Sunday, March 22, 2009

Scrabble Quiz



This is modified from an actual game during the 2009 Lim Boon Heng Cup.

Your score is 348 with a ABEEFGY rack.
Opponent score is 357 with a AEKORRU rack.

It is your turn next. Can you overcome the 9 points deficit for a win?

1 comment:

jkqxz said...

I am still a rookie learning how to do end game analysis, so I hope my analysis below made with the help of LeXpert makes sense to everyone.

Your opponent is able to score big with KOURRA 14J(45), KURRE 14J(45) or RAKER A1(36). Priority is to block row 14 as your opponent will score more.

There are several ways that the tiles on your rack can be broken into two words:

ABYE/BAYE - FEG
GABY - FEE
BEEF/FEEB - YAG/GAY
BEEFY - AG

We need a word that can back hook to PE and score relatively high. The choice is to play GABY 14G and either play FEE F2 or FEE N13 on the next move.

First scenario:
You: GABY 14G (24) 372
Opp: REAK 15H (39) 396

You: FEE F2 (19) 391
You: (ORU) (6) 397

You win 397-396.

Since there are two places to play FEE, it won't help even if your opponent tries to block one of them.

Second scenario:
You: GABY 14G (24) 372
Opp: KUE F2 (22) 379

You: FEE N13 (17) 389
You: (ROAR) (8) 397

You win 397-379.