SCRABBLE - The Last Word Newsletter

More documents

Recommendations

Info

C A U S E W A Y C H A L L E N G E : 1 2 / 2 - 6Causeway Challenge: 12/2-6December features two outstanding SCRABBLE® events in Johor Bahru, Malaysia: The CausewayScrabble Challenge on December 2-6 and the World Youth Scrabble Championship on December8-9 (see story in our last issue). These tournaments are part of the Iskandar Malaysia WorldScrabble Festival, which started with the exciting World Scrabble Championship that was justcompleted. Both tournaments are being held at the Zon Regency Hotel.The Causeway Challenge, a world-class event, features 50 of the world’s top SCRABBLE® players,including Pakorn Nemitrmansuk, the new World Champion. Conceived in 2002 as a challengebetween the top 10 players from Singapore versus the top 10 players from Malaysia, the CausewayChallenge now features top players from around the world in a Premier Team event. In 2009, as in2008, the Premier section consists of 10 teams of 5 where each team member plays 45 roundsagainst all 45 players from the other teams. This section is strictly invitational and represents thecream of world Scrabble (to see the teams, go to http://www.causewayscrabble.com/premier/pplayers.html). First prize is $20,000 (U.S.)In addition there is an Open Division, with 150 players from 28 countries, including Mark Kenas andNicholas Vasquez from the United States. Last year the open section enjoyed the longesttournament many have ever played, 33 games over 4 days. At the end of the tournament,tournament organizer Michael Tang asked players if they enjoyed such a long tournament, andwhether they would like to have even more games. The answer to both questions was a resoundingyes, so this year the open section will have 45 games over 5 days, matching the premier section'stimetable.To follow the coverage of the Causeway Challenge (at least 500 of the Premier Team event gameswill be annotated) go to www.causewayscrabble.com.The mayor of Johor Bahru presenting the 2008 premier winner,David Eldar from Australia, with 10,000 US dollars. This year’sprize money is doubled.22
The WordsmithT H E W O R D S M I T HUnearthing Anglo-Saxon Treasureby Chris SinacolaAmong the more delightful stories in the news this last month was one detailing the discoveryin July, on a farm in western England, of more than 1,500 pieces of Anglo-Saxon treasuredating to the 7th century.Now it really isn’t true, as some friends have suggested, that we SCRABBLE® playersperceive in every aspect of our daily lives - particularly in everything we read, hear or see -some connection to our favorite word game.This, however, surely is such an instance. Notwithstanding the enormous and welcomeadditions to our game from the 3,600 or so other languages and dialects on the planet, itremains true that ours is a game rooted in English, whose development centered on theBritish Isles, no matter that it has grown in time to become a worldwide language forbusiness, aviation and so many other endeavors.Whatever method of study one adopts, acquiring a large vocabulary and putting it to good usenecessarily involves the patient and sometimes serendipitous unearthing of words, many ofwhich may have lain for years or decades just below the surface of our reading and our dailylives – unused, neglected, and perhaps unknown by all but the most specialized researchersin academia.The treasure discovered by an unemployed Englishman armed only with a metal detector is aonce-in-a-lifetime occurrence that will make him a wealthy man. I like to think that our wordexcavations, while hardly making headlines, provide a lifetime of riches, whether they comeback to us because of a search on the Internet, greet us from the pages of a short story ornovel, or leap off the newspaper page.New and interesting words might, of course, derive from any of the world’s languages, but Ifind that those rooted in English or its linguistic ancestors hold particular resonance. Perhapsthey return us to the earliest sounds and memories of our youth, when speech patterns werelaid down in our English-speaking brains. Perhaps it is the echo of the Victorian language ofnursery tales, or the dark visions of the Brothers Grimm (in translation), or the lilting cadencesof poems we loved as a child, even if we did not understand every word, or bother to look upthe hard ones until much later in life.Whatever the case, such words form, least in my mind, part of a subterranean (andsubmarine) network whose roots tap into Ireland and Wales, surface in Scottish lochs, touchthe shores of Brittany, and slip beneath the North Sea to reach the fjords of Scandinavia andthe headlands of Jutland.Let us turn to a few examples. 23
Page 2 and 3: Table of ContentsT A B L E O F C O
Page 4 and 5: F R O M T H E E D I T O ROur recent
Page 6 and 7: H O L I D A Y B A Z A A R : A D V E
Page 12 and 13: T O U R N A M E N T N E W S : R O C
Page 14 and 15: T O U R N A M E N T N E W S : C A L
Page 16 and 17: T O U R N A M E N T N E W S : R E S
Page 18 and 19: N E W F A C E SPatton made quite a
Page 20 and 21: S U M C L A B B E R S T O U R N A M
Page 24 and 25: T H E W O R D S M I T H“September
Page 26 and 27: Video Joeby Joe BihlmeyerV I D E O
Page 28 and 29: S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W SMa
Page 30 and 31: P L A Y E R P R O F I L Emoved one
Page 32 and 33: The Mad Scrabblersby Cornelia Guest
Page 34 and 35: Linda’s Libraryby Linda WancelAs
Page 36 and 37: The Art of Strategyby Art MooreT H
Page 38 and 39: A N N S A N F E D E L EYork City Ch
Page 40 and 41: S T E L L ’ S R A C K S O F M I R
Page 42 and 43: T H E T I L E B A Gsecond "J' come
Page 44 and 45: T H E T I L E B A GDear R2,This is,
Page 46 and 47: A N A G R A M T U N N E L S Q U I Z
Page 48 and 49: Book Reviewby Cornelia GuestEveryth
Page 50 and 51: C L U B N E W SClub NewsLarry Sherm
Page 52 and 53: C L U B N E W SMaddy Kamen scores 7
Page 54 and 55: Word Trivia Quizby Siri Tillekeratn
Page 56 and 57: H I S T O R I C M O M E N T SHistor
Page 58 and 59: F I L L I N T H E B L A N K SANSWER
Page 60 and 61: P A S S A G E SBut every now and th
Page 62 and 63: game--it still has the option foron
Page 64 and 65: T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
Page 66: ArchivesA R C H I V E STo access pr

SCRABBLE - The Last Word Newsletter

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?