Surprise winner at CNSC 2000
Toronto
17-20 November 2000
CNSC 2000 Winner, Ron Hoekstra
(Photo: Diane Brown) | It may have been wintry in downtown Toronto but in the Great Hall of the Arts and Letters Club there were four days of red-hot Scrabble. It was the 3rd biennial Canadian Scrabble Championship and the top 50 active Canadian players all accepted their invitations.
The winner, and new champion, was 15th seed Ron Hoekstra, who blew away all opposition from Friday to Sunday by recording an outstanding 17-1 record. The 32-year-old accountant living in Grand Rapids, Michigan went on to sweep the best-of-five final against the 1996 Canadian Champion, Adam Logan.
With only four years of tournament experience Ron continued to defy the pundits and perform with composure and near invincibility in the Final as he notched up a 3-0 victory and took home $7,000 in prize money. In addition Hoekstra automatically qualifies to represent Canada at the 2001 World Championship. Runner-up Logan won $2,500. |
"He's the best competition there is," Hoekstra said of his opponent. "He's won the Canadian in '96, and the North American championships as well. So he's probably one of the top players in the world. Coming in, I was pretty overwhelmed."
Logan, 25, a mathematician from Kingston, Ontario, who now teaches at Berkeley University, Cal. was steamrollered in the three games of the final. Over a three-hour period, Hoekstra racked up 1,206 points to Logan's 1,017.
The Duel
Ron made a strong start to the final with FLOURING (to coat with flour) for 84 points. Adam countered shortly after with AIRTIME for 79. However, Ron stormed to a huge 120 point victory in Game 1 with later plays such as UNCLOGS to the triple. This performance was made even more impressive by Ron's later word RUDDIES for 69 points being negated due to a penalty challenge. Click here for the Game 1 playthrough and board.
Adam took the initiative in Game 2 with ENTIRETY for 74 points but Ron chipped away and eventually got the chance to play VENTURI (a device for measuring the flow of a fluid) for 76 which sealed a 396-353 win.
One game from victory Ron did not relax and weighed in with ORIEDES for 75 points. Adam later found ETALONS (narrowband wavelength filters) for 62 but it was not enough to stop a 25-point margin of victory which meant Ron was crowned as the new Champion.
The Preliminaries
The event consists of an 18-game Swiss-paired non-elimination preliminary round that continues until the two finalists are determined. The lexicon is OSPD. The two players with the best record during the initial 18 rounds then play a best-of-five match to determine the new Champion.
Ron's exceptional 17 wins in the preliminary rounds included a preparatory match-up with number two seed Adam Logan. As a sign of things to come Ron convincingly won that Round 5 meeting 416-345.
Ron's solitary defeat was dealt out by Leon Fernandes in Round 16 but the Michigan-man bounced back spectacularly in the next game, blitzing Brenda Megannety by 342 points. Other notable high margin wins were notched up in Round 2 (+121 against John Dafoe) and Round 8 (+277 against Shaun Goatcher).
Losing finalist Adam Logan finished the preliminary rounds with a good record of 13.5-4.5. A fine victory came in Round 15 against top seeded David Boys. Logan ran out winner by 52 points in that encounter. Logan edged into 2nd defeating 3rd placed Chris Sykes in the 18th game. Boys finished 18th with a 10-8 record.
World Champion Joel Wapnick was seeded number 3 but could only manage 15th place with a 10-8 (+756) record.
Final Preliminary Standings
| # |
Player |
Score |
| 1. |
Hoekstra, Ron |
17.0 +1829 |
| 2. |
Logan, Adam |
13.5 +1258 |
| 3. |
Sykes, Christopher |
12.0 +825 |
| 4. |
Hahn, Albert |
12.0 +528 |
| 5. |
Teitelbaum, Peter |
12.0 +456 |
| 6. |
Cherry, James |
11.5 +375 |
| 7. |
Paolella, Libero |
11.0 +684 |
| 8. |
Kaufman, Zev |
11.0 +535 |
| 9. |
Nanavati, Jim |
11.0 +221 |
| 10. |
Sidorsky, Paul |
11.0 +118 |
| 11. |
Ryan, Mike |
11.0 +86 |
| 12. |
Malcolm, Don |
11.0 +30 |
| 13. |
Parsons, Jeffrey |
10.5 +628 |
| 14. |
MacAulay, George |
10.5 -13 |
| 15. |
Wapnick, Joel |
10.0 +756 |
- High Game: Bernard Gotlieb - 572
- High Word: John Dafoe - RAINWEAR (176)
- Best "Canadian" Word: Wayne Clifford - HOCKEY
Click here for the Final game 1 playthrough and board.
History of CNSC Winners
The Canadian Championship is an invitational event attended by the top fifty active Canadian players as determined by peak tournament ratings over the past year.
| Year |
Dates |
Location |
Class |
Players |
Winner |
| 1996 |
Oct 18-21 |
Toronto |
invitational |
40 |
Adam Logan |
| 1998 |
Oct 16-19 |
Toronto |
invitational |
50 |
Joel Wapnick |
| 2000 |
Nov 17-20 |
Toronto |
invitational |
50 |
Ron Hoekstra |
|
