One of the top players at the tournament was Marlon Hill. He finished in eighth place at this contest. Marlon and several other players were being filmed for a documentary about tournament Scrabble play, and this shot might have a chance of making the documentary.
One of my first opponents was a fellow librarian from Mississauga, Canada, Craig Rowland (Craig had just informed me that Rowland plus a blank tile could be made into one word and only one word -- LOANWORD). It's a bit hard to see in this shot, but I am wearing my "Godwiser" t-shirt, and Craig still has a tint of blue in his goatee.
Me displaying the Rick and Bubba message at the front of the room during one of the rounds.
Here's a view of the tournament room between rounds. There were over 360 games going during the contest. My t-shirt in this shot reads "Jesus, Priority Life, John 10:10".
I finished in exactly 100th place, so until the next Nationals I can truthfully claim the level of "Top 100".
I had six games with players from Thailand:
Charnwit Sukhumrattanaporn (a student)
Jakkrit Klaphajone (a physician)
Komol Panyasoponlert (a student)
Amnuay Ploysangngam (a businessman)
Thavachai T (a professor)
and interestingly enough Gerald Carter (a teacher).
However, my only tie game was not with a Thai player but rather with the only woman national champion in the contest's history.
Among my other opponents were:
a proofreader from Minnesota
a contractor from Toronto, Canada
an electrician from Los Angeles
a web developer from Iowa
a lawyer from Oregon
a mortgage loan originator from Florida
a teacher from Florida
a professional gambler from Arizona
a medical technologist from San Francisco
a law professor from Connecticut
a retiree from Los Angeles
an options trader from Chicago
an electronics technician from Pennsylvania
a non-practicing attorney from New York
a sales representative from California
a paralegal from San Diego
a retired mental health clinic administrator from New York
a software quality assurance person from California
a software engineer from Virginia
an accountant from Delaware
and a court reporter from New York.
Page created September 15, 2002. "Stay in it!"
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