@@dwaynekeenum1916 Sure, but there are many English-derived Americans. It wouldn't have surprised me to see a family keep the traditions of their style of names. Especially towards the south of the country. With his haircut and beard, Nigel looks almost appalachian to me.
Great video and it brought all the memories of that BABIEST game back. When Nigel played BABIES I remember saying something of the kind of "what are you up to you naughty man"!. He smiled. I remember thinking I'll lose for sure if I play to block scoring little so I gambled a bit but still lost! I've played Nigel 56 times and won 12 easily my lowest for any player I've played 50 times. A few years ago I approached him to write his biography but he turned me down saying : "My life is too boring". One day I'll write the story of my own Scrabble life, and put in a chapter or two about the GOAT.
What I like most about these setups is the counterplay. It's not just 'Nigel plays a move that looks a bit silly and then Z bombs some poor shmuck for 60+ points'. He's doing this against opponents who know what he's up to and are equally resourceful in their blocks and counters. Great video.
Amazing. I think Nigel’s secret is that he’s not a word wizard who learned game theory; he’s a game theory master who learned all the words. Apparently he got into scrabble as a kid because he always beat his mom at card games but she thought he couldn’t win scrabble. But if you can handle the math, I guess, it is just a matter of learning the words.
Yes, I suspect that the reason Nigel said that it's a matter of learning all the words is that the other strategic aspects of the game come naturally to him, and so he tends to take that part for granted. Whereas, learning the words is something that everyone, even Nigel, has to consciously invest time in.
The thing about "just a matter of learning the words" that is so baffling is not only that play-finding is just one part of the game but that "learning the words" has no "just" about it. Drilling in tens of thousands of words such that you not only can _remember_ them with the correct spelling given a certain cue but can also _find_ them without that prompt is a monumental undertaking. For basically everyone else on earth except Nigel, it's practically out of reach past like 8 or 9 letters, but he's here coming up with "chlorodyne" on the spot like it's just another word he uses in conversation, with absolutely no cue. His play-finding is statistically almost indistinguishable from an engine, which literally enumerates every legal play instantly in a fraction of a millisecond in the first step of analysis and so in that sense is perfect. So it's "just" a matter of having a perfect memory with effortlessly good search and _then_ reading the words. (Twice, reportedly.) And obviously, that's just one half of the game, but I guess when you effortlessly see every good available play, the strategic side does become way easier. You have plenty of time to think down each promising branch the way you would in a game of chess, and if you can see everything just like that, maybe you don't need to be a strategic mastermind to wow the world. But the question of how such a thing is even possible remains.
I like the implication of Nigel's comment that all us mortal players are a) lazy (because we clearly haven't put in the work to simply learn ALL the words) and b) really, really stupid (because finding the correct play is so easy it's not even worth mentioning as part of his "secret"). PS, the thumbnail is fantastic. 😃
ngl, his voice is so low too, I ever talk with him during break session of scrabble tourney and he is so introvert and just smile and nodding or just like few sentences come up from his mouth
up until this point, i had never heard Nigel speak before and assumed that he was like a silent monk that only communicated through Scrabble tiles. But now that I've heard him, I can say that he sounds **exactly** how I imagined he would.
I made a poem for dear Nigel --- an extremely gifted man, and a true hero of game theory. Enjoy --- Chlorophymous By the most chlorophymous deltas of the moon-wriggled oasis, are soulscaped under wriggling boudoirs of armadillo theodesics, Chlorogonic Metaphysique divulgates arboreal catagraphy of philosophocentric saturation of verisimilitudes of Xenorexia, Pawing the oneiric sphereohedrons of starlightiest starriest, Acephalic outfoxiest of seraphine sangfroid atropine, Tartesian deltas centauroid the nostrum of hyper-maledictorious clackety Thylacines, Sidereal the Caryatids and fleshiest starriest oxide carbuncles, Sidereal the Zugzwangmaster of fellaheen and hawking-Delphiniums of quarry quales, Antlered bobbling buoys of the post-omnicentric adenosyl of coniferous pine resin, Qualiamancer of the cosmogonic amphoraification of boondoggled mind-boggled Xenocrates, Club-footed bedrock of wriggling pawing boondocks of the wriggled Saturnine Thylacine-Tapir hybrids of your Neptune xenogamous highwaying cornea -
@@charls828 Mack an Will are great, but I think it is clear that Nigel is cut from a different cloth... perhaps if their genes were fused in a lab, we could dream of the next Nigel Richards being born.
Will I introduced your channel to my parents and they're really impressed by the depth scrabble has to offer, it's so much more than just a family word game. They're calling you the Chopin of chessboxing.
Nigel just has amazing Scrabble IQ. Knowing the words helps, of course, but seeing all the potential spots for plays and then once the initial threat is blocked being able to generate new threats until finally one can't be blocked effectively... it's like seeing a grandmaster mount an attack in chess, and the opponent play five good defensive moves in a row only for the sixth attacking move to have no effective counter to it.
Basically, Nigel is playing at least one entire meta ahead of everyone else. In 10-20 years, his style will be what all the top players are playing like, it is just going to take a while to adapt to. Nigel understands that aggression is very important in most strategy games, and this game is no exception. By constantly making threats, he is forcing the opponent into difficult situations, whereas if you just worry solely about managing your rack and setting up bingoes without putting your opponent in difficult spots, you can rise to being the number 2 player in the world, but you won't be better than Nigel. Nigel is probably farther ahead of second place, than Magnus Carlsen is of 2nd place in chess.
3:00 In retrospect, wouldn't the order here not matter? Hunk and then knur should be the same as knur and then hunk with the way the double letter and double word scores line up.
Not quite. Because the double word score only counts the first time it is used, Nigel can exploit the doubled K twice, horizontally and vertically, by setting it up first.
K earns 40 points in both orders. Being doubled by the double word score in the other order rather than the double letter in both directions. The order he used is technically more points because it scores HUN a second time, however, so 6 points more.
not only is the raw score more in this order, HUN first makes the follow up harder to block, whereas KNUR first leaves more options to the opponent in that bottom right spot
I already see you as the Gotham Chess of Scrabble; I'd love if you started to put out educational videos for people wanting to learn scrabble. Your content is amazing, congrats!
Good video as always. I'm convinced Nigel has a different system for cataloguing/memorizing/retrieving words, and doesn't realize nobody else uses it. Btw the small, red-black outline font you used for "FAAN" (I think that is the word) is illegible for me on mobile. Also purple/magenta tile color is kinda hard to read too.
He is right in saying that there are no secrets though. The fact that he is good at setting up doesn't make it a secret. Anyone else can to the same thing.
Yes. Quackle agrees with the overwhelming majority of his setups - but there are times when Quackle likes his play, but a human opponent just isn't going to let him have the spot (setup #3 in my video "Nigel Can't Stop Setting Up" is an example)
NIHIL is not pronounced “Knee Hill”, but instead NIGH-ull (or sometimes KNEE-ull). NIHIL is Latin, the root word to more common words NIHILIST or NIHILISM, which is the philosophy that believes that life is meaningless.
I'm a Thai resident and have represented Thailand in many world championships and international events. I'm not a Thai citizen but people kindly refer to me as Thai.
That's because it's the way to pronounce his name. Iirc will asked me for tips on Thai pronunciation. Pakorn is Pagorn. Their surnames are pan-yaa-soo-phon-lert and nay-mit-man-suk (as in took). I was a Thai teacher for 25 years.
K is like g in thai we don’t have hard k sound only soft and it’s always spelt with a k sort of like in English where sometimes it’s silent And in Thailand we have an ng sound which can also be spelt with a l because pronounciation in thai is similar and our ng sounds like a ng with n mixed and which spells komol gomo(ng/n)g
Ngl, hearing Nigel speak feels like seeing every planet align at the same time. Literally never heard his voice before.
The voice of God
I knew he was a Kiwi but the accent still threw me off at first lol
@@TheDbear42 I thought he was American, and the clip blew my mind!
@@TheBcoolGuyAmericans prefer names like Nick over Nigel
@@dwaynekeenum1916 Sure, but there are many English-derived Americans. It wouldn't have surprised me to see a family keep the traditions of their style of names. Especially towards the south of the country. With his haircut and beard, Nigel looks almost appalachian to me.
Great video and it brought all the memories of that BABIEST game back. When Nigel played BABIES I remember saying something of the kind of "what are you up to you naughty man"!. He smiled. I remember thinking I'll lose for sure if I play to block scoring little so I gambled a bit but still lost! I've played Nigel 56 times and won 12 easily my lowest for any player I've played 50 times. A few years ago I approached him to write his biography but he turned me down saying : "My life is too boring". One day I'll write the story of my own Scrabble life, and put in a chapter or two about the GOAT.
I'm very happy to see "Vol. 1" in the title
I have enough Nigel setups for at least two more volumes!
What I like most about these setups is the counterplay. It's not just 'Nigel plays a move that looks a bit silly and then Z bombs some poor shmuck for 60+ points'. He's doing this against opponents who know what he's up to and are equally resourceful in their blocks and counters. Great video.
Excellent observation (and thank you)
Alice Margatroid pfp?
Amazing. I think Nigel’s secret is that he’s not a word wizard who learned game theory; he’s a game theory master who learned all the words. Apparently he got into scrabble as a kid because he always beat his mom at card games but she thought he couldn’t win scrabble. But if you can handle the math, I guess, it is just a matter of learning the words.
Mrs Richards couldn't have been any wronger, and she must be delighted about that
Yes, I suspect that the reason Nigel said that it's a matter of learning all the words is that the other strategic aspects of the game come naturally to him, and so he tends to take that part for granted. Whereas, learning the words is something that everyone, even Nigel, has to consciously invest time in.
Which he can apparently do in five or six weeks 😬
Do you think Scrabble uses a lot of math?
Beyond adding up points.
He is not a wizard; just wizardly 😊
I’d better sit down and take off my hiarnet for this one
The thing about "just a matter of learning the words" that is so baffling is not only that play-finding is just one part of the game but that "learning the words" has no "just" about it. Drilling in tens of thousands of words such that you not only can _remember_ them with the correct spelling given a certain cue but can also _find_ them without that prompt is a monumental undertaking. For basically everyone else on earth except Nigel, it's practically out of reach past like 8 or 9 letters, but he's here coming up with "chlorodyne" on the spot like it's just another word he uses in conversation, with absolutely no cue. His play-finding is statistically almost indistinguishable from an engine, which literally enumerates every legal play instantly in a fraction of a millisecond in the first step of analysis and so in that sense is perfect. So it's "just" a matter of having a perfect memory with effortlessly good search and _then_ reading the words. (Twice, reportedly.)
And obviously, that's just one half of the game, but I guess when you effortlessly see every good available play, the strategic side does become way easier. You have plenty of time to think down each promising branch the way you would in a game of chess, and if you can see everything just like that, maybe you don't need to be a strategic mastermind to wow the world. But the question of how such a thing is even possible remains.
I like the implication of Nigel's comment that all us mortal players are a) lazy (because we clearly haven't put in the work to simply learn ALL the words) and b) really, really stupid (because finding the correct play is so easy it's not even worth mentioning as part of his "secret").
PS, the thumbnail is fantastic. 😃
He doesnt understand us mortals
It was such a pleasure to meet Nigel at one of my first tournaments I ever played in. He’s sweet, kind, and incredibly humble
A challenge for you: interview Nigel.
I cosign this!
Ok ... I literally had to pause the video at 4:27. Are you kidding me. Nigel is frickin incredible.
This is probably the first time 99% of your viewers have ever heard Nigel’s voice
ngl, his voice is so low too, I ever talk with him during break session of scrabble tourney and he is so introvert and just smile and nodding or just like few sentences come up from his mouth
I’ll never get over the amount of mental capacity Nigel has to have
up until this point, i had never heard Nigel speak before and assumed that he was like a silent monk that only communicated through Scrabble tiles.
But now that I've heard him, I can say that he sounds **exactly** how I imagined he would.
At the end of the day, Nigel is having fun and that's very noticeable with plays like these
The most strategic move in the video is Will not even attempting those Thai last names 😁
you calling Gerry Thai sent me down a rabbit hole. Turns out he did in fact move from England to Thailand and lived there for many years
I have lived in Thailand for forty years and still do. I have played scrabble in the kingdom and around the world for 34 years
Love to see Nigel Richards, playing Scrabble!!
”when it came to stuff like that... I could always just play.” - will hunting
BRUT into WIZARDLY is pretty much the same concept as RUD into AGATIZED.
You learnt from the best, Will.
*blush* thank you!
Great video Will! I mentioned in the live chat recently that I’d love to see more Nigel videos from you .. and you delivered! 🥳🎉
I love how much of this channel is just glazing Nigel Richards
I made a poem for dear Nigel --- an extremely gifted man, and a true hero of game theory. Enjoy ---
Chlorophymous
By the most chlorophymous deltas of the moon-wriggled oasis, are soulscaped under wriggling boudoirs of armadillo theodesics,
Chlorogonic Metaphysique divulgates arboreal catagraphy of philosophocentric saturation of verisimilitudes of Xenorexia,
Pawing the oneiric sphereohedrons of starlightiest starriest,
Acephalic outfoxiest of seraphine sangfroid atropine,
Tartesian deltas centauroid the nostrum of hyper-maledictorious clackety Thylacines,
Sidereal the Caryatids and fleshiest starriest oxide carbuncles,
Sidereal the Zugzwangmaster of fellaheen and hawking-Delphiniums of quarry quales,
Antlered bobbling buoys of the post-omnicentric adenosyl of coniferous pine resin,
Qualiamancer of the cosmogonic amphoraification of boondoggled mind-boggled Xenocrates,
Club-footed bedrock of wriggling pawing boondocks of the wriggled Saturnine Thylacine-Tapir hybrids of your Neptune xenogamous highwaying cornea -
let's sit here and wonder when another genius like nigel is going to rise
Maybe one day Mack Meller or our boi Will is gonna do it
@@charls828 Mack an Will are great, but I think it is clear that Nigel is cut from a different cloth... perhaps if their genes were fused in a lab, we could dream of the next Nigel Richards being born.
@@zwishking6032 100%, but out of the players we know I think Mack is one of our best choices given his age, just imagine him in 10 or 20 years time
Will I introduced your channel to my parents and they're really impressed by the depth scrabble has to offer, it's so much more than just a family word game. They're calling you the Chopin of chessboxing.
Your parents have very eclectic interests!
Nigel just has amazing Scrabble IQ. Knowing the words helps, of course, but seeing all the potential spots for plays and then once the initial threat is blocked being able to generate new threats until finally one can't be blocked effectively... it's like seeing a grandmaster mount an attack in chess, and the opponent play five good defensive moves in a row only for the sixth attacking move to have no effective counter to it.
Considering I was absolutely aware that Nigel was also from New Zealand, I don't know why I was so surprised that he had a Kiwi accent 😂
Nigel-setup.exe is not responding
Error: Dictionary too large
It's just a matter of learning the words, and playing them in the right place at the right time. So simple!
Scrabble is literally the easiest game in the world. All you need is machine-like foresight, perfect memory, and a New Zealand accent.
Id love a series of videos on "top rivalries". IE are there two players who have just had a lot of amazing games
nigel sounds more like some random dude than a dedicated master
Great fun as always Will, the man is scary in an safe, impressive kinda way. Just a heads-up that FAA in Scots is pronounced "faw".
Brilliant work, Will
Crazy how well played that game was, trowe is such a strong opp and this team just dissected his squad. If I was an animal I’d be a worm
Amazing video, I love your content, keep up the good work. I've become a scrabble junkie because of you.
So... you're saying that when they play a move for 6 it is a brilliancy while when i play it it is a blunder?
Not if you score 60+ on your next move.
They know exactly when it’s not actually a blunder
ACTUALLY WIZARDLY
A wizard is never late nor is he early he plays his incredible bingo exactly when he means to
Basically, Nigel is playing at least one entire meta ahead of everyone else. In 10-20 years, his style will be what all the top players are playing like, it is just going to take a while to adapt to.
Nigel understands that aggression is very important in most strategy games, and this game is no exception. By constantly making threats, he is forcing the opponent into difficult situations, whereas if you just worry solely about managing your rack and setting up bingoes without putting your opponent in difficult spots, you can rise to being the number 2 player in the world, but you won't be better than Nigel. Nigel is probably farther ahead of second place, than Magnus Carlsen is of 2nd place in chess.
I'd like to make a video comparing Nigel and Magnus at some point
3:00 In retrospect, wouldn't the order here not matter? Hunk and then knur should be the same as knur and then hunk with the way the double letter and double word scores line up.
Not quite. Because the double word score only counts the first time it is used, Nigel can exploit the doubled K twice, horizontally and vertically, by setting it up first.
K earns 40 points in both orders. Being doubled by the double word score in the other order rather than the double letter in both directions.
The order he used is technically more points because it scores HUN a second time, however, so 6 points more.
not only is the raw score more in this order, HUN first makes the follow up harder to block, whereas KNUR first leaves more options to the opponent in that bottom right spot
winning with BABIEST is the most brat thing I've ever seen
I have dreamt of saying across the table, "Nigel, your setups are leaving me quite upset." 😅😂
I already see you as the Gotham Chess of Scrabble; I'd love if you started to put out educational videos for people wanting to learn scrabble. Your content is amazing, congrats!
Thank you so much, that means a lot
How do Will find these games? Does he look at every single Nigel games to find these?
So... you didn't dare to pronounce Pakorn's last name? :P (Cool video, btw)
Good video as always. I'm convinced Nigel has a different system for cataloguing/memorizing/retrieving words, and doesn't realize nobody else uses it.
Btw the small, red-black outline font you used for "FAAN" (I think that is the word) is illegible for me on mobile.
Also purple/magenta tile color is kinda hard to read too.
No system is gonna make a mere mortal memorise 280k words by just reading the dictionary a couple of times
Good to know re: text colors. I'll try to do better on that front
I think this is the first time i actually heard nigels voice
He is right in saying that there are no secrets though. The fact that he is good at setting up doesn't make it a secret. Anyone else can to the same thing.
Watching nigel play is so exciting. I'm curious, does quackle et al agree with these setup plays generally?
Yes. Quackle agrees with the overwhelming majority of his setups - but there are times when Quackle likes his play, but a human opponent just isn't going to let him have the spot (setup #3 in my video "Nigel Can't Stop Setting Up" is an example)
I liked this style of video 😊
Why ain’t you pronounce Nemitrmansuk?
Awesome.
Wizardly was really awesome
3:09 Mohg Jumpscare
I considered adding the sound effect of him shouting NIHIL!
🐐
NIHIL is not pronounced “Knee Hill”, but instead NIGH-ull (or sometimes KNEE-ull). NIHIL is Latin, the root word to more common words NIHILIST or NIHILISM, which is the philosophy that believes that life is meaningless.
Also ANNIHILATE - to reduce something to nothing
But Mogh pronounced in Knee Hill so it's the only valid one for me
5:04 wow
I need to know how someone called "Gerry Carter" and looks like he's called Gerry Carter is Thai.
moved there from england many years ago, apparently
I'm a Thai resident and have represented Thailand in many world championships and international events. I'm not a Thai citizen but people kindly refer to me as Thai.
Most thai players have PTSDs when facing Nigel.
Wow
Wait? That’s how he sounds?
What's the alternate spelling of ziti?
zite (what he ended up playing)
TIZI
4:51 and onward: why do you keep calling Komol “Gomon”?
the english alphabet approximation of thai sounds is often more confusing than it is helpful
That's because it's the way to pronounce his name. Iirc will asked me for tips on Thai pronunciation. Pakorn is Pagorn. Their surnames are pan-yaa-soo-phon-lert and nay-mit-man-suk (as in took). I was a Thai teacher for 25 years.
K is like g in thai we don’t have hard k sound only soft and it’s always spelt with a k sort of like in English where sometimes it’s silent
And in Thailand we have an ng sound which can also be spelt with a l because pronounciation in thai is similar and our ng sounds like a ng with n mixed and which spells komol gomo(ng/n)g
Did you win against Nigel
I have beaten Nigel several times, yes! Someday, I'll do a video chronicling my games with him
you said the Thai name wrong, more like “pa-gōn”
Ello❤
Will, being a fanboy of Nigel is something none of us are ashamed to admit. Great showcase! 🫡
I subbed