European Open Scrabble Championship Malta 2010 )

Go Romania! The European Championship has begun. Congrats to Dan Laurentiu Sandu for beating Harshan Lambadusuriya. I must say it took me 7 games to beat him once! Now Dan has to face the Uk National Champion en titre, Craig Beevers. I won 3 games and lost 2 to Craig.Not an easy game! Mihai started with easier draws, but I`m sure thing will change as he climbs his way to the top 10. I guestimate* Mihai will finish in top 15, Dan in Top 20, and Cata Caba, who plays in the B division, will finish top 10.

Mihai Pantis @ hotnews.ro

It took the Romanian journalists a lot of time to come up with a good article about Scrabble. This one is about Mihai winning the B Division at the Uk Open, and it`s written by Marian Chiriac. Well written. I wish I had the time to translate it into English!

http://think.hotnews.ro/pantis-paceaura-pacfong-pachesca.html/comment-page-1#comment-4869

Anagrams

Today we played eight games. After the games, Mihai and I taught my father how to play Anagrams. Then, my father and Mihai teamed up against me. Unfortunately for them, I managed to steal their finds, so they finished on zero.

Scrabble in Romania

After Christmas, I went to Cluj Napoca to meet my Romanian Scrabble mates. My father was there too. I was pleased to meet Septimiu Crivei, the National Scrabble Champion en titre in Romanian and the guy who supported me the most for the last couple of years. Even though, we often ecxhange emails, it was the first time for us tu meet. And because we couldn't stay away from Scrabble, we decided to play team Scrabble. It was Septimiu and I versus Mihai and my father. As our opponents said, we were extremely lucky to win both games. Here are some photos from Cluj:


Septimiu Crivei, Ovidiu Tamas, Mihai Pantis, Adrian Tamas



Septimiu & Adrian 511 Mihai & Ovidiu 394


Septimiu & Adrian 433 Mihai & Ovidiu 409

The war of the blanks (Mihai Pantis vs Dan Laurentiu Sandu)

A couple of months ago, Mihai Pantis and Dan Laurentiu Sandu met in the final of the Qualifying Tournament for the World Scrabble Championship held in Johor Bahru. These two Romanian Scrabble players have met 20 times this year and the score is 10-10! I knew that either of them could qualify. It was Dan's experience versus Mihai's superior word knowledge. I named this article the war of the blanks since the two magic blanks decided the winner in the first 7 games. Dan drew the first 6 blanks to win the first 3 games. Mihai took the next 4 blanks and the score became 3-2. Dan took the next 2 blanks. It was 4-2 for him and he needed one more win in order to qualify for the WSC. This time it was Mihai' s turn to get the blanks. It was 4-3 for Dan. In the last 2 games they shared the blanks. Both games went Mihai's way and sent him to Malaysia.


Let's have a look at some statistics:
1.Mihai Pantis

5 wins, 8 blanks, 12 bonuses,8 phoneys(6 challenged off) 3693 points
Bonuses played: Aerobes, Longers, Betaken, Mausolea, Torrents,
Timider, Mudiria, Renoted*(Erodent is valid), Ooriest, Nidating,
Ecuries, Induviae

2. Dan Laurentiu Sandu

4 wins, 10 blanks, 12 bonuses, 6 phoneys(all challenged off), 3490 points
Overpast, Gardens, Toasted, Melodica, Soutanes, Bornite, Serafin,
Euglenas, Loiters, Areoles, Returned, Notates.




I have already congratulated Mihai on his win and sent my commiserations to Dan. Together we will try not to lose the 2 spots Romania has for the WSC. If the tile Gods are with us, we could even earn a third spot. Let's see what happens!