in the nearby town Karviná.

 

As I arrive at the Karviná main station, the first person I bump into is Radim's father. We know each other from last year when I first came to see Radim in December before the past-championship tournament of the top 12 Eastern players vs. top 12 Western ones in Ostrava.

We waited for a bit until Radim came – he works as as a cartography scientist in Brno where he had studied (that's where we got to know each other as we were neighbors at the halls of residence). We shook hands again, got in their car and headed to their place.

When we arrived, Radim's extremely nice mom was already awaiting me with dinner. What could I wish more after such a trip across half the whole republic. I planned on stopping by in Frýdek-Místek, a nearby town where another friend of mine from the university years lived but I sort of didn't find the time between the trains and Frýdek was a bit out of the way anyway.

 

After a delicious dinner we spend some time chatting and watching The Green Mile with Radim and his parents. I had already once seen it, but that was years before – just as long as to remember the only thing about it, namely that it was a great one.

It was. A moving movie – just as I remember. It was necessary to hit the sack quite early to get up fresh the following day. Radim willingly got up with me and so did his parents, whereupon his mother was ready with breakfast soon. Would you dare dream about such something in a best hotel?

 

Radim drove me to the station and waited till the train disappeared around the bend, being driven to a town I had never been to before. Radim, though, didn't even mind printing a map of the route for me. I found the place quite easily according to it, let alone when I met some other participants of the tourn. The ones that have already been to Třinec took the leading position and so we soon reached the place.

Not a very nice place to live. The first thing you see on getting off the train is the local famous steel plant with a lot of smoke that comes from it. We pass by it and go on, chatting on the way, about a mile further and find the cultural house the tournament is supposed to take place in. It was the first tournament Michal Sikora's ever held, so we were curious about how it was going to proceed. He promised to bring a lot of food to “come close to the Zlín tournament ideal”, so should anyone do bad at the tourn, (s) he could pretty well be sure of enjoying a lot of yummies.

 

If I thought the first game was going to be a piece of cake, I was mistaken – I don't know how it's possible but in contradiction with the common first round lot I got Marek Holba, a top player rated close to me (1798 – just one place over me, while I'm 1791 now) whom I managed to shatter at the 2010 Finals.

Now, though, I start off with an inexplicable failure. Getting the beautiful combo combination ADĚNRST, I miss the bingo it offers, and instead play strnadě*, which I think to be a present participle of the incompletive form of vystrnadit, “to hound sb out”. There's no incompletive form of it apparently, so it gets challenged off and Marek grins, saying, well, I have to block it in some way, as I can see a bingo there.

As soon as he uttered this, I saw it as well. Srdnatě, duh! “In a lion-hearted way.” Owwww... now it's too late. He's gonna mason it – play a word I can't use as a hook.

Of course. He plays the word KID, which in Czech is a kind of leather (or colloquial for “bullshit”, as well) and which, by the way, isn't extendable by any letter contained in srdnatě, of course – Marek counted on this. First I tried to hook it on kid making skid, which is possible in English but of course not in Czech – but as Marek I had to break this beautifuil bingo up. Luckily, though, I drew a blank, which was apparently meant as comfort, making me able to put together another bingo two turns later – stínané, “beheaded”, with the blank for the first N. As if pissed off at myself for the bingo I missed, I went for quite a couple of other strong moves, úlový, adjective “pertaining to a beehive” for 39, chuť , “taste”, with the sixtupled seven-point ť for 77 – mmm, that tasted sweet! But I bet it did bitter for ya, Marek! – and, finally, hájům, a dative plural case of “grove”, for 42.

The latest one mentioned, though, already had to face a tough stuff from Marek again – a tripled pure 98-point bingo porubaný, “felled to the last tree” – which is excactly how my chances of winning felt after this. However, I played the already mantioned 42-point move and got a bit closer again, or very close, to be exact. Three moves later he tried another bingo, one of which he, as a top player, must have known that it was wrong. Maybe he waited to see if I'd buy it. No I won't, hah. Ordinary people don’t know how to handle these ancient present participles but we scrabble players from the top 30 of the chart, we do. I challenged, saying: “This isn't going to be good.”

“Why not?” grinned Marek, playing the fool.

“'cause it's a perfective verb – they don't take on this kind of present participle.” Whether he just wanted to “quiz” me or whatever, I was right.

But if I rejoiced in my mind, the joy may have been what prevented me from thinking twice before making a blocking move. What I did, that's to say, was that I blocked the triple in case he'd rearrange the letters into a valid bingo this time. He, though, discovered another spot to put a good bingo in and then went out in his next move, so he won this exhausting fight with us enjoying an awesome highsore sum of 860 points.

 

If you expected “classics” at table #1, where the current #1 on the Chart Pavel Podbrdský was playing, i.e. that he'd shatter his opp to pieces, then you're mistaken. Břeťa Basta, who's the current #6, won over him 379:416. As I was writing this particular line, I thought, hey, how's that possible? It used to be that the players were cut in half – heh, I don't mean killed or beheaded, I mean the number of participants of the tourn as a group were cut in half and ranked according to their ratings, and in the first round people from the first half were to play against people from the other half. Since recently, though, the rules for the first round lot drawing have been based on a total random pick.

 

After the continuous ranking after the first round had been pinned up, Michal Sikora, the organizer of the tourn, announced a first of the many by-contests: “Every winner of the round is going to get a little winner cup.”

By the winner of the round he meant of the player who manages to be first in the continuous ranking made traditionally after every round. This time it was the 1781-rated Hana Filipová, who fights her way into the finals along with her mother Milena – both known under the nickname “The Shrews” (the Young Shrew and the Old Shrew).

Now, when I saw this little winner cup – I burst out laughing. It was a cup – an ice-cream cup!

 

For the second round I get the old Parnas co-member Pepa Grosskopf, who substituted Jirka Kracík in the team league when suffered from a long-time illness, recovering from a tumor in the throat. By the way, Jirka is back safe and sound, this being the first tournament he ventured to go to after the long break.

As I shoved a bingo onboard as early as in my 4^th move, Pepa let a smile from under his moustache, saying I had always been a lucky ass. Which I couldn't agree on, as I had to swap letters right the next turn – to be able to play a 34-pointer then. (I prepared the “soil” for it by playing a letter in front of a double-word and then used it in two directions at once. He answered with a bingo of his, so in spite of the rating difference between us – about 300 points – beating him isn't apparently going to be that easy.

It was, after all. When I got through the hard part – the beginning – the bag apparently got tired of trying me and I started my “standard” whacking the opp with steady non-relieving strong moves. I win 337 – 396, getting to the first half of the continuous ranking of the tourn – 24^th of 52.

Noon was approaching and it was getting hotter and hotter, which we felt in the playing room as well, where the air was getting thicker and thicker, and not only because of the competitive atmosphere. Saša Willerthová – the one known for her infamous dirty mouth – couldn't not comment on that in her noninterchangeable way: “Folks – don't y'all breathe or fart.”

 

I knew I was asking for trouble – I did not know though that it was going to be so much trouble. Right the triple National Champ – Martin Sobala, one of the best, if not THE best, Czech scrabble player, a fresh daddy and 5^th on the Chart.

However, I told myself I wasn't going to get intimidated, and started off in accordance with that: 38 points. Whack. 84 points. Shack. 40 points. Smack.

“You're on the roll,” he grinned. “That's gonna be a tiles-falling-just-one-way kind of game.”

As soon as he said that, he played a pure bingo for 92, which, on top of that, he hooked on that one of mine. And then three moves later one more, for 69. The game finished at an awesome score ratio 369:453, and as we discuss the game afterward, Martin sneers:

“It was about holding on and make it through the beginning, mentally: cuz you just went takkatakkatakkatakka, and then you were probably exhausted and I started having it my way.”

The winner of the third round, who got the “winner cup”, was Milan Kuděj, the triple National Champ, the current #10 on the Chart and Katka Rusá's uncle.

As I sit down against my fourth opponent, Lenka Paličková, it is announced that the team league starts here the following day at 8.30 AM – so as to be done as soon as possible to make us able to go and catch the last trains.

Tiles just went my way this time, and so although even Pavel Žibřid had said about her she was “dangerous”, I beat her quite easily by 50. I started off with a bingo, then played one more, a pure one this time and win 341 – 392.

The winner of fourth round becomes the tourn veteran and road engineer Iveta Vondrátová. Now, being 2 – 2, I don't think I need to be afraid of a top opp.

 

What...??!!!

Iveta Vondrátová, say the 5^th round match-ups. Oh well, I've beaten her at a tourn in the past, so let's see.

I set up a bingo on my rack early in the game, but as I got nowhere to put it on the board, I start being tactical and she, of course, smells what I'm after. So she starts jamming the board with inextensible words. I get quite busy creating a hook for the bingo of mine, and when I finally do (utavena – female for “finished being melted“, for 80, she's too far away – well, not too, just by about 50, but far away enough not to be caught upon. I lose 376 – 339, pissed off to the bone, as this makes me fall again as low as to the 36^th place of 52 in the continuous ranking of the tourn. Oh well, four rounds to go, it's gonna get better.

 

There's no advantage if you're playing at a tourn where the otherwise strong players don't do good. Cause if you lose, you're gonna get another strong player who has a bad day too.

And so, I get Pavel Chaloupka now. 38^th on the chart, 1732-rated, regularly qualified for the Finals (every year since 2000). As I'm going through my tournament recordings from the past years now, I find out I've actually never beaten him. If I don't count a few times online at the scrabble site (which I don't, of course).

My third move rack looks like a bingo to me. I try it but it gets challenged off. This throws me off a bit, as I had thought it good. Luckily I get a blank which helps me to a bingo five turns later. He, though, doesn't let me enjoy the slight lead for long and shoots back one of his. We went neck and neck until the 13^th turn which was a bit fatal – he challenged off a word of mine I had taken for good, and since then it felt as if everything started playing against me. There was this noun mix ending just before a double word, just as if waiting for someone to extend it by just any ending of that noun and put some other word in the other direction at the same time, but none of the possible endings kept coming to me.

Of course he was the first to get one. The double double-word got him as many as 52 points and decided the game in his favor, although he won just by 27... 357 – 384.

In the seventh round I get Richard Valent to play against: a 13-year-old boy but a great talent, so great that he even used to play the team league for the Sklípkani or The Trap-Door Spiders team.

At the Czech scrabble online site, he behaves like a pig – if you start off with a bingo, he leaves the game. Live, though, he turns out to be a nice boy. He shakes my hand, whereupon I strart butchering him. I don't even need a bingo to get in a 100-point lead, while he gets nervous and tries hard to whack some points out of a triple which I challenge off twice. To take the biscuit, I play a bingo to extend my lead to as many as 200 points. I kill him 236 – 425, jumping up five places in the continuous ranking. The winner of the round to get “the cup” is Petr Landa this time.

For my eighth opponent I get matched up against the Association president's son Filip Vojáček. I throw a bingo as soon as in my second move, vetchou with a blank for the H (the feminine accusative case of the adjective “decrepit”); he, though, shoots a pure one of his a turn later. Getting the other blank, too, I start working on another, by the time I have it ready, though, he escapes too far away from me. This game gets me most pissed off, as neither getting two blanks nor playing a bingo with each of them saved me from a loss – I burn it against Filip 382 – 416. In spite of the awesome sum of scores – it always sucks to lose against a lower-rated player, n'est-ce pas.

 

To relieve my pissed-off feeling, I shoot the shit (a situation the idiom can be taken most literally in!) with Věrka Majtánová, telling her about my first game at this tourn, which I lost 407 – 453.

“A losing score of 407 is common,” she triumphs me, “but try piling up 454 points and losing... [like she had done some time before that]!”

The winner of the last-but-one cup becomes Radek Mannheim.

 

Heck, I don't like being 35^th of 52 in the continuous ranking. I'm gonna smash my last opponent to the bone.

As if she, the 1593-rated Barbora Hrůzová, had heard me, she gets in a 70-point point lead as early as in her third move with a pure bingo. Probably to ease my hot blood this bingo started boiling, the bag gave me both blanks. To accompany a totally non-bingo-friendly combination, needless to say. As I get rid of these letters one by one, Barbora, of course, smells danger, and seeks to jam all the possible spots. One by one, too.

Now, there's this last one spot left. It's now or never – but I guess I can do it, the only drawback being the fact that the bingo has to start with an A.

Heck, there has to be one, I think, shuffling the letters to and fro.

 

Yessss!!! I can't help letting a laugh when putting it onboard, as I use one of the blanks for one of the most impossible letters most Czech scrabble players always seek to get rid of as soon as possible – the Ů. I play amantův, the masculine possessive case of the noun amant, a bookish expression for a lover. No wonder even she liked it and said nice with a trace of sincerity in her voice, with no heed to teh balnks. The game isn't secured though yet – it just made me a threat for her again.

This game is probably supposed to be thrilling until the very last move. She was still in the lead, but I knew she had high-value letters so she couldn't go out quickly. I counted the E's used on the board: 4 of 5, while I have the fifth; and the K's, two of three, while I have the third one. So in the right bottom corner of the board, I worked out a devilish plan – after getting rid of all the other letters in my rack, I could go out with the words fík (fig – the fruit of the fig) and kep (bookish for a raincoat), which, if her leftover consisted of one-point letters, could win me the game by two points.

 

It happened.

Stained with sweat, I check the final score on our sheets with her: 336 – 338. Oooopppphhh.

 

Heck, this ain't no good. 29^th of 52 with 4 wins of 9. I traveled those 300 kms for about three qualification points. But oh well, whatever – I'm gonna secure my qualification at the next tournament, held in three weeks in Brno. I need but just a few points after all. And besides – if you don't do very good at a tournament which is followed by a team league the day after, you're usually gonna shine there.

The tourn got won by the association pres Pavel Vojáček. An absolute surprise was the third place, taken by my 1691-rated friend Martina Iliasová. Her first scrabble medal ever.

 

And I did – but that's another story, or more exactly the next one. Coming soon!

 

Wait... hey, looks like this isn't the end yet. Ya know what...? As many as the first 30 get a price...! So I got one, too – an interesting-looking fiction book.

 

“Let me announce the results of the secret contests which were going on without you knowing about it,” Michal Sikora, the 2004 Champ and the organizer of this tourn, took us by surprise. Without having announced it, he ran a contest between the western and eastern players. The West won – it won 10 games more than us easterns. And, he ran a contest for the “best scrabble couple”, adding up the results of couples of players úresent at the tourn he knew dated each other. The winners of this by-contest were the suprise bronze holder Martina Iliasová and the Eight on the Chart – Petr Landa: the sum of wins of the two was 12.

 

Okay, back to packing my things for another tourn – the Brno one. See ya 2morrow – with the Třinec team league!

 

 

 

 

 

linkuj.cz vybrali.sme.sk

poslal scrabblista, 22.09.2011 10:48:00

---

Komentáře

---

Přidání komentáře...

Vaše jméno:


Váš e-mail:


URL vašich stránek:


Nadpis:


Text: