The "Laziest" Scrabble Endgame

In this episode of Tales of the 1%, we'll look at a 2024 game between two former North American Champions, Alec Sjoholm and Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, where you'll need to decide whether the brilliant endgame sequence was lazy...or anything but!
Sometime soon, I plan to resume streaming on my Twitch channel:
/ wanderer15
I also have a weekly show on the official Scrabble Twitch channel (Tuesdays 3-5 PM ET):
/ scrabble
Play Scrabble at playscrabble.com!

[@bp-lx7lf]

Especially excited for this video as LAZIEST was my first ever bingo in scrabble! Was played with z on double letter and the whole word on a triple for a total score of 128. I think the L was hooking something but unfortunately I can’t remember exactly what. Still my highest scoring word after many, many years of playing casually.

[@wanderer15]

Nice play, that's a ton of points!

[@roryosullivan3000]

This is one of your best videos ever. Love to see under the hood of scrabble strategy with inference analysis

[@vincentskater]

I was confused nearing the end of the video, I was like, how was this a lazy endgame, there was so much thought out into his final moves !!! And then I realized xD great video , always fascinating and I'm always excited to watch more ! :)!

[@philipsowolabi6937]

Champion stuff! This is why having a good few minutes for endgame play is massively important in Scrabble. Brilliant video as always @Will Anderson.

[@mkwilson1394]

I've watched many of your videos and appreciated several lovely moments in games before, and today's is my favorite so far. I had to pause the video to comment right away. The board state after TAXON is so beautiful! Thank you.

[@wanderer15]

Really appreciate this, thanks! (And yes, the LAZY setup is so aesthetically pleasing in addition to strategically brilliant)

[@asterpw]

Love the quality of these videos! I don't even care about scrabble but you make it all seem interesting.

[@plebcrabslayer]

But aren't you starting to care about Scrabble now? :D

[@randaljr.8581]

nice! as someone who does not play competitive scrabble, the commentary analysis helps me to appreciate the skill of these players =)

[@axcertypo]

I swear we didn't even call each other

[@louismyers8845]

sure🙄

[@wanderer15]

Our mind meld is unspoken

[@iuliadianamarian3977]

I enjoy hearing you talk about endgames way more than I expected

[@HopUpOutDaBed]

plays like this remind me that even if i studied the dictionary for 100 years I would never be as good as these guys. Next level stuff!

[@qqw743]

Certainly their word knowledge is outta control but what this game illustrates is just how important game strategy and calculation are. I'm pretty good with words but garbage with game strategy and am unlikely to ever get near this level of planning and understanding.

[@mattcanik]

@@qqw743 you can get 10% of the way to their knowledge and still have 95% of the fun though! Just fewer crazy bingos

[@JDLupus]

I've been binging your channel lately, and this is one of my absolute favourite videos of yours; the inference, the TAXOR setup, the analysis involving that play vs other viable options... yeah, your channel is godlike and really helps to show how Scrabble is such an incredibly beautiful game.

[@wanderer15]

I really appreciate the kind words. Thank you!

[@hridaysamtani5797]

Wow, that's champion stuff! Add to that a brutal field which would surely be stream worthy.

[@timvvs]

the cat thumbnail is a great touch

[@johannesdaniel4021]

honey wake up, new will anderson video just dropped

[@AlongNaga-vo6lg]

Dude but you are single.

[@johannesdaniel4021]

just bc I watch Scrabble videos, dude chill 😂

[@xavnoskill]

Another superb video from will!

[@ahhh-qr1lk]

It's always a pleasure to see you analyse an interesting endgame.

[@humbertocruz6214]

Brilliant play and brilliant video

[@getmetothegeek4066]

Brilliant as always! Thanks, Will!

[@wanderer15]

My pleasure, thanks for watching!

[@dangalfthedruid]

Great video! I wonder if there are interesting championship games where the scores are kept very low by bad luck?

[@johnwilder4789]

I believe there are some games that have ended early because there were no more playable moves. There are also some extremely low scoring games due to the “six zero rule” (six consecutive turns of zero, i.e. 3 in a row from each player, will end a game immediately whether that zero is an exchange or a pass). I believe Will actually did a video on this as well.

[@paulzetterberg8081]

Perfect upload timing to watch over this over lunch!

[@ambbarnes9839]

Feijoa, the J is actually said as a J, not an H.

[@louismyers8845]

Thank you for all the videos you make - you are one of my favourite youtube channels!

[@wanderer15]

My pleasure, I really appreciate the kind words!

[@petrjara7559]

How a scrabble game versus pro and beginner looks like: 1) Pro plays FGHRTZE or another 7 random letters that definitely make a word 2) Begginer challenges 3) Go to 1)

[@plebcrabslayer]

I tried to start eating dinner while watching this but my food got cold because I'm just that invested, due in part to your script! 💯👏 6:14 I noticed and appreciated. 🐭🔊😅

[@nousernameleft999]

high level scrabble is sick, more people need to see this

[@craiglarimer1173]

Incredible end game. And loved the video. Does anyone know if this tournament was recorded and in KZbin or something?

[@wanderer15]

No streaming that I'm aware of. Conrad sent me an annotated game file to look at and I was immediately struck by the strategically brilliant and aesthetically pleasing late game sequence, hence the video!

[@otherDante2]

I haven't played Scrabble in my life but this video still is nice!

[@wanderer15]

Thanks for giving the video a try!

[@bubbagarland]

Amazing, cheers Will :)

[@rune4543]

love your Scrabble analysis so much!!

[@LRXC1]

That is an UNREAL endgame, what in the WORLD. WOW.

[@barakbarton3861]

Will, you really do create great content! I do not like playing scrabble. Since, I lack the memorization skill required to do well. However, I love this content and relish in the opportunity to see and learn more about this great community and competitive scene!

[@wanderer15]

Thank you!

[@gitgit22000]

i feel so fortunate to be part of this secret online Scrabble ‘club’ and Will your videos are gems … on ISC my rating is around 1000 and play under the name ‘buttons’ … prefer ‘challenge’ games and always ‘unrated’ because i don’t mind playing against all level of challengers and if you must anagram while up and coming then it is ok if you are occasionally stuck …

[@redtaileddolphin1875]

A video from will AND josh in the same day?? Incredible

[@johnwilder4789]

A video from Will and Josh AND a double upload from Mack. We are living in good times as Scrabble content consumers.

[@domino14]

drawing AS after TAXOR actually loses by one point! But it's still the winningest play.

[@JasonVaysberg]

Agree.

[@Saltiren]

Insanity. Why is scrabble so intense?

[@wanderer15]

It's my mission to explain why/how on this channel!

[@332360515]

What is even cooler is that only dan happen if both players are extremely at high level. Playing intermediate level and they could have 2 I but in a rush to block doesn't play DIF instead DEF or don't know about DEFI

[@sefun129]

SCRABBLE JOKE TIME!! What’s a scrabble players favorite song?? BINGO!😂😂😂😂

[@karinvasu3005]

banger video

[@randomguy9084]

It would be fun if you analyzed the 3 games the try guys played versus Austin Shin they just uploaded on their youtube channel, especially the one where they blindfolded him and he played 300 points down I am curious if there was a way he could have one he didn't see because he was blindfolded

[@wanderer15]

Cool idea, I'll have to look and see how many of those board positions are fully visible!

[@coldsnap5742]

Just goes to show that, as you said in another video, no matter how great you are at this game, the luck of the draw will always be involved. You cannot completely eliminate its impact, but you can minimize it.

[@glowstonelovepad9294]

Why did Alec keep only drawing 5 tiles?

[@ValkyRiver]

This game was annotated with partial racks from Conrad’s perspective

[@lillyrose6568]

I don't understand the win percentage, especially at 1:43 where petronel was 99%. What does this mean?

[@mwickholm]

The program used simulates lots and lots of games starting from that exact position, and playing that word made you win 99 % of those games.

[@wanderer15]

The number I showed is actually slightly misleading. The AI program (Quackle) tracks which player is still winning the game after a set amount of turns. In this case, I had it set to 4 turns in the future, so the fact that it expects Alec to still be ahead 99% of the time in 4 turns is quite meaningful. But it doesn't really capture the fact that Conrad may sometimes have a play exactly like the one he had - a big 100 point response that cuts the deficit significantly. Alec will still be ahead in all of these cases, but his overall winning chances will take a big hit. That being said, even attempting to simulate a large number of turns into the future gives him something like 95% winning chances. Doesn't fit my narrative of 1%, but still an amazing comeback by Conrad.

[@Chase3141]

now I want to see a bunch of scrabble players attempt to climb mt hood and play a game on top

[@vexingvexillologist7554]

1:21 yug

[@andrewfulkerson5730]

Surprised to see Summit1G as a high level scrabble player.

[@wanderer15]

He actually played Scrabble on his stream once!

[@pideperdonus2]

Is it really lazy if the play was outstanding?

[@wanderer15]

Just a pun/joke given the fact that the key to the game was setting up the word LAZY!

[@liamday453]

superb game

[@spai2040]

wow

[@unwono]

Yippee

[@EltWilder]

Lazy.

[@socksygen]

Hamburger

[@Test-iv4pm]

Why is it called the laziest?

[@anewfuture]

Alluding to the final setup play at the end of the game.

[@spyerflyerplays2838]

First half hour gang here

[@matthewkrambeer2480]

Why did he challenge "YU"? Shouldn't a scrabble pro easily know all of the valid 2 letter words?

[@jukmifgguggh]

I assumed it was because of the "overweary" hook

[@Grecks1961]

i think he was challenging the hook "overweary"

[@jellomochas]

Alec challenged OVERWEARY. source: I am Alec