Walker--
Wishing you the best of luck and success in your new teaching
situation. I thot this example , which I'm taking from my book, gives a good
illustration of a situation in which challenging might be an option to
consider, when one is not sure of the acceptability of the play being
considered:
" . . . laid down SOC(BLANK)AGE and called the blank a C. The play
scored over a hundred points and reduced my lead considerably but not
completely. I called h0ld and looked over the situation.
"Scrabble experts know the word SOCAGE, to which R and S may be added
for a bingo. I was also quite sure the C could be doubled, but extremely
skeptical of that K. At the same time, I was nearly certain that if . . . the
blank (were) an A for SOAKAGE it would be an acceptable play and score just as
much.
"Meanwhile, at the other end of the board, I had just played the Z on
the Triple Word Score row, and could now make another high-scoring play using
it. If I challenged SOCKAGE and it wa acceptable, . . .. the Z . . .(might be
used by my opponent) to score well after I lost my turn, and the victory . .
.would be in jeopardy. If I challenged successfully, (my opponent) would
probably play SOAKAGE after I played off the Z, and all I would have gained
would be the turn.
"Therefore I did not challenge, and won the game. Dictionary research
afterward proved me right on all counts: SOCKAGE is not a word and SOAKAGE is.
Yet, evenif I had certain knowledge that this was true, I would have gaioned
very little by challenging."
Sorry I don't have thatwhole board to show ya, or any other boards for
a game situation. If I come across any I'll send them to ya.
Stu
----- Original Message -----
From: Walker Willingham
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 5:24 PM
Subject: [quackle] Request for game situation files
Hi all,
I'm getting ready to teach a Scrabble strategy & resources class (4
lessons, one per week, starting next Tuesday) thru my local Parks &
Rec district. I'll be using Quackle and a projector to have the class
look at game situations. I'll certainly create some for this, but
I've just started using Quackle and it does take some time to set up
game situations.
Since the gcg files are transferable, I would love to receive some
game situation files (saved at the decision point would be great, but
complete or partial games with a suggestion of "look at Player X's nth
move" would be fine).
Send to walker at bainbridge dot net.
I anticipate enthusiastic but not tourney experienced players, so I'd
like to provide examples that teach more basic stuff, with the best
examples erring on the side of using better known words, especially
the longer words. I won't be even looking at end game decisions until
the last class.
Some lessons I'd like to teach are
1)hot spots sometimes disguise themselves, eg sometimes the TWS is not
at all the hottest spot.
2)trading is sometimes the best option
3)trading is sometimes not best, even though a quick look might
suggest it. (an obscure vowel dump would be OK for this)
4)basic rack management examples - both points winning over leave &
leave winning over points
5)hook awareness examples (both seeing what's there, & deciding
whether to create a hook for your own use or just play the letter.
Which brings up a non-Quackle Scrabble question - where are some new
post TWL2 valuations of leave letters? I should imagine not greatly
changed but for Q and to a lesser degree Z due to QI & ZA.
5)board leave examples (probably in 3rd lesson)
**Ahead and should probably close
**Behind or relatively even early and should probably open
**Can't close effectively so open a second hot spot (or hotter if you
are close to a potential hi scoring play that you don't want blocked)
Generally speaking I'd prefer examples where most tourney players
would agree which choice is better, but maybe without being TOO much
of a slam dunk, but anything you find interesting would be welcome, if
possible with explanation in the email of what the situation is.
Thank you in advance for anything you might be able to send my way.
