My Favorite Nigel Richards Scrabble Move of All Time 

Huggbees?

It's not because he "likes" doing it. It's because he's bored an needs something to fill the dead time.

Its great sad pathetic people get recognition for their terrible lives and it makes up for their horrible depressing loser lives! They could only do better of they where paralysed and couldnt walk or have sex! the difference being scrabble players can walk but dont get sex either

@@lLenn2 good point i’m sure he hates it thanks for your comment

@@ybab-j It's what he himself has said

Yeah it actually is

The volune of bullshit 'words' allowed in scrabble astounds the soluqai.

Aa is a type of lava.

Collins list: aa, ab, ad, ae, ag, ah, ai, al, am, an, ar, as, at, aw, ax, ay, ba, be, bi, bo, by, ch, da, de, di, do, ea, ed, ee, ef, eh, el, em, en, er, es, et, ew, ex, fa, fe, fy, gi, go, gu, ha, he, hi, hm, ho, id, if, in, io, is, it, ja, jo, ka, ki, ko, ky, la, li, lo, ma, me, mi, mm, mo, my, na, ne, no, nu, ny, ob, od, oe, of, oh, oi, ok, om, on, oo, op, or, os, ou, ow, ox, oy, pa, pe, pi, po, qi, re, sh, si, so, st, ta, te, ti, to, ug, uh, um, un, up, ur, us, ut, we, wo, xi, xu, ya, ye, yo, yu, za, ze, zo. Most of these I never would’ve believed were words unless a professional taught me or I learned them myself.

@@77elite9 A lot of the two letter words are drawn from musical Solfège (FA, TI, MI, etc), which explains why they're included, despite how ridiculous they look in context

The quest to beat Nigel Richards... HOME - We're Finally Landing starts playing

​@@cedrick25Incredibly, Matt Turk was not available

​@@Ssssssnakeisone "Nigel once said in an interview that he would have a full game race of Punch-Out against anyone who could win against him in French Scrabble 7 times in a row. Naturally, the first person to beat him at Punch-Out was none other than Matt Turk himself."

I would love that series

I really appreciate you stopping by & giving Scrabble content a chance!

Thank you!

Thanks! Had to scroll down a long time to see this. This should be pinned!

Thanks. I was stunned, tbh, that after such an interesting video, the producer chose not to complete it with the final game result. Weird. NIcely fixed by you.

@@aarondcmedia9585 He knows how to get people making comments... which increases the views in the YT algorithm...

You're totally right, I actually even had a chunk in there explaining the stuff I wrote in the description, but wrongly decided it was unnecessary. But thanks for the kind words!

Wow I didn't even realize that until I read your comment! Personally I was amazed and didn't even need to hear the ending; just the line of reasoning was entertaining and impressive without knowing the end. After all, that's just up to luck.

oh, I just assumed he had won by doing that

@@maker0824 No, he lost that game, but the fact that he engineered a victory path out of an absolutely hopeless situation, is incredible. If the L Q came out, it would have honestly just been dumb luck (though fun) and only a small part of the story. Putting himself in a position to win is the amazing part.

@@terracottapie it wouldve been lucky, but his opponent also seemed to get pretty lucky this game with the chance of getting 4 bingos right?

Unfortunately the tiles did not cooperate, but simply seeing the pathway to victory was amazing for him here…

Same. I don't even know the rules.

For some reason i'm getting all these scrabble videos recommended now and i love it

This is actually the least impressive part of what Nigel did here. From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tile_tracking : "The marking off of each letter from a pre-printed tracking grid as the tiles are played is a standard feature of tournament play." Even a middling player would have had a very good idea of what Komol was likely to have on his rack.

@@DrewLevitt thank you for enlightening me! I am a competitive trading card player - Yugioh and MTG and it is more of a high level skill to read what is in their hand. Makes sense for scrabble as a more middle skill level skill set as there’s only a finite data set.

Really appreciate the kind words!

Zest, oof, and boo?

germ, lightens, and boo?

Well, the reason why Nigel's wins in French scrabble are note-worthy is because he doesn't actually speak french (or at least at the time of the tournament). While Komol presumably knows English.

@@k-techpl7222 Sure, but even native speakers don't know probably 90% of the words in the scrabble dictionary, so a Thai guy memorizing the English wordlist is only slightly less impressive than memorizing the French one.

@@8964TS Well, firstly, you're assuming the Thai player even knows all the words in the English scrabble dictionary. Which he probably doesn't, considering 99% of native English players don't either, it's one of the things that sets Nigel apart. Secondly, remembering words for a language you actually understand is a 100 times easier than doing it with a language you don't. You remember words based on their meanings usually, I.E. when you see the letters a p p l e together you think of an actual real apple, not a written description of what it is in a book. He had to remember every last French word just by itself, with no meaning or description attached, so his only way of knowing if a word he or someone else was playing/played is real or fake is by remembering that exact letter combination listed in the dictionary.

@@tyler7637 People are working really hard to take away a compliment paid to the Thai guy.

@@8964TS Kind of sad if you think a 60 second response is "working really hard".. People are going to correct you when you make statements that make it clear you don't actually understand what you're hearing/watching.

but he won

Yeah, this was my bad! He didn't draw what he needed in this game...but Nigel always seems to give himself a chance

@@wanderer15 Apart from the bizarrely premature end, this video was fantastic. I really enjoyed it! 👍

Yes

I thinking the same thing!

I see you are a man of culture

It’s crazy because his English language exploits are crazy enough, and then he went and did *that*…

If Komol was able to play AERONAUT, Nigel's double threat would be irrelevant, because Komol would be out of letters and the game would be over.

@@Jivvi Good observation. A play-out made by Komol signifies end of the game. But still appreciate the scrabble scenario assuming he failed to see the bingo.

I know, bad job by me on that - Nigel didn’t draw the combo he needed, but when I figured out what he was up to, it was still an “oh shit!” moment for me

If he didn’t get the L, then he would’ve gotten the L anyways

How did you know one month ago Nvm the stream was a month ago

Agreed

cringe

A lot more people play chess so its unlikely as it has more than a couple of geniuses

Either spot for the bingo wins if he draws it. But there are only two tiles in the bag. A player of Komol's caliber will see AERONAUT every time, and if Nigel connects on his desired draw, Komol will necessarily have the letters for AERONAUT. Additionally, with only one spot for SILIQUA/E, Komol will simply block it to secure the win. Therefore, Nigel must set up a second spot for SILIQUA while also blocking AERONAUT - which he does.

Yes, you're right! But the beauty of AUF is that he won't need LIQUIDS anymore if he hits his perfect draw, because he can play SILIQUA underneath AUF forming AA (a word for a type of lava).

Thank you for the kind words! Officially licensed Scrabble is available at playscrabble.com - another great alternative is woogles.io

Play competitive scrabble in your area if any, you will discover the basic techniques by befriending good, talented players. We all started as a beginner and through the years you will soon develop your scrabble skills and become, at least, a competitive scrabble player.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get the magical ending, but even seeing this pathway to a win here was incredible on his part…(definitely an oversight on my part not to include that ending info)

For a top expert like Will, the intentions of the move are relatively straightforward to figure out after the fact. The difficult part is to be quick-witted enough to think of these possibilities over the board, under time pressure. If by the bot you mean HastyBot, it wouldn't find this play because it doesn't include these kinds of strategies. A strong Scrabble AI should find it though.

Fully agreed on both counts!

@@AlexDings Specifically referring to quackle, since I know that especially for players like Nigel Richards can often beat it, meaning there has to be a play Nigel picks up on that the computer doesn’t. Thanks for the explanations though!

​@@jwpogue Okay I see. As far as I know Quackle's flaws are: not making inferences about what letters the opponent is likely to have kept on their rack; not noticing setups; not considering low-scoring moves; not solving endgames or pre-endgames perfectly. If it takes AUF into consideration (which I think it would, in this situation) it would likely evaluate correctly that it is the best play.

@@AlexDings cool cool cool cool. Are you on woogles or isc?

apparently. don't they just use words from a dictionary instead of words that people actually use.

Yeah, it’s a bit of a stretch, but I believe it’s used by Hawaiians to designate a particular type of lava. I’m sure that lexicographically it barely made the cut, but because it’s a two letter word you see it at a frequency in scrabble that far outstrips its usage in speech.

They do. Though I can tell you from personal experience that Nigel uses a small, blank piece of note paper to do all of his tile tracking and other calculations.

Yeah, rookie mistake on my part - he didn’t get the miraculous draw but when I figured out what he was up to it was still a major lightbulb going off for me

I know, I made this before I knew what I was doing! Sadly, he did not draw the tiles he needed. I still think his move is amazing, though.

Sadly, he did not draw what he needed (I should have made this clearer, I apologize) - but still amazing recognition on his part.

Not at all. Scrabble at that level is packed with weird words and it’s hard to distinguish them. But in this case, while AA is valid as a word used by Hawaiians to denote a type of lava, UU is not valid, so AERONAUT will no longer fit.

@@wanderer15Thank you! I went back and rewatched your video with the added context and mother of god that’s genius

The U of AUF gets in the way because AERONAUT would fit underneath it to spell UU, which isn’t a word.

It was possible in theory from his POV, but it didn’t work out for him. That’s on me for not making that clear, sorry!

I know, big fail on my part. Sadly, he did not draw the letters he needed. But even seeing the pathway was so amazing to me!

@@wanderer15 Appreciate Will your analysis, it creates a scrabble scenario that an ordinary scrabble player can hardly reflect or foresee that rare possibilty of drawing that specific tiles. It helps us expand our thoughts how to think and play good scrabble game.

Subscribed and love the contents and substance of the video. It is worth remembering your accounts.