Commentary: Round 20

[ Congratulations to the new World Scrabble® Champion, Adam Logan (CAN), and the runner-up Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA). ]

Go to: Registration, 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, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24.

This round starts with Adam Logan (CAN) and Naween Fernando (AUS) at 15-4, Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA) at 14-5, Andrew Fisher (AUS), Paul Cleary (AUS), Dean Saldanha (CAN), Ganesh Asirvatham (MYS) and Peter Armstrong (USA) at 13-6, Panupol Sujjayakorn (Wsc) at 12.5-6.5 and nine players at 12-6.

It's still mathematically possible (if unlikely) for a player with only 10 wins to catch up to second place and make it to the finals. Contenders are restricted this round to 4 times the remaining 5 rounds, or 20. These 20 can be paired without repeats, and so can the top 12 of those 20.

#1 Adam 15-4 vs. #6 Dean 13-6, a Canadian NSC rematch. (At the far end of the room, there's also an all Canadian game, as David Boys (CAN) plays Zev Kaufman (CAN) in the Sabbath corner.)

#2 Naween 15-4 plays #12 Paul Allan (Sco) 12-7. Paul wins 428-317.

#3 Pakorn 14-5 plays countryman #9 Panupol 12.5-6.5. I think Pakorn is going to win this one. I went over to see why Pakorn was grinning so hard, and he had just triple-tripled NETTABLE and led by 300 and change to 100. He ended up also bingoing PEERI(N)G, MIRRORED, (L)UNETTE and ROUTINE to Panupol's FACIENDS and SKELTER, winning 633-330. They were both smiling at the end of the game.

#4 Andrew 13-6 plays #10 Jerry Lerman (USA) 12-7. Andrew wins 410-375.

#5 Paul 13-6 plays #11 Peter Armstrong (USA) 13-6. Paul wins 472-318.

#7 Ganesh 13-6 plays #8 Nick Ball (Eng) 12-7. Nick wins 422-366, continuing his amazing streak, going from 2-6 on Thursday night to 13-7.

Michael Arthur Quao (GHA) played Gerald Carter (THA) and says that he played five bingos in a row: REALISE (76), NATURAE (68), UNACTIVE (67), DEPENDS (97) and OTARINE (66) and his last play of the game was GLOATING (74). Not surprisingly, he won, 515-433.

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