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WSC 2011 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, Round 25, Round 26, Round 27, Round 28, Round 29, Round 30, Round 31, Round 32, Round 33, Round 34.

It's a little later than usual the night before the WSC, but the first-round pairings are finally posted online, as of 3:39 local time.

The schedule starts tomorrow with an opening ceremony from 10:00-10:30, then a 30-minute coffee break while staff rearrange the room to prepare for the start of Round 1.

Good luck, everyone!

Wednesday Morning

Technical staff were on site from 8:00 A.M. onward. Event staff, consisting of six visiting volunteers and six local players, convened for a staff meeting at 9:00. The visiting volunteers will be the annotation crew, annotating one or two boards per round as staffing permits; the local players will be collecting and checking results and photographing boards.

At 10:00, Sanjay Luthra of Mattel Poland, Philip Nelkon of Mattel UK and Tomasz Zwolinski of the Polish Scrabble Association conducted a half-hour opening ceremony / panel discussion / press conference attended by the players and a large number of reporters, including four different television crews. After Mr. Luthra officially declared the Championship open, the players were invited out to the hall for coffee and tea while the staff hurriedly converted the room from half-theatre layout to the playing configuration.

At 10:15, after a few brief remarks from Tournament Director Wilma Vialle, the games began.