The School Scrabble Game That Shocked the Grandmasters
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ก.ย. 2023
- Welcome to Episode 12 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.
The North American School Scrabble Championship has come a LONG way since it was first held in 2003. Games between top scholastic players have become every bit as skillful, creative, and dramatic as games between adult grandmaster players. In this video, I break down a particularly memorable game from the 2020 online championship between Jem Burch and Chloe Fatsis, with an ending that SHOCKED the commentary team of Mack Meller, Jackson Smylie, and me!
For Mack's own analysis of this amazing game, check out his video here:
• A truly MIRACULOUS Scr...
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As a degenerate poker player, seeing TWO bluffs in one game is AWESOME! I think a “boldest bluffs” Scrabble History would be interesting!
There's a game where grandmaster Josh Sokol plays a phony FOURTEEN letter word of REINTERACTABLE, and it doesn't get challenged
There's another hilarious phony of BOBETAH that was once played (I forgot the name of the person that played though), getting away with it. After the game, the person who played the word defined the word as a cross between a bobcat and a cheetah
@@Charles-yi3mx I'm no Scrabble player but it's kind of weird to me that invalid words count towards score unless challenged. Would be like someone playing an illegal move in chess but it's allowed if the opponent doesn't notice. I thought there'd be some type of official there to check each word for validity after it's played or some retroactive deduction of points after the game.
@@Neurotik51the difference is how the box rules for the game are written. If you look at the rules that come with a physical version of Scrabble, that's how they're written. There's an entire section about challenging. In that sense, they aren't "illegal" at all, because they're literally allowed by the rules. They're just "invalid".
Even if points were removed, there would still be a point in playing phonies. REDISCERN wasn't even the highest scoring move, it was instead WHEELING, which is only made possible because of the N in REDISCERN.
Plus, it's not like phonying is "cheating" or whatever. You can prevent people from playing phonies against you by improving your word knowledge.
@@Neurotik51The funny part is that in chess tournaments this happens all the time with beginner players! OTB chess you have to catch your opponent making an illegal move in order to "challenge" it and make them play something else.
@@Yeeshuahit even happens at master level though usually in blitz games. There's even a game where White castled and, having manoeuvred his king back to the start square 20 moves later, castled again with the other rook -- and neither player noticed during the game.
This freewheeling approach to the game has us all rediscerning our own play styles. Dustards off to these two.
underrated comment
i am impressed by the fact that making plausible words is a strategy on its own. It's not illegal to play words outside the official dictionary, you have to challenge them. Such a simple non restriction opens up strategies which exploit that. what an amazing game
I almost feel bad for Jem. Almost. The most remarkable part of this video is that all 3 of the grandmasters said the position was dead and she should just give up, but she just didn't. That's what makes Chloe so strong as a player.
The position would have been dead against those GMs, as she had to make up a word to get out of it. But yeah, good job doing that.
@@AugustDwighteven still, M(I)NT would be played by grandmasters and securing the win
The tricky thing about REDISCERN though is that it is a 9 letter word, which are much less studied than 7 and 8 letter words by grandmasters (9 letter words show up from time to time but way less frequently than 7 to 8 letter words because they require you to play through two tiles, which happen much less often than 8 letter words which are made by playing through a single tile.) Because of this, REDISCERN would have a *chance* to make it past some grandmasters who have not studied many 9 letter words. Grandmasters spend hundreds of hours learning all the 7 and 8 letter words, and usually only after that do they start studying 9 letter words
The same applies to 6 letter words, some of the most famous phonies that grandmasters have gotten away with such as OUTWIN are 6 letter words
@@AugustDwight She made up a word, but that's part of scrabble. Will called it highly plausible and brilliant, why do you feel the need to diminish a highschool player? Obviously the position would have been dead against the GMs, they're the best players in the world. So negative for no reason.
There's no way I muster up the courage to challenge REDISCERN there with a full turn at stake. Whether or not you play MINT or MI is certainly debatable, but REDISCERN sure looks like a word to me.
Honestly, a game so whimsical could only be played by talented youths
If I had a nickel for every time Chloe won a game in this tournament after her opponent played MI, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
In another game in this exact tournament, her opponent Evan Yurko plays MI, failing to block Chloe's bingo of NEARLIER
I seem to recall that as well…
Elite phineas and Ferb reference
Why don't they just block the triple word just in case 😂
It was definitely optimal, especially with a G still unseen however her opponent was a cocky high schooler who had already outscored her and probably wasn't even really paying attention
@@10thletter40
Jem Burch is my classmate at Yale, so I was SHOCKED to see him here! I'm texting him about the game right now. He's a Linguistics major here and he's super smart.
Awesome! I hope he doesn't mind too much that Chloe is kind of the "hero" of the video. He is an incredible player and I hope he stays connected to Scrabble in the future!
Can you ask him what his thought process was for not playing MINT?
When I met Stefan (Chloe's dad) at the New York Scrabble Club, he was just writing an article for Sports Illustrated about Scrabble; he was a bright guy, clearly, and liked the game, but he hadn't yet played in any tourneys himself. He immersed himself in the game, however, and within a few years, he was playing at the expert level. Some years later, his daughter surpassed him in the game. (Meanwhile I could never get my own kids to memorize even the two letter words!)
Congrats to both of you, Stefan and Chloe -- you have a lot to be proud of!
The thought process behind playing REDISCERN was genius! Even though it’s a phony, it’s one of those words that seems like it could be playable. Amazing commentary as always!
also the fact that Jem couldnt really risk challenging it because it seemed like such a guaranteed win still anyway, seemingly very little value for Jem to challenge, where losing his turn could be very punishing, but letting rediscern comparitively was far less risky
not playing onto that triple word score off the N though was pure hubris and im sure he learned his lesson
Yeah, at that point Jem should've realized that the only way he could lose is if Chloe had a miracle triple-triple bingo. He should've played MINT or MINE for less points even though they score less, since at the end of the day winning or losing is more important than margin of victory
@@Charles-yi3mx margin of victory also likely goes down by leaving the N open to Chloe, because shes almost certainly going to play something there
i cant imagine exactly what his thought process was, other than "this is the way I can score most points"
No way to challenge that. It looks real and you can't risk losing your turn.
@@dentonyoung4314 I would say that it is a real word because everyone understands its meaning even though it may not be in a dictionary. Language is about communicating and that non-word clearly communicates a concept. It is much more a real word than MI, TI, FA, and ZA that are acceptable. No, I am not a Scrabble guy.
Been waiting for the actual footage on this one since covering it on my channel! 3+ years later still the craziest comeback I've ever seen
I just linked your video in my description!
As a person who has been in the tourney thank you for featuring me in the video Will if you are wondering, I am Theo, The kid who played you during lunch in the 2023 tourney. I also played in this tourney.
Of course I remember! Thanks for being here!
Oh, that DUSTARD play was mean, I love it.
9:31: Wow, I did not know that Mack Meller was that young. That's incredible with his achievements.
He is an amazing player and now TH-camr! @mackmeller
So glad to see this come up on Tom Scott's newsletter, finally seeing you get the recognition that you deserve!
Oh, wow! Tom is amazing. Is there a way to see past newsletters? I just subscribed, but it's probably too late to see this one...
I'm not familiar with any way to see past ones, but I imagine there's someone out there who has catalogued them! If you're curious as to what he said, here it is:
"Chess has had a resurgence online over the last few years, but I'd like to point at a game that's closer to my heart: Scrabble. It turns out there's a similar group of online experts analysing championship games: and I'd start with this analysis of a school Scrabble game that shocked the grandmasters." @@wanderer15
@@wanderer15 Probably not but here's the related section. English isn't my first language and I don't have an interest in scrabble even in my native lang, it was first I heard about professional scrabble but I was at the edge of my seat watching this video. Nicely done :)
"Chess has had a resurgence online over the last few years, but I'd like to point at a game that's closer to my heart: Scrabble. It turns out there's a similar group of online experts analysing championship games: and I'd start with this analysis of a school Scrabble game that shocked the grandmasters."
the use of feign words was super interesting in this game. So clever!
Tom Scott sent me here, anyone else?
Now I want to get back into Scrabble, great video!
Wow, what am amazing game. It's so cool to see young people playing so well. Thank you for making Scrabble more accessible to laypeople - I never would have understood how entertaining competitive scrabble could be without your videos.
Thanks for the kind words and for giving my videos a try!
i love how you add context to each match before getting into the play by play! Really builds suspense!
i'm so shocked MINT wasn't played considering her only comeback was a triple triple and he would've known that a G is still lurking for that -ING ending. I'm curious how many bingos other than WHEELING were able to be drawn. what an insane comeback.
yeah, i thought it was too confident as well. ING endings are pretty easily seen by both players
There were 15 possible bingos (all -ING) that were available as triple triples. Had he blocked with MINT, the only two playable bingos would have been EIGHTVO and LENTIGO, both playing on top of NE making ONE. Jem should have had a relatively easy time outrunning EIGHTVO which would have been the worst case scenario play for him after MINT. MI was just a massive blunder here.
EDIT: Fixed a typo.
Chloe wins another comeback game in the same tournament after her opponent played MI. This time it was Evan Yurko, who by playing MI failed to block Chloe's bingo of NEARLIER
My thought also. I don't know if it was overconfidence on Jem's part, but why would you chase points instead of protecting against them when up that much. As others have said, Chloe's only real chance was a bingo triple-triple, how can you not block there?
Keep in mind that MI scores more and keeps better letters remaining than MINT does - of course, in hindsight, the idea of blocking that dangerous spot seems clear, but it's not as if MI has nothing to recommend it, and in a short tournament like the School Championship, margin of victory matters a lot as a tiebreaker.
What an incredible comeback. Some luck to draw what she needed for that triple-triple Bingo was necessary, but her superb skill showed through the whole game.
I can definitely tell you spend much time and attention on your videos. I feel you are on your way to explode both scrabble and your channel on youtube.
I appreciate that!
Tom Scott sent me here and the video did not disappoint!
I am very glad to have notifications turned on. While I'm not interested in professional scrabble itself, your narration, visuals, and vocabulary tidbits are delightful. I especially like the inclusion of definitions as someone that love reading about language.
Honestly, I’m in love. With the game. With her. With life. Thank you Chloe. See you at G 🎉C🎉B🎉
Literally all adventurous women do!
Keep making videos like these, Will! Fast becoming my favorite channel.
Hey Will, thank you for bringing great Scrabble content to TH-cam. Your presentation style is very enjoyable and you bring excitement to the game. Thank you Sir!
Wowwww, what an amazing comeback! :D It's plausible phony play like that which makes for interesting moments and makes me appreciate being able to go for such as opposed to each word being checked for legality ASAP, heh!
Awesome video!! And wow, I also did not think this comeback was possible, but rediscern was brilliant !! Wow , great play
I had seen Mack’s recap of this game on his channel and was searching everywhere for the stream! glad you included it
I'll link his video in my description
I've always liked Scrabble but have only played like, twice. But even so, I love high-level gameplay and analysis by high level game players. Thank you for the videos, Will. (side note, i'd like to see more babble royale :P)
I'll be honest, I've played maybe 2 games of Scrabble, ever. Yet here I am, watching videos detailing plays in Scrabble tournaments.
Hope you're enjoying them!
Incredible comeback! How well do bluffs like these do at extremely high levels of the game? A theoretical player with perfect memorization would never be fooled, but how good are the top humans at spotting fake words?
At top tournaments, it doesn't happen too often, but it still does happen. It's more likely to happen with long words, like when Josh Sokol got away with REINTERACTABLE or when Matthew Tunnicliffe got away with SPAMELLIAS, since even top players do not usually give that much attention to 10+ letter words since they only show up once in a blue moon. However, if your opponent is low on time or just isn't paying attention, you can get away with anything. Cesar del Solar once played the phony two letter word NG and it didn't get challenged
Great video, can't wait for more!
Love your content, Will! Subbed a month or so ago. Keep up the good work!!
I honestly did not know how big a factor luck plays in scrabble. Learn something new every day.
I love this channel. Keep it up, Will!
An interesting and entertaining watch as always 😌
Got to love a good miraculous last minute save story!
Holy cow, that was impressive!
love the school scrabble content!!
Some cameos from you in there!
Fantastic video. I don't currently play, but your videos make me WANT to play.
Thrilled to hear this!
Love the videos man! I would love to see videos were you played a game then analyzed them after with a computer like you did with Eric Rosen. That is how I found your channel btw.
Thank you! Eric is amazing. I still have the footage from that collaboration, and never quite figured out what to do with it...
Great video! Loved it
Will, I love your content from all the way across the atlantic. It's fun, interesting, curious and entertaining, please keep doing it, you're
videos are a highlight when i jump om youtube. much love from a uk scrabble imbecile!
Thank you so much for the kind words!
Thanks for tweaking your word highlighting! This video was definitely easier to follow because of it, IMO! :)
Hope this video gets referenced on the Hang Up and Listen Pod!
Good idea!
I’ve been listening to Stefan Fatsis on Hang Up & Listen for years now, so it’s really cool to see his daughter showing up and making a name for herself like this!
do i know how to play scrabble? No. Do I still love these videos? Yes
Another great video!
Great video, Will.
absolutely insane stuff
Haven't got a clue how scoring works in scrabble but a riveting video either way
congrats on 20k subs!
Thanks!
that game was crazy
Ignorers are people who don't challenge when they have a response bingo
good definition lol
She had playable bingos even if she successfully pulled the trigger and challenged.
Can't believe he wouldn't shut down the double-triple possibility there. In any event, amazing stuff from Chloe
Based on the tiles in the bag, how many words could have possibly bingo’d with the N and triple triple? Nuts.
New Will video dropped LETS GOOOO
Chloe is a genius! I had a privilige to play her for the first time yesterday and I somehow won!
“Bey n. a Turkish governor”
I didn’t know so many of the relationships in high school included Turkish officials
Sis did what’s called a pro gamer move
I would love to know the thought process behind 'rediscern' and if it was a last ditch 'lose by less' or if she saw that there was just a small chance that she could have won. If the latter is true, we might just have another Nigel Richards on our hands.
She could've seen the I and G in the bag and hoped for a miracle play that ended in -ING, and played a word that put N in the second to last spot.
@@Charles-yi3mx that seems very likely. I like that idea.
As a fellow player, what I find brilliant about the play is the creativity to come up with REDISCERN as a word. But the thought process of "I could actually win if I then hit one of the possible triple-triples through the N" is pretty standard. That's usually what you try to do with a large deficit. I'm not trying to take away from her play, it's a fantastic bluff, I'd just like to put into context that the strategy isn't the brilliant aspect here - nothing Nigelian about it
It was a planned Hail Mary. She knew she needed to open the board to have the slightest chance of a comeback, so opening the Triple lane makes sense. REDISCERN was the brilliant part because a)she knew there was I,G in the bag and it sets up a ING bingo b)the play left her with the best possible letters c)it sounds real enough that I don't think many players would challenge (I wonder if she knew it wasn't valid). She got her miracle draw, but it was the clever setup that got her the win.
MOM WAKE UP WE HAVE A JEM AND CHLOE BREAKDOWN
wow, insane game
Missed opportunity for "Fa, a great, great option heeeeere" 🎵
wow thats so cool
We had a chess and Scrabble club back in my elementary school. I only played chess because I couldn't spell well lol. I never know how long those clubs lasted though. Wish I knew.
Good to see some content with women in it, great stuff
Hey, I remember losing to Chloe at this tournament
Me, a week ago never having played more than 2 games in my life. Don’t know anything about scrabble
Me, after binging these videos: plays about 4 games a day and tries to bring up Nigel Richards winning French Scrabble tournaments without speaking French in every conversation
Also wonder how game would have gone if he challenged dustards
richards not rodgers :))
@@semnejlepsi8983 I’m sorry!! I get confused when someone has almost two first names as a name
Richards*
Jem would lose his turn, but not only would Chloe benefit from getting another turn, she would benefit from knowing what tiles Jem has as well. In this case, Jem does not have a valid bingo through any letter (though he would have DRYASDUST through correctly positioned S and Y), but let's just say that instead Jem had the letters AGHISTT. Those letters do not form a 7 letter word, but with an open R, he would have the bingo of STRAIGHT. So Chloe gets an extra turn with the benefit of knowing Jem's rack, so she would be able to avoid making a move with an open R.
Amazing how such a niche community can be so massive.
I thought I was already subscribed but I wasn't - those mid-video sub pleas really work after all!
I’m trying not to go too crazy with them, but it does seem to be somewhat standard practice. In any case, thank you!
you should make a video about scrabble plays that were *almost* genius. Like the RATAN play by David in the world tournament where he couldve won if he had gotten an e.
He already did that in one of his past videos.
@@77elite9 oh, I'll look it up. I really thought I did something there.
Is the full game with your commentary available somewhere?
I have all the videos saved locally, but here is an unlisted link to this specific game on my backup channel:
th-cam.com/video/j3eO_c-3pEQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=whrwmlwoavTSLRbV
I didn’t realize bluffs like this were a thing in scrabble. It kind of makes me wonder, what is the drawback to challenges? Because if anybody could challenge at any time for any reason, it would be suboptimal to not just challenge after every play.
It's double or nothing.
If your challenge is correct, they lose their turn (they don't get to play something else).
If your challenge is incorrect, you lose your turn (they get to play a second time in a row).
The rules were written in an era where checking the validity of words was tedious, so it discourages challenges.
@@MoiMagnus1er but I actually like this system. It adds a layer of strategy to the game when otherwise, you could just challenge everything and nobody could ever lie about a word and then nobody WOULD ever lie which would make challenges completely useless. It’s actually interesting this way
2024 NASSC goal, impress will enough this be on scrabble history
I have faith
Can someone explain why the players get WAAAY more points than their words are worth?
Like "explore" was awarded 78, but summing up all the letter scores plus all bonuses only gives (12+1)*2=26.
Similarily, "wheeling" was given 194, but is "only" worth (15+1)*9=144.
This is because playing all 7 of your letters in Scrabble gives you 50 bonus points on top of your normal score. In your calculation of EXPLORE, you forgot that it also forms NE with the N of NAV, adding two more points for a total of 28. Then you add 50 extra points because it used all 7 of Jem's letters to reach the final score of 78. Your calculation of WHEELING is spot-on, but then add on the 50 bonus points once again for Chloe using all of her letters to reach the score of 194. Because of this big bonus for using all of your letters, much of top-level strategy revolves around making these very powerful plays. In North America we call them "bingos" and in other parts of the world they're called "bonuses."
Fabulous
Guys i dont even play scrabble. The videos are just really good quality ngl.
Is there a link to the full stream of the match?
I posted one as an unlisted video on my backup channel in response to another request for it. It can be found here: th-cam.com/video/j3eO_c-3pEQ/w-d-xo.html
Great win Chloe, never in doubt :)
"Dustard"... then no challenge with the word "Ignorers". Pretty hilarious.
The problem is "rediscern" can be used in a sentence, and construct outwards to have a sound meaning.
On the POOF play, how is it decided which words, like JEW, are banned, and which aren't? I assume it's done regionally? I'd be loath to play POOF at a British Scrabble event
POOF remains acceptable as an interjection denoting something's rapid disappearance ("poof...it's gone"), but the plural has indeed been expurgated from all current lexicons.
love it
Funny how the response to "dustard" was "ignorers" as in she ignored/didn't notice the wrong word.
imagine if Chloe had a brother named mike...Mike Fatbro
now now
4:05 i know some people that have shed their troublesome V
Jem is just flirting with her 😂
Oh hi there
It would be funny if in a game a player played a false word that was unchallenged by an opponent, and then that opponent made it plural and the original player successfully challenged
pretty sure Josh Sokol has a game where he played JACKNIFE unchallenged and challenged the opponent later on when they took the S hook
Wow
When Jem played (3:50) "HIKE" for 39 points as their supposedly top scoring play, could he not have played "CASK" / "CUSK" with the "S" off "POOF" for the triple word and 51 points?
Good suggestion! First, I'm not precisely sure what word list ISC used at the time for North American players like this, but POOFS may not have been an acceptable word (POOF remains acceptable as an interjection denoting something disappearing suddenly). But, the plays you suggest would have used up the valuable blank tile, and Jem had very good odds of playing a bingo on his next move by keeping it. A typical rule of thumb at this level is to not use your blank unless you can score at least 25-30 more points than your next best play, but CUSK only scores 12 more than HIKE.
@@wanderer15 Fair enough, the 3-vowel leave is far from ideal - particularly at the cost of the blank tile. I suppose there's also no incentive to rush towards the TW given that 2 of them are available. I'll bear the rule of thumb in mind, though with significantly lowered expectations for myself!
Jem Burch now makes crossword puzzles.
I mention this at the end of the video and even show one of his puzzles!
I'm trying to imagine a world where the "fake play that can be called to cancel out a turn" idea is in Yugioh or any other card game.
I guess it's not a great comparison to Scrabble since Yugioh players are incapable of reading cards(be it their own cards or the opponent's) and it is both players responsibility to uphold a legal gamestate but whatever.
I should've already gone to sleep and I'm not legally obligated to concoct a "fake plays" rule.
4:39 eyebeam seems better?
He’s in the lead but 89 points, the places that I can see eyebeam being placed opens the board and allows the chance for Chloe to bingo and catch up.
The better reason is that the blanks are wasted with eyebeam. Playing eyebeam blocks 4 lines. Try again.@@Thaplayer1209
@@ForensourceEYEBEAM for 99 points hooking POOFY is without a doubt a better play. There's nothing wrong with using both blanks on a bingo, and he's not wasting them at all since he only gets 78 points later anyways. Most likely he just didn't see the play.
letter tier list bb
Appreciate the suggestion - you're requesting a separate video, or is the Better Know a Letter series not enough?
I feel like Jem just misplayed terribly.
Did everyone catch that Jim’s rating was over 1830?! That’s will into GM territory! Fantastic video!
Junior and professional leagues use different standards to calculate rating.
Based on the way they do calculations it's not possible to have an equivalent rank to grandmaster in junior league
@@ssgoko88 actually those were online ratings on the ISC site on which that tournament was held. there are no junior ratings in Scrabble
@@ssgoko88 The game was on ISC. Do they have multiple rating systems?
@danlieb1202 the online rating systems are separate from the over-the-board ratings that are used to calculate "official" national rankings. www.cross-tables.com/ is a good resource to find those rankings. Jem's current OTB rating of 1588 *hugely* underrates his actual ability.
Hamburger!