February 2010 - The Last Word Newsletter

It Happened in Renoby Stu GoldmanI T H A P P E N E D I N R E N OStu Goldman won Division 3 at this year’s RenoMLK Tournament--his 61st tournament win andhis 5th at Reno, where he has played in 59tournaments! Here are a few of Stu’s anecdotesfrom Renos of the past.The Reno tournaments twice a year have provedpopular and successful for more than 20 years.Johnny Nevarez, who started the series, wasalways looking for ways to improve tournamentSCRABBLE®. He was the first organizer to offermore than six games of NSA tournament play ina day. In typical fashion, he asked players toanswer a questionnaire at the conclusion of theevent.The first question was: "Were the three days ofplay too many, too few, or just right?" Thesecond question: "Were the nine gamesSaturday too many or just right?" My answerwas: "I won the last three--probably too few."Another early tournament gave me myexplanation of the lack of relevancy of sleep toperformance. I roomed with Bob Lipton for thetwo-day event. Bob and I were friends, but wehad never roomed together before. The firstnight he complained that I kept him up all nightbecause I couldn't sleep and was roamingaround the room, playing solitaire SCRABBLE®,etc. I went 5-1 that next day. The following nightI knew I slept because Bob complained that Isnored all night. I went 1-5 the day after that.Bob said I can stay in his home any time I wish,but he will never room with me again.My third anecdote about Reno illustrates anattitude about making assumptions around wordknowledge that may prove helpful to some. Iquote from my Confessions of a Compulsive TilePusher (1992). My opponent was JimNeuberger, who left the game with a rating over2000."I had taken a huge lead based mainly on twoearly bingos when Jimmy laid down SO?KAGEand called the blank a C. The play scored overa hundred points and reduced my leadconsiderably but not completely. I called holdand looked over the situation."SCRABBLE® experts know the word SOCAGE,to which R and S may be added for a bingo. Iwas also quite sure the C could be doubled, butextremely skeptical of that K. At the same time, Iwas nearly certain that if Jimmy had made theblank an A for SOAKAGE, it would be anacceptable play and score just as much."Meanwhile, at the other end of the board, I hadjust played the Z on the Triple Word Score row,and could now make another high-scoring playusing it. If I challenged SOCKAGE and it wasacceptable, Jimmy might use the Z to score wellafter I lost my turn, and the victory... would be injeopardy. If I challenged successfully, Jimmywould probably play SOAKAGE in the sameplace after my play off the Z, and all I would havegained would be the turn."Therefore I did not challenge and won thegame. Dictionary research afterward proved meright on all counts: SOCKAGE* is not a word andSOAKAGE is. Yet, even if I had certainknowledge that this was true, I would havegained very little by challenging."Stu Goldman lives in California and has beenplaying tournament SCRABBLE® for 36 years.Confessions of a Compulsive Tile Pusher: SanFrancisco: Stu Goldman Publications, 1992.(currently out of print, but available at the TorontoSCRABBLE® Club #3 Library to club members) 27