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Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy

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Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy

#41

Post by nl »

sixhobbits wrote: post #6

"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".

Nigeria fits geographically, politically, economically, and religiously into common definitions of "the West"

Not really. I can't see a single definition of "the West" on the Wikipedia page[1] that would fit Nigeria. I'll concede it it part of West Africa, though!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world

Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy

#42

Post by dalke »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #29
arcticfox wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scrabble quite literally was invented by and belongs to an American company. And you're basically just asking for the definition of "the West" to be rewritten for some reason: - culturally, I think it's a disservice to Nigeria to call it "Western", which usually means descended from the European tradition. Nigerians have their own ancient history, whereas direct descendants of European immigrants (e.g. most Americans…

- religiously, Nigeria is >50% Muslim. You know, I might be misreading this but I think you mean Western society is, by contrast, Christian. The West has made a big todo about being secular on a national level, regardless of what the population believes or does not believe. In some countries, the people are also largely a-religious. There's culture war, check, but to say that a nation's religion plays any role in whe…

You are misreading. Do you say that Japan and S. Korea are part of the West? Certainly "Westernized", but not "West", given the different history and cultural traditions. One example is religious differences like Shintoism, but there are many others.

I believe the argument is that Nigeria should be seen the same way. While Westernized, to place it under the category "West" also serves to minimize its own long historical and cultural history which is independent of the European tradition.

If you say that Japan is part of the West, then I can agree that Nigeria could also be part of the West, but disagree that it's a useful categorization. We have other terms, like "industrialized", which are less culturally burdened.

Otherwise, Nigeria is not part of the West in the same way that Japan is not part of the West.

Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy

#43

Post by imgabe »

I've been playing Words with Friends more or less constantly for the past 5 years or so and I've come to pretty much the same conclusion. It's far more important to deny your opponent the opportunity to get valuable triple/double letter or work scores than it is to always grab them yourself.

If you do extend to get a bonus tile, make sure the potential scoring opportunity is limited. Things like:

1. Don't leave a vowel next to a triple letter score in line with a triple word score - that leaves an opening for a valuable consonant to start a word and end on the triple word score.

2. If you pass parallel to a triple letter tile, beware of having a vowel adjacent to the tile and a consonant after it. Especially if the vowel is A, I, or O as these form two letter words with Z, Q, and J respectively. If they can get get for example JO going in two directions on a triple letter that's 60+ points.

3. Always be aware of whether the J, Q, Z, X have been played or not.

4. Sometimes it's better to play a less valuable word if it helps you get rid of difficult letters like too many vowels or consonants in hopes that the next draw will even out your hand and let you play a better word.

I think WWF is a little different because the tiles permit higher scoring possibilities than Scrabble, but I imagine the strategies are much the same.

Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy

#44

Post by Theodores »

In my younger years I played Scrabble quite obsessively, sometimes in 36 hour long sessions with a dozen of us playing. Against mere mortals (i.e. those that dn't know all 102 two letter words) I considered myself unbeatable.

However, several years after my 'peak Scrabble' days, I found myself in a rural pub with not a lot to do than play the game, against someone who really didn't have the wordplay for it. Much to my horror I lost!!! His 'strategy' was to play 2 or 3 letter words, nothing longer, ever... He just lacked the tiles and vocabulary for longer words. Consequently the whole top left of the board had no places to go, totally locked out by little words.

Amongst my normal Scrabble playing friends I always played an open game, in contrast my 2-3 letter competitor played a closed game, not that that was deliberate.

Therefore, if you are not playing against a pro, try 2-3 letters rather than five - you really could win against those far more experienced than you.

Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy

#45

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

imgabe wrote: post #43

I've been playing Words with Friends more or less constantly for the past 5 years or so and I've come to pretty much the same conclusion. It's far more important to deny your opponent the opportunity to get valuable triple/double letter or work scores than it is to always grab them yourself. If you do extend to get a bonus tile, make sure the potential scoring opportunity is limited. Things like: 1. Don't leave a vow…

WWF forces you to focus more on the board strategy due to the mechanics of the game being different than Scrabble: the player doesn't have to actually know and/or memorize the words they are playing, they can just attempt as many high scoring combinations they want until they get a hit in the game's dictionary database.

Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy

#46

Post by daniel-levin »

chime wrote: post #4

If 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…

That last sentence is the real piece of news here - the absolute core of the issue: Nigerians have been doing extremely well at Scrabble by applying non-greedy strategies. It seems obvious in retrospect that a game like Scrabble is not played optimally by making greedy choices.

Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy

#49

Post by jrochkind1 »

f_allwein wrote: post #11

If you watch the video, one big win for Jighere was to play QUIZ (93) on a triple word score field. This was right after a round where he did play 8 letters, which, according to the short word strategy, he should not have done. So while he did manage this well, there was also good bit of luck involved. Or maybe it's good to have a strategy, but sometimes you need to ignore it.

Eh, from the article it's clear it's really a "rack management strategy", not a "short word strategy." An intense rack management strategy leads to more short words than you might expect, but does not rule out long words in certain circumstances.

Re: Nigerians Dominate Scrabble Tournaments Using Five-Letter Word Strategy

#50

Post by absolutenumber »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #34
Someone wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

Stop.Just stop.You guys always begrudge success when Africans do good things.It is pathetic and low.You ought to learn to appreciate and celebrate people when they work hard to achieve success rather looking for ways to belittle their achievements.
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