Results of The 4th Penang Open Scrabble Tournament

 

Venue & Date: City Bayview Hotel on 31st August and 1st September 2002

This tourney was organized by the Penang Scrabble Club headed by Dr Mohamed Salahudin, Jackie Cheah and John Lam. 30 players took part in this year event with 2 players from Singapore, Cheah Siu Hean and Peter Tay, Jodi Gonzalez from Phillipines. From the word "GO" the players were all ready for a glorious weekend of scrabble.

As usual , with the idea of encouraging up and coming players, the organizers have divided the prizes into 3 categories,

1   OPEN
2   RATING BELOW 1500 
3   PENANG CLOSE

PLUS Spot prizes for every round.

Upset wins were aplenty. This augurs well for Malaysian scrabble as the young players are slowly but surely giving the seniors a run for their money.

In game 2 Alex Tan beat Nigel Richards 434-418 with 3 bingos PORTING, STAYNED and ELOgIUM. Nigel played 2 bingos, one of which was the lovely INVENIT which does not take a "s".

In game 4 Dr Mohamed Salahudin played very well to pip Nigel Richards 407-404 for a most memorable win. He bingoed twice with HASTIER (81) and SOAPING (99) against Nigel's GERANIuM (80) and NAGARIS (79).

Ong Suanne the cool 10 year old darling of Malaysian scrabble played very well to beat 6 players who were rated higher than her. Lim Sha-lyn the talented 18 year old daughter of Paulette Yeoh, who has a natural flair for scrabble played very well to thrash John Lam 428-333 in game 9. She played 3 bingos, TERMINAL, CRASHER and ANGRIEST. John had no reply.

Game 12 sees fast improving youngster, Matthew Mathan Raj from KL swamping John Lam 481-297 with 3 bingos ACTIVES, NEAREST and IDOLISER. All the players had a great time playing and also winning spot prizes for every round.

The organizers would like to thank the General Manager of Penang City Bayview Hotel Mr Derek Tan for sponsoring the venue for the tournament, Mr Stephen Phong for making the arangements and En Tengku Badli and for giving away the prizes. Also special thanks to Muhammad Muzzammil for manning the computer to tabulate the results, M Puveneswaran ,Joel Lim, Dr Adele Tan and Miss Lim for helping in the running of the tournament and Dr Mohamed Salahudin for sponsoring the lovely curry puffs and vadeh.

Report by Cheah Sui Hean

I am waiting to board my flight home, and have remembered that PDAs have uses other than running LeXpert. John extracted a promise for a report and will kill two birds with one stone by using this for SA News later after it has been polished and edited. 

The 4th Penang Open was played on the spacious 7th floor atrium of the City Bayview Hotel. The hotel is central, comfortable, and overlooks the elegant Eastern & Oriental Hotel, sister to the Raffles in Singapore. 

On Day 1, lost games to John, Jocelyn and Nigel, recently returned from his flying visit to San Diego. Game 1 against Nigel could and should have been much closer if I had played the tactically superior AVID instead of DAVIT which allowed him RUGGIEST to the T. 

Day 2 played Game 11 against the impressive Ong Suanne, all of 10 years old. Had I not got both blanks and 2 esses the result might easily have been reversed. Suanne plays excellent scrabble, has icy composure under pressure and the 509-409 score is one i would have been pleased with if i were in her shoes. 

First KOTH game against John marked by errors on both sides, me trying to make KOBO plural and John placing AURIETY* instead of AUREITY. Late game forced to bingo and open triple with an R through which John played nUMERATE just short of the triple. Too uncertain to play NUMERATES/SEZ instead extending WING to WINGOVER for 48, after which John played ENUMERATED for 36 although he could have hooked with NUMERATED for more. Was fortunate to win and collect extra spread from John going overtime. 

Penultimate game v Nigel. Bingo-ed early with FOLiOLE (nearly failed to spot it). Unbalanced racks on both sides resulted in the board closing up after Nigel's SAIRInG. Unaware that bag was almost empty since so little of the board was used and was horrified to realize after emptyinLim Sha-lyng bag and tracking that Nigel's rack was TINSELS/LISTENS/ENLISTS/SILENTS, which thankfully did not play. Won by 19. Could have got more spread but mindful of Tony's nuggets of wisdom (see January 2002 SA News): take the sure win if in doubt. Problem is, I am always in doubt. 

Decider v Nigel. Again lucky to bingo early with GAZIEST but Nigel overtook much later with ASTERIA. Got a late blank but also a stream of vowels with racks like AEIOOO?. Had to dump OO twice. With 6 tiles in the bag, rack of ADEINO?, behind by 30 points and with a blank unseen, agonizing decision of whether to play GAlENOID (GAbIONED also possible) in the only spot and risk Nigel having a comeback. As it turned out, I did and the last 6 tiles were NNPSY? Leaving Nigel with no useful options. Nigel as always completely unruffled whereas I am a nervous wreck

15 games KOTH, last 3 with repeats

Results after game 15 AUGUST 31, 2002 -- MASTERS

Rank

Player

Wins Mar
1 Cheah Siu Hean 12 709
2 Nigel Richards 11 1512
3 John Lam 11 1005
4 Alex Tan 10 199
5 Jocelyn Lor 9 742
6 Vannitha Balasingam 9 697
7 Seshi Ramanathan 9 39
8 Albert Yeap 9 30
9 Ong Suanne 9 -189
10 Jodi Gonzalez 8 484
11 Matthew Mathan Raj 8 269
12 Yeap Gim Sai 8 35
13 Sreepathy Iyer 8 24
14 Lim Sha-lyn 8 -70
15 Tan Khee Chiang 7.5 68
16 Warren Lau 7.5 -362
17 Peter Tay 7 225
18 Chuah Sim Swee 7 119
19 Mohd Salahudin 7 11
20 Yeo Kien Hung 7 -172
21 Krishna Kumar 7 -303
22 Azlan Tajudin 7 -390
23 Ricky Chan 7 -678
24 Krishna Iyer 6 38
25 Pushpa Krishna 6 -372
26 Shameer Muhammad 5 -314
27 Jackie Cheah 4 -235
28 Zeenath Ariff 4 -876
29 Hng Gaik Chin 4 -963
30 Irene Lim 3 -1282

HIGH GAME: Nigel Richards 589    HIGH WORD: Chuah Sim Swee 257 "REINJURE"


AUGUST 25, 2002 -- NOVICES 

Penang YMCA 7 games last 2 with repeats

Rank

Player

Wins Mar
1 Jackie Cheah 7 648
2 Hng Gaik Chin 5 326
3 Zeenath Ariff 5 312
4 Ng Chee Eng 4 595
5 Yang Mohsin 4 586
6 Adele Tan 4 463
7 Loo Jen Jern 4 408
8 Ambrose Lourdesamy 4 128
9 Koay Zi Hao 4 -248
10 Loh Vern Sern 4 -293
11 Joel Lim 3 122
12 Ariff Zahid 3 -361
13 Khoo Thean Huat 3 -424
14 M Puveswaran 3 -602
15 Fazlina Omar Abdat 2 14
16 Lim Siew Eng 2 -294
17 Low Chee Mun 2 -419
18 Mohd Taha Abd Rahman 0 -961
HIGH GAME: Yang Mohsin Abdul Rashid 538
HIGH WORD: Yang Mohsin Abdul Rashid 101 "JOINERS"

 

SPOT PRIZES
1 Jodi Gonzalez JIBERS 41
2 Lim Sha-Lyn 421 Highest Losing Score
3 Yeo Kian Hung STANK 39
4 Mohd Salahudin Best Upset Win against Nigel Richards 407-404
5 Jackie Cheah QUA 49
6 Krishna Kumar Closest Win
7 Chuah Sim Swee FAX 60
8 Jocelyn Lor Winning Spread closest to 45
9 Vannitha Balasingam ZEBRA 76
10 Ong Suanne Best Upset Win against Sreepathy Iyer
11 Cheah Siu Hean 3 Bingos in game 11
12 Seshi Ramanathan High Game Score without Bingos 355
13 Nigel Richards High Game 514
14 Tan Khee Chiang Best Upset Win against Krishna Kumar
15 Hng Gaik Chin Winning Spread closest to 57
OPEN Category Rating < 1500 Penang Close
1 Cheah Siu Hean 1 Vannitha Balasingam 1 Ong Suanne
2 Nigel Richards 2 Seshi Ramanathan 2 Lim Sha-Lyn
3 John Lam 3 Albert Yeap 3 Chuah Sim Swee
4 Alex Tan 4 Matthew Mathan Raj
5 Jocelyn Lor 5 Sreepathy Iyer