scrabbling

How I improve my word knowledge.

Tue, 20 Jan 2015 10:21:53 +0100

My number preparation tool is the site Aerolith.org. The principles behind the word walls and the flashcards very much suit my learning style. As I am very fair with myself, I refuse to move on until I develop some confidence that I have retained the words in my system. I have now journeyed on to alphagram group 540 - 550.

I have created a video showing my practice routine. The reason I do this is only to give other scrabble players a chance to understand my routine as well as to take suggestions as to how I could improve. A normal routine would take between 10 and 20 minutes depending on how difficult I find the set.

The video can be seen here.

The routine is one that is based on the person practising being honest with themselves and having a desire to increase their word knowledge.

The true benefit of familiarising oneself with the words comes out in game play, when you unscramble a set of letters you are sure you have typed at least 20 times on a screen.

Happy scrabbling!

New Year... New Words

Tue, 06 Jan 2015 07:43:32 +0100

Finally made it 500.

So far I have familiarised myself with the 'vowel set' for both 7 and 8s, which has improved my play considerably.

Last year September, I set myself a target of covering the first 500 most probable bingoes in scrabble. Using a combination of Zyzzyva and Aerolith.org, I have finally achieved my scrabble target. This was not a smooth ride as I have not been as committed as I should be. However, comparing my progress now with where I was a year ago, has made me realise how important it is to study word lists.

So now I am at my success, I have resolved to get to 1500. To be fair whenever I do study I normal cover about 10 alphagrams per session. So I project I will need to put aside 100 days throughout the year to be successful. We will see. I also aim to enter at least 1 rated tourney this year. Strangely enough I still have a provisional rating from ABSP- 105.

I lived in England for 10 years and it is only while living overseas, I am realising how much scrabble was played there. I feel mildly jealous. However, my scrabble epiphany came in the Gulf in Oman. With MSI events around the country, I suspect with my current practice regime and better understanding of rack leave, I could really improve under tournament conditions.
Anyway I am on to 520 now and has just met the new words LAETARE and SIENITE. It was also good to be sure that ADORNER and READORN are actually words. Another Interesting one is ATTONES(D) , with two Ts.

Practice makes perfect, I am even now being accused on ISC as someone who uses an anagrammer. So I guess I must be improving!

One of the things that needs to improve here in Oman is the inclusion of Omanis in the Scrabble scene. For a long time the scene has been the domain of expatriates mainly from the subcontinent. For the pastime to become a popular endeavour more club activity is required. From my understanding scrabble playing in Oman is at its lowest for the past 20 years. It is time to open the sport to include Omani Nationals. How do we do this? I am not sure but it must be an imperative for the sport to survive. The benefits are invaluable for a country that aims to achieve full bilinguality in its educated class.

More new words and more hopes for 2015.

One Way to work with Five Vowels

Thu, 07 Aug 2014 09:23:52 +0100

Having the five vowels on your rack is no the ideal situation to be in. The first time, from my recollection this happened to me, I concluded that there was a conspiracy against me and it was never-ending. Being a novice, I play scrabble from words I learn through the course of playing or in my natural interaction through reading.

For very important reasons, this is a bad idea if you intend to develop and challenge the far more clued up scrabble players on the competitive scene. I cannot overstate my opinion that there is a limit to the the number of words that can be learned by sheer brute force memory.

So this situation led me to investigate the list of sevens that included the five vowels. A quick search produced five words seen below.

EULOGIA
MOINEAU
DOULEIA
SEQUOIA
MIAOUED

The natural progression from this list is to study the list of eights too . Now how does this work in practice?

The way I maximize the opportunities presented with the five vowels is at first I look out for it. Then I apply the following process.

1. Is it a known bingo from the list of five shown above?
2. Can I make an eight-letter word using five vowels?
3. Can I create a fifth vowel with one on the board already?
4. Can I use my blank as the fifth vowel?
5. Can I use my blank as a fourth vowel and combine with one already open on the board?

This strategy works well if you study and are quite confident that you will recall these set lists. This has worked very well for me and has seen me play DOULEIA a few times. Learning the hooks for the words will always improve your chances of success.

Great scrabbling!

Word Lists Anyone?

Tue, 08 Jul 2014 12:42:43 +0100

Is it possible to study word lists and then remember them during a game just like that? Some players do have the unusual ability of a super memory. Once words go into the system, it remains there and comes out at the perfect time for maximum scores. But how many of us have this inhuman skill or blessing? Very few, I must admit, and certainly not me. So how does one overcome this resource deficit in the heat of battle against a computer-brained scrabble scoring anagramming genius without using google glass with Quackle in the background? Pray for luck or find ways to improve recollection.

It’s like in school and you had to remember a gargantuan amount of facts for your Biology or History exams, that’s virtually impossible to memorize. Do you cry? Yes, but do you give up? Maybe, but do you give in? Never. We find ways to be successful and we create mnemonics and hope.

I have come up with my own ways of remembering and it is not cramming useless lists into my system hoping to spring them on an unsuspecting expert. I have tried to create study lists based on situations that I find difficult during the course of a game. For example, how about a rack with V- I – I – I and three others. Aaargh! You never forget these racks do you? Normally right after you play a bingo or at the start of the game, they jump right at you and you scream- How unfair?. No reasonable good player would allow this to happen through normal play.

Interestingly, I decided to turn these wretched scenarios into an advantage, by creating lists of possible sevens. So I fired up Zyzzyva and quizzed VIII???. The possible words? Only six! Easy list to remember right and could score a bingo too. Super!

How many new words here for you? 10 minutes of practice and you have this in your head for a ‘situation’. The potential for improvement from this is even more compelling when you check the list for VIII????. Here you will find 51 possibilities.

The idea here is not to just practice boring lists of meaningless words but to focus on situations you have encountered in your game and study lists that matches that. The reason this is a good way of studying is that rack tends to match your playing style and learning how to deal with the consequences of your strategies will go a long way towards improvement.

What about CIII? For 7 and 8 letters? Good luck and keep scrabbling.

Easy Words ....unusual words

Fri, 11 Apr 2014 04:56:51 +0100

I just lost a game in the FSL because I simply didn't realise that CIDER took an A to make ACIDER. This shows how important is the value of hooks in the game. On my rack I had ACEIRTT, immediately spotted CATTIER (standard -IER), a few seconds later remembered from word study that CATTIER had two other anagrams - CITRATE and the more unusual ATRETIC.

Had I played ATRETIC, - live it would seem as if I had studied a word list and some how learned this unusual word or online, depends on the player, cheating claims would be forthcoming. But I didn't cram new words in hoping to one day spring them on unwitting players. Simply by finding CATTIER on my rack. Easy words lead to unusual words.

For me easy words are words that can be found by using basic anagram skills ie prefix and suffix or standard everyday usage words like MOTHERS ( SMOTHER - or the more difficult to find in a game, THERMOS). This technique has helped to make a big improvement in my word recollection during a game particularly during live play. I must confess that I only play very seriously towards the end during an online game.
I will explain my approach using the word wall from my last post. The idea is to explain my thinking and how basic words leads to improving your scrabble vocabulary with systematic practice. Last time I posted I talked about using Aerolith.org and its wordwalls. Here is the first wordwall I conducted with a probability search:

AEINORT is considered to have the highest probability of occurring as a playable bingo. Prior to practising, I had no idea what word could be formed from this alphagram. Normally with these letters on my rack I would try -TION, or -ER, or -IER, or - OR, or - INE etc, wasting valuable time in the process and eventually losing by time or forced to hurry. I once was deducted 70 points for using an extra 7 mins in a 25 mins game. Unaware of the rule that involved giving 10 points for each extra used minute or part thereof! I digress...

So an analysis of the first wordwall against my then knowledge follows. I now know every word on the list but I will be honest and share the extent of my basic bingo knowledge in September 2013. I will use Y for words I knew beforehand and N for new words:

AEIORST - OTARIES (N) , OARIEST (N) under pressure I could make a wild guess at OARIEST, but wouldn't be sure

AEIONRS - ERASION (Y) even though I wouldn't be entirely sure if it was a word , but I would have played it anyway.

AEIGOTR - GOATIER (Y) I wouldn't be sure of this but I would have played with fingers crossed for no challenge

ADEINOR - ANEROID (N) seen it in the past but cannot find it when it is on my rack - took a while to learn this word

AEEIORT - ETAERIO (N!) if someone played this against me online, I used to assume they were cheating...

AEILNOR - ALERION (N), AILERON (N), ALIENOR (Y) The last word I would eventually locate and play

AEILNOT - ELATION (Y), TOENAIL (N) odd one is TOENAIL, one word? ... two words? now I know it is in ELATION

AEINORT - NOTAIRE (N), OTARINE (N) ...the most probable letters and I did not know any of the words possible

AEEINRT - RETINAE (Y), TRAINEE (Y), ARENITE (N) TRAINEE has two more anagrams - good to know

AEINOST - ATONIES (Y) learned this playing on ISC through opponents

Out of 10 (with 17 words) basic and highly probable racks I knew only 7 for sure.

With consistent word study I have fixed this deficit and now coupled with better tile management I am already feeling the benefits with a noticeable improvement in my game. In my next post I will examine another word wall maybe 11 - 20. At this point I am now at 350. That is I have worked through the probable 1 - 350 racks and remembers about 97% of them. My target? 1000 by 2015.

CIAO

I am here, take me scrabble!

Sat, 05 Apr 2014 07:29:38 +0100

I have decided to devote the rest of my gaming life to improve my scrabble. I have played a bit of chess but alas no improvement. To be fair, I struggle to remember the variations and always missed tactical moves even novices find easy. So after years of buying chess books and watching chess videos and joining ICC and playchess.com, I gave up - for now...

Aerolith.org was first introduced to me by the scholarly ebook - The Scrabble Players' Handbook- a masterful collection of important insights into the technical side of scrabble. Immediately I realised how little I knew of scrabble.

Once I started to play competitively, I reflected on my game and concluded that
1. I had a good retention of words
2. I had a good base knowledge of words
3. I knew all the two-letter words
4. I could find bingoes on my rack
5. I could waste lots of time searching for bingoes that did not exist
6. I wasn't sure of words my oponents played - so inevitably I challenged basic words

The list goes on. I assessed that my biggest strength, was bingoes. I could anagram fairly well but I was limited to playing words I knew... I would lose my play trying for a words outside of my knowledge.

This really bothered me, I couldn't see how to improve. I remember one night playing against a guy from Bahrain and he played ERIONITE, I observed another game and I saw TEOSINTE (NOISETTE). I was in awe. I didn't even knew these words eisted in the first place yet players were not only playing them but were doing so unchallenged too! It dawned on me then I needed to learn new words and I needed a plan. NOW!

I tried a Wordwall (on Aerolith) and could only muster about 12% in 4 mins. Someone had gotten 100%! Wow. A wordwall looks like this:

After a few days I realised that while a learned a few words, I was not progressing systematically. I couldn't track my improvement or even measure it. Then I stumbled onto probability search. Eureka! And Alphagrams. I selected 7s and 1 to 10. Effectively, I asked the engine to challenge me on the first most probable alphagrams on 7-tile rack.
I set myself the challenge of learning 10 new alphagrams per study session. My first 10 are shown bleow:

Next post, I will talk about what I learnt from the WW above.