Jim Kramer's Spectacular Tournament Stories

7 - Another Case of Smiercase

The end of the 1998 Reno tournament was quite interesting. Going into the last game, I was in second place, trailing Lester Schonbrun by 1 game and 2001 spread points. Everyone else was at least two games behind Lester. People were congratulating him on another fine tournament victory.

"Lester," I said as the room settled down for last round play to begin, "Don't you think all those congratulations are a bit premature?"

He looked up at me. "Kramer," he said, "I know of your propensity for last-round heroics, but I don't think you're going to win by over a thousand points."

"Hell," I said, "right now I'd settle for a tie for first place."

"Too bad the difference in our cumulative scores is odd," he said with a laugh. "A tie is impossible."

I didn't bother correcting him.

We began to play, and I immediately started working on one of Lester's three weaknesses, a forgetfulness about which words have been eliminated from the dictionary. I built up a lead of almost 300 points, then had to make some small plays hoping for a miracle that I saw the possibility of. In the position shown below, I led by 197.
(The reader may wish to pause at each of the cut lines to determine what happens next.)

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I played SUPERCALENDERED 1A for 718 points, creating four phonies in the process, all of which were at one time acceptable in North American play. That put me up by 915. I must admit I was hoping that Lester would challenge and write down only the 15-letter word, but he didn't.

"Nice play," he said. "You're a tough man to keep down, but I'm afraid this puts the final nail in your coffin." He laid down OUTJUTs B8 for 83, cutting my lead to 832 points. "Even if I'm stuck with the Q, I should be perfectly safe." He drew the Q. "There," he said, showing me the tile, "you can work on your endgame."

I had noticed earlier that some of the word judges had OWLs and some had OSPDs with supplemental sheets. Unfortunately, an OWL carrier was posted extremely nearby and my time was running low. Desperate, I summoned the word judge over.

"Excuse me," I said. "This may seem presumptuous, but I'd like a drink of water. The only water acceptable to my palette is in the jug way across the room, but I hesitate to get it myself because I may inadvertently see my opponent's rack."

"For the top table, I'm happy to help in any way," the judge said.

"I don't get it," Lester said. "You know I have the Q."

"I like to follow proper etiquette," I said. "Now, please, my clock is ticking."
The judge left to get the water, and I hastily played SMIERcASE L6 for 80. My clock was down to just a few seconds. Lester's other weaknesses, I knew, were an irrational love of running opponents over on the clock and an ignorance of new rules. Lester knew that SMIERCASE was a word, but he also knew it was a hard one to find in Webster's. It was only listed under SMEARCASE, which was on a separate page. If it were ruled unacceptable, I might run over on time trying to slow play him.

A word judge with an OSPD came over, saw that the word was nine letters, and left to consult Webster's. The word came back as unacceptable. Scrabblock Holmes, who had been looking on with a twinkle in his eye, said, "I believe it's proper etiquette for me to tell you that you may want a second opinion."

"A second opinion," I laughed. "That's a good one, Scrabs."

"I know," he laughed back.

Lester laughed as well, thinking that the reason I didn't want a second opinion was that I had seen that I could score more by slow play.

I milked the tiles for the maximum 116 points, with Lester not challenging BORAZONS because an unsuccessful challenge (and he thought it would be unsuccessful--BORAZONS had also been removed from the dictionary at some point) would help me conserve time. I won by 948 points, clipping 1896 of the 2001 spread points Lester had led me by, and when I was done my clock read -0:00.

"I'd like a ruling on the clock," Lester said. "I've never heard of this situation, even hypothetically."

I was correctly ruled not to be over on time. Lester fought this vehemently, but finally acquiesced, saying, "It's not going to affect the outcome anyway, and it's time for the World Cup finals."

"Ah, the World Cup," I said. "I believe it's going to be a good day for Zidane."

We filled out our paperwork, which showed me 105 spread points behind, and Lester went to watch the game. Johnny Nevarez came by to collect the scoresheets, and I noticed he carried an OWL with him. I asked to see it for a moment and found SMIERCASE.

"Hey," I said, "SMIERCASE is good! Say, Johnny, isn't there some kind of new rule that applies when a word adjudication goes against you?"

"Yes," he said. "You get the value of the play plus 25 points added to your cumulative spread."

"I played SMIERCASE for 80 points," I said. "So I should have 105 spread points added?"

"Correct," Johnny said.

"Well, I'll be damned," I said. "The tournament ends in a tie!"

Lester, of course, was not thrilled when he found this out, but the French had won and nothing could spoil his mood.

As proud as I was of the remarkable comeback, I was even prouder that I won the Good Sportsmanship award, the 100th of my career.

(PS: I was fortunate this rule had not been in effect at the time of my 1995 win over Myclabber Holmes!)