By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Aug. 31, 2018
The three games of the tournament’s early session had been scheduled in advance. Upon resuming play around 1:30 in the afternoon, we commenced playing in “king of the hill” battle — the top two players faced one another; the third- and fourth-ranked players played one another; and so on down the line in our 10-person division.
My foe in round 4 was D.D., a younger Charlotte, N.C., player participating in his third tournament. Like me, he was 1-2, having won his opener by nine points before dropping his second and third games by a total of 23 points.
Playing first, my rival got things off to a rousing start with HERTZ 54. His follow-up was DEACON/JO/IN 33, leaving me in an 87-22 hole after I’d put down JILT.
My big early plays were QI/OI 33 in turn 3 and REX/ZAX 31 two moves after that. But that still left me trailing, 150-134. (A zax is a hatchet-like tool, pluralized as zaxes.)