Rounds: Here.
Avi Chanales is back for the crucial fourth game tonight, and Richard turns the topic of conversation back to Avi's childhood fascination with countries and flags. After Avi had mastered the flags he went on to the capital cities; he printed out a list of all the capitals and taped it above (his bed, presumably -- he breaks off here to point out that he had a bunk bed). He started with Afghanistan and went on from there.
Standing in Avi's way is Barry Harridge, a retired secondary and university mathematics and statistics teacher. Barry was also very much involved in the early days of computing, back in the days of punched cards. As he puts it, "you had to sit at this great... enormous great machine, punch away at the cards, and you fitted, say, about twenty or so characters on one card. Then you'd start another card, and so on. You might have about fifty or so cards; submit it overnight, get it back the next morning, and then find you'd left a comma out." It was certainly a time-consuming way to work.
It was quite the one-sided game tonight. Barry consistently outdid Avi in the letters rounds, and the numbers rounds were easy enough that both solved them. Barry found the full monty on offer, too, and had the game wrapped up going into the second break -- an impressive achievement! The conundrum ended up proving too difficult for both contestants, but Barry had still scored quite highly in his 75 to 30 win.
I was just able to keep ahead of Barry thanks to a couple of good finds, but nearly lost it at the end when I dropped a findable maximum and could not solve the conundrum. Fortunately for me he was not able to gain on those rounds, or I could have had my first loss for the series.
Showing posts with label Avi Chanales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Avi Chanales. Show all posts
Monday, 20 June 2016
Ep 127: Avi Chanales, Neil McInnes (June 16, 2016; originally aired January 25, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
It's the third night for Avi Chanales, and Richard turns the conversation to the subject of tutoring that Avi does. Avi explains that his university is located in a notoriously underprivileged community, so once a week he goes to public schools in the area to tutor fifth graders in mathematics and reading.
Tonight's challenger is Neil McInnes, a managing director of a company called Way Out Evacuation Systems. It's unusual for a company to get explicitly mentioned like that; I would have thought the show's producers were wary of providing advertising. Anyway, that company's main business is 'glow in the dark' technology, used for escape signs on ships and submarines, or incorporated into stair-nosings in stadiums. As Richard says, this is for cases when an emergency happens and the ordinary lights fail.
Neil started off with a small gain in the first round, then was unlucky that his declaration in the second round was not in the Macquarie. That let Avi tie up the scores, and then a second invalid answer from Neil in the first numbers round put Avi into the lead. A shared round followed, then Neil closed the gap to a single point in round five. Avi fought back immediately, solving the second numbers round to go a crucial eleven points ahead. The next two rounds were shared, and Avi was safe going into the conundrum. Neither contestant was able to solve it, so Avi got through with the win, 43 to 32.
I had a decent game; I did drop three letters maxima, but only one of those was findable for me. The numbers were cooperative, and I managed to solve the conundrum to push my solo total into the seventies again, which is where I like to be.
It's the third night for Avi Chanales, and Richard turns the conversation to the subject of tutoring that Avi does. Avi explains that his university is located in a notoriously underprivileged community, so once a week he goes to public schools in the area to tutor fifth graders in mathematics and reading.
Tonight's challenger is Neil McInnes, a managing director of a company called Way Out Evacuation Systems. It's unusual for a company to get explicitly mentioned like that; I would have thought the show's producers were wary of providing advertising. Anyway, that company's main business is 'glow in the dark' technology, used for escape signs on ships and submarines, or incorporated into stair-nosings in stadiums. As Richard says, this is for cases when an emergency happens and the ordinary lights fail.
Neil started off with a small gain in the first round, then was unlucky that his declaration in the second round was not in the Macquarie. That let Avi tie up the scores, and then a second invalid answer from Neil in the first numbers round put Avi into the lead. A shared round followed, then Neil closed the gap to a single point in round five. Avi fought back immediately, solving the second numbers round to go a crucial eleven points ahead. The next two rounds were shared, and Avi was safe going into the conundrum. Neither contestant was able to solve it, so Avi got through with the win, 43 to 32.
I had a decent game; I did drop three letters maxima, but only one of those was findable for me. The numbers were cooperative, and I managed to solve the conundrum to push my solo total into the seventies again, which is where I like to be.
Saturday, 18 June 2016
Ep 126: Avi Chanales, Louise Kuchmar (June 15, 2016; originally aired January 24, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
Avi Chanales gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, having prevented Oli from successfully retiring last night. Richard opens by saying that, even as a small child, Avi had always enjoyed the idea of travel and different countries. Avi says that he used to have a map over his bed, and before he went to sleep he would memorise the locations of the various countries, as well as their flags along the bottom. Richard suggests that this meant that Avi would put himself to sleep by counting flags instead of sheep.
Tonight's challenger is Louise Kuchmar, an office manager with a background in psychology. Louise also sings as lead vocalist of a wedding band, so she gets to go to a lot of people's weddings, which she loves. If I'm getting the timing right, not long after this show aired Louise helped form the acapella group Mint26, and a little over a year later they appeared on Australia's Got Talent (audition video).
It was a low-scoring and see-sawing game tonight. Avi was a little unlucky that his answer in round one was invalid, then a shared round followed. The first numbers round stumped both contestants, with Avi having a very unexpected invalid declaration, then a couple of invalid answers from Louise allowed Avi to take the lead. The lead swapped twice more in rounds seven and eight, and it was Avi who was ahead going into the conundrum. He managed to solve it, and so won a close contest, 37 to 23.
I had a nearly-maximal game tonight, just dropping the one maximum. A nice change after the previous two games!
Avi Chanales gets his turn in the champion's seat tonight, having prevented Oli from successfully retiring last night. Richard opens by saying that, even as a small child, Avi had always enjoyed the idea of travel and different countries. Avi says that he used to have a map over his bed, and before he went to sleep he would memorise the locations of the various countries, as well as their flags along the bottom. Richard suggests that this meant that Avi would put himself to sleep by counting flags instead of sheep.
Tonight's challenger is Louise Kuchmar, an office manager with a background in psychology. Louise also sings as lead vocalist of a wedding band, so she gets to go to a lot of people's weddings, which she loves. If I'm getting the timing right, not long after this show aired Louise helped form the acapella group Mint26, and a little over a year later they appeared on Australia's Got Talent (audition video).
It was a low-scoring and see-sawing game tonight. Avi was a little unlucky that his answer in round one was invalid, then a shared round followed. The first numbers round stumped both contestants, with Avi having a very unexpected invalid declaration, then a couple of invalid answers from Louise allowed Avi to take the lead. The lead swapped twice more in rounds seven and eight, and it was Avi who was ahead going into the conundrum. He managed to solve it, and so won a close contest, 37 to 23.
I had a nearly-maximal game tonight, just dropping the one maximum. A nice change after the previous two games!
Thursday, 16 June 2016
Ep 125: Oli Bryant, Avi Chanales (June 14, 2016; originally aired January 21, 2011)
Rounds: Here.
In the pre-show chat, David mentions that it was Richard's birthday yesterday, and there's the usual television fauxness of asking what he did for an event that was still in the future at the time of screening. Richard says that he and Alison went out to a nice dinner "to celebrate [his] 73rd birthday". That prompts some laughter from David, as Richard is overstating things somewhat -- it would have been his 55th birthday.
Anyway, on to the contestants. It is Oli Bryant's final night tonight, and we definitely are out of conversational topics since Richard asks him about highlights from the experience so far. Oli says that he thought the numbers were his strength, so he is particularly pleased by some of the words that he has found; he then spins out a sentence using several of his better finds.
Standing between Oli and successful retirement is Avi Chanales, an American student currently studying in Australia. Avi majors in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, and in response to Richard's question explains that this is the study of the higher mental functions of the brain, such as attention, memory, and language.
We were set for a close game, with the contestants finding matching results in the first three rounds. Then Oli faltered, his five-letter words not enough to match Avi's sevens, and Avi had a potentially winning lead at the second break. A tough letters round offered little scope for advancement, but it was Avi who navigated the final numbers round better and ensured his victory. Neither could solve the conundrum, and Avi won the game, 53 to 32.
I started out well enough, but felt a little off-kilter once David found a full monty that I did not. I dropped a few maxima after that point, culminating in a complete miscalculation in the final numbers round that left me nothing to declare. I did solve the conundrum to bring some respectability to my solo total, and fortunately I had done enough to beat the contestants, but I'm never happy about scoring zero in a round.
In the pre-show chat, David mentions that it was Richard's birthday yesterday, and there's the usual television fauxness of asking what he did for an event that was still in the future at the time of screening. Richard says that he and Alison went out to a nice dinner "to celebrate [his] 73rd birthday". That prompts some laughter from David, as Richard is overstating things somewhat -- it would have been his 55th birthday.
Anyway, on to the contestants. It is Oli Bryant's final night tonight, and we definitely are out of conversational topics since Richard asks him about highlights from the experience so far. Oli says that he thought the numbers were his strength, so he is particularly pleased by some of the words that he has found; he then spins out a sentence using several of his better finds.
Standing between Oli and successful retirement is Avi Chanales, an American student currently studying in Australia. Avi majors in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, and in response to Richard's question explains that this is the study of the higher mental functions of the brain, such as attention, memory, and language.
We were set for a close game, with the contestants finding matching results in the first three rounds. Then Oli faltered, his five-letter words not enough to match Avi's sevens, and Avi had a potentially winning lead at the second break. A tough letters round offered little scope for advancement, but it was Avi who navigated the final numbers round better and ensured his victory. Neither could solve the conundrum, and Avi won the game, 53 to 32.
I started out well enough, but felt a little off-kilter once David found a full monty that I did not. I dropped a few maxima after that point, culminating in a complete miscalculation in the final numbers round that left me nothing to declare. I did solve the conundrum to bring some respectability to my solo total, and fortunately I had done enough to beat the contestants, but I'm never happy about scoring zero in a round.
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