SCRABBLE - The Last Word Newsletter

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2 0 1 3 N S C C O L L I N S D I V I S I O N W I N N E RCollins Division Winner: John O’LaughlinBy Marty Gabriel; photo courtesy of Patricia Hocker, NSAJohn O’Laughlin, a software engineer who is one ofthe creators of Quackle, won his final 11 games andwas Gibsonized after 30 rounds in the CSWDivision, where he was the top seeded player.Although he felt he had “a pretty good chance to wingoing in,” he added, “I would have predicted thirdplace for myself behind David Eldar and GeoffThevenot; we were all pretty closely matched.” Johnnoted that he got off to a slow start in the tourney,making some costly mistakes and losing one gameby 7 points and another by a single point.“I certainly didn’t expect to win the last 11 gamesand for some of the other games at the top to falljust right such that I’d be up two games on the fieldon the last day, so that, of course, was a huge thrill.I didn’t record my racks for most of the games--latelyI’ve tended not to do that in tournametns justbecause it takes too much time off my clock....but Ifelt like overall I must have played pretty well,definitely better than in the previous NSC, but withplenty of room for improvement.”John felt confident he’d win the championship while playing Quinn James in round 29, “knowing thatif I won that [game], with two games and a good amount of spread on David or Geoff, I’d nearlyhave it locked up, so that was probably the most exciting game.” John finished with a record of 24-7+ 1883 and a new NASPA rating of exactly 2100!SCRABBLE® has been John’s favorite game since he started playing with his dad and grandmotherat the age of six. While at the University of Wisconsin in 2000, he began playing Yahoo Literati anddid so well he eventually switched to Marldoom in search of stiffer competition, which he soon foundfrom the likes of tourney players Kenji Matsumoto and Joey Mallick and which caused him to doubthis readiness for club and tourney play. John waited until September of 2001 to play at the MadisonSCRABBLE club. In October of 2001 he played at the Wisconsin Dells tourney and finished in themiddle of the field in Division 2.Since then John has won 29 tournaments, and he is now the top ranked Collins player in the UnitedStates. This December he will traveling to Prague to represent the U.S. at the SCRABBLEChampions Tournament (the new name this year for the World SCRABBLE Championship) for thesixth time..John reported that he’s studied more than usual this year. “Starting in February I made an effort toreview all of the Collins sevens and eights really well. I solved all of the sevens at least twice onZyzzyva, twice on Aerolith, and once in Anki, which I use for flash cards on my phone. I probablyneglected the short words somewhat, so that’s something I’ll have to spend more time on between22
2 0 1 3 N S C C O L L I N S D I V I S I O N W I N N E Rnow and December: I saw too many five-letter words played in Las Vegas that were unfamiliar tome.”John and his wife, Cecilia Le, are moving in September from Cambridge, MA to San Francisco,where John will continue his employment at Google. Nonetheless, he plans to “keep working hardon SCRABBLE” through the fall; “I definitely want to give myself a good chance to make the finals atthe SCRABBLE Champions Tournament in Prague.” John and Cecilia are foodies and John alsostarted running seriously two years ago “to the point where it rivals SCRABBLE as a hobby.” He ranhis first marathon in March. Noting that it will be hard to maintain his rigorous SCRABBLE training“forever,” he opined that next year he may “want to spend more time on running or something elseinstead.”Collins Division winner John O’Laughlin with Chris Cree and Dallas Johnson. (Photo courtesy ofPatricia Hocker, NASPA) 23
Page 1 and 2: W O R D G A M E N E W SThe Last Wor
Page 3: F R O M T H E E D I T O RFrom the E
Page 8 and 9: A D V E R T I S E M E N TAsheville
Page 10 and 11: A D V E R T I S E M E N TNEWTOWN, c
Page 12 and 13: A L B A N YAlbany Fourth of July To
Page 14 and 15: Annette’s Barbecue on the HudsonA
Page 16 and 17: 2 0 1 3 N A T I O N A L S2013 Natio
Page 18 and 19: 2 0 1 3 N A T I O N A L SAfter Coll
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Page 32 and 33: Music at NationalsM U S I C A T N A
Page 34 and 35: M U S I C A T N A T I O N A L SSupr
Page 36 and 37: MOUNTAIN VIEW CA(WGPO) 7/211. Pat D
Page 38 and 39: Word-Finder Challenge:S C R A B - D
Page 40 and 41: L E T T E R F R O M A M E R I C ALe
Page 42 and 43: Tuesday night we were taken out to
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Page 46 and 47: T H E N E R V O U S R A C KCigarett
Page 48 and 49: DweebovisionBy David WebbD W E E B
Page 50 and 51: D W E E B O V I S I O NAlthough the
Page 52 and 53: Word StarBy Jeff KastnerW O R D S T
Page 54 and 55: W O R D S T A RWord Star Solution f
Page 57 and 58: S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S
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Page 61 and 62: Arctic SCRABBLES C R A B B L E I N
Page 63 and 64: The Write StuffS C R A B B L E I N
Page 65 and 66: The WordsmithGood Old English, craf
Page 67 and 68: O N L I N E S C R A B B L E G A M E
Page 69 and 70: F I L L I N T H E B L A N K SANSWER
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2 0 1 3 N S C T O W N H A L L M I N
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2 0 1 3 N S C T O W N H A L L M I N
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Word Trivia QuizBy Siri Tillekeratn
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N E W N A S P A A D V I S O R Y B O
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Real or Phony?By Adam HendersonR E
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Tournament TalkT O U R N A M E N T
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Linda’s LibraryBy Linda WancelL I
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S C R A B B L E : T H O R E A U & T
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JUMBLETIMEA free web site for pract
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SCRABBLE®TOURNAMENT & CLUBWORD LIS
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T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
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