Nigel Plays "IN". The Crowd Goes Wild. 

"...plays the self-descriptive 'POO' for 10 points." Will's coming out of the gate throwing shade 😂

Finding a quote from yourself while doing research is crazy 😭

these videos have made me want to play Scrabble so bad, I've never played it before but this series makes it look so incredibly fun

So one minor thing in theses Nigel videos, that I always find funny, is the Standing boards that list where people are from with specific Cities for the US but if your from outside the US they just shrug and put the Country. It makes it look like Nigel is either just a wise hermit roaming all of Malaysia or that he just sits upon the throne of Malaysia as its undisputed king for being such a good SCRABBLE player.

I love it when he talks about their racks. Was dying at "trip has a horrendous rack"

Understanding that ZIN is better than JIN is possibly the most impressive play to me in this game, given that it defies leave / bingoing heuristics and JIN sets up the case (D)JIN hook. Later, the confidence to not take the guaranteed victory and instead play the perfect endgame is extremely impressive as well.

Nigel forgoing bingos could be compiled into its own video, he does that so much more than other top players, and especially EAT here was an example where I don't think it would even occur to other players not to play the bingo. Maybe you could cover the World Championship final against Jesse Day where he famously forewent a bingo near the end of the game.

another absolute banger of a video. I specifically wanna commend your use of colors. I feel like you already do a great job of explaining the nuanced plays without it getting too confusing, but your use of colors really made every moment crystal clear; like coloring words in either purple or yellow to show who played them in a fast forward was so cool to see. keep up the great work!

The double hook hits me everytime. Elite understanding of the game state, so impressive every time.

One of the things that make me most excited about the advancement of Scrabble AIs is the potential to better evaluate all these unintuitive, brilliant-looking plays by Nigel (and others too, but Nigel seems to have a special penchant for them). And yet in a way, I hope engines never get there so that we can keep our sense of wonder when looking at these ideas. Another fantastic game, thanks for sharing Will

GothamScrabble is becoming more and more real

Trip seems just as interesting to me. Nigel knows the words, as his French victories show, but being able to compete in crossword is a completely different level in some ways - you have to know the words AND definitions

Could you make a video regarding how engines work in Scrabble and how they calculate the best possible move? Cause what I find confusing is, how they 'deal with' unseen tiles. In chess, it makes sense for me at least, cause they know which moves are possible, but that isn't really the case for Scrabble (I think). So, a video regarding how this works would be great!

The one second photo clip of Jay-Z when you mention Nigel’s JZ makes me wish I could give this video 1,000 automatic thumbs up clicks. You’re great, Will. 😂

What a wild game! It's a great example of differences between Nigel's judgment and computer analysis. I looked at the IN move with all the three major engines we have right now (at 4 ply depth each time) and the results were all over the place: - Quackle thinks it's best and gives it 59% to win - Elise has it at just 45% but gives the edge to JIN in the same spot at 49% - Macondo hatest it and gives it just 40%, compared to 52% for ZIN - although it must be noted I had to use the newer TWL20 lexicon here with some additional words But this shows how much is still left to do in terms of computer analysis. It's a typical spot where the engines just have no proper model for how an opponent will react to such a move. If and when we get a really strong, machine-learning-based engine, this will be one of the games I'll run through it. Not just because of IN but also all the other moves.

By far the coolest thing about scrabble to me is it not being completely solved, the idea that you can use computers to try and better understand what players are doing, but still have to defer to their agency/intellect in the end is amazing

One last comment... can we appreciate that the National Crossword Association has an amazing logo

Hey Will, great video as always! Random thought while watching, are there ever *themed* matches between high level players? Something like "adjectives only" or "any foods get double points"? It seems like it might be cool to see which strategies emerge and promote actual knowledge of the meaning of the words being played. Bringing back the *language* element of the language game at the top level, if you will. I'm sure something like this already exists though

This is the Scrabble version of walking up slowly and down smashing

In addition to the graphics and story itself, the video title deserves some praise. Great stuff.

Will, been a silent fan for a while but I just have to say I love this series and all your videos. You can tell when a video is made by an expert versus a fan and this series is a showcase of that. Fantastic job and your brilliance shows.

ive only watched 2 videos of scrabble ever and this channel made me realize how deep scrabble really is

Wow. I didn't know Scrabble had this level of reasoning! So impressive!

I get so happy when I spot something they can do, but then it's usually "but Nigel of course, does something more optimal instead ... " Love these videos

1:20 love how when Trip has too many vowels his rack spells OOOPS

Silly as it sounds, the Michael Jordan analogy is appropriate. Nigel is simply on another level. Thanks for making these videos Will, your content is fantastic.

5:28 STOCKFISH FOR SCRABBLE

I'm in that bizarre place where I want to leave a nice comment because the video is great, but Nigel's play has left me speechless. Haha. What a fantasic talent!!

Great video. I appreciate the subtle touches like the Chess brilliant symbol, Jay-Z, and the word definitions

man I love it when the Algorithm puts this kind of video in front of me

Great video as always!! Best content on RU-vid right now!!!

Trip deserves some credit though for taking the opportunity to play poo and vulva in the same game. Mastermind

Will just casually ignoring the fact that he got third.

I really enjoy these videos about Nigel, but I also want to see videos about other top Scrabble players. What are other players known for, what are interesting games and plays they've had in the past? I know there are a few on your channel, but it feels like the majority are about Nigel, and he's one of the only people mentioned in the titles or shown in thumbnails usually.

It's weird to see a 100% winning move be suboptimal, but I suppose that's because spread matters. That's such an interesting aspect of Scrabble strategy, that your moves still matter even when the outcome of the game is certain. In most games you kind of have to treat all wins equally or else you get really weird incentives, but Scrabble doesn't seem to have this issue.

These videos are so well done great work

I love watching videos from other communities that are REALLY nerdy about the subject. From Fallout: New Vegas documentary’s to well this video lol

Great video as always, still hoping to see a video about your career. What got you interested into scrabble, how you won your first tournament and what convinced you to start a youtube channel.

I'm not a native english speaker, and i love the instances like:" there is no way he missed gagler". I've never heard of this word in my life.

These videos are so awesome! Love that you added the timeline!

Another video from Will Anderson! Yay!

The comical stary with POO then RETRIAL. i am dying laughing!! 😂

lovely stuff as always Will

Great video my man, keep it up!

I know he's a pretty private guy but he hasn't been at a tournament in a while. I hope he comes back again.

Awesome video as always. Keep it up

All the talk about hooks and bingos, and I’m just like…”vulvas…lol…giggity”

Nigel is like an adult playing in a competition for preschoolers. It's just not fair.

Nice touch not mentioning the word Trip chooses to use his two v’s for

My stem brain always struggled with word based games we played as a family. Recently discovered your channel and really want to give Scrabble another try now I know it's not about being a literary genius

i cant wait to see this video

So you are slowly teaching me to play spooky words that go through words and I'm not sure I like it, lol.

There’s Nigel and then there’s everyone else.

Thanks for the Timeline! Very helpful.

I'd like to see some history on the man, the legend, Mark Nyman at some point!

1:23 HAHAHA that insult is just so out of place and mean that I was like HUH? 🤣

When you can win the game this turn, but you don't because you want to max out your score in the endgame

Wow! IN is a legal word? I really need to go back to my two letter flash cards...

Hi, Will, (I'm AWFUL at scrabble, so I must be wrong, but the end game sequences are super interesting to me) at 9:29, could trip not have used a ze or zo on the double letter to block Nigel's azine hook play?

Great video, and nicely done with the Jay-Z insert 👌🏻😂

Got recommended this one very interesting breakdown on someone/thing I’ve never heard about before.

You know, I never imagined that it was even possible to play Scrabble at a level where knowing every damn possible word in the English language and recognizing every possibile opportunity to play them was a prerequisite to even compete. It almost pisses me off that that level of memorization and pattern recognition is used to master a board game.

This is so good

letter tier list

How did I get here? I do not know. Do I understand any of this? No. Am i having a good time? Surprisingly, yes.

Editing is top tier 🔥

That's like 92% accuracy.

I forgot that the word in existed

I thought you weren't allowed to play the same word on the board twice? Did I make that up or is that only in some versions.

Fun fact: Will Anderson’s lifetime record against Nigel Richards is 5-2, making him one of only two people that have played Nigel at least 6 times and won more than they lost.

5:48 this was way funnier to me than it should have been

Another great video!

I would love to see games of Nigel playing amateurs in languages that he doesn't know. That would be such an interesting handicap

I don’t quite understand the “he would play POOP instead of POO if he had another P” thing. If he had a bunch of vowels, then POO would be better than POOP because it saves 1 consonant in case he draws a lot of consonants right?

Nice quote. That must be fun to discover your quote in an article, and not even remember having said it. Does it jump off the page as like "Well, yeah, that's what I would've said"?

Poo is self descriptive?! Damn dude you slammin on this man

5:48 very sneaky. He does indeed have Jay-Z

Very cool, keep it up, subscribed

Though Nigel is incredibly good, your videos help me to see how someone can be that good. Well, at least most of how good he is is well conveyed in your videos, the computational ability to calculate so quickly would be regarded as "superhuman" if not for the fact that Nigel (as well as others who have computer-brain) is human.

He probably just tried to spell 'Nigel' and got confused

I'm hooking every day, but you don't see me win any scrabble games with it

nigel is magnus in scrabble

I am only watching you for NIgel videos; other than that, I dip (barring learning about x or y word)

scrabble should have a grow in popularity like chess had in 2020, i think it's so fun and competitive but non of my friends wants to play it thinking it's boring lol 😅

Another banger video

I used to think Scrabble was an easy game until I saw this video.

In = Brilliant Move.

Me the entire time: hope he plays kwyjibo

@5:50 , you say Nigel's best scoring play would yield 27, but what about using the blank with ZOO for 31?

5:49 *Nigel Richards turns into a random guy (I don't know who he is)

Meanwhile me: I know some of these words!

Amazing

In!

ah yes, the nigel timeline

for the move you talked about in 5:04 , could not Payne also play "Gin" with drawing G, and "Tin" ?

amazing

Why does every image of Nigel look like it was taken in the 80s or 90s?

Trip just casually playing poo and vulva

"trip does have a horrendous rack" 5:28 I'm sorry

5:48 lol