One Scrabble expert's $.02 (Score 1)

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.