Cyberstalking the Dallas Open

The results are in from the 2008 Dallas Open. Since I was unable to go myself, I decided to cyberstalk the Louisiana contingent. The live coverage of the event is surprisingly extensive--with game commentary complete with Quackle analysis, round commentary, photos with captions, as well as results and statistics.

Lila, Lindsay, James, and Peggy represented our state well. Lila had the best record thanks to a five game win streak at the end.

Poor Peggy is mentioned in the Round 1 commentary:

...A similar mismatch was going on two tables over between Jason Katz-Brown (Cambridge, MA) and Peggy Altazan (Zachary, LA). I see dIAZINS, BESTRODE, and HAYRIDE. This was Jason's win, 456-251. [sic: it was actually 556-251] Even as kind and gentle as Jason is, as the game ended, Peggy had the look of a deer in the headlights. She shook her head and handed me the result slip and said, "I lost by 300 points!" I assured her that just about anyone here would fare about as well against our MIT phenom. I hope she has some better balanced games today!

Lindsay is mentioned in the Round 6 commentary and photo captions:

...I mention Lindsay because of her traveling mascot, Dwight Schrute, the bobblehead doll. He sits beside her quietly, bobbing along as she writes on the table or when she hits her clock.

Aside from stalking the Louisianians, the game commentary from board one are fun to look at. There was one game where there was new record for the highest loss in a tournament: Stefan Rau lost with 552 points to 582. Some say the record is tainted due to the 3 phony bingoes in the game. But it's still a fun game to watch.

In the game of Peter Armstrong vs. Geoff Thevenot, someone on the CGP mailing list praised the play of UNVEIL as a bit of inspired tactical play, setting up a Q play on a TLS with the threat of a TLS-DWS combo at the same time. I don't think I would have done that with the X still unplayed, but maybe I lack cajones.

The penultimate game features a five bingoes, two of which use the blank for a K: MOONWALk and GIVEBACk. Wow!

I highly recommend going through the game commentary, testing yourself by asking "what would I play here?" and then slapping your own face each time you get it wrong. "Oh yeah! mARTAGON! How could I have missed that?"