Scrabble Nationals 2008 (Day One)

This year's Nationals is once again held at Toa Payoh West CC. I went earlier in the hope of catching the masters players in action and saw Jiang Pern doing a post game analysis with his opponent as he just narrowly lost by 1 point. Had lunch and played a friendly game with Ruby before division B officially started.

Game 1: vs Winston Gwee
Our scores were neck in neck until the last few moves. I got away with STERILED* when I back hooked ZED to an existing STERILE on the board. Think I had mixed it up with STERILISED. Anyway, I made a silly mistake on my last move. I played GIN for 19 points, forgetting that Winston also had an "A" on his rack and he managed to bingo out with ERASION to win!

New words learnt: AWNER
My Bingos: TRIPLET(79) Opp Bingos: STERILE(73), ERASION(76)
My Phoneys: STERILED* Opp Phoneys: JUTED*
My High Moves: PRY(32), ZED(42), AWNER(43) Opp High Moves: BOX(61), TAJ(30), QI(31), WOK(39)
L 406-474, -68. 0W 1L (Accum spread -68).

Game 2: vs Lester Phong
He pulled ahead after his ROSEATE bingo. Mistakenly thought that HOE had no front hook but Lester promptly put EAGLES down the triple lane on his turn. I managed to narrow the gap with JET(36) and XI(38) but lost the game effectively after he scored heavily with DWEEBS(40) down the triple lane. For my last move, I could have saved 15 spread points if I had played CWM instead of BEAGLES.

New words learnt: ROSEATE, INTIL, DWEEBS
My Bingos: - Opp Bingos: ROSEATE(72)
My Phoneys: DICY* Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: ZAS(38), JET(36), XI(38) Opp High Moves: NOMAD(30), QI(33), DWEEBS(40)
L 302-378, -76. 0W 2L (Accum spread -144).

Game 3: vs zzBye
Played a friendly game with Lester's girlfriend during my bye. She was lucky with several bingos like CATFISH and TRAIPSED. Tried PERTInG* when I had a ?EGIPRT rack but was challenged off!

W 150-100, +50. 1W 2L (Accum spread -94).

Game 4: vs Ganapathy
Mistakenly thought that RAINING(79) had no front hook when I was deciding how to back hook the "N" of my bingo to an existing PROVE on the board. In fact, there were four possible front hooks! Ganapathy scored very well despite having no bingo but I maanged to pull ahead with my second bingo TOILETS(70) when he opened up with CENTS(15).

New words learnt: GRAINING, FANNY
My Bingos: RAINING(79), TOILETS(70) Opp Bingos: -
My Phoneys: GOF* Opp Phoneys: NES*, JUDE*, JUDES*
My High Moves: - Opp High Moves: PIE(37), AGON(33), BREWS(48), FANNY(53)
W 427-380, +47. 2W 2L (Accum spread -47).

Finished day 1 with 2 wins and 2 losses.

Help Me Eros

The story revolves around the lives of an unemployed person, his counsellor and a group of betel nut sellers.

Liked the surreal scenes of the cosplay sequence and the acrobatic sex sequence! Most of the other scenes were a little bit boring though.

Internet Movie Database Link

Chocolate

The story is about how an autistic girl fought her way to retrieve money from people who owed her mother money. Her mother was the lover of a Thai gangster but fell in love with a Japanese man.

Thought the autistic girl had a cool pose when she was a baby! Pretty impressed by her ball catching skill when she became bigger too! Nice martial arts action! My favorite move would be the one where she bent backwards to slide under a table while avoiding a flying cart!

Internet Movie Database Link

5th Singapore Short Cuts

Saw five shorts at this first free screening at National Museum:

Lorong 27 by Kenny Tan
- Interesting story about an exchange student's adventure during his stay at his host's place at Geylang Lorong 27!

Pontianak by Raihan Harun
- Quite a scary story about a mother who died from child birth and who wanted to take her living daughter away too!

Lim Poh Huat by Lee Wong
- Interesting story about an ordinary guy who works as a security guard full time as an extra part time!

Embryo by Loo Zihan
- An abstract piece which I had no idea what it was about!

Zo Gang + Zo Hee by Jacen Tan
- Two very humorous pieces! A little bit sick of the main protagonist in the end as he was always complaining but I learnt a lot about the problems faced by film makers! The girl at the substation looked quite cute!

Pierrot le Fou

The story is about a married man leaving his wife and kids to go on a journey with his babysitter.

Liked the interesting dialogue between the couple and how the different settings and genres were used! The couple would be on a beautiful island at one moment and then driving around in the city at the next moment. The genre would switch from romance, action, crime and even to a musical! All of them were nicely gelled together!

Internet Movie Database Link

Beyond the Clouds

This consists of four short stories on the relationship between man and woman. They are linked by a narrator who is a director walking around Italy looking for inspiration.

Liked the first and the last short story! Thought that the narration was a little bit too wordy though! The last short story reminded me a bit of "Beyond Sunrise" made in the same year. Both had a couple talking to each other about small little things while walking around in the city.

Internet Movie Database Link

Blowup

The story is about a few days in the life of a British photographer living in London during the sixties. The title refers to a darkroom technique of enlarging the details of a photograph to see them more clearly.

Was expecting an action packed movie with lots of explosions when I saw the title of the movie but this film had none of those. Nevertheless, I liked the psychological study on the lead actor and the innovative ending that summarised the overall theme of the film very well!

Internet Movie Database Link

Antonio Gaudi

This is a documentary on the architecture of a Spanish architect called Antonio Gaudi.

Liked how the buildings incorporated elements of nature like trees and sea shells into the design! They looked very nice!

Internet Movie Database Link

Red Desert

The story is about the psychological trauma that resulted after a woman got into a car accident.

Liked the strange soundtrack that sounded like music from outerspace. It reminded me of "Solaris"! I was also reminded of "Woman In the Dunes" made in the same year while watching the film. The dialogue was pretty interesting with lots of nice catch phrases! Great acting by Monica Vitti who played the neurotic housewife very well!

Internet Movie Database Link

I-San Special

The story is about a bus trip from Bangkok to a small town in NorthEast Thailand. The passengers behaved normally off the bus but became actors of a radio drama when they boarded the bus.

The radio drama worked pretty well despite having the plain bus interior as backdrop! It was also interesting to see how the real life of the passengers mirrored the one acted out in the radio drama!

Internet Movie Database Link

The Vanquished

The film consists of three short stories. Each story is about youths that commit crime out of boredom during post war Europe.

Liked the opening scene that explained the objective of the film very clearly through the narration and newspaper cuttings! All the three stories were interesting in their own ways! The girl in the "Rome" episode looked the prettiest in my opinion!

Internet Movie Database Link

China

This is a documentary about China during the middle of the Cultural Revolution in 1972. It is divided into three parts and describes Beijing, Henan, Suzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai.

Liked the narration that explained Chinese culture through activities such as acupuncture, taiji, acrobat and culinary delights as well as the depiction of ordinary folks at home, at play and in school! Especially liked the song and dance performance by the nursery school kids!

Internet Movie Database Link

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

The story is about the adventure of three female strippers driving across the desert.

Wonder how many movies have three or more exclamation marks in its title? Liked the exciting comic book type action and the funny dialogue in the film! The characters were interesting too!

Internet Movie Database Link

Olympia

This is a documentary on the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Liked the opening scenes for both parts of the film! Each of them showcased the beauty of the human body in a different way! The individual events were interesting to watch too! The tension among the competitors and the enthusiasm among the supporters were well depicted!

Part 1 Internet Movie Database Link
Part 2 Internet Movie Database Link

The Last Mistress

The story is about a playboy who decides to bid farewell to his last mistress and get married. He recounts his past love story to his prospective grandmother a few days before his marriage.

Liked the interesting psychological study on the relationship between men and women! The new wife played by Roxane Mesquida looked quite pretty and she looked very nice in the green coat!

Internet Movie Database Link

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The story is about how Prince Caspian returned to power after being forced into exile by his evil uncle with the help of four teenagers and a group of creatures who lived in the land of Narnia.

Some parts of the film reminded me a little bit of "Lord of the Rings". Liked Susan who looked quite pretty and Lucy who looked very cute! Susan looked very smart when she was shooting arrows at her enemies!

Internet Movie Database Link

Come Drink With Me

The story is about the battle between a female government agent called the Golden Swallow and a group of bandits who kidnapped her brother.

Saw this movie at the National Museum "Under the Banyan Tree" screening which was a free-of-charge outdoor screening at night. Liked the nicely choreographed martial arts moves! The Golden Swallow looked quite cool and the musical pieces were interesting! I thought "A Touch of Zen" by the same director was slightly better though.

Internet Movie Database Link

Chariots of Fire

The story is about how a group of friends trained hard to represent England in the 1924 Olympic Games athletics event.

The soundtrack was quite famous and I often heard it during my secondary school days. I also got interested after watching clips of it from one episode of the "Fuwa" TV series about the adventures of the Beijing Olympics mascot. Liked how it focused more on the human relationship rather than on the training technique alone!

Internet Movie Database Link

2008 Singapore Open Scrabble Championship

Took a ride from Winston to Anchorvale CC and was surprised to be greeted by a bunch of friendly students! They helped with the registration process and passed us our goodie bag as well as our personalised sticker.

Pre-tournament Practice: vs Victor Gwee
Had a practice game with Victor before the start of the tournament and was thrashed by him who outbingoed me three to one. :( Managed to find DOVeTAIL from ADILOTV?, can you find the other valid anagram?[1]

New words learnt: CONNERS(78)
My Bingos: DOVeTAIL(72) Opp Bingos: CONNERS(78), STRIpED(98), LAIRISE(63)
My Phoneys: NEX* Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: ZOL(32), DEAF(36), KEX(33), QAT(30) Opp High Moves: HALVE(30), JOR(38), WAIS(47), THREE(36), WANT(35)
L 323-511, -188.

Game 1: vs Ismail
Didn't have a good track record with Ismail, so wasn't feeling too confident. Had an ADIONRU rack at one turn with a floating T on the board and was deciding whether OUTDRAIN* or DRAINOUT* looked more valid. Decided that both might be wrong and played off OU in the end. Can you find the valid anagram that I missed?[2] I also got away with a phoney VARIEST* with an AEIRSTV rack, can you find the 3 valid anagrams?[3]

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: VARIEST*(77) Opp Bingos: URINAtED(68), SOLvENT(63)
My Phoneys: VARIEST*(77) Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: BEZ(34), JIG(31), HAND(36) Opp High Moves: PAW(33), FAINTER(42), HIVE(37)
L 330-436, -106. 0W 1L (Accum spread -106).

Game 2: vs Winston
Pulled away after scoring two bingos, but allowed Winston to narrow the gap towards the end when he bingoed with two blanks on his rack. Bingoed with REPRISE with a EEIPRRS rack. Can you find the other 3 valid anagrams of which one is a common word?[4]

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: REPRISE(76), DEADENS(75) Opp Bingos: KNEeLEd(75)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: RIO*
My High Moves: QIS(36), MY(32), TAX(54) Opp High Moves: FEZ(30), HONE(38)
W 410-353, +57. 1W 1L (Accum spread -49).

Packet lunch was provided after the end of the second game. Had fried rice with vegetables, fried chicken drumstick and fishball which were not too bad! Was already looking forward to the tea break to be held at the end of the tournament!

Game 3: vs Bye
Had a bye after lunch and wanted to tour around the CC but realised that there was really nothing much to see as construction work was still ongoing.

W 100-50, +50. 2W 1L (Accum spread +1).

Game 4: vs Ang Chew Chuah
Both of us changed tiles several times but my rack remained terrible until I managed to close the gap by bingoing with INVITER(100) down the triple score lane front hooking the V to an existing ENDINGS on the board.

New words learnt: -
My Bingos: INVITER(100) Opp Bingos: SeASONS(82), ENDINGS(73)
My Phoneys: MIU*, MIN* Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: JUS(32) Opp High Moves: ZA(31), BAND(33)
L 352-432, -80. 2W 2L (Accum spread -79).

Game 5: vs Chen Huang Zhi
Was feeling confident as I had a very good record against Huang Zhi. He missed a chance to score big when he played the Z on a double word score cell to form Z?, REZ and ER? but announced the blank to be O instead of A. I promptly challenged off ERo* once he confirmed the end of his turn!

New words learnt: LICH
My Bingos: MOOdIER(76), SEALING(74) Opp Bingos: -
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: ERO*
My High Moves: QAID(34), TAJ(30), FOP(32) Opp High Moves: XI(34), SeZ(36)
W 526-266, +260. 3W 2L (Accum spread +181).

Game 6: vs Ismail
In 4th position with the last KOTH round to be played. Had a good chance to come in top three if I won this game but my hope was dashed when he bingoed twice towards the end of the game to win by almost 150 points.

New words learnt: ZOIST
My Bingos: - Opp Bingos: ASTOUND(67), OTARINE(70)
My Phoneys: - Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: HIVES(37), AFT(31) Opp High Moves: ZOIST(71), JANE(38)
L 290-431, -141. 3W 3L (Accum spread +40).

Post-tournament leisure game: vs Ang Chew Chuah
Played a leisure game with Chew Chuah while waiting for the prize presentation ceremony. Thought I could avenge myself but was thrashed by him again. Learnt two interesting words: OOSPERM and SPOOR from this game though.

New words learnt: OOSPERM, SPOOR
My Bingos: - Opp Bingos: SADDeNS(79), OOSPERM(91)
My Phoneys: LURVINGS* Opp Phoneys: -
My High Moves: MOG(36), QIS(30) Opp High Moves: LUNGY(33), CHUNK(30)
L 286-420, -134

Had teabreak after the prize presentation and it was delicious! Especially liked the chocolate cake and the nice hot tea! Came in 5th out of 9 players in the end. Hope to do better during the upcoming Nationals in July!

Answers: Highlight to see clearly

[1]VIOLATED
[2]DURATION
[3]TAIVERS, VASTIER, VERITAS
[4]PERRIES, PRISERE, RESPIRE

Red Psalm

The story is about a group of Hungarian peasants revolting against the authorities during the late 19th century.

The movie was full of symbolism and pretty hard to understand. Liked the nice songs and the neat mass choreography though!

Internet Movie Database Link