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MOST 2009 Commentary: Round 5

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Go to: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20.

Round 5:

After 4 rounds the multitude of statistical pages that John Chew's program produces reveals some interesting 'UPSETS'. There is a particular page called this very name and shows those lowly rated players who managed to beat seriously higher rated players, probably by picking ALL the goodies - the 2 blanks, all if not most of the 4 Ss, the Z, the X,the Q, the J and had flowing tiles to boot!! As a lowly rated player, the only chance one has against players with very powerful word knowledge and excellent strategy is to enjoy an abundance of good luck with one's tile picking! That is not to detract from the most deserved victories of such lower rated players. Scrabble is after all a great leveller, even the world champion suffers 'UPSETS' sometimes.

For example in round 2, David Webb (Eng), from the UK and rated 1965, was beaten by Anna Borg (MLT), from Malta and rated 1173, - 347-415. Anna will probably remember this particular win for the rest of her Scrabble days. The same goes for Marlene Calleja (MLT) who beat Simon Gillam (Sco) 414-405 with a rating difference of 704.