Khi-Chi-Chai-Ciao
Having returned from a quick trip to Karachi, Pakistan, I was happy to be back at the club last night. And in usual shanatical fashion, before telling you about the happenings at the club, I will instead bore you with a shanecdote of shantastic proportions.
Toward the end of my stay, I made a point of it to visit the weekly meeting of the Pakistan Scrabble Association. As you may know, most places outside of North America use a different, larger word list, commonly known as SOWPODS. What you may not have been aware of is that they also play with free challenges–you can challenge anything without consequence, but if you get called on a phony you will lose your turn. Thus, the challenges were quite informal, players frequently checking out words simply by asking the rest of the group if it was valid. In typical Pakistani custom, tea was also served. It was definitely a nice club with good people, but had the bonus of a great location being in the Beach Luxury Hotel.
I fared well enough given that I had no previous experience with this lexicon. My first game was against a child who I had been well-advised not to take lightly, but I managed to take a victory from him. The second game ended in a win against a man who was familiar with Mississauga as he has family here. The third game was a loss to Waseem Khatri, Pakistan’s top player who has represented his country at the worlds. I could have won this game on a blank bingo had I not overlooked LAWNIEST#. LAWNY is in our lexicon, but doesn’t compare, but most of these -Y adjectives tend to compare in their dictionary. Instead I played LAWINES as a double-double–if I had only known it could also be spelt LAUWINES. If you’d like to see the player’s handbook they gave me, sponsored by Samsung, I’ll bring it to the club next week.
As for our local club, like Karachi, we too have superstars and heavy traffic atop the charts. Last night saw 4 MSCers win thrice. Congratulations Craig, Lou, Mark E, and Sophia! They all gain rating points with Sophia rising 32 and Craig 29. More credit to Craig for triple-tripling for 140 with the word RANDIEST en route to a 658 point high game, all part of a 9-bingo, 1504-point night! This man also rides a bike! Impressive. Also marking the records page was the bonus bingo QUILTERS by Sophia.
Now that I have a taste for the international lexicon, I have to say, I like it. It seems to favour my propensity for making up words. Ciao.
Good to have you back, Shan. So they don’t play with the five-point challenge penalty in Pakistan? In SOWPODS play, as I understand, there is no one challenge rule. In some countries, such as Pakistan, the challenger risks naething. In other SOWPODS countries, and also at the World Scrabble Championship, the challenger risks five points for an unsuccessful challenge. Thus it is possible that if you challenge your opponent’s first play unsuccessfully, you start the game already in the hole with a score of -5. Fortunately, you will get to play neist and not miss your turn.
When I first got an OSPD I was fascinated by the word LAUWINE. As it is a German word I always have pronounced it the German way (LAU [rhymes with COW] – VEE – NA). The English corruption of this word, as well as LAWINE, has a pronunciation you never want to utter in Scrabble: LOW – IN ["low win"].
Thanks for the mentions this week, and let me point out that Mark E. also played a triple-triple, *at the same time and at the same table* as I played mine. He played TREADING, but used baith blanks, and I can’t recall what tile was already on the board (‘cept fer shurr it wa’nt the T or the G).