Strong Expert in Scrabble

I had an excellent tournament in Montreal two weeks ago, finishing 2nd only to Adam Logan, former world champion. I gained about 150 rating points and then finished 2nd in Calgary this past weekend to climb over the 1700 level for the first time.

All the studying is starting to pay off!

Unlike chess, where I started to see walls I was hitting (but have since overcome) I don't see any such walls yet in scrabble. So I'll keep at it and see where it leads.

My studying is progressing with about 100 new anagrams a day, focusing on bingos (7's and 8's) and 6's (often neglected area of study). I also work on hooks, extensions (5+3) and even long words. Studying long words is useful for enhancing your ability to play through words on the board, ex CITE + DILNOSU = UNSOLICITED. The exact words you study aren't necessarily all that helpful, but build important skills along the way.

Juraj

Chess Expert at Last

After about 10 years or more of tournament chess, I finally achieved an expert rating (over 2000).

Here are my games from the Calgary International tournament, from May 23-24, ... I think I was extremely lucky to win with Brad Booker in round 4 but probably could have won my last round game against Ali Razzaq. I finished in a three way tie for first place, winning $150, but more importantly crossing the 2000 line.

http://www.jpivovarov.com/jpivovarov/Chess/calgaryinternational.htm

3rd in Edmonton

Wonderful trip to Edmonton, especially enjoyed the complementary breakfast buffet at the Chateau Louis.

Nice to see a good friend, Mike Ebanks finish 1st in Div 1, and Peter Maas finish 1st in Div 2. I finished 3rd in Div 1, but got extra prizes for high game of 566 and a record of 29 bingos in 14 games.

Photo credit from Thomas Settle.

2nd in Calgary

I finished 2nd in the Scrabble tournament in Calgary recently.

I got to play the top seeded player, my friend Eric, 4 times and went 2-2. It was a nice tournament because I achieved my peak rating to date, 1550. And winning $130 is always nice.

I have another tournament coming up this weekend in Edmonton, and am excited to be going to Montreal for a tournament at the end of May. I'll visit my friend Shane and see the city a little. And I can play in the top division and will likely get paired against two former world champions in Scrabble, Adam Logan and Joel Wapnick.


Juraj

Lethbridge Open

I had a great time this weekend with my friend Eoin, we went to play chess in the Lethbridge Open. We even got paired against each other in my toughest and best game of the tournament. I finished with 3/5, and an 1800 performance rating, so it will bring me down from 1976 to 1950 or so. Not bad considering I'm so rusty. Eoin played great but his result of 2/5 didn't show it. He was beating Roy Yearwood and had good chances against me. Here are my games

http://www.jpivovarov.com/jpivovarov/Chess/lethbridgeopen.htm

Scrabble in Vancouver

That was supposed to be YVR by the way. Don't call it YYV, there's no such thing
http://www.world-airport-codes.com/search/

Had a wonderful time, and had sushi 5 times in 5 days. And we loved the greek and east indian meals we had.

Had a very good visit at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, and Christine went to the Vancouver Art Gallery and met up with Sean quite accidentally while I was off scrabbling. I played ok, but lost some rating points due to a really bad Saturday.

YYV here we come

We're off for a weekend in Vancouver ....