Recapping this weekend's tournament in Potomac, MD

One of the coolest things about the D.C. area circuit of CoCo tournaments is the robust team effort behind it. Over the last couple of years, we've seen a slew of different people hosting tournaments in and around the nation's capital, from Bob Linn to Rob Robinsky to Sammy Okosagah. We've had a wide range of directors, too, from Rob to Marty Gold to Zach Dang and more. There have been different events in different places with different people at the helm, but there's been the same great community of local players each time. And each time, the events go off without a hitch.

This past weekend brought more of the same in that regard. On Saturday and Sunday, players gathered for the second annual event in Potomac, MD. It was Bob's turn to host players in his spacious home, and Rob took the lead as the event's director. Nine players competed for 14 rounds each, and there were good times all around.

Here's Rob's report:

What do you do on the first beautifully crisp and sunny weekend of autumn? Well, if you're reading this, the answer is probably clear - you play Scrabble, of course! This weekend saw nine of us gather in picturesque Potomac, Maryland, to enjoy the first fall colors splashing the trees, random deer visiting the backyard, and some intense competition across the boards. In the end, it was Josh Castellano yet again cracking the code to claim victory over an accomplished field of strong players, finishing at 12-2 +585. Second place was won by Matthew O'Connor with a 10-4 +457, and I ultimately took third at 8-6 +473. As an indication of how competitive this field was, the lowest final spread of anyone at the tournament was only -266!

I want to take a moment to highlight the performance of Nitya Chagti, who entered the tournament rated nearly 500 points lower than the second-lowest seed and promptly demonstrated that she would not be pushed around, defeating the second seed Sam Rosin by 165 points in the opening game! Nits was a challenging and unfailingly positive opponent in each of her games this weekend, and she earned a well-deserved ratings boost after the dust settled.

One downside of having a playing director at any tournament is that I didn't have much time to reconnoiter interesting plays from other games, but I do have a couple of notable plays of my own to offer. In one game on Saturday, I was eager to try to seize momentum on my next turn with DORISED/SODDIER on my rack. My opponent blocked the only available hook, but I had already scoped out an opportunity to slot a nine playing to -ST and took it. Yes, reader, I specified ending in -ST for a reason - I have now, as I am writing this, discovered that my play has a dramatically cooler anagram that can also play through ST! Fast forward to Sunday afternoon in my game against Erickson Smith, where I had just played RELINES and drew a new rack of AAAGSW? - fortunately for me, my previous play was just the right number of columns and rows away from the edge of the board and from other plays, and thus another bucket list word bites the dust.

Props all around on another successful D.C. area CoCo tournament. Thanks to Bob for hosting and Rob for directing; congrats to Josh, Matt, and Rob for finishing in the money in the end. And cheers to the whole D.C. Scrabble crew. As always, they know how to put a fun weekend event together.