As a Nigerian, this makes me absurdly proud. As a mathematician, I am especially proud of the game-theoretic aspect of the win.
Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy
31–40 of 83 posts
Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy
#32"Nigeria is beating the West at its own board game" I know that the definition of "the West" is pretty vague, but this journalism seems a decade or two behind its time with its "us and them" style. Scrabble doesn't belong to Europe/USA and Nigeria fits geographically, politically, economically, and religiously into common definitions of "the West".
economically? GDP - per capita $1091.64
Are you talking about Niger, not Nigeria? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PP...
Nigeria has a GDP per capita of about $6100. Have I misunderstood that page?
Not that far off some EU countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Eu...
Country CIA[4] 2010 Estimation
Moldova 1,433
Kosovo 1,813
Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,500
Albania 4,000
Ukraine 4,350
Republic of Macedonia 4,669
Belarus 5,500Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy
#33If I understand this correctly, they are applying the Chess strategy of thinking n-moves ahead to Scrabble, where the opponent's tiles are hidden and ones own future tiles are mostly unknown. If you use all the tiles, on the upside you get +50 extra points. The downside is that you leave a lot more room for the opponent to score big since there are more letters on board after your move. Also, you have no control on y…
[deleted]
Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy
#34If I understand this correctly, they are applying the Chess strategy of thinking n-moves ahead to Scrabble, where the opponent's tiles are hidden and ones own future tiles are mostly unknown. If you use all the tiles, on the upside you get +50 extra points. The downside is that you leave a lot more room for the opponent to score big since there are more letters on board after your move. Also, you have no control on y…
"they are applying the Chess strategy of thinking n-moves ahead to Scrabble" That isn't new, what is new is that they (learni from analysis of games played by computer) show is that the conventional strategy favours scoring points too much over keeping a rack that allows you to score decently in future moves and preventing your opponent from scoring heavily. This is presented as a totally new strategy, but looking at…
OK you guys. Here's the serious bit then:
>> McKay probably saw this as a bit of a holiday, while the Nigerians saw it as work.
That's probably his way of unwinding and managing his psychology after a match. It's a bit misleading for the article to bring it up as a disadvantage since he's obviously a strong player who has probably competed for some time, so he should be expected to know what works for him.
Also, you can perfectly well go to the pub without coming back with your pants on your head. I usually drink half a glass of wine, then go home and code. No reason why the guy didn't have a light drink then got back to his hotel and trained.
By contrast, the Nigerian's practice of playing 48-hour games and studying non-stop during their flight sounds more performance-degrading to me (having played a board game competitively, I won't say which). But, again: what works for them works for them.
Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
economically? GDP - per capita $1091.64
Are you talking about Niger, not Nigeria? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PP... Nigeria has a GDP per capita of about $6100. Have I misunderstood that page? Not that far off some EU countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Eu... Country CIA[4] 2010 Estimation Moldova 1,433 Kosovo 1,813 Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,500 Albania 4,000 Ukraine 4,350 Republic of Macedonia…
While some of those countries may be European, none are EU member states.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_state_of_the_European...
Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy
#36More counterintuitive Scrabble facts: the French Scrabble world champion is from New Zealand and doesn't speak French. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/21/424980378/...
To be fair, he can now speak French words . He just has no idea what they mean.
I doubt he can speak them, per se. French pronounciation can be quite tricky.
Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
economically? GDP - per capita $1091.64
Are you talking about Niger, not Nigeria? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PP... Nigeria has a GDP per capita of about $6100. Have I misunderstood that page? Not that far off some EU countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Eu... Country CIA[4] 2010 Estimation Moldova 1,433 Kosovo 1,813 Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,500 Albania 4,000 Ukraine 4,350 Republic of Macedonia…
Yes, you have misunderstood: it's GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP), not actual dollars. Roughly speaking, the hypothetical average Nigerian has an actual dollar income of $1000, but the spending power of somebody earning $6100 in the US.
Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, he can now speak French words . He just has no idea what they mean.
I doubt he can speak them, per se. French pronounciation can be quite tricky.
He probably can speak them, but maybe it will cause the opponents to start chuckling about his bad pronunciation. This would probably only help him as it makes him look stupid.
Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy
#39Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy
#40As a Nigerian, this makes me absurdly proud. As a mathematician, I am especially proud of the game-theoretic aspect of the win.
I'm interested in how the odds change as tiles are played. When, say, the J and both Vs and Ws have been played, the remaining tiles are less dangerous.