The Center Star The Game Starts here December 2005 Issue 6 NEWS FLASH- DAVID ear Readers, as I type this WIEGAND WINS NSC IN RENO! it is 2am on a dark and snowy night. What D thoughts come to mind as I sit here at my desk, trembling with anticipation while I prepare myself to hack and chop and ruthlessly libel much of our small community, other than – how small shall we chop, how ruthless can we be, and what in hell were they thinking when they put that picture of Madonna on this month’s issue of Rolling Stone magazine? Well, I’m thinking about the death of a newsletter, of course. We made it through a full year of The Center Star with this final issue and if those cards and letters (checks) don’t keep coming, this will be our last issue. Sure, some of you may be thinking, finally , but maybe a few of you are interested in stringing out this lowbrow humor for yet another year. RENO, NV - Although initial reports have yet to be So far a whopping 26 of you have renewed your confirmed from NSA headquarters, reliable sources for subscriptions. Only 129 more to go! Yes, December is a The Star report that Dave Wiegand is your 2005 wretched time of year, we know. A joyous wretchedosity, National Scrabble champion. Wiegand won the last to be sure, but a time when budgets are stretched thinner three games in a best-of-five final to defeat Panupol than usual, and we barely have time to polish our boards, Sujjakyakorn of Thailand 3-2 in Reno, Nevada. The pull on our snow boots and get our harried selves to club Star will keep you posted on any late breaking news once a week, let alone renew subscriptions to flailing regarding this three month old event. newsletters. But if you are considering renewing your subscription to The Star , this is a really great time to do that. If we don’t hear from more of you by the middle of Location Chosen for NSC 2006 January I will return the checks I have here, clean out my desk at TCS headquarters, give notice to the brave and GREENPORT, NY – R-E-S-P-E-C-T - Scrabble is what competent staff (Grob has been slacking for the last six it meant to me. Detroit will be the site of the 2006 months and was going to be canned anyway) and pack it National Scrabble Open, the Star has learned. The in. Motor City will host the prestigious event for the first time in its history, after Hurricane Katrina left the initial Of course, we’d love to torture all of you for another year, but if that doesn’t work out, that’s okay too. It was a great choice of New Orleans untenable. Detroit will also host year. Thanks to all of you who have encouraged and the 2006 Super Bowl, giving the Motor City two jewels supported us these last 12 months. If we don’t meet in the same year. again on these pages in February, I look forward to meeting you across the board soon. The news caught several Detroiters by surprise. “I honestly didn’t think we had a chance because I steph. didn’t know we had a Major League franchise,” said Scott Pianowski of Royal Oak, a Detroit suburb. NSA officials had considered Orlando, Seattle and Phoenix before settling on Detroit. NSA president John Williams, who will announce the choice in the next issue of The Scrabble News , refused comment. Sources for The Star say no decision has been made on whether to make Detroit a permanent host in alternating years with Reno for the NSC. An estimated 800 Scrabblers will attend the 2006 national tournament, pumping upwards of $50,000 into the Detroit economy. Lancaster County PA Club Votes Down New Dictionary By Joe Gaspard By Jim Kramer The following 6-letter racks are unistems; only one letter can be added to each stem to form a 7-letter word. The letters to be added to each stem will form a little wish from The Center Star to you. ELNOOT __ In a surprising move, Club 1641 in Lancaster County AINRRS __ has chosen not to adopt the new dictionary. Club director Jacob Ammon defended the decision, stating AEELNW __ “We do not recognize that the language is changing.” EEFNOT __ This unique club is nestled in the rolling farmland of Eastern Pennsylvania. The club meeting is in an old town hall and the horse-drawn buggies begin arriving DEEGLO __ just before dusk. The club membership settles in slowly and a kerosene lamp lights each table. The ENOOTY __ players, all males and all Pennsylvania Dutch, are dressed in black slacks and colorful handmade shirts. AEGIRY __ While the players set up their sand timers, the women bring in the baked goods and then settle into the CEINNT __ background and sew intricate quilts. EENRTW __ Mr. Ammon states that it really shouldn’t be a surprise that they will not be using the new dictionary. It was answers on page 11 only recently that they adopted the 1941 Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary as their official word source, replacing the 1755 Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary. “A few years back,” recalls Mr. Ammon, “a young, good looking constable from Philadelphia came to a club session. He had drawn many E’s and after trying FREEBEE and PEEWEE, he became angry and left. He was a nice fella, but he sure had a temper on him.” Mr. Ammon won all his games that night. As the players and their wives got into their buggies for the ride home, Mr. Ammon looked at this reporter’s Honda Civic and gently chided, “Get a horse.” Richard Lauder Ask The Stars. Joey Mallick, ME Grob (before children) Rob Robinsky, MN Sam Kantimathi, CA Q. We have an interesting mix of experts on our panel this issue. Joey, you were once hailed as the wunderkind of the expert division when you started playing at such a young age. How long have you been playing at the expert level and how much do you think your game has improved or changed over the years? Rob, you reached a high expert rating in a very short amount of time and you're also a youngster. Tell us how you went from a zero rating to 1875 in two years. How do you study? What were some of the thoughts going through your head when you were first allowed to play in division one because your rating allowed you to do so? Hey, Grob, what are you doing here? Sam, you are a vet. Tell us how long you've been playing tournament Scrabble. How do you study? How long did it take you to get to an expert rating and did you do so quickly? How much has your game improved over the last five years? Joey: My fifth career tournament was in Waltham back on March 27 th , 1998. This was the first time I played in the expert division. It was still division 2, as Waltham has the famed Premier division 1. Back then I thought it was such an honor to defeat anybody at the expert level since I didn't know how I measured up to them, and I often played scared, assuming they knew ten times what I did. Rob: First things first, I prefer the term "whippersnapper.” I feel it's edgier, and as we both know image is everything in Scrabble. It took me two years to reach 1800. I was rated 1585 after a year, but hit a bit of a plateau there -- I was almost rated high enough to play up a division, but in order to get there I needed to have a very strong tournament at the intermediate level, which never really came. It wasn't until I went to visit my friend James Leong in Vancouver and played in their tournament that I broke that fabled 1600 barrier. After that, I was able to play a couple of division 1 tourneys (in the Twin Cities and in Sioux Falls, SD), though I didn't really belong with my competitors. It showed in the results too, unfortunately. I never felt that I truly belonged in Division 1 until I won a Bayside, Queens tourney this past May. I went 8-1, and my rating rose to nearly 1750. It was the first time that I'd consistently played a complete game (word knowledge, board control, situational awareness, etc.). Since then I've been trying to solidify my game, which has given me a bit more rating that I'm not sure I deserve yet. Sam: I am not a vet, though I did cure my cat’s hiccups once. Oh, you meant the other vet? No on that one too, I’m a lover, not a fighter. I’ve been playing tournament Scrabble for 24 years and I use a self-written computer program to study. I probably rose the fastest to division one status of any player in the history of the game. Within weeks of learning to play the game, Darrell Day hounded me until I agreed to be driven by him to a Dallas tournament. I placed in my very first tourney, in the expert division. I came home happy. A bit later I won Houston and Dallas top divisions back-to-back, to start a 40+ first places career, including championships in seven different countries: USA, UK,Thailand, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, and the Philippines.