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Carpenter Breaks Previous Scrabble Point Record
theodp writes "Unimpressed by Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game? Think Don Larsen's perfect World Series game was no big deal? How about Michael Cresta's 830-point Scrabble game? Not only did Cresta shatter a 13 year-old record for the highest sanctioned Scrabble score in North America, he also set a new record for the most points on a single turn — 365, for QUIXOTRY."
Is this the English or Klingon version?
What kind of petaQ would play scrabble?
I just had an horrible vision of this guy being crucified to a windmill by some other player.
What annoys me about Scrabble is the dictionary used. The rules I possess state the Chambers 20th Century is to be used (actually a problem as my edition hails from 1908 and lacks a fair few words), but now you are required to use the authorised Scrabble (R)(C)(TM)(IP) dictionary which has a whole load of bollocks two letter words. No longer is Scrabble about vocabulary - simply memorising swathes of daft vowel/consonant combinations seems to work. Yes, there is a difference.
Oh arse
Yeah I think they may be using the Klingon version. I know you can use slang in the official rules but some of the words I saw on their board I couldnt find on dictionary.com at least. ;-)
Strictly the Queen's English when I play.
is to play badly?
That's interesting to know. Wonder if that works in poker...
Yeah, that's a very convenient way to cheat. After all 'Colour' is worth more points than 'Color'.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
“A, uh, big, dum, balding, North American ape.”
Why bother.
Op and za are abbreviations, apparently. ISTR the rules didn't allow them, but it's been a while since I played.
According to the script the exact line is: “Kwyjibo. Uh... a big, dumb, balding North American ape. With no chin.”
Why bother.
Essentially competition scrabble is tiered like similar games (chess, checkers). Hence you have an elitist group that looks down on others and seems to have no problem dismissing the accomplishments of others. Basically the old "we're much smarter than them, its just a fluke, DUMB luck". In other words, how can they give any credit to their accomplishment as they would never associate with the likes of those "people"
Two guys both out playing to win, just not playing to win by rules established by the high brows. Of course they could take risks, they are more concerned with the fun aspects than the competitve ones. That alone puts them higher up in the scrabble echelon for me as they remember one of the most important parts of gaming; having fun
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
So, basically, two guys claim to have been playing Scrabble in a basement when miraculously one of them spell a dubiously-admitted word riddled with rare letters on a triple bonus. There's no official judge or standards body monitoring this hobbyist competition.
And we're supposed to believe them because it took place in a church?
Next week, Salon will report about the guy in a threelegged race at the Scientology picnic who tripped on a sprinkler and wound up beating Carl Lewis' long jump distances.
FTA: If 830--or any record--happens as a result of ... the pursuit of a good time, should it count? Or should records be reserved for those who have earned the right to set them, and who set them in expert fashion?
What kind of argument is that?
Should we award the fastest 100-m runner, or should we only award people that run really fast to work?
He studied mercilessly words starting with F and Q, and that's where today's advantage is created - by focusing on a certain area.
If every single one of us would study everything and did all sports, we would be poor at everything.
He wanted a record, he got it. Stop whining.
there is no issue with my network
Right... but, then you look at all the new words that have been added in the latest update of the dictionary, and you have to admit that it was much harder for an old-time player to score high when he wasn't allowed to use words like ZA, ZUZ, ZAS, and ZEP!
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
Unimpressed by Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game?
I suppose a 100-point game of Scrabble isn't too bad for a professional basketball player. Of course, I can't imagine when he would have had time to ever play scrabble with all of his other extracurricular activities...
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Holy disestablishmentarianism, Batman!
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Scrabble is very much a tactical game; what you can do at any time is dependant on the actions of the other players. For example, you could get a much higher score than normal if you had a poor opponent who kept setting you up for easy triples,
In this case, though, it doesn't look like that was going on. The other player had a pretty strong game himself. In the end, the comments from the 'serious' players just sound like bitterness.
Congrats to the new champ.
"... isn't a common word."
WTF? I've known the word since I was a kid. It's a perfectly common word in English.
Most of the rest of the words used in competitive scrabble are just plain bullshit. I believe that when challenged, a player should have to provide a definition, _and_ it should be present in a universally accepted dictionary (e.g. Oxford Shorter, not words marked archaic etc.) . Then it would be a challenge of English language, as in the language used to communicate, vocabulary rather than of just wanky lists of clique-assembled non-words, or historical misspellings.
FatPhil
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
A carpenter 2000 years ago founded the most powerful multinational company on earth, and now this !
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
I think it is great that Carpenter uses his off day to play a little Scrabble and set a record, but I'd prefer he just be ready to pitch for the Cardinals against the Tigers in game 6. He shouldn't just assume that they'll clinch the series tonight.
I second that, I used to have my own pool table, only once in several years of play did the boys score a "pants down". Be it scrabble records or the holy grail of "pants down", the sense of acheivement is a buzz.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Does no one else play where words like AYBABTU, ROTFLMAO , or PWNED?
I think it's kind of ridiculous that they seem so surprised that a carpenter or a deli clerk could spell, much less set a Scrabble record.
"If 830--or any record--happens as a result of boneheaded play, tactical ignorance, or the pursuit of a good time, should it count?"
yes it should, if the great players are so great then they should be willing to accept a challenge. if the experts want to claim the record then they should try for it, rather than dogging on amateurs for playing what they consider foolish play. in my book the only thing that should be taken into consideration in records like this; "is it clean". as long as he didn't cheat thats all that matters, those so called experts are just elitist haters. its like saying that i can't break the course record at my local muni because i'm not a member of the pga, or that i can't weigh in a world record catch because i don't belong to the igfa.
lose != loose
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that while the 'expert' strategy may lead to consistently high results, it doesn't necessarily lead to optimal results. The most probable words aren't necessarily the ones giving the highest scores.
Which doesn't invalidate this record, quite the opposite. If you start playing scrabble professionally, you have to realize that a part of winning is just damn good luck.
I bet he had been waiting for years to use "quixotry", a word with a Q and an X. He probably almost passed out when he finally saw the opportunity present itself.
Does God treat us as servants or friends? Check my homepage.
Comes from the fact that this is a competitive game and your success can hinge directly on how good or bad your opponent is.
One can get checkmate in four moves, but it's not a measure of your own skill, but more of the lack of skill of the opponent.
Also, in theory, if your opponent doesn't challenge your word, don't you get points for it even if it's wrong? If you lay down ZXXJVQY and your opponent has had a few too many you get the points.
I'm sure the raw number of points would be a challenge playing it solitaire even, but still, it's a hard thing to measure when an incompetent opponent can leave you points.
An interesting fictional short story about Scrabble obsession. Perhaps the dating of the story is the reason why the highest score in one turn declared in the story is less than that of the carpenter in the article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidisestablishmenta rianism
...spelling-naziism, but this is a scrabble thread. Quixotry, not Quixtory.
Six score characters.
Brevity being wit's soul
I have enough space.
I once witnessed a game in which the validity of a word was determined by the rest of the people around. As a result, mrt (as in Mr. T) was allowed because everyone decided it was funny. I think I died a little inside that night.
...by just adding an S.
"Since virtually all sports involve variable conditions, comparing one performance to another is technically imperfect. Consider the absence of black players in Babe Ruth's day..." What the hell does the lack of "black players" have to do with Babe Ruth being an oustanding baseball player?(notice I didn't say athlete) I mean, I sort of understand what the writer was getting at, but that comment seems like an insult to Babe Ruth and African Americans.
I once won a scrabble game with a great word that none of my opponents knew, so they called me on it, but we didn't have a dictionary handy.
Fortunately, I'm an amateur radio operator, so I walked outside of the cafe we were playing in, and put out a call on the local repeater asking if anyone had a Scrabble Dictionary.
Several seconds later, a local HAM replied, and looked up the word for us, and lo and behold, it was "legal" for Scrabble.
I WON!
Oh, the word was Yagi .
It's a kind of radio antenna design (actually known as a Yagi/Uda antenna).
Look, guys, we're not "haters", not bloodless robots, and certainly not bitter at our own lack of success in breaking high score records. What you see in Fatsis' tone and in tournament players' comments is simply the desire to accurately spread the word about competitive Scrabble as a highly complex strategic endeavor.
Quick: what are the best single-game performances by a baseball team ever?
Did you think of a minor-league team scoring a ton of runs on a bunch of walks and errors? What would you think if people who knew little about the strategy of the game and the skill of teams regularly held up such a game as a great example of what professional baseball is all about? And turned away uninterested when you tried to describe some great 2-1 pennant-winning game?
Get it?
Personally, I've had one 700+ game (I believe 721), something that few experts have ever had, even against much weaker competition in their local clubs. I happened to get down a huge triple-triple (ALFAQUIn for 221) and a few more nicely scoring but common bingos. My opponent gave me at least four extra turns by challenging my words unsuccessfully and playing silly phonies herself. Then she played the late game in a rather sloppy manner, probably half-hoping I would break 700.
Am I proud of this game? Well, honestly, I could point to a couple of specific good points: I'm proud that I took the extra time to find ALFAQUIN, even though I already had a solid lead and could have quickly (instinctively) played QUAI for 39 saving the blank. I'm proud that I risked challenging her phony early even though I could've played it safe with my lead. But did I do anything brilliant here? Not by my standards or those of my fellow experts, no.
Sometimes fishing for a big play is the right move, and sometimes it's an example of brilliance. I had a tournament game where I was way behind holding ?ADELOQ. If I could get EQUALED, there was one spot hitting the Q on a triple-letter and going to the double-word, which my opponent might very well block. So I played TO for 2 points, so that the TOE hook played EQUALED in a second big spot, this one on a triple-word column. Another time, on a very closed board where I was solidly losing, I made a 1-tile fish hoping to play INTERLAYER through AYE. I was and am proud of those plays, and both were in games I eventually lost. More often, plays I'm proud of don't have to do with such a big setup, but involve things like scoring a few more points in the endgame to squeak out a win, or blocking some dangerous line for opponent that I might have easily missed, or saving some rack leave that usually isn't very good but happens to be great on the particular board.
It may be quixotic, but all I'm hoping for right now is for a few more people to recognize that Scrabble, like chess or poker or baseball, contains brilliant decisions that aren't always the flashiest. And not to be so immediately dismissive when our experts give commentary, as I imagine you wouldn't for chess or poker or football.