Back to WSC 2007 Live Coverage

WSC 2007 Commentary:
Before the Tournament

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Go to: Before the Tournament, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Round 10, Round 11, Round 12, Round 13, Round 14, Round 15, Round 16, Round 17, Round 18, Round 19, Round 20, Round 21, Round 22, Round 23, Round 24, Final Round 1, Final Round 2, Final Round 3, After the Finals.

As of 2 P.M. IST (5.5 hours ahead of UTC and 10.5 hours ahead of EST), the championship room is full of workers getting everything set up. Registration takes place from 7:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M., to be followed by more set up. The first of 24 rounds will begin tomorrow morning at 8:00 A.M.

The reception started promptly at 7:00 P.M., though it took a while for the large crowd downstairs in the hotel lobby to trickle up to the Presidential Ballroom. At the registration desks outside the ballroom, they picked up a name badge, T-shirt, canvas bag and program booklet; then at the entrance to the ballroom they were heralded by a man blowing a very large and astonishingly loud horn (see photos) and anointed for good luck (see the red mark on many players' brows in photos).

After some mingling, hors d'oeuvres and drinks, Philip Nelkon of Mattel UK, Chris Willson-White (VP International Marketing, Mattel Inc.) and Rahul Bhowmik (Head of Marketing, Mattel India) addressed the contestants and lit a ceremonial flame to officially open the 2007 World Scrabble Championships.

After some further mingling, players were encouraged to clear the ballroom and view first-round pairings (a random draw implemented by tsh, with the restrictions that two players from the same country may not play each other in the first round, and one last player whose whereabouts is uncertain is paired with the Indian alternate), leaving staff to begin setting up for tomorrow morning's early 8:00 A.M. start.