All in the bag

SCRABBLE SCENE By HENRY YEO 

ICT Penang Scrabble Open 2006 (June 23-25) 

GANESH started his Penang Open campaign with a roar and a lovely 12-games winning streak to finish with a record of 17 wins and + 2312 spread points.  

Ganesh had the tournament all sewed up by Round 17 when he finished four games clear of the field with three more rounds of games remaining, averaging over 495 points per game (including three games where he scored over 600 points). 

With Ganesh being a lock for the top prize, many expect Nigel Richards to rightfully earn the runner-up spot but Andy Kurnia, a Singaporean player of Indonesian origin, beat him to it.  

Andy sneaked into second place with a 403-370 victory over Yeo Kien Hung after Round 17 and raised his game to beat Ganesh in two straight games, 434-412 and 483-309 before Ganesh roared back to life with a 507-324 victory to finish the tournament with a flourish. Andy Kurnia finished the tournament 14 wins and + 839 spread points. 

Nigel Richards, meanwhile, dropped a game to Cheah Siu Hean 513-310 in Round 18 which put paid to his chances of finishing second in the tournament.  

After winning the next game, Nigel sat down for a rematch with Siu Hean and outplayed his competitor for the second runner-up spot, 473-406 with a record of 13.5 wins and + 749 spread points. 

Rounding out the top 10 are (13 wins) Cheah Siu Hean, Gerry Carter, Aaron Chong, (12 wins) Jocelyn Lor, Hubert Wee, Chuah Sim Swee, Syed Wajid Iqbal. 

 

21st Bangkok King’s Cup (June 29-July 2) 

After a less than stellar performance at the Penang Open, Nigel Richards showed why he is still a winner last weekend by recapturing the King Cup and winning the US$6,000 cheque that comes with it. 

Nigel was “gibsonized” after Round 25, leaving Komol Panyasophonlert (Thailand), David Eldar (Australia), Femi Awowade (Nigeria) and Cheah Siu Hean (Singapore) to battle it out for the other spot in the grand finals. In the end, Femi Awowade edged out David Eldar for the honour of dethroning Nigel in the grand finals.  

In Game 1, Femi Awowade managed to defend a narrow lead over Nigel on a tightly controlled board but Nigel came back strongly in Game 2 to force a decider with a buffer of 67 points. 

Although Femi found FLISKED and AXIOM for 60 points (missing the superior ADMIX for 78 points in the same position) early in Game 3 to erase the deficit but Nigel created a board with a lot of scoring opportunities that favours his style of play. He soon open the scoring rush with GLASSED, SOLANIN, OPAQUER (hooking SOLANINE), BEATERS and ZIP for 69 points to beat Femi Awowade 623-349 in the final game to win his first title of the year. 

On a side note, Australian junior David Eldar (who also played in the 2005 World Scrabble Championship in London) has picked up a sizeable fan club that previously idolized many top players in Thailand, including Nigel Richards, Charnwit Sukhumrattanaporn, 2005 World Champion Panupol Sujjayakorn and Komol Panyasophonlert. 

Sri KDU Mensa Scrabble (July 15)  Organised by Sri KDU, there will be two categories: Primary (12 years and below) and Secondary (13 to 18 years of age). Entry forms can be downloaded from Sri KDU website (www.srikdu.edu.my) or Malaysian Mensa (www.malaysianmensa.org).   Taylor Inter-College Scrabble Tournament (Aug 5-6)  Open to all full-time students in colleges and foundation or first-year students in private universities (your rating must be 1300 or below).  Details can be found at malaysianscrabble.blogspot.com/2006/06/taylor-inter-college-scrabble.html.