A Weekend of Games in Madrid.

On Saturday, February 20, the Scrabble Club Atriles of Madrid had organized a Scrabble tourney.

Patxi and Montse, from my club, Scrabble Girona, came to play it. My good friend Gloria from Barcelona and Santi from Sant Andreu also came. I had the honor of being their host at home. Due job they can´t came before but the day of the tourney. Santi came during the morning, but the rest came in a car, so they had been just in time for starting to play.

The tourney was a 6 rounds one. The winner was Juan Carlos Ayala, that is showing a big interest of being one of the classifieds to the World Championship this year.

Atriles is innovating a new tournament format, we started to playat 14.00 (ok! Ok! We really started a bit later). ;P We made a long stop for dine something and finished the tourney around midnight.

My personal experience with this new format was really ok. In some how I felt less tired, it was like having more time for playing.

After finished the tourney we came to home, Curro had prepared something to eat, not so much due we had already dine at the tourney. I think it was a mix of being tired due the travel and the tourney but we haven´t play more Scrabble that night, but we had been talking a lot about good memories.

On Sunday everyone got up when he wanted… that for Patxi that this time shared the room with Santi, meant to wake up at 7.30. As he was the only one early bird, he was so nice and went alone to study seated at the floor of the kitchen (in Spain is normal to have a table with chairs at the kitchen for breakfast, but as this is not part of my habits, I have none… otoh: if I would thought someone would be at the kitchen for a while, I´ll show him where we have the stools).

I got up around 10. The coffe and the tea were already ready and Santi had gone to buy churros. (Yeap! Nice to have guests at home! Hehehe). Well, actually I had planned to prepare them some hot cakes, but seem I should wait another chance to.

After breakfast… no! We haven’t play Scrabble! We were talking, Montse discovered my 3D puzzles (yeap, I should talk about them in some post), when I saw she was very excited with them I showed them the Rush Hour, the first one playing it was Patxi, but the one that really loved it was Montse. :D There was a moment when everyone was in he´s own world! Patxi camouflaging himself with the sofa, Gloria and Curro watching something at the PC, Montse challenging the Rush Hour (no, that wasn´t a redaction mistake!) ;P and Santi uploading his blog… and I was taking pics to all! :D



For lunching we called a Chinese restaurant that also has roasted chicken. While taking the coffees Curro played some videos of his own creation and them got excited with the music! :D



Finally, after the coffees, we played Scrabble! Just Montse didn´t, she kept with the Rush Hour and the puzzles.



I´m afraid that last just a moment, due they had 6 road hours to travel and 2 more to Girona.

Guys! I miss you!

New Year´s Eve Party in León

My Scrabble Club, the Scrabble Girona, organized a New Year´s Eve party in León, as far as we had gone for the tourney, that took place on Jan 2nd. and 3rd., renting a flat for 10 people.

Curro and I went in a car with Topo on Dec. 30th. at night. Montse, Patxi, Ma. Paz Yillera (Pochola from now on) and Gloria were already there. The ride was ok, nothing special to talk about, but a flash that shocked Topo for the rest of the night. We had a bit of troubles finding a parking place to left the car, but finally all ok.

Immediately after arriving, we had to go to the supermarket. It´s amazing how cheap is to buy out of Madrid! :P After finishing at the supermarket and to make honor to the originality of our group, the guys went home to prepare the diner while the girls went to have a drink in a bar close to home. What a nice pasta Patxi made!

You won´t believe it, but that night we didn´t play Scrabble… but Rummycub and Scenne it!. My team (Montse, Curro and I) won 2 times to the rival team (Gloria, Pochola and Topocholo). We went early to bed… at 3.00 a.m.! :D

On 31st. we woke up when each one wanted, we had pantumaca for breakfast and coffee. David and Susanna arrived that morning, at 6.00 a.m., they traveled in a night train.

With just 1 bathroom at the flat, it was really amazing to release that in the whole adventure we didn´t have troubles with the turns at the shower or similar, we just had a line at the mornings, but all the rest was like if we would be less at the flat.

Juan Carlos Ayala invited us to drink something at the city center of León, at the Barrio Húmedo to be precise (the translation would be something alike “the Damp Block”) (yes, I know, the name sounds like a joke, but believe me, that´s the real name) :) Believe me, it was marvelous to find places where you can have a wine and a bar snack for 1 euro, you see, with 5 euros you already had eat and drink enough as for being “happy”. Of course the group enjoyed the afternoon quite well, here some images:


(To be continued).

Scrabble Leon Tourney: Second Day

We are at the news! Well... at least Patxi, the champion, is:



Some pics:





The resoults:

First Place: Patxi Navarro.
Second Place: Juan Carlos Ayala.
Third Place: Ivette González :DD

First Place of group B: Santi Rosales.

First Place of group C: Sussana Baró.

Soon I´ll place the videos.

For starting the year: Scrabble Tourney in Leon

Here some pics:

Scrabble in Spanish World Championship. Final Day.

Yesterday night most of us were at the karaoke ;D

Partida 16



Round 17



Round 18



The Spanish Team classification:

Position Name Won Games

3 Ayala 13,5
5 Topo 12
9 Manchado 11,5
11 Patxi 11
14 Montse 11
21 Carlos 10
23 Antonio 10
25 Alvaro 10
47 Ivette 9
58 Santi 8
71 Esther 7

Congratulations to all of us! ;P

Final Classification:

Scrabble in Spanish World Championship. Third Day.

Round 11



Round 12



Round 13



15 Round


Classfication list till Rond 15:

Scrabble in Spanish World Championship. Second Day

7th. Round


8th. Round



9th. Round






Round 10

6 people of the Spanish team playing against each other!



Here the classification list till Round 10:

PLACE/PLAYER Country Points Average Ranking
1º AMARAL, Claudia Argentina 9 2,9º 90,0%
2º GONZALEZ, Diego Argentina 8,5 6,0º 85,0%
3º PICCIOCHI, Luis Argentina 8 5,2º 80,0%
4º AYALA, Juan Carlos España 8 15,7º 80,0%
5º OLAIZOLA, Benjamín Venezuela 7 6,3º 70,0%
6º PEREZ, Airán Venezuela 7 12,7º 70,0%
7º SANCHEZ, Montse España 7 15,1º 70,0%
8º MOAVRO, Horacio Argentina 7 18,4º 70,0%
9º GONZALEZ, Graciela Argentina 7 22,2º 70,0%
10º OLMOS, Hector Argentina 7 23,9º 70,0%
11º MILLAN, Eufrasio España 7 24,7º 70,0%
12º NAVARRO, Patxi España 7 26,0º 70,0%
13º LAGUZZI, Rocco Argentina 7 26,4º 70,0%
14º MANCHADO, Joan Ramon España 6,5 9,2º 65,0%
15º GONZALEZ, Carlos Venezuela 6 20,3º 60,0%
16º OLAIZOLA, Carlos Venezuela 6 20,9º 60,0%
17º MARTINEZ, Carlos Venezuela 6 22,3º 60,0%
18º NOGUER, Álvaro España 6 22,7º 60,0%
19º GEICHER, Adriana Uruguay 6 22,8º 60,0%
20º PEROZO, Diana Argentina 6 23,5º 60,0%
21º PUENTE, Carlos España 6 26,1º 60,0%
22º CONSTANTIN, Aglaía Colombia 6 26,5º 60,0%
23º KLIE, Héctor Estados Unidos 6 26,7º 60,0%
24º LUGO, Valeska Venezuela 6 31,5º 60,0%
25º MERDINGER, Victoria Argentina 6 31,9º 60,0%
26º MORRIS, Enma México 6 32,7º 60,0%
27º WINIARSKI, Sabrina Uruguay 6 33,9º 60,0%
28º ALVAREZ, Antonio España 6 34,6º 60,0%
29º URDANETA, Johnny Venezuela 6 37,7º 60,0%
30º VALLECILLO, Carmen Argentina 6 45,2º 60,0%
31º CARRIZO, Kelo Argentina 6 53,7º 60,0%
32º GARCIA, Cristian Chile 5 19,2º 50,0%
33º GUZMAN, Héctor México 5 20,8º 50,0%
34º TERENZANI, Alejandro Venezuela 5 21,0º 50,0%
35º OSPINA, Daniel Colombia 5 23,1º 50,0%
36º GARCIA, Carlos Venezuela 5 29,2º 50,0%
37º ESPINOSA, Carlos México 5 33,2º 50,0%
38º HARRISON, Sylvia Colombia 5 33,5º 50,0%
39º FERNANDEZ, Damian Venezuela 5 35,5º 50,0%
40º GUERRERO, Francisco Javier México 5 37,3º 50,0%
41º DELGADO, Selene Uruguay 5 37,8º 50,0%
42º MÜLLER, Marta Virginia Costa Rica 5 40,0º 50,0%
43º PEROZO, Jairo Venezuela 5 40,5º 50,0%
44º RUIZ JUVERA, Jorge México 5 41,0º 50,0%
45º PARRA, José Venezuela 5 41,2º 50,0%
46º ACEVEDO, Luis Argentina 5 43,8º 50,0%
47º OCIO, Gonzalo Uruguay 5 48,7º 50,0%
48º TRAJKOVIC, Aurora Estados Unidos 5 55,4º 50,0%
49º GONZALEZ, Ivette España 5 58,9º 50,0%
50º CARDILLO, Analia Argentina 5 62,6º 50,0%
51º EMIG, Serge Francia 4 35,8º 40,0%
52º RIBAS, Rogelio Argentina 4 40,6º 40,0%
53º LATTUF, Javier Venezuela 4 41,4º 40,0%
54º CARRILLO, Raúl Venezuela 4 41,4º 40,0%
55º SALAZAR, Octavio México 4 42,4º 40,0%
56º GARZA, Norma México 4 43,0º 40,0%
57º ROJAS, Daniel Venezuela 4 44,2º 40,0%
58º MAYNARD, Francis Costa Rica 4 47,7º 40,0%
59º MORA, Alberto Colombia 4 47,9º 40,0%
60º PESCE, Andrea Uruguay 4 49,5º 40,0%
61º RODRIGUEZ, José Luis Venezuela 4 52,7º 40,0%
62º ABADI, Irene Uruguay 4 59,1º 40,0%
63º CAVERO, Miguel Perú 4 60,0º 40,0%
64º RODRIGUEZ, Esther España 4 61,6º 40,0%
65º BIELBA, Lorena Costa Rica 4 65,9º 33,3%
66º GAMOU, Franklin Uruguay 4 67,3º 40,0%
67º MOSCOSO, Alfonso Perú 4 71,8º 40,0%
68º CHACON, Constanza Colombia 4 73,1º 40,0%
69º GONZALEZ, Alejandro México 3,5 47,2º 35,0%
70º GIL, María Victoria Chile 3,5 71,5º 38,9%
71º GARCIA, Carolina Uruguay 3 60,5º 30,0%
72º ROSALES, Santiago España 3 62,1º 30,0%
73º GARCIA, Virginia México 3 65,2º 30,0%
74º BOBADILLA, Jorge Colombia 3 69,5º 30,0%
75º FRITZ, Valerie Colombia 3 70,2º 30,0%
76º GIANELLA, Patricia Perú 3 72,6º 30,0%
77º SANHUEZA, Víctor Chile 3 73,1º 30,0%
78º TEJEIRA, Dulce Estados Unidos 3 77,1º 30,0%
79º WHEATON, Merry Estados Unidos 3 78,7º 30,0%
80º MONDRUS, Ana Costa Rica 2 75,3º 20,0%
81º BOBADILLA, Luz Estados Unidos 1 80,9º 10,0%
82º GALINDO, Hilda Colombia 1 81,3º 10,0%

Bogota Final Part: Chiva Rumbera and Parties!

If we take into account that Colombians are known as the “party kings” and combine that with a young team of Argentineans lovers of new technologies, we could start to get the picture about how good organized was the whole Championship.

People of redeletras.com, the official web for playing Spanish Scrabble online, had been responsible of the technical organization, including, of course, retransmissions. FISE´s staff made the organization of the Championship and the different tourneys, meaning while the tourneys where played, but the Colombian Scrabble organization made, as good hosts, a great job during the time we weren´t playing.

The Scrabble Colombia team had take care of every single detail, from sending us mails the days before asking us if we prefer them to arrange taxis to wait us at the airport, made a welcome letter including prevention indications and how to behave at the city in case we go around alone, prepared a quite complete activities program for the different days the tourney lasted, most of the activities ended with party! (When they weren´t the organizators of the party, Rede´s people did!) :D and even they had done a very happy song talking about a couple that found love playing Scrabble! :D



So, every night some of us were at the different parties, some others playing Scrabble at the lobby. Yes, we just can´t get enough! And it´s not usual to have the bests of the world at the same place! So! We finished the championship inebriated of Scrabble and party! :D



With no doubts, the best party was the Chiva Rumbera one. First of all, I should explain what is a “chiva rumbera”. The chiva is a kind of bus, but with some differences from the normal ones we all know. First of all, instead of having 2 lines of sits per row, it´s just 1 line, going from one wall to the other, so, every line has it´s own door. There are no windows at the sides. Some of them have no some of the sits in order to give space to a musicians group. This all make them perfect for having party inside! And that´s exactly the goal! :D When you go into a Chiva Rumbera, it means you´ll have a party at the bus (could be with a real life musicians group, could be with cd´s) while you are giving a ride. The ride includes drinks that usually are rum. Depending on the place, you´ll go to some places or others, but the point is to have a city seeing night tour that includes a visit to a viewpoint where the Chiva stops, usually several at the same time, to make a big party, but this is just one of the stops, not the end… the end usually is at the most fashion discos street. Wherever you go with the Chiva, everybody will now a Chiva is coming due the big noise of the music inside of it… so, usually people will stop a bit for greeting the Chivas. Usually different Chivas met at the streets and it becomes into a fight for being the faster and the one with people having more fun.

In our case, we had 2 Chivas that took us from the hotel and made a tour going first to the party zone of the city, then to the La Calera overview, where we stopped for a while and then we went back to the hotel.





You see, in situations like this one is quite interesting to watch out how the different cultures behave. Since the beginning, all the people from Latin America were laughing, dancing, singing and drinking. The Spanish ones were a bit serious at the beginning, like watching what was going on… even some kept on sited big part of the way to the overview point. .. one liter of Rum latter… hehehehe! Spanish team was unrecognizable! Even Juan Carlos Ayala, that usually is so quiet and serious, was dancing! I was at his side and once he told me “Ho! In this country everybody dance! Even me, that haven´t dance in my whole life… and look at me! Now even I am dancing!”







When we were going back to the hotel, most of the people started to relax a bit, knowing the party will be over soon… but the Spanish team at this point was at the middle of the fun and went out of the Chiva, in front of the hotel, cheering: “we all want more, we all want more… we all want more, much more and much more!” :P But I´m afraid it was so late and all the people were concerned about the matches to play the day after.



The party, in all the versions (dancing or playing Scrabble) ;) had been all the nights of the championship. Topo and I had the flight for coming back home the morning after the last day of the tourney. Again the way back meant to go first from Bogota to Miami, where we stayed some hours (not enough for going out to watch a bit, but enough for doing some shopping at the airport stores and for eat something while playing a Scrabble). Then, from Miami to Madrid… and for Topo some more hours till finally arrive in Barcelona. Before leaving Bogota, Topo had been playing Scrabble… in my case, I had been dancing and dancing and dancing! We were 8 the ones that had been dancing till 5.00 in the morning, I´m afraid I had to leff then, the taxi for going to the airport would be waiting us at the door of the hotel at 5.30 and I haven´t finished to put all inside my bag already! But I even took a shower before leaving the hotel!  Yeap, I had been dancing the whole night without sleeping after finishing the championship and went to the airport quite tired… but… we´ll have a lot of hours at the plane to sleep!

Bogota Third Part: Scrabble Tourneys

There were also other Scrabble tourneys taking place in Bogotá those days:

The Andean Tourney: for people from Venezuela, Perú, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador. It had been played 2 days before the World Championship (SSWC from now on). The winner, José Luis Rodriguez from Venezuela, obtained a place at the SSWC.

Other Tourney was the called “Extra” one. This one is for all the people that would like to play it and also gives 4 places for the SSWC.

The afternoon of the day before the World Championship, took place a new Tourney: the First Nations Scrabble in Spanish Cup. It was played by teams of 5 people, but playing at the same time just 4 (so one of each group can relax a bit each match). Days before the SSWC someone of the Spanish group of representatives, asked by mail who would like to play that tourney… and Alvaro, Topo, Juan Carlos and me, as good newbies, answered so soon we would like to, plus Carlos Puente, the only one of us that already had experience in a World Championship… the point is the other countries selected their best players for playing the tourney and we 5 weren´t exactly the best ones of Spain, so… the result was obvious… we were the second last… no wonder! :(

For me the funny experience was at the last match. I usually play quick, but in this case we both had to think a lot and the game took more time, so we were one of the last couples to end… It was a hard game, I had to think a lot, so, when we finally finished it, I was really thick and tired. In this kind of tourneys the public should remind outside the room the players are… so, imagine my big surprise when I opened the door of the room, someone asked me if I had won and when I said yes a lot of people screamed quite excited! Hehehehe! No! it wasn´t exactly my group of fans! ;P The point was that my game was the last one of the Spanish team and depending on it, Colombia would be (or not) the winner of the tourney… so the ones outside were the Colombians celebrating not exactly that I had win but that it meant they had win!!! :D



The World Championship was really exciting. In my case I usually say that my perfect way to lose weight is being in Scrabble tourneys! I usually go to the bathroom before starting the match and immediately after finishing each! But it´s nice to release that even the more expert players are also nervous. But what I liked more, was that even being a quite serious championship, everybody was so friendly, it really feels like a nice big family! The champion was Benjamín Olaizola.



The championship lasted 3 and half days. Most of us stayed in the same hotel. Also the meals were arranged with the hotel, so, most of us even didn´t cruised the hotel door during those days! Basically the restaurant was just for us during those days.



But definitely my favorite part of the Championship was what happened every night AFTER the matches! Just that… it deserves it´s own post! ;)



(To be continued)