Breaking Scrabble's Golden Endgame Rule

[@javen9693]

In an absolutely stunning display of endgame knowledge, Nigel Richards poured the entire tile bag into his mouth and swallowed all the remaining pieces. What an outplay!

[@DadgeCity]

In the endgame, there are no tiles in the bag. hth

[@Spiritchuckpvp]

​@@DadgeCityEven more impressive then! Nigel Richard's astounding display of prowess as a mime surely deserves a spot in Scrabble History.

[@psymar]

Nigel Richards isn't even in this video

[@SjefDriscoll]

@@psymar He literally is at 8:42 lol.

[@fireballninja01]

then he does the chris angel coin in arm trick with them to reveal “Dandi”

[@Kosmicd12]

The fact he should have played Kue instead of Q, pure poetry

[@purplejay8030]

I can sleep well tonight knowing that Kosmic is a fellow Scrabble enjoyer ^^

[@SynoPTL]

Yooo Kosmiiiicc, it's Kosmic himself

[@binchamers]

Bro what your video is literally next in my recommended

[@fernandomaboni9820]

That was a nice surprise lol

[@interbeamproductions]

Cue

[@Acesmcnugget]

I think its unfair that only BRR and BRRR are valid words. Sometimes its colder than either of those will suffice to accurately describe, and additional R's must be added for dramatic effect.

[@arthilas_]

And I think it is unfair that we cannot add additional Os to "GOAL" for dramatic effect... in German, we cannot do that either though (adding Os to "TOR").

[@LeviATallaksen]

In Norwegian, even BRRRR is valid (but not with more than 4 Rs). I have no idea why it's stopping precisely there. On the other hand, HMM and MM are valid, but not HMMM and MMM (contrary to English), so...

[@Rightsideup23]

@@LeviATallaksen I guess Norway is just that much colder than most English speaking places, so it gets the extra R, LOL! Maybe playing scrabble in Antarctica will allow BRRRRR.

[@LeviATallaksen]

@@Rightsideup23 Haha, I guess we're also that much angrier then, as GRRRR is also valid! (Although there's GRRRL in English, don't know if that's the same meaning?)

[@Xadreco]

we should extend this to other words so we can bingo with EEEEEEW

[@Rhogue]

The Scrabble GM, not understanding how he's losing to me Me, who's been eating my clunky tiles when he's not looking

[@Larsbutb4d]

Is that a CV, more like sous vide

[@t3cchan]

Just a small editing suggestion for match recaps: I would love if there was a counter for the number of tiles left in the bag somewhere on the screen. Maybe it's easier to keep track of mentally for professional scrabble players, but for me it'd help put into perspective how much of the game is left to be played.

[@wanderer15]

I'll think about how to get this in seamlessly!

[@t3cchan]

@@wanderer15 thanks a ton, Will. Love your stuff

[@deedeeen]

I imagine a little progress bar below the game board, with a 7-tile threshold line.

[@wanderer15]

progress bar has been added to today's video. let me know if it helps or if I can further improve it!

[@deedeeen]

@@wanderer15 saw it! it could go like a backwards "tiles remaining" bar; plus, a 7-tile mark does help here!

[@joshuasims5421]

A fascinating scenario! I love the scrabble endgame in championship games. The grandmaster's knowledge of unseen tiles and possible plays leads to truly chess-like predictive play and just this kind of zugzwang.

[@onehumannow]

saw this during live stream...so glad you took the time to point out this unusual endgame...thanks!

[@dentonyoung4314]

Absolutely amazing sequence. When the board is that closed, it totally alters endgame strategy.

[@TheBadDeadFox]

I thought it would be about one of them literally eating the letter piece

[@gamingtime9716]

This isn't a Pokemon TCG video

[@AlexDings]

So the title would have to mean that the usually followed golden rule of endgames is: Don't eat the letters? 😀

[@TheBadDeadFox]

​@@AlexDings forbidden alphabet soup

[@wanderer15]

Someday I want to do a video about the CSI episode where someone kills someone else by making them eat the tiles of a phoney they played!

[@DonSMDT]

Man now I don't wanna watch I wanted to see bro eat a q

[@ryanlind5239]

Sort of wish there was some rule where once the bag gets emptied, each player gets 5 or even 10 more minutes added to their clock. Sort of like how in top-level chess the players get extra time added after 40 moves or so. Just feels like too often we are robbed of seeing beautiful end games because the players don't have time to calculate things. This could have made for a more interesting game instead of there being a scramble and then finding the correct sequence after the fact.

[@wanderer15]

Love the idea, but logistically this would slow tournaments down, especially at the end when all of the previous round's results must be submitted to generate new pairings. Only way to avoid it is by learning to play "normal" games (i.e. not tactical slogs like this one) at a brisk pace!

[@fernandomaboni9820]

I'm playing chess for a few years and recently discovered scrabble. I think it would be nice to have increment like chess games have the 10+5 or something, even 10 seconds of increment to not lose on time, it's very nice for chess at least, but maybe a dumb idea for scrabble 😅

[@hanmoou4127]

I think the difference is that if the six-zero occurs, you only lose 1x of the tiles you have, while in the end you lose 2x. This basically gives Josh a 10 point additional gain if he KUEs and passes.

[@JohnDoe-ti2np]

10:13 The footnote says that Josh would not have had time to 6-pass. Does that mean the clock has to be pressed 3 times by both players for a 6-pass, and that Josh would have lost on time (assuming he couldn't push the clock fast enough)? That's wild. By the way, does scoring zero by playing a blank next to a blank count as a zero-scoring plays for the purposes of the six-zero rule?

[@justin_tang]

Yes to the first question - to pass, a player has to hit their clock - and no to the second. Only passes, exchanges, and lost challenges count toward the six-zero rule.

[@llamalitany]

Watching this video makes me wonder how much serious competition there is for scrabble at different time controls. It seems like it'd be hard to go *too* low since scrabble players can't just play 20 moves of prep like chess players can, but I honestly don't know much about the tournament scrabble scene outside of your videos and it'd be great to see a video on time management generally (as well as any alternative formats that do exist here).

[@axcertypo]

3 minutes with no increment is probably the lowest reasonable time control in terms of making good plays, but it's possible to go lower, which would basically equate to bullet

[@chritical_ep]

@@axcertypo is that 3 minutes per move?

[@axcertypo]

@@chritical_ep 3 minutes per side, per game. It's a common after-hours activity at Scrabble tournaments. Usually, players don't score their plays in this variant, either someone watching will try to keep track or, if necessary, the games will be scored after the fact. Online, it's possible to play a decent game with around half that amount of time, but in person, physical limitations of drawing tiles and placing them on the grid significantly slow us down.

[@chritical_ep]

​@@axcertypo I might be misunderstanding you because that seems really really fast. I don't see how a maximum of 6 minutes per game is long enough for any complex strategy

[@axcertypo]

@@chritical_ep No, it's a thing. There isn't really much "complex strategy" inasmuch as it's just very quick instinctive plays based on pattern recognition and anagramming

[@AOOA926]

Can you do a video on the weirdest spellings, longest played non bingos, highest scoring bingos and non bingos, fastest game, longest game, worst theoretical game (bad draws and opponent plays) for both players and more?

[@YellowSkarmory]

that is a lot of video ideas

[@wanderer15]

I expect to get to all or most of these someday!

[@limegreenelevator]

Just watched Josh's video on this endgame - no surprise you're right on it too!

[@slouch186]

this whole game feels like it's full of incredible turns. so many that is almost hard to appreciate each one individually.

[@332360515]

I ever saw the endgame when a player has to INTENTIONALLY pass to ensure his win, keeping the last E (the only letter playable in that tight board) to play it later if needed. His opponent need to dump his X, but the only place to dump X is next to triple word, for 27 points counterplay if he still hold his last E. No other letter are playable

[@MKWJoseph]

Another great video by the Emperor of Scrabble 👑

[@gurchyy]

Another great video, the strategic twists of this game never cease to surprise me

[@Kejmur]

Ah yes, KZbin random algorithm. I never suspected I would watch Scrabble of all options, but sure, let's watch it ;).

[@tau93]

what a wild staircase and closed board

[@edmundwalter7729]

Has one of the blank tiles ever been used as a Q in tournament play?

[@AmaranthRBY]

Almost certainly yes; there are some relatively common racks where making the blank a Q is the only way to get a bingo, AEQUORIN for me comes to mind - the only other word you could make is DOUANIER with a blank D, but depending on board shape that option could be off the table (and it's not valid in the North American dictionary, only the international one) There's also the mystical QAJAQ, word of many memes and dreams, which you may one day end up playing if a J, a Q, and a blank line up exactly right - but I can't say I've seen it come into play myself

[@edmundwalter7729]

Thank you.

[@disasterarea9341]

0:37 im a scrabble noob but why not go for fjord there instead? balances the rack a little better surely? im sure theres a good reason im just curious!

[@axcertypo]

FJORD is definitely a very reasonable choice. The reason not to play it is simply to not give back the R and the D as possible letters to play an 8-letter word through, not giving back relatively easy access to the middle right triple word score, and scoring more points immediately, in order of importance :)

[@Cats83747]

Wow I genuinely think that is one of the most unintuitive sequences of events I’ve ever seened. Id play QUE(Y) in no time, its just SOOO instinctual cause who would want to stick themselves with the Q??? Under severe time pressure, keeping the Q is just not a human move lol

[@ooc329]

Out of curiosity, was "KUE" the only winning play for Josh after YLEM, or were there other winning moves?

[@tony_del_monaco1]

Hey will, the correct pronunciation of “Toque” rhymes with the male first name “Luke” It’s what us Canadians call the hat that you call a beanie. Thanks for the video

[@JSAVyoutubechannel]

🇨🇦🫡

[@CilantroGamer]

Is it possible, with (im)perfect play, to soft lock the game, where the grid has no possible moves for either player, even if they exchange infinitely?

[@wanderer15]

Absolutely - and sometimes the play isn’t even necessary that imperfect. It’s happened several times between very strong players and they’re on my to-do list for future videos.

[@irakyl]

Josh's vowel drought the entire game and both player's patient play led to such a tight board and a most interesting endgame. Congrats to Jackson for winning this match against such a strong opponent! Great video Will, you're sort of the Muhammad Ali of tennis.

[@fransvandervleuten3263]

Hello! I have a question. Me and my girlfriend play recreational Scrabble with the Dutch dictionary (or word list rather), but I have the feeling that in English there are a lot more valid words. I mean, the Māori word ‘aue’ is extremely obscure: you would never find these kind of words in the Dutch dictionary. Question: is it true that the English list of valid words is much bigger than other languages? And if this is true, what’s the reason for this? Maybe this could be a seperate video! Thanks, keep up the great work!

[@wanderer15]

I don't know the size of too many other lexicons, but I do know that French is significantly larger than English (which makes Nigel Richards' feat of memorization of that lexicon all the more unbelievable). It would be cool to do more content about Scrabble in other languages sometime!

[@ExploringWater]

Is it possible to have a tile along every permiter and corner?

[@YeaCloth]

probably. lemme try and take a crack at it ok starting in top left corner and going clockwise: anthropomorphic coenzymatically environmentally acknowledgeable

[@MrIkickurass]

💡 Would love to see definitions for more of the words played. Big fan of the videos, keep them coming.

[@xTeehe]

would be interesting to see a video of games where a word was played multiple times

[@deguvnor598]

thought LEZ is invalid after the expurgation

[@hrobertson7575]

WGPO tourneys use unexpurgated list

[@zerotwoisreal]

@@hrobertson7575 wait so that means they allow the n word?

[@bennykakerautodidact]

Is that how you pronounce toque? Interesting.

[@Xadreco]

@@zerotwoisreal checked the word list and the n word is valid in wgpo's WOW word list

[@sadoffer4972]

Hey Will! I tried to watch some of Josh's videos but the audio quality is quite poor. Maybe give him some tips on how to improve that, if possible 😁 Love your videos!

[@axcertypo]

this comment makes me feel like my content is unworthy of being promoted by larger and more successful channels, which is not something any creator wants to feel. I will try my best to be constructive with how I proceed. Thank you for trying, and I hope I can improve and get another chance.

[@danunger9712]

Yes that's only a 6 pt. win, but it saves a turn & Jackson has to play LYE. both platers were in time pressure, so it could be that Jackson goes over time due to the extra play instead of josh having to play HE/EN and using extra seconds for the 8 pt. win.

[@Pukanjan]

4:00 I see Slushie with a blank S

[@HazhMcMoor]

Wonder if strategic passing will be used more because of your videos

[@spyczech]

As someone new to this thing it would be nice to explain what terms like "bingo" mean, apparently its only a north american pro scrabble term I wouldn't assume most clickers know stuff like that

[@YeaCloth]

"Bingo" in scrabble means playing all 7 letter tiles in one turn. doing so also rewards the player with 50 extra points on top of the word's score

[@spyczech]

@@YeaCloth I figured it out via google I just wish videos stopped assuming so much previous knowledge sometimes

[@ST21phil07]

I thought the plural form of "adieu" was "adieux". Are "adieux" and "adieus" different or both "x" and "s" are valid plural forms?

[@YeaCloth]

yeah both are valid plurals

[@danunger9712]

What about KUE/YE for 26? Jackson can then play LYE for 6. The score is then 365-351 & after deducting the Q & G it's 355-349 for a Josh win. Am I missing something?

[@wanderer15]

That would work too!

[@rmr1962]

Do you think some players (Nigel) would have been able to recognize that they have to hold the Q and play kue with only seconds left?

[@axcertypo]

Nigel is incredibly fast at calculation and intuition, but where he trumps everyone else is in his precision and thoroughness, and the speed at which he achieves those two things. His skillset is best suited for the confines of what defines current competitive Scrabble play (20-25 minute clocks), so playing ultra-fast is not in his wheelhouse. His whole spiel is in never getting into this sort of high-pressure situation to begin with, so it's pretty inconceivable to imagine him in this scenario at all.

[@wanderer15]

I think Josh would've recognized it himself with even a few minutes to think it over. But yes, I have the utmost confidence Nigel figures this one out.

[@axcertypo]

​@@wanderer15 honestly, I don't think I would have needed more than 30 seconds

[@anandnarasimhan4347]

Hey, at the end, can't Jackson play off his G with UG at position E14?

[@bruceyuchuanyu]

Not valid in NWL sadly. In general NWL is much more easy to tilestuck

[@kingofrunescapepking]

Being short on time definitely cost Josh this game, if he had time to more thoroughly examine the board, he would have likely seen the line that got him the win

[@asailijhijr]

What's the penalty, if you have unplayable tiles and the bag is empty, of playing a non-word?

[@asailijhijr]

You'll harm your reputation for always playing real words. Or you'll decrease everyone's opinion of your word knowledge.

[@wanderer15]

Technically no penalty. Every now and then you'll encounter someone who tries obviously invalid words repeatedly, but this is very rare.

[@smoceany9478]

great play to save 10 points by removing the q from the field of play

[@BSplitt]

What happens if you run out of time? Do you just lose immediately?

[@meta04]

you lose 10 points for every minute you go over, until you go 10 minutes over and then you lose-finding KUE but going over by less than 1 minute would lose by 2 here

[@wanderer15]

I've often felt like it should be an instant loss - it's so much easier to understand both for players and viewers. But yes, meta nailed it - taking a 10 point time penalty would've been fatal here even with the correct sequence.

[@jtd8719]

6:47 The word TOQUE (type of hat) is pronounced 'tuke'.

[@dhu2056]

Toque has two pronunciations, "toke" and "tuke."

[@AngelShrimpChips]

Will Goaterson 🐐🐐🐐

[@Ascension721]

real

[@AOOA926]

Do you think Nigel would have found it with that little time?

[@krugerstan]

No, but then Nigel would never have gotten himself into a situation where he had that little time.

[@AOOA926]

@@krugerstan true

[@AmalgamOfMrMoo]

I have no understanding of this game, but I keep coming back

[@hrobertson7575]

Did you mention lex here?

[@hrobertson7575]

LEZ no good in CSW or NWL

[@wanderer15]

Because Josh has recently focused on Collins, the players picked the version of the North American list that Josh was most familiar with. I should’ve put this detail in the video somewhere, thank you for your question.

[@pct4to]

there’s no increment on the time?

[@wanderer15]

No - Scrabble games tend to have a more tightly clustered number of turns (typically somewhere between 25-35 combined) than other games with increment like chess, where some games might be really fast, and others continue on quite a while.

[@AOOA926]

Uploaded at 11:54?? Well 8:54 I guess normally

[@DaveKnott]

TOQUE is pronounced as if with “OO”, as in “booze” or, if you’re from Quebec, as in “look”.

[@robinier]

I think the way he pronounced it (rhyme poke) is in use in the US; it's listed in Collins and Merriam-Webster as such

[@robinier]

I think the 1920's womens hat is often "toke" but the Canadian hat is more often "toohk"

[@thatonefrenchguy937]

As a french guy, I say toque like tock

[@psymar]

at 2:25 what do you mean no bingo? he clearly has WOOKIEES across the I in vids. No it's not in the dictionary but I ain't challenging Chewbacca

[@UnfriendlyGhostK]

It is beyond me how the word 'kue' meaning 'the letter Q' is valid but the word 'que' meaning the same thing, isn't

[@caligos1379]

¿Que?

[@jellomochas]

cULSHIE was not Jackson's only possible bingo. pLUSHIE was added. edit: cULSHIE would not have been Jackson's only possible bingo, had they played with the new words.

[@Jkfgjfgjfkjg]

They were playing with NWL18. Notice how LEZ was played which would be invalid in the same dictionary that plushie was added.

[@jellomochas]

@@Jkfgjfgjfkjg you're correct---I assumed they would play with NWL2024 (aka NWL23) or WOW2024, the latter of which includes LEZ

[@skippitysmithsonshorts]

sLUSHIE?

[@jellomochas]

added at the same time as pLUSHIE

[@SasmithaXD]

Yay Willl!!!😊

[@unwono]

peak

[@harrison88352]

bro you gotta start spamming shorts and getting scrabble into the algorithm

[@pct4to]

for real

[@Ascension721]

I guess thats true

[@pootpoot1001]

Shorts!

[@Cats83747]

someone should make an edit of Joel Sherman with that STR?NGS clip lol

[@sad_catta]

ye

[@trickyplays240]

And here I am playing 3-4 letter words that are basic and just for fun.

[@artemisspawnofzeus7732]

Toque is pronounced like tool but with a k on the end. Ots not "toke"

[@kavitahari4241]

If kue was played Jackson could underlap the u of brunt

[@krishradio1]

Why not play SONdAGE for 84 after Josh played harm.

[@wanderer15]

Unfortunately that word is not playable in the North American word list

[@jerryvaughan1469]

i have ovaries...don't clip that

[@jenniferjimenez3235]

🍷🗿

[@AOOA926]

Battle of the phonies

[@MetaKnight68]

Are you making some sort of pun that I'm missing, or are you just hating? Both Josh and Jackson are above 2000 Elo in the NASPA ranks. Not being Nigel doesn't mean you're a bad player.

[@socksygen]

hamburger

[@BraxtonMeyer]

Why is agonize misspelled

[@LoganPosthumous]

Most words ending in -ize have British variants that end in -ise

[@joshuasims5421]

It's the British spelling, in the Scrabble dictionary as such. The -ize spelling is accurate to the Greek origin, but the -ise spellings are common due to influence from French spelling.

[@invisibleman1734]

Toque rhymes with duke, not with soak. It's a Canadian winter hat (also spelled tuque)

[@Harrs2]

I love you Will, but the way you pronounce Quey sends shocks through my spine. I always though it was more like 'Key', than 'Quail'. 😂

[@Tandy118]

Are you thinking of quay, like a harbour? Quey, meaning a young cow, is pronounced 'kway'.

[@YoureSoBald]

first

[@myshaagarwal1976]

47 minutes

[@jgwentworth6735]

how is this ever a fair game if the letters are randomized

[@HazhMcMoor]

The random make some games more interesting. Though I heard there's a variant that eliminates it.

[@loganrajah5678]

Kwjibo

[@thegodofpez]

Watched this live. Fantastic set. 🫡