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 |
|
|
