Rounds: Here.
Whoo, it's been a while; we'll have to see whether I can remember how to do this again! My brain is a bit frazzled from the MUMS Puzzle Hunt (currently going on), so this could be a rocky start. Certainly I've become used to the more relaxed pace of guessing at time. Anyway, on to the show:
Brett Chaiyawat is the returning champion, having finished the previous season on four wins without loss; a fifth win will almost certainly put him into the finals. Richard points out that there has been quite a gap due to the finals series, and asks if Brett has been practising. Brett responds that he has been learning from the finals and they were amazing. Richard notes that Brett is now the longest carry-over champion, due to the long gap, a record Brett is quite happy to hold.
The first challenger of the new season is Jason Dunn, who has spent time working in a chemistry lab, is a budding novelist, and also is part of an improvisational theatre group. Richard opines that improvisational theatre can be quite challenging, and Jason agrees, but adds that you do have moments of magic when you get up and do it.
Brett started out with an excellent word to take the early lead, but then stumbled in the next round with an invalid spelling. Jason took the lead thanks to a tough first numbers round, and Brett continued to have difficulties with word validity. He needed to make back ground with the numbers, but the remaining ones were just too easy. Jason was safe going into the conundrum, and solved it some twenty seconds in to win by 25 points, 59 to 34.
I was showing the signs of brain fatigue as well as rustiness, mostly unable to hit the letters maxima and only just getting there in the first numbers round. Fortunately I managed a couple of small pickups, and solved the conundrum quickly to get home ahead of the contestants. Phew!
Showing posts with label Brett Chaiyawat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brett Chaiyawat. Show all posts
Wednesday, 11 May 2016
Thursday, 15 November 2012
Ep 93: Brett Chaiyawat, Adam Dawson (November 14, 2012; originally aired December 8, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
A quick notice about upcoming posts: Obviously I'll not be reblogging the finals episodes, but I shall aim to put something up of interest. Watch this space, as it were.
This is Brett Chaiyawat's fourth game, and the last before the finals series. If he wins tonight he carries over to the next series with four wins, which would put him in decent position to get to the finals. That said, his scores have been a bit low for a finalist and that may prove to be an issue. Anyway, Richard asks him about his techniques for the show; Brett says that in the letters rounds he tries to get a good balance between the vowels and the consonants so that hopefully he can find a longer word. In the numbers rounds he is a convert to the balanced mix, which has worked out reasonably well for him so far the times that he has used it.
Tonight's challenger is Adam Dawson, an engineer who specialises in steelwork; in particular, he deals with water tanks, the largest of which can hold up to six million litres. Richard asks how Adam came to be in that line of business; Adam begins surprisingly by saying that it started when he had a whim to take up tenpin bowling. On the very first night he walked in and two gentlemen were coming in with all their gear so he held the door open for them. It turns out that they were his opponents and their team name was The Engineers. Then a few months later Adam found himself out of a job and so asked them if they had any work for him, and that's how it started.
The contestants started out pretty equally, but Adam risked a fraction too much in the second letters round to allow Brett to get the lead. Brett managed to extend that lead slightly in the second numbers round -- both had ended up with an invalid answer in the first one -- and Adam's chance of a comeback disappeared when he had another invalid answer on the last letters round. Neither could solve the conundrum, and Brett took the win, 42 to 23.
I had a good game, although I was a handful of seconds too slow to spot the best answer in one letters round. The rest of the main rounds were maximal, requiring finding some good words (or so I choose to believe). Unfortunately I could not solve the conundrum within time either, taking just less than a minute all up to see the answer. Still, it was a decent effort and another score in the sixties.
A quick notice about upcoming posts: Obviously I'll not be reblogging the finals episodes, but I shall aim to put something up of interest. Watch this space, as it were.
This is Brett Chaiyawat's fourth game, and the last before the finals series. If he wins tonight he carries over to the next series with four wins, which would put him in decent position to get to the finals. That said, his scores have been a bit low for a finalist and that may prove to be an issue. Anyway, Richard asks him about his techniques for the show; Brett says that in the letters rounds he tries to get a good balance between the vowels and the consonants so that hopefully he can find a longer word. In the numbers rounds he is a convert to the balanced mix, which has worked out reasonably well for him so far the times that he has used it.
Tonight's challenger is Adam Dawson, an engineer who specialises in steelwork; in particular, he deals with water tanks, the largest of which can hold up to six million litres. Richard asks how Adam came to be in that line of business; Adam begins surprisingly by saying that it started when he had a whim to take up tenpin bowling. On the very first night he walked in and two gentlemen were coming in with all their gear so he held the door open for them. It turns out that they were his opponents and their team name was The Engineers. Then a few months later Adam found himself out of a job and so asked them if they had any work for him, and that's how it started.
The contestants started out pretty equally, but Adam risked a fraction too much in the second letters round to allow Brett to get the lead. Brett managed to extend that lead slightly in the second numbers round -- both had ended up with an invalid answer in the first one -- and Adam's chance of a comeback disappeared when he had another invalid answer on the last letters round. Neither could solve the conundrum, and Brett took the win, 42 to 23.
I had a good game, although I was a handful of seconds too slow to spot the best answer in one letters round. The rest of the main rounds were maximal, requiring finding some good words (or so I choose to believe). Unfortunately I could not solve the conundrum within time either, taking just less than a minute all up to see the answer. Still, it was a decent effort and another score in the sixties.
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Ep 92: Brett Chaiyawat, Belinda Smith (November 13, 2012; originally aired December 7, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Richard returns to the topic of Brett's movie catalogue, and asks what his favourite movie is. Brett responds that it is The Lord of the Rings, and since that is three movies specifically the last one of the trilogy. He then enthuses a bit about the upcoming filming of The Hobbit (which I think at that stage was only going to be one movie), and adds that he would like to go to New Zealand to see that.
Tonight's challenger is Belinda Smith, a physiology student and research assistant whose current project is investigating Alzheimer's disease. Belinda states that because of ageing populations it is imperative that something be done about Alzheimer's disease, particularly in Australia. The project she is working on involves studying both the cognitive and pathological effects of Alzheimer's disease, and has many clinical implications; she thinks it is very exciting and important work.
Belinda got an early lead with a good find in the first round, and then extended it in the fourth to have a decent advantage. Brett gained back some of that ground in the next letters round; then an invalid word from him conceded some of those points back once more but he gained in both the remaining numbers rounds to be ahead by two points going into the conundrum. Neither was able to solve it, so Brett scraped home with the win, 28 to 26.
I was all over the place today, finding better words a bit too late and overlooking a couple of basic observations in the numbers rounds that would have simplified my life greatly. I did manage to get the conundrum quickly today, but was disappointed at missing so many findable maxima.
Richard returns to the topic of Brett's movie catalogue, and asks what his favourite movie is. Brett responds that it is The Lord of the Rings, and since that is three movies specifically the last one of the trilogy. He then enthuses a bit about the upcoming filming of The Hobbit (which I think at that stage was only going to be one movie), and adds that he would like to go to New Zealand to see that.
Tonight's challenger is Belinda Smith, a physiology student and research assistant whose current project is investigating Alzheimer's disease. Belinda states that because of ageing populations it is imperative that something be done about Alzheimer's disease, particularly in Australia. The project she is working on involves studying both the cognitive and pathological effects of Alzheimer's disease, and has many clinical implications; she thinks it is very exciting and important work.
Belinda got an early lead with a good find in the first round, and then extended it in the fourth to have a decent advantage. Brett gained back some of that ground in the next letters round; then an invalid word from him conceded some of those points back once more but he gained in both the remaining numbers rounds to be ahead by two points going into the conundrum. Neither was able to solve it, so Brett scraped home with the win, 28 to 26.
I was all over the place today, finding better words a bit too late and overlooking a couple of basic observations in the numbers rounds that would have simplified my life greatly. I did manage to get the conundrum quickly today, but was disappointed at missing so many findable maxima.
Ep 91: Brett Chaiyawat, Rikki Irwin (November 12, 2012; originally aired December 6, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Brett Chaiyawat gets his turn in the champion's seat, and might become the first contestant to cross the series boundary if he can last the distance. At one point in his life Brett noticed that he was watching movies quite regularly, so he decided to try and figure out how many movies he had actually seen. He puts the total at eleven hundred movies, and he keeps a record of them that he updates when he sees a new one.
Tonight's challenger is Rikki Irwin, an American student who is studying mechanical engineering. Rikki is particularly interested in robots and the logic of programming, and she'd like to combine those two areas by working in the field of smart prosthetics -- things like bionic arms and cochlear implants; she thinks it is a really cool field to work in.
Brett got the early lead with a couple of decent words that Rikki did not quite match. The rest of the main rounds featured matched declarations, except that two of Rikki's answers were invalid; that allowed Brett to extend his lead considerably. Neither ended up solving the tough conundrum, and Brett won comfortably by 59 to 29.
I played well, getting a maximum game in the main rounds. That was good, but the conundrum proved extremely difficult for me and so the maximum game slipped through my fingers again. Still, it was a welcome bit of form after some of last week's results.
Brett Chaiyawat gets his turn in the champion's seat, and might become the first contestant to cross the series boundary if he can last the distance. At one point in his life Brett noticed that he was watching movies quite regularly, so he decided to try and figure out how many movies he had actually seen. He puts the total at eleven hundred movies, and he keeps a record of them that he updates when he sees a new one.
Tonight's challenger is Rikki Irwin, an American student who is studying mechanical engineering. Rikki is particularly interested in robots and the logic of programming, and she'd like to combine those two areas by working in the field of smart prosthetics -- things like bionic arms and cochlear implants; she thinks it is a really cool field to work in.
Brett got the early lead with a couple of decent words that Rikki did not quite match. The rest of the main rounds featured matched declarations, except that two of Rikki's answers were invalid; that allowed Brett to extend his lead considerably. Neither ended up solving the tough conundrum, and Brett won comfortably by 59 to 29.
I played well, getting a maximum game in the main rounds. That was good, but the conundrum proved extremely difficult for me and so the maximum game slipped through my fingers again. Still, it was a welcome bit of form after some of last week's results.
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Ep 90: Phil Moore, Brett Chaiyawat (November 9, 2012; originally aired December 3, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Phil Moore is back for his third night, and with the finals series so close he is the last contender for a finals berth. Richard asks which facet of the game Phil favours, and Phil responds that before he started he thought that he handled them equally well, but now he thinks that his letters are actually better. He adds that his children (Ellen and John, who are still in primary school) like to do the numbers.
Tonight's challenger is Brett Chaiyawat, an auditor who enjoys playing games based on thinking and strategy. That covers a wide range of territory, but the one he specifically mentions is a card game based on Star Wars. Brett expounds that the strategic part comes where you have, say, a thousand cards to choose from and you have to choose sixty of them to make up the deck which you will play with. He adds that he has done pretty well in that game, being number one in Australia and then representing Australia in the world championships. That was in 1997, I believe, but I can't find much useful information about it online.
It ended up being a rather low scoring game, with each contestant having an invalid word, an invalid numbers solution, and nothing to declare in a numbers round. No round had both contestants scoring, and although there were some pretty reasonable words found the scores were still in the low twenties going into the conundrum. Neither managed to solve it, and it was Brett who emerged with the win, 25 to 21.
I had one of my best games for a while, with only one round not maximal. I saw the best answer after time but might not have risked it in practice. I took around six seconds to solve the conundrum, and I'm OK with that. A good game on which to finish the week.
Phil Moore is back for his third night, and with the finals series so close he is the last contender for a finals berth. Richard asks which facet of the game Phil favours, and Phil responds that before he started he thought that he handled them equally well, but now he thinks that his letters are actually better. He adds that his children (Ellen and John, who are still in primary school) like to do the numbers.
Tonight's challenger is Brett Chaiyawat, an auditor who enjoys playing games based on thinking and strategy. That covers a wide range of territory, but the one he specifically mentions is a card game based on Star Wars. Brett expounds that the strategic part comes where you have, say, a thousand cards to choose from and you have to choose sixty of them to make up the deck which you will play with. He adds that he has done pretty well in that game, being number one in Australia and then representing Australia in the world championships. That was in 1997, I believe, but I can't find much useful information about it online.
It ended up being a rather low scoring game, with each contestant having an invalid word, an invalid numbers solution, and nothing to declare in a numbers round. No round had both contestants scoring, and although there were some pretty reasonable words found the scores were still in the low twenties going into the conundrum. Neither managed to solve it, and it was Brett who emerged with the win, 25 to 21.
I had one of my best games for a while, with only one round not maximal. I saw the best answer after time but might not have risked it in practice. I took around six seconds to solve the conundrum, and I'm OK with that. A good game on which to finish the week.
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