I just had a thoroughly exciting game against Quackle, including a triple-triple that got blocked, and a nine-letter triple-triple that didn't. But I still lost. Here it is in all its glory: http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=5051#0.

It's interesting to note that none of my opponents at Brantford scored in the 400s - the people I lost to scored in the 500s, and the people I beat scored in the 300s. All in all, I was 5-2 +155, fourth place. They only paid out to third in division 1, so I didn't come home with any prize money, but I did win a bottle of Canadian Club (which is probably the only time I'll be able to say that). My thoroughly pedestrian bingo list:

NATTERS, ORIGINS, DISTRAIN / GROINED, PERUSAL, BOOGIEs
SNARERS / rETINaS
none / JETTiES, IdEATING, ELOPING
DUDGEONS / WEARING
GLASnOST, VITtLES / PUNTING
HoLSTEIN, SANTERA, PROLONgS  / none
PEWTeRS / none

I flat-out missed one bingo, UNSTAcKS, and chickened out on one, REEDIFY (I thought it was #, like REAEDIFY#).

Most of this game is pretty straightforward, but there was one very interesting position, unlike anything I've ever encountered. The position in question is move 7. Feedback is much appreciated. (I forgot to mention it in the commentary, but LI 1H is another move which should be considered. Actually, it's more my style than the higher-scoring row 1 plays.)

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=4840#0

From Facebook Scrabble this time. But I played HeDONIST (which is a better play, anyway), because its dictionary doesn't have 9s. Surprisingly, there are no sevens in DINOST?. Click the pic to enlarge.

There's a Guatemalan language called Tektitek. Disappointingly, it's not good in Spanish Scrabble, or else we'd have an awesome hooking possibility in multilingual Scrabble.

Here's one of the most enjoyable games from Dayton, round 19 versus Jan Dixon. Even if you don't look at the whole game, you should check out the endgame, in which Jan sets up a trap which would have been a totally awesome win for her if it had worked out. Fortunately for me, I foresaw it.

Watch the game here: http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=4293#0

I had lots of fun at my first Nationals, especially meeting dozens of new people (many of whom I already knew from ISC and/or LJ but had never met in person). Frank's play reading was fun too.

I went 16.5-14.5 +34, 43rd place, which isn't as good as I had hoped, but as good as I deserve considered how mediocrely* I played. I made LOTS of word knowledge errors, which is strange, because word knowledge has been my strong point in the past. Lately I've gotten complacent and pretty much stopped studying, so I was doubting all sorts of things in Dayton. I was also missing bingos, which I never used to do much - sometimes difficult stuff like fREEHOLD, sometimes easy stuff like STEWARD.

But one aspect of my game which was much improved was my pre-endgame and endgame. I won all my close games but two, both of which had unwinnable endgames. I'll probably post my day five games at some point; they were all fun, close games. I tied one, won another by 2, and won the third by 37. In the third, perfect play by my opponent would have led to a 1-point win for me, so he opted to challenge my play of MAYING. There were plenty of games where I managed to steal games which I should've lost because my opponents had less than perfect pre-endgame or endgame play.

So overall I think I performed at about my rating level, and I gained a few points, so I can't complain. But now I'm motivated to actually become good at this game, which shouldn't be too hard if I can get my word knowledge to where it used to be.

Congrats to Dave Wiegand, and everyone else who did well, especially fellow Canadian Chris Sykes, who isn't very well known in the States, but he should be.

EDIT: I didn't actually miss fREEHOLD. Yay!

Less than a week until Dayton, but strangely enough I've hardly been thinking about Scrabble lately, and I haven't studied in at least a week. Maybe the imminence of Dayton will kick in soon and I'll actually get some studying done.

It turns out Ogden Nash was wrong: http://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enCA322CA322&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q="large+laterally+linked+archaean+magma+anomaly"

EDIT: link is being lame, but you can just do a Google search for "large laterally linked archaean magma anomaly"

From Catullus 11:

Cum suis vivat valeatque moechis,
Quos simul complexa tenet trecentos,
Nullum amans vere, sed identidem omnium
Ilia rumpens.

I was randomly inspired yesterday to write down some of my thoughts on literary criticism in a somewhat essayistic form. I'm posting it here because I don't really know what else to do with it, although I might try to publish it in some venue once I clean up the writing.

( Read more )

 Someone recently mentioned that famous study which suggested that good chess players see the board holistically, not as a bunch of individual pieces. They set up chess positions and gave the participants a certain amount of time to memorize the position, and found that the chess masters outperformed the novices when the position was one which could actually come up in a game, but not when it was just an arbitrary arrangement of pieces.

The same principle applies to Scrabble, except much more weakly, because the individual properties of letters and words are a lot more salient. There are only six different chess pieces, each of which behave in set ways, but there are twenty-six Scrabble pieces, each with their own attributes, and they take on new attributes when they're used to make words. (Hooks, extensions, etc.)

In any case, I've recently been working on seeing the board more holistically, which helps with board control. So yesterday at club I had basically gotten the board to where I wanted it, except there was one important bingo line I had to block, because I had left a dangling noun which could be S-hooked. So I made a blocking play. But then I actually looked at the noun and noticed it was SWARAJ, which of course doesn't take an S.

I think this is the first time I've made a mistake because I was considering the position too broadly and not paying attention to the individual words. Anyway, here's the annotated game: http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=3960#0. Other than that play, there are three plays I consider errors (one word knowledge, one board vision, one just being dumb).

My new hobby is trying to get away with phonies on the first turn at club. The opening play is no better than any other time to phony, but it feels like it doesn't really matter if it gets challenged off because it's just as if your opponent were going first. I also try only to play phonies which are good in Collins. Today I got away with WOORARA# (though my opponent held it for about a minute, not that that means much since she also held PARDINE, BODEGAs, and FAIENCES), after getting away with OFFEREE# a few weeks ago. I also tried AGUED#, but it didn't stay.

Speaking of Collins:  a while ago I was playing a Quizbowl tournament and there was a tossup about the sociological concept of family. The opening mentioned something like "the punaluan# and syndyasmian# types of this institution..." Now, I don't know the first thing about Morgan's Ancient Society, but I do know that Zyzzyva defines PUNALUA# as "a system of group marriages," so I buzzed in and said "Marriage." But it turns out punaluan# and syndyasmian# are two of the five forms of family described by Lewis Morgan. I guess the lesson is that Scrabble knowledge doesn't always work in the real world.

 Today at club I missed the bingo in TRIGAL? through AN, shamefully. I did, however, find the bingo in AAALNRT through DE, though unfortunately it's Spanish and not English. And there wasn't even a P to play through.

 One of the players at club found the seven in this rack yesterday, which impressed me.

CEIITT? has one seven.
That seven plus a blank has one eight.
That eight plus a blank has one nine (two in Collins).

 The chord progression in the bassline of At the Drive-In's "Quarantined" is really familiar, but for the life of me I can't remember what other song it's used in.

 Last day of classes was yesterday. So, here's a list of the books I've read this year (school year, because who measures their life by calendar years?). Ones I liked get pluses, ones I disliked get minuses, and ones I'm pretty much neutral towards get nothing.

I decided to practise my Collins against Quackle yesterday. I quit after it told me that I missed (EL)AIOSOME# as a six-tile overlap.

I'm playing Collins against Quackle, who opens with CH#, H on the star. My rack is AEEFPR?.