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WSC 2009 Commentary: Round 23

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Go to: 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.

The top flight was restricted this round to the top eight: Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (THA), Nigel Richards (Wsc), David Boys (CAN), Dave Wiegand (USA), Komol Panyasophonlert (THA), Naween Fernando (AUS), Marut Siriwangso (THA) and Mikki Nicholson (Eng). Marut and Mikki have no chance at the finals, as they have only 14 wins and no matter how the top six play out, there will be at least two 17s and above.

The top six can't be paired with each other without at least one repeat, so it's time for some repeat pairings. They can be split into top four and bottom two with one repeat, so we have 1-4, 2-3, 5-6: Pakorn vs. Wiegand, Nigel vs. Boys and Komol vs. Naween.

Wiegand and Pakorn played at Board 1. Wiegand, in fourth place, with the least spread of the three 16-6s, needed a win to stay in serious contention; Pakorn would be in very good shape for the finals with a win, but could lose, get lucky and still make it. Dave opened up an early 221-185 lead with consecutive bingoes of COUTEAu, KITTLER and SYMBIOTE to Pakorn's REARING. Pakorn nearly caught up at 363-360 with AERAtED, but then on the next turn let Wiegand hook a phoney -S on REARING, a mistake that would eventually cost him a close game, 458-450.

Nigel beat Boys in a 509-319 blowout, getting both blanks and bingoing lAIRIZED, NAVICERT, FOUGADE and EDITORs to Dave's HENHOUSE. Dave still has a really long shot at the finals; Nigel just needs to win one more game.

Fifth-place Komol beat Naween to advance to fourth place.