Tuesday, June 09, 2009

My GST 2009 Game Summary

This is my first GST appearance and it was a nice experience to be playing with the best players in the Gulf Region. Special thanks to the Tournament Director, Fred Magu from Kenya who took most of the snapshots while I was playing.

Round 1 vs. Loreta Alban (Qatar) at Board 2
Round 2 vs. Ricky Gonzalez (KSA) at Board 1
Round 3 vs. Irfan Siddiqui (Bahrain) at Board 1
Round 4 vs. Ralph Lobo (UAE) at Board 1
Round 5 vs. Anthony Gomes (Qatar) at Board 3
Round 6 vs. Mahboob Khan (KSA) at Board 5
Round 7 vs. Victor Ikawa (Bahrain) at Board 3
Round 8 vs. Selwyn Lobo (UAE) at Board 3
Round 9 vs. Akshay Bhandarkar (UAE) at Board 4
Round 10 vs. Cecil Fernandes (Oman) at Board 5
Round 11 vs. Leo Capuno (UAE) at Board 3
Round 12 vs. Eric Kinderman (UAE) at Board 3
Round 13 vs. Salih Salah (KSA) at Board 3
Round 14 vs. Robins Magaki (UAE) at Board 2
Round 15 vs. Victor Ikawa (Bahrain)at Board 3
Round 16 vs. Salih Salah (KSA) at Board 5

Round 1 vs. Loreta Alban (Qatar) at Board 2

Won, 465-334 w/ a spread of +131 (1-0, +131)


Round 2 vs. Ricky Gonzalez (KSA) at Board 1

Won, 511-372 w/ a spread of +139 (2-0, +270). This game was annotated and can be viewed here: Round 2 Board 1, Ronald Credo (UAE) vs. Ricky Gonzales (KSA)


Round 3 vs. Irfan Siddiqui (Bahrain) at Board 1

Won, 484-429 w/ a spread of +55 (3-0, +325). Irfan told me that the last tile in the bag was Q. Whew! Good thing that I did my best judgment in the endgame. See the game here: Round 3 Board 1, Ronald Credo (UAE) vs. Irfan Siddiqui (Bahrain)


Round 4 vs. Ralph Lobo (UAE) at Board 1

Loss, 373-508 w/ a spread of -135 (3-1, +190). Good game for Ralph, I was walloped. See the moves here: Round 4 Board 1, Ralph Lobo (UAE) vs. Ronald Credo (UAE)


Round 5 vs. Anthony Gomes (Qatar) at Board 3

Loss, 378-478 w/ a spread of -100 (3-2, +90)


Round 6 vs. Mahboob Khan (KSA) at Board 5

Won, 502-229 w/ a spread of +273(4-2, +363)


Round 7 vs. Victor Ikawa (Bahrain) at Board 3

Won, 442-353 w/ a spread of +89 (5-2, +452)


Round 8 vs. Selwyn Lobo (UAE) at Board 3

Loss, 416-480 w/ a spread of -64 (5-3, +388)


Round 9 vs. Akshay Bhandarkar (UAE) at Board 4


Akshay's play of SNARK (48 pts) gave me option to tie but I challenged the word, WENA which I paid dearly as it is a valid word. What a risk! I lose by 5 points!
Loss, 388-393 w/ a spread of -5 (5-4, +383)


Round 10 vs. Cecil Fernandes (Oman) at Board 5

Won, 356-338 w/ a spread of +18 (6-4, +401)


Round 11 vs. Leo Capuno (UAE) at Board 3

Won, 370-359 w/ spread of +11 (7-4, +412)


Round 12 vs. Eric Kinderman (UAE) at Board 3

Eric's first move was QuIRING 102 pts. I was catching up even after I played DEMENTIA. Later on, he again surged ahead with SEEpAGE, good thing that I had the Z and S in the endgame to score on my last play and won narrowly. Won, 418-384 w/ a spread of +34 (8-4, +446)


Round 13 vs. Salih Salah (KSA) at Board 3

Won, 373-324 w/ a spread of +49 (9-4, +495)


Round 14 vs. Robins Magaki (UAE) at Board 2

Back to contention after a long while and currently 4th in the standing, I faced Robins at board 2 while Akshay and Ralph slugging it out at board 1, all UAE in the same table! Only 2 slots were allotted to UAE for WSC 2009.
Something strange happened before the endgame as we double checked our scores, I noticed that my time was running and was already 2 minutes overtime. The scores were very close at that time, the S and blank were still unplayed, so the only chance for me was to play a bingo on my last turn so I partially blocked one spot that would leave a bingo starting with S, my rack was HHEIRRT and played SHH (o2). I chose SHH (o2) instead of SHIR (o2) because of the 30 points deduction due to time penalty. I also planned to play MIRTH (e1) on the other side of the board to open up more bingo lanes but that would left the S of ENGAOLS open at the right side. Robins played SArANGI/TIRLS and that ends my quest for WSC 2009! If I played MIRTH, then the nine timer AsSAyING could have wiped out more of my spread. Loss, 321-409 w/ a spread of -88 (9-5, +407)


Round 15 vs. Victor Ikawa (Bahrain)at Board 3

Not studied well on the 6-letter stem, did not challenged off SOILERY*. Although I had a last chance in the endgame as I was trailing by 68 points, my rack was ?BHIISU and unseen were JQFWRTEIOY, I played HI (3c) to set up one more bingo lane hoping to get good 2 of the 3 tiles in the bag but QO was picked up making my rack ?BIOSQU. Victor best block of FRY sealed the victory for him. He told me that the last tile in the bag was W. So, after the game, I calculated that the only hope could have been HIT (I3) for a SHIT hook and unblockable WOUBItS at n8 and 2c in case I drew OW in the bag.
As I used the Quackle to find out the chances of winning, here are the results after 35,182 iterations:

IO c3 has 59.57% while my actual play of HI 3c has 45.03% slightly better than HIT I3with 43.25%.

My play of OHO is just a test to find out if my BISQUe or SQUIBs to hook SOHO would be played but Victor cannot be denied with JET/TOHO! Loss, 349-396 w/ a spread of -47 (9-6, +360)


Round 16 vs. Salih Salah (KSA) at Board 5

Won, 425-285 w/ a spread of +140 (10-6, +500)




This is my Scorecard in the 19th Gulf Scrabble Tournament (GST)



Good enough to finish at 6th Place in my first attempt. The 6th Place prize was donated by the Oman Team




This is a memorabilia

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