Back to WSC (1997)

From: robert felt <rfelt@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 11:21:08 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Re: JG on DC
Message-id: <199712051721.LAA24574@dfw-ix16.ix.netcom.com>

bowne is listed in chambers as an alternate form of boun, with a definition which suggests its a variation of "bound", as in I'm bound to do that. "BOWN*" may be in MWN3I, but it is not currently acceptable in any official scrabble lexicon.

The lesson I draw from the worlds is that if you want to be a great scrabble player, a big vocabulary is a help, but strong opposition is more important. The North Americans and Brits dominated despite their SOWPODS odds because they have each other to pound on, and both squads had ample time to prepare. Note that the six Americans who were in the top 15 had played in 13 previous Worlds, while the 6 who were in the middle of the pack had only played in 4.

The only top 15 player without previous World's experience was a kiwi who won a bunch of games at the end, and missed most of the top players. Further he was playing with his "home dictionary", SOWPODS.

Again of the top Americans, Matt and Ron had only one prior worlds, but they had the opportunity to play lots of games in New York. I underestimated my own chances somewhat since I had only gone 4-5 in a warmup the Sunday before, against Joel, Matt, and Ron. I guess that result was a bit better than I interpreted it.

The Worlds was a lot of fun, because it was a chance to play serious scrabble. In virtually every game, both players sat down prepared to give a full effort, and not to bemoan the dictionary or their tiles or anything else.

When I started serious scrabble play, I had to ask myself, was I willing to work hard enough to get as good as the best players then Joe Edley and Ron Tiekert. (Funny how little has actually changed in 15 years). I decided that I didn't know how talented I was, but I knew my capacity for work, estimated the job, and my results speak for themselves. SOWPODS obviously would have made the job somewhat more daunting, but in those pre-Personal Computer days, figuring out how to master 99%+ of the dictionary was a lot harder than it is today. The fact remains that few players have attained such dictionary fluency, and a list of the best 20 wordsmiths in our game, and the best 20 players would probably only overlap about 50-60%.

SOWPODS increases the scope of the game, making it a richer challenge. But it also makes our game more universal. As a chess player, I have instant kinship with people in any country on the globe which transcends any language barrier. Scrabble will perforce only connect me with people who share access to a specific common language. English is not universal but its diverse roots and its ready accretion of new vocabulary,makes it clearly the language best suited to make scrabble the complicated frustrating game that it is. I certainly like the notion that a visitor from a foreign nation is as comfortable at the local scrabble club as is she would be at the local chess club. Robert Felt <rfelt@ix.netcom.com>
San Francisco, California USA