Words Up

Scrabble championship winding down in Dallas

Commentary
by Bruce Felps

Wordplay takes center stage today at Hotel InterContinental Dallas as the finals to the National Scrabble Championship wind down.

The last round started at 9 this morning as the climax — hey, 17 points, is that good? — to the five-day tournament.

Players in this competition don’t play around. According to a press release from the International Scrabble Board, which probably is a made-up organization, competitors used “alevin,” “jaup,” “tzigane,” and “qat” — this is English, right? — to impress and progress in the standings. I don't know, look 'em up.

First place nets the winner $10,000, which would buy a pretty nice dictionary.

Going into today’s finals of the National Scrabble Championship, or NSC because everything needs an acronym [sigh], Jesse Day, a 23-year-old graduate student from Berkley, Calif., led the pack with a cumulative score of plus-1,308, 165 points ahead of Nigel Richards, a 44-year-old from Malaysia and one-time national and world champ, so my God these finals should be exciting.

I am simply abuzz. Ooo, 25 points. That’s good, right?


Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He might be the worst Scrabble player in Dallas.

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