Recapping a Scrabble-packed Labor Day weekend

Labor Day tends to be one of the busiest Scrabbling weekends of the year, and this year was no exception. When you've got three days off from school, work, or whatever else, there's no better time to kick back, relax, and sling a few tiles. Over the last three-plus days, we saw CoCo players on both the East Coast and the West do just that.

In Slingerlands, NY, we had a pair of 1-day tournaments - an 8-game event on Saturday followed by a 7-gamer on Sunday. Meanwhile, in Portland, OR, a horde of West Coast Scrabblers convened for a long weekend event - 28 games in total, including an 8-game early bird and 20-game main event. From coast to coast, there was plenty of Scrabble to be played.

First, to Slingerlands: We saw 6 players turn out for the first tournament on Saturday, and it was a knock-down, drag-out fight to the end. Eventually Brad Whitmarsh took down the title, prevailing in his final game and finishing with a 6-2, +332 record. Winter (5-3, +355) and Laurie Cohen (5-3, +262) were just off Brad's pace, finishing second and third.

On day 2 in Slingerlands, the race wasn't nearly as close. It was Stefan Rau who absolutely dominated the day, going undefeated at 7-0, +911; by the end of the tournament, the only race worth following was the one for second place. Matthew O'Connor ended up winning that one; Brad needed to beat Matthew by 125 in the final game to catch him on spread, and he came painfully close before falling short. It was a 116-point game instead, meaning Matthew (5-2, +407) took second place and Brad (5-2, +389), third.

Congratulations to Brad, Stefan, and all the other top performers this weekend in Slingerlands - and, as always, huge thanks to Terry Kang for pulling triple duty - host, director, and player! A true CoCo organizer extraordinaire.

And now, to Portland: The early bird title went to Alec Sjöholm, who very nearly went undefeated in the 8-game tournament. He won his first six games without breaking a sweat, then slipped up in round 7 with a 437-373 loss to Bob Linn, then won again in the final game to finish 7-1 with an absolutely bonkers spread of +1275. Ruth Hamilton finished second at 6-2; Bob was third at 5-3.

Finally, it was time for the main event. At first, it looked like Dave Wiegand might run away with this one - he started the tournament 12-0 with a monster spread, and it looked tough for anyone to catch him. But catch him, Alec eventually did. Dave took his first loss in a 514-455 barnburner against Eric Fox... and then, in a series of head-to-head matchups between the top two seeds, Alec got the best of Dave in rounds 15, 16, 18, and 19. It was an incredible comeback win for Alec, who went from a distant second place to, all of a sudden, Gibsonized. He won the tournament with a record of 17-3, +1962. (When your spread looks like a year from the Kennedy presidency, you've had a pretty good tournament.)

Congrats to Alec on his PDXwords victory, Dave on second place, and Peter Armstrong and Bob on third and fourth. Kudos also to Ruth and to Jane Geary, your two class prize winners. And thanks to Scott Smith, tournament organizer, and Chris Sjöholm, who handled the directing on the Collins side.

Thus ends another Scrabble-filled Labor Day weekend! As always, it was one of the best CoCo weekends of the year. Thanks to everyone - organizers, directors, players, and more - who helped make that happen.