Even Nigel's Blunders Are Brilliant
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- čas přidán 2. 09. 2023
- Welcome to Episode 11 of Scrabble History, a series where I break down some of the most incredible plays, epic rivalries, and amazing moments in Scrabble's rich competitive history.
Nigel Richards is known for his incredible word knowledge and play-finding ability. But he's somehow also the best player Scrabble has ever seen at solving endgames, which require a much different type of logic than the rest of a Scrabble game. In this video, I'll talk about one of Nigel's most brilliant endgame sequences ever - which also happens to be one of the few endgames in which Nigel has ever made a game-losing mistake.
Alex Dings' great Nigel video touches on this game and much more: • The French Scrabble Ch...
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Play Scrabble at playscrabble.com! - Hry
I made an editing mistake at 2:37 - TITULE# should show a score of 12, not 68 (the previous turn of QI scored 68). Sorry about that and enjoy the rest of the video!
Your Scrabble privileges have been revoked.
lol jk
7:26 the v says 4 on it.
Passing in order to win is insane. Harshan was playing checkers, Nigel was playing chess, and the computer analysis was playing Rush-E
Or, in this case, don't-rush-F
Actually they were playing scrabble
rush-e? I'll have to look that up
yooooo nice one!@@almightyhydra
@@kobemurphy9023 Nah that doesn't sound right, pretty sure this is connect four
You know, after watching all of these videos, I'm starting to get the impression that Nigel Richards is quite good at Scrabble.
He’s half decent! :)
@@wanderer15 hes got potential. maybe he should try play at some tournaments
i too have been picking up on this
@@wanderer15I’ve heard he’s underrated 🤔
More than that he’s an alright player
That stat about endgame accuracy is truly insane
My brain broke when I first saw it.
@@wanderer15Mine too. Do you have a source for that stat?
@@Raghy07 the video from Alex Dings linked in the description goes over it around the 32 minute mark
@@Raghy07 the source should be listed on screen at the bottom - but here it is as well. elbbarcs.com/en/EndGame/statistics.htm
@wanderer15 If you are the definition of accuracy, then of course you have an inaccuracy of 0%.
The 1% comes from the computer being unable to compute, even after the entire match is done.
It's much like how a 100% accuracy game in chess is just stockfish, really.
Never thought zugzwang would be a thing in Scrabble.
However, unlike in chess, passing your turn is actually allowed!
@@gromburt Is that then a flaw in the rules? Could both players just pass infinitely?
@@daravel5318 nope, six passes in a row and the game ends with unplayed tiles subtracted from both sides' score, AJIAlRSs214 details a case where that actually happened
@@daravel5318 According to the competitive scrabble ruleset, if six turns pass without anyone scoring the game is ended
@@daravel5318 Six successive scoreless turns ends the game.
Every single time I head anything about Nigel he just feels more and more like that character in an anime that the main character is desperately trying to defeat but he gets put into his place again and again.
The kind of character that every time he puts a piece on the board the ground would shake and the such.
Thanks for the shoutout 🙂 I never even looked at the rest of the game, and the CHARD / BOK / NODE sequence is quite something. Like a chess sequence in a Scrabble game.
the most beautiful thing about this is that we still have room to improve in scrabble. harshan and nigel both overlooked this, but in the future the top players will not. there’s so much more scrabble to be played
Exactly - accurately identifying your opponent’s most salient threat and actively defending against it is very chess-like, and is even more impressive in the pre-endgame when the threats aren’t 100 percent clear.
Zugzwang!
The vocabulary knowledge these players possess is beyond my understanding. Even when they "stumble" it's still mind-boggling what combinations they come up with.
It must take years of studying.
For most, it does. For Nigel, it takes a few weeks @@rhandhom1
I wonder how many words they know the meaning of and how many they just know are valid words.
@@albingrahn5576 For these players, knowing the definitions of these words uses valuable brain space that could be used to instead learn more words.
Autecism! WTF!!
0:50 1 Error/2.14 moves versus 1 Error/83.55 moves is insane!!!
It truly is bonkers
If you look at the Alex Dings video in the description, quackle, the currently used scrabble ai, made almost 4 times as many mistakes as nigel when asked to analyze the same games.
Unless you grant large amounts of time and computational power to brute force a mathematically perfect endgame, nigel is literally better than a computer.
But is it an error to not make the best moves when you still win the game? Not in my book. Nigel is obsessed by making the perfect moves while others simply go after winning the game. It only shows that he does things that are unnecessary, not that he makes fewer errors. In this example video he could have played the word SADZA and won the game. Is that what would be considered an error if done by any other player, because they could have made more points with some other play? I would say it is an error to not play SADZA.
@@grantofat6438 To be fair, it does matter. Point differential is very often used to break ties in tournaments.
I don’t know how I got on scrabble CZcams, but I’ve watched a ton of your videos. I’ve never watched professional scrabble, but I’m officially a Nigel fan.
The production quality on these just keeps getting better 💯💯
That was an amazing explanation of that. You are a great storyteller
Thank you very much!
“Harshan answers with the lovely Autecism.”
I've got a fresh set of eyes for Scrabble thanks to you. Amazing
I know we all love Nigel, but I want to appreciate your clear speaking and entertaining video setup. You make these videos so entertaining, so thank you!
The comparison of computer aided solutions to real life play in scrabble is so mind-blowing. Even with the computer aided analyses Nigel's play is so close to flawless.
Something I felt early on in learning about scrabble play is that two letter archaic words were kinda dumb. And for scrabble play between native English speakers I still stand by that. But on an international scale I love that dictionary knowledge no casual speaker of a language should be expected to know becomes possible. A non French speaking champion of French scrabble is a challenge to scrabble players everywhere. Do you really understand the mechanics of this game? Can you execute them?
Well put. I do lament that the wonderful depth and complexity of Scrabble is gated behind word memorization, but it does also add an element of preparation that can feel rewarding for you if you’re inspired to put in that effort to learn.
Your channel is the sole reason I know anything about scrabble
That endgame was a thing of beauty
These videos rock and I'm beyond hyped to see them in my sub feed every time
Hyped to make them for you!
Love the combo of video quality and top player analysis you provide. Having never even played scrabble casually, I can still follow what’s going on and have really grown an appreciation for its intricacies.
This means a lot to me, thank you
Nigel looks like a wizard and lives up to it every bit
Have been watching scrabble videos for years. So glad someone is now producing such high quality in depth analysis videos that are awesome to watch. Going to start studying again!
So I've been wondering why the YT algorithm recommended scrabble to me of all things, but I realized its because you use chess language a lot when reviewing these plays, and for whatever reason YT thought "eh close enough" and recommended it, so glad it did, this is really cool.
You're such a captivating storyteller. It's hard to overstate how valuable a great storyteller is to any community
Every time a new scrabble history vid comes out, I jump on it. I love how well constructed your videos are, while still being digestible and exciting for non-scrabble players such as myself. On top of that, an experienced scrabble champion making these videos makes it that much more engaging. Keep up the amazing work Will
I love this kind of analysis
This is my favorite endgame you’ve shown, I’ve never thought about snaking the letters at the end like Nigel did, and the idea that passing is the best play is so crazy to me! Wow’
These videos are so fascinating - great work
This is incredible storytelling. Thank you again for an amazing video!
I don't play scrabble much at all but I can't stop watching your videos. Great content.
Great video ( as always).
Thank you for shouting out the alex dings video i`ll have to give that one a watch!
Very deep! Wow, great stuff, Will!
Wonderful. Scrabble has for some reason suddenly started intriguing me so much!
This ended up in my feed and is my first exposure to even the concept of competitive scrabble. I'm pretty fascinated now. Great video.
Thank you for giving my video a try!
The strategies you can deploy during endgames can get SO interesting!
Another amazing video mate. Keep up the great work.
Thanks man!
Love this channel!
Another great video! Love these.
Your narrative sense in these is !!
That statistic for # of mistakes per end game move is just beyond mind boggling
Awesome breakdown
I don't know really much about scrabbles, but I like watching your videos !And in bonus, I learn so many english words I didn't even know existed !
I love these videos, keep it up!
Glad you like them!
You really can't overstate how genius Nigel is
This videos are way too interisting! Keep it up dude!
They really do all this with a 25 minute clock?!
Scrabble is weird this way. Some games aren’t too hard to play well in 25 minutes. Other games are devilishly complex and the 25 minutes is a major limiting factor.
I’ve never had an interest in playing scrabble but your videos are so well made and entertaining that I am now a fan
Thank you very much, this means a lot to me!
@@wanderer15 i have a ton of respect for pro players you guys are insane!
I love your commentary, Will !
Thank you very much!
The uni brow on Nigel when he plays the word!
Got a good laugh at me with BUT @ 5:54 , I knew it was coming and said but just before you 😂
I speak English pretty well and I play Scrabble very casually. Of the words played on this board, I don't use and could not define titule oleine pia qi (well, I use it in Scrabble constantly), gatelegs, mooli, ne, oe (Scrabble word), yu, autecism, bredrin, bok (without choi) hin, recheat, flawn. I haven't done the precise math but I'm trying to say that about half the words are not in common parlance. So my question is: to what extent is a popular game still a popular game when special study of a dictionary is not merely a helpful plan, but the only way to win? By analogy: I play reasonably mediocre chess. Every move a grandmaster makes, I understand. I may not know the reason it's being made, but they use the same pieces I do and move them exactly as I do. Of course it takes special study to gain grandmaster status, but the game is all there, all fair. Anyone can win, theoretically. When I watch these Scrabble grandmasters, I think "Well, I wouldn't have thought of any of that, so I guess I'll just be the dog watching tennis. Back and forth it goes." I say all this not out of bitterness but to offer for discussion.
Scrabble isn't about spelling long words. It's a game of area control where you try to maximize points by putting letters at the right spots while preventing your opponent from doing the same (and maximizing your chances of doing thus through word knowledge, tile-counting/tile spread awareness, and knowing which letters commonly go together).
All knowledge of obscure words does is minimize your chances of wasted turns and maximize your control over the aforementioned area control aspects of the game
It is true that Scrabble players spend much of their time learning obscure words (a grandmaster like Scrabble will know all or almost all of the words in the dictionary 8 or fewer letters long), but there is still a lot of room for strategy beyond knowing obscure words. If you want an example, watch Will Anderson's video "The Greatest Scrabble Player Ever is Underrated", where Will analyzes a game where Nigel played mostly common words.
This is a really great point that speaks to a big difference between Scrabble and chess, and I do think it’s a shame that much of the good stuff about Scrabble is gated behind that barrier of dictionary memorization. I have plans to do some videos in the future about this very topic.
@@wanderer15 I'd love to see that video. I wonder if there could be a Scrabble variant that limits the vocabulary to a common parlance dictionary. There would be pros and cons, but it would avoid the gatekeeping of memorization.
I really enjoy playing Words With Friends, where memorization of words is far less important than in Scrabble because (1) you can only play valid words (trying to bluff people with fake words isn't a thing) and (2) you can play around with putting your tiles on the board in various places and the game will tell you whether you have a valid play or not. So vocabulary has a much smaller impact on winning and strategy is correspondingly more important.
Great video!
So as an Italian American I spit out my drink when you said that he played "mooli" - turns out it means something TOTALLY different than what it is colloquially used as in the community of NY that I grew up in... learn something new every day I guess!
In fact I'm surprised Harshan didn't pass when he was going to become stuck, with two equally good options. He doesn't get any benefit from playing his last move early, and loses out on possible disruption. I guess it's just unfamiliarity with "stuck" endgames
I would think it's also because passing is very rarely a viable strategy, so it isn't really something that you consider when you're coming up with moves. If there are still tiles left in the bag, you're always better off exchanging than passing, since there's no reason to pass up an opportunity to improve your rack.
Yeah, it’s a really, really rare situation. Also, I believe Harshan was slightly low on time towards the end of this game, which makes it even tougher to imagine a counter-intuitive possibility.
Although passing is rarely a viable strategy in general, in endgames where you are stuck passing becomes the best move very very often. Giving your opponent a free board is often worse than dropping a few points for not making your last move immediately. It's the kind of idea where if you are familiar with it you see it immediately, but if you aren't you may just not notice at all.
From a chess perspective, zugzwanging and saving up "passing moves" are quite common in pawn endgames. czcams.com/video/n3FufrVltsc/video.html
Also, if your opponent can't block one of your plays, it doesn't hurt to pass -- you will have at least as many options as before after your opponent's next move(s) ...and in this particular endgame, more options.
#hindsight2020
I wonder if the potential pass by Harshan would be considered a Zugzwang (an unlikely scrabble word requiring both a Z and a Blank).
Absolutely
I think competitive scrabble is the most insane thing i have ever seen
Will: "the top 10 opponents do an endgame mistake every 2.14 end game moves"
Me: Okay, that's reasonable... Nigel's a beast tho, let's say... Maybe 7? About 3 times better"
Will: "Nigel does an error once in every 84 end game moves"
Me: aight I'm out, peace ✌️
Bro, what in tarnation
I wonder how often passing your turn with valid moves is an optimal play? It can't be that frequent, but surely there are other examples of it. Has it ever been performed in tournament?
Very, very rarely, but it does happen. Another time you occasionally see this is when there’s one tile in the bag and a player has a bingo in multiple locations. If there’s tiles like the Q or V still potentially lurking in the bag that might not be playable, passing your turn to avoid being stuck with them can be correct.
It can also happen when a player is trying to invoke the six consecutive zero rule to end the game.
This is an insane move
born too late to explore the earth, born to early to explore the galaxy, born just in time to watch Nigel Richards play Scrabble
Will be printing this t-shirt as merch ASAP
I love these vids, such a treat!
Your videos have inspired me to start playing Esperanto language scrabble (mostly solitaire) to learn more about the vocabulary.
I know it's probably too obscure for a video on specifically Esperanto scrabble, but I think it would be interesting to hear about non-english versions of the game and perhaps advice if you wanted to try playing someone in a language you don't speak
Yeah... imagine Chinese scrabble!
@@signbear999 in theory, you could do it with romanization, but with the actual native characters... No way. However, Japanese does have Scrabble, several variants even (one hiragana/katana and one romanization based)
Will is my favorite CZcamsr no joke.
Just BRILLIANT 👏🏾
Winning on the Za is goat stuff
Great video
3:23 the unibrow on Nigel Is top edit 😂
That’s incredible
Hey that’s funny, I have Autecism too! That’s why I like scrabble so much
What has the algorithm blessed me with today, youtube? Competetive scrabble analysis? Why thank you.
Thanks for trying out my videos!
Brilliant!
favorite episode yes
Lurkers, I'm a non-Scrabble player who recommends commenting and subscribing!
Ask your curious questions and Will will respond insightfully!
And his videos are consistently high quality. I would have missed this one had I not subscribed and been ignorant of the best Scrabble players' incredible end-game calculation abilities.
Will, my question for you this video: How much time do these engames last? Specifically, what's your estimate of how quickly Nigel found his endgame plan from the start of the endgame (when he could infer his opponents remaining letters) to when he played that s-hook?
Seeing games on your channel and Mack's in which he plays the whole game in 15 minutes (as opposed to my amateur 90-minute games) and still manages to find so many of the best moves makes me super impressed by the speed with which you all are able to find all these words.
First off, thank you so much for such high praise! One huge factor I neglected to mention here is that Nigel almost always gets into the end of the game with 10-12 minutes on his clock to think. Many players, even other grandmasters (myself included), routinely get to the endgame with much less time than that to think. Sometimes, as the player going second in an endgame, you only have one move to calculate, and it’s your opponent who will need to calculate a multi-turn sequence. But if you’re the player “going first” in the endgame, so to speak, you’ll have to do some trial and error of some candidate sequences, which involves seeing your best moves, seeing your opponent’s best moves or responses to your specific move, and then seeing your best followup with your remaining letters. It’s a lot, and I typically only feel comfortable if I have something like 8-10 minutes out of my original 25 to make my best attempt at an optimal solve.
Oh, and Nigel has a terrifying knack for solving even complicated endgames relatively quickly. I can’t speak to how long precisely it took him in this particular case, but it’s exceedingly rare to see him take a ton of time.
@@wanderer15 Very helpful answer, thanks!
I never thought I would consider someone playing Scrabble a badass. But here I am.
Nigel is absolutely a badass and I'm very glad to be able to convince others of that fact!
@@wanderer15 I'd like to see more videos on his best moves, or best defensive moves, or moves that frustrated his opponents the most :)
Growing Scrabble on CZcams 🤜🤛
Hey Will, if you ever start doing your Better know a letter series again, I would love to see a video on the Y. Sometimes I love seeing the Y, sometimes I hate seeing it and I would love to know how to use it better.
I love scrabble and chess they have so much alike. Nigel is best in scrabble my favourite!
Very nice, let's see Paul Allan's scrabble win.
Legit lol at this
As far as Alex’s alternate endgame sequence goes, after Nigel’s play of UN, what if Harshan plays off his F for 10 as you mentioned? If Nigel tries to set up the Z by playing SI (or just PI), Harshan can respond with PIX, blocking the ADZ setup. (If Harshan passes instead of playing off the F or X, I think Nigel can play SADZA immediately to win? I’m not sure if VAX was good at this point (not a collins player) but that would determine if Nigel can try playing AX after PIX to set up ZAX / ZA or not. If VAX is good I think this a win for Harshan, as I don’t see how Nigel can make up enough points with ADS remaining (SAD for 26 isn’t enough). Of course, I might be missing something. Thoughts?
I considered including this sequence, but opted to omit it for length. VAX was not good in CSW15 (the lexicon used in this game) so saving the X to block with PIX would still end up losing to the ZAX setup, but it’s a great idea and it would completely change the game if the lexicon were the most up to date CSW. (VAX is coming to NWL shortly as well!)
Very nice. Let’s see Paul Allan’s endgame play
1:30 Let’s See Paul Allen’s Words
I don't even like Scrabble; I just watch videos like these to see what Nigel has been cooking up again.
maybe this video will inspire people to keep passing plays in their back pocket
It's insane how many of these words are CSW exclusive
God: Your brain be unrivaled in your game, you will see patterns beyond anyone's understanding, not even the machine will come close to you; you could revolutionize anything you want; what will you do Nigel?...
Nigel: I don't like fame, I guess I will just play scrabble.
apparently i have no idea how to play scrabble
I’m here for the unibrow.
Glad you spotted that :)
Wait, that isn’t Microsoft Paul Allen winning one of the UK Opens right?
Sadly not! The Scrabbler is Paul Allan with two A’s, not an E. But…happily accepting all ultra-rich Microsoft founders to our community!
keep goin this shit will take off
3:33 did you just call us 80?! 😧😆
Omo... this is sane!
With that pass possibility open, would all these end game moves for Nigel before ZA be considered blunders?
I think even the very first move of (AUTECISM)S could be categorized as a blunder as it essentially commits Nigel to the ADZ idea, which can always be blocked by FAD. The nice thing about starting by playing the N instead of the S is that you still have the 57 point SADZA in your pocket as a threat.
I think watching these videos at 4am confirms i might have Autecism (2:19)
What would happen if Nigel also passes his turn after Harshan passed?
Would they be stuck in an infinite loop of both players passing?
Tournament rules state that any game where there are six consecutive scores of zero ends immediately, with each player subtracting the combined value of the unplayed tiles on their racks from their score. Harshan would easily win in this case. (I have another video, “Ever Seen a Scrabble Game With No Words?”, that dives into a particularly memorable application of this rule!)
@@wanderer15 Awesome. Thank you.
Didn’t know there was a U in Coventry the more you know
Bro. There should be 2 different types of mistakes. A mistake, and something Nigel would consider a mistake.
Because there is a difference.
There is such a big difference.
no wonder nigel lost to Lamabadusuriya, guys name stretches the whole scrabble board
Is Nigel the VILLAIN of scrabble?!
He’s closer to a hero for me! But maybe a villain if your goal is to be the best player ever…
This is the next chess equivalent. Just wait until it blows up
I wish Mr. Olaiya Kabir (aka Black Knight) could share with you an endgame he snatched from Mr. Nigel Richards. We heard Mr. Richards had to shake Olaiya Kabir's hand immediately he saw the unstoppable setup.
I'd love to see it!