7 ms·

I was at the World Scrabble Championships in Prague a few years ago (with Nigel Richards). The amazing thing was how many of the highest-level Scrabble players

by nippoo 6y ago

I was at the World Scrabble Championships in Prague a few years ago (with Nigel Richards). The amazing thing was how many of the highest-level Scrabble players were Thai and spoke barely any English. There are about 200,000 words in the Scrabble dictionary and and an average English speaker only knows 40,000. So knowing the language doesn't give a huge advantage, and all competitors end up spending years memorising word lists with no definitions - at a high level it's basically just a combinatorics game. The majority of the English-speaking competitors were mathematicians / scientists, rather than linguists for similar reasons. This sometimes has amusing repercussions - the world no 2 at the time, who was Thai, played the word "hetairas" and then challenged the word "twigs"...

peteretep 6y ago
On Thais and Scrabble: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/1024881/thais-master-scrabble-without-english https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/1024881...
nostromo95 6y ago
Honestly knowing just the spellings and not the meanings / useage contexts behind the words strikes me as an advantage since you’re as likely to weight “obscure” words as common words in your internal search algorithm. Knowing the language I feel must bias you.
- Waterluvian 6y ago
  Exactly what I was thinking. My brain works against me when I’m trying to recall obscure words that fit a pattern when making a limerick or whatnot.
- furyofantares 6y ago
  > internal search algorithm A cool thing you can do is memorize the words two ways, how it's spelled and also with the letters rearranged alphabetically. That way when you arrange your tiles alphabetically you can just see all the words you've memorized this way that you have or are close to.
  - BelleOfTheBall 6y ago
    Wouldn't that be an enormous timesink though? You basically have to memorize the dictionary... and then memorize it again but in a more complicated way.
    - t0mas88 6y ago
      Learning pairs (normal, alphabetical) doesn't take anything like twice as long as just learning the normal word. Our brain is funny with associating things, especially if there is some logic to it like always rearranging the characters in the first word alphabetically.
    - stormdennis 6y ago
      Getting to the top at almost any activity is a massive timesink. Lot to be said for not being too competitive.
  - stormdennis 6y ago
    I never heard of that before, cool idea.
Benjammer 6y ago
At the highest levels, Scrabble is not a word game at all. It's a territory control game with 200,000 different valid ways to play resources.
- mkl 6y ago
  Territory control? Either player can build off any word, so I don't think you can control any territory. You capture valuable squares before your opponent can when you have the opportunity, because unused squares are no man's land, and up for grabs.
  - TheNorthman 6y ago
    Because Scrabble is turn based, any opportunities you create for yourself, you create for your opponent first. Making sure you don't make `valuable squares' available to your opponent is, arguably, more essential to winning than claiming them for yourself.
    - Someone 6y ago
      ‘scorched earth’, wasting a valuable square on a low-scoring move, say (as an extreme example) by playing a blank tile on a triple-character square, just to deny the next player from using it, can also be a valuable tactic at times. Many people don’t realize that, in competitive games, the goal isn’t to make a high score, it is to make a score that’s higher than that of your opponents. Another game where many players dont realize that is Twister (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(game) ). You shouldn’t play to make it easy for yourself to stay in play, you should play to make it easier for you than for your opponents to stay in play. In general, that means occupying circles close to your opponent, rather than those easily reachable by you. You should try to ‘lock’ your opponents in a corner of the playing area.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    You control the 'territory' (squares) by using them, denying them to your opponent.

by nippoo 6y ago

peteretep 6y ago

On Thais and Scrabble: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/1024881/thais-master-scrabble-without-english https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/1024881...

nostromo95 6y ago

Honestly knowing just the spellings and not the meanings / useage contexts behind the words strikes me as an advantage since you’re as likely to weight “obscure” words as common words in your internal search algorithm. Knowing the language I feel must bias you.

Waterluvian 6y ago
Exactly what I was thinking. My brain works against me when I’m trying to recall obscure words that fit a pattern when making a limerick or whatnot.
furyofantares 6y ago
> internal search algorithm A cool thing you can do is memorize the words two ways, how it's spelled and also with the letters rearranged alphabetically. That way when you arrange your tiles alphabetically you can just see all the words you've memorized this way that you have or are close to.
- BelleOfTheBall 6y ago
  Wouldn't that be an enormous timesink though? You basically have to memorize the dictionary... and then memorize it again but in a more complicated way.
  - t0mas88 6y ago
    Learning pairs (normal, alphabetical) doesn't take anything like twice as long as just learning the normal word. Our brain is funny with associating things, especially if there is some logic to it like always rearranging the characters in the first word alphabetically.
  - stormdennis 6y ago
    Getting to the top at almost any activity is a massive timesink. Lot to be said for not being too competitive.
- stormdennis 6y ago
  I never heard of that before, cool idea.

Benjammer 6y ago

At the highest levels, Scrabble is not a word game at all. It's a territory control game with 200,000 different valid ways to play resources.

mkl 6y ago
Territory control? Either player can build off any word, so I don't think you can control any territory. You capture valuable squares before your opponent can when you have the opportunity, because unused squares are no man's land, and up for grabs.
- TheNorthman 6y ago
  Because Scrabble is turn based, any opportunities you create for yourself, you create for your opponent first. Making sure you don't make `valuable squares' available to your opponent is, arguably, more essential to winning than claiming them for yourself.
  - Someone 6y ago
    ‘scorched earth’, wasting a valuable square on a low-scoring move, say (as an extreme example) by playing a blank tile on a triple-character square, just to deny the next player from using it, can also be a valuable tactic at times. Many people don’t realize that, in competitive games, the goal isn’t to make a high score, it is to make a score that’s higher than that of your opponents. Another game where many players dont realize that is Twister (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(game) ). You shouldn’t play to make it easy for yourself to stay in play, you should play to make it easier for you than for your opponents to stay in play. In general, that means occupying circles close to your opponent, rather than those easily reachable by you. You should try to ‘lock’ your opponents in a corner of the playing area.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  You control the 'territory' (squares) by using them, denying them to your opponent.