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WSC 2009 Commentary: Round 4

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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.

As we head into the first lunch break after four rounds, five players remain undefeated: David Eldar (AUS), Willy Mwangi (KEN), Geoff Thevenot (USA), Wellington Jighere (NGA) and Robert Linn (USA). Last round's leader Panupol Sujjayakorn (THA) lost a 508-391 blowout to Andrew Fisher (AUS) and drops to sixth place.

The team allocations for the next WSC will be adjusted according to overall team performances this year. Roughly speaking, teams that finish in the top half will gain a spot, and those in the bottom half will lose one, while letting neither any teams disappear entirely nor the total event size change. The best team records so far are team averages of 3-1: Nigeria's four man team is averaging +471, while Sherwin Rodrigues (IND), India's lone representative, is 90. Nigel Richards (Wsc) is technically a team to himself, as he qualified as the defending champion and not as a New Zealander. As a team he is #1 with his 3-1 +363 record.

This round's featured Board 1 game, between Sam Kantimathi (USA) and Willy Mwangi (KEN), came to a relatively close 427-359 finish. Each player challenged one play, each had one blank, and one had two bingos to the other's one, but lost.

Lunch was served in the hotel's Salt and Pepper restaurant and was a lavish buffet. I enjoyed several different styles of curry, especially the mamak* (Tamil Muslim), for the flavour and the unusual hook. I regret not having tried the "goreng pisang dan keropok lekor" despite Jason Katz-Brown's (USA) insistence. I know now that a goreng* is a fritter and a pisang* is a banana or in this case a plantain.