About the Event

The First Can-Am SCRABBLE^® Tournament is taking place on Saturday, November 16th and Sunday, November 17th, 2002 at the Park Plaza Hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Six top American players face six top Canadian players to determine who will go home with the Can-Am Challenge Trophy.

While the tournament is not part of the National SCRABBLE^® Association's regular tournament schedule, it will be conducted according to that organization's official tournament rules.

For further information, call tournament organizer Zev Kaufman at 416-633-3615 until noon on Friday, November 15th, or tournament director John Chew at 416-876-7675 thereafter.

Tournament Results

Results were posted after each round at at this web page, as well as one annotated game per round in playable form. The winning country is the one that wins the most games: point spread is not used as a tiebreaker. Hopeless games may therefore be ended by resignation. Complete reported game scores and entirely hypothetical ratings estimates are nonetheless available for stats fans. First results went up at around 11:00 A.M. on Saturday, November 16th, final results were posted at 4:00 P.M. on Sunday, November 17th.

At 10:00 A.M. Saturday, Jere Mead and Dave Boys drew tiles to determine that American players will go first in odd-numbered rounds, and Canadian players will go first in even-numbered rounds.

12:30: Canada leads 8-4.

13:00: First results in from Round 3. Evan beats Dave by bingo-ing out SEcTILE, Canada leads 9-4.

13:30: The teams split Round 3, three games apiece. Canada leads the U.S. 11-7 going into the lunch break.

15:30: The score in Round 4 is 4-2 in favour of Canada, giving Canada a 15-9 lead. Two of Canada's wins are by a mere ten points (Joel beat Jere 385-375, Robin beat Brian 395-385). For the purposes of this tournament all that matters is the win, not the spread.

16:45: The teams split Round 5, three games each. Canada leads 18-12. Zev Kaufman scored 455 points for the second game in a row.

18:00: Canada sweeps Round 6 and widens its lead to 24-12 at halftime.

19:30: The U.S.A. closes the day with its first win (4-2). After seven rounds, Canada leads 26-16.

Play resumed on Sunday morning at 9:30.

10:45: In Round 8, Canada won 3 games, lost two, and Robin and Jim tied. Canada leads 29.5-18.5. There are 24 games left. Canada needs to win 7, the U.S. needs to win 18.

11:45: In Round 9, Canada won four games, the U.S. won two. Canada now leads 33.5-20.5. There are 18 games left. Canada needs to win 3, the U.S. needs 16.

12:50: Canada and the U.S. split the Round 10 3-3, giving Canada the games it needed to clinch the event with two rounds remaining to play and a record of 36.5-23.5.

13:30: Afternoon play resumes after a group photo. Recorded games have been moved to a new site with more disk space.

14:30: Some games were played out of sequence to permit players to leave early to avoid a snowstorm. Canada won Round 11 with a 5-1 record, the score is now 41.5-24.5 with one round remaining.

15:30: Team U.S.A. manages another 4-2 win. Team Canada wins the tournament with a 43.5-28.5 record.

18:00: Coverage has ended. Thank you for following along!

Words Challenged

The following words were challenged this weekend, how many do you know?

DISTRAINTS, DITTOED, FORENAME, GNARR, GRIBBLE, LOGIAE, MOORCROWS, OBSESSOR, OSTEOMY, SCATTERY, SEG, SEcTILE, SQUIFF, TOTEMICS, UNRIP, UNSURER, UNWIFELY.

Boldface words were (possible) outplays. Challenging the last play of a game does not incur the usual loss-of-turn penalty if the word is acceptable.

Photo Gallery

All photos are about 400x300 pixels and between 20 and 30 kilobytes. Higher resolution versions at 1600x1200 pixels are available on request. All photos by John Chew, except where otherwise noted.

• "Before Hours" play: Adam, Kristen, Jere, Dave B, Craig, Zev, Evan, John R
• Opening Remarks: John C (photo: Kristen Chew)
• Round 1 play: Joel W, Brian, Dave W, Evan, Robin, Jim, Jere, Zev, Craig
• Round 1 play: Mark, John R, Tim, Adam, Dave B, Joel S
• Round 3 play: Dave W, Jim
• Round 3 play: Dave B
• Round 3 play: Adam, Evan
• Round 3 play: Brian
• Lunch at East Side Mario's: Zev, Kristen, Dave B, Adam, Jere, Craig, Jim, Joel S, Brian, Mark, John R, Harriette Lakernick, Dave W, Evan, Joel W, Tim
• Round 5 play: Jere, Jim
• Round 5 play: Zev, Craig
• Round 6 play: Joel S
• Round 6 annotation: Mark
• Round 7 play: Tim
• Round 7 annotation editing: Fern, Kristen
• Round 7 annotation: John R
• Round 7 word adjudication: Zev, Kristen, Jere
• Day 2: Joel
• Day 2: Robin, Brian
• Day 2: Robin, Joel S
• Group Photo: Both teams, with John C
• Group Photo: Team Canada
• Group Photo: Team U.S.A.
• After hours play: : Kristen, Craig, Joel S

Tournament Schedule

Staff

Tournament Organizer: Zev Kaufman

Tournament Director: John Chew

Word Judge, Annotation Editor: Kristen Chew

Clock Operator: Craig Rowland

Game Recorders: John Robertson, Craig Rowland, Mark Przybyszewski

Forensic Annotators: Kristen Chew, Fern Lindzon

This coverage was produced live from the event site by John Chew, webmaster of the National SCRABBLE® Association. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark of HASBRO in Canada and the United States, and of J.W. Spear & Sons Limited elsewhere in the world.