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Games Idle

The French Scrabble Champ Does Not Speak French 113

Posted by samzenpus from the parlez-vous-francais? dept.
HughPickens.com writes: On July 20, Nigel Richards won the French-language world Scrabble championship. Richards does not speak a word of French. "He doesn't speak French at all, he just learnt the words," says Liz Fagerlund. "He won't know what they mean, wouldn't be able to carry out a conversation in French I wouldn't think." Richards reportedly memorized an entire French dictionary in the two months leading up to the competition. For living-room players, Scrabble is a test of vocabularies but for world-class players, it's about cold memorization and mathematical probabilities which is why top player are often computer programmers or mathematicians, not poets or novelists. Think of the dictionary as a giant rulebook of valid text strings not as a compendium of the beauty and complexity of the English language. A good competitive player will have memorized a sizeable chunk of the 83,667 words that are two letters to eight letters long. Great players will know a lot of the 29,150 nine-letter words as well.

To the uninitiated, a scrabble game played by top players looks like they had played in Martian. Here's a taste: In a single game in last year's Nationals, Richards played the following words: zarf (a metal holder for a coffee cup), waddy (to strike with a thick club), hulloed (to hallo, to shout), sajous (a capuchin, a monkey), qi (the vital force in Chinese thought), flyboats (a small, fast boat), trigo (wheat) and threaper (one that threaps, disputes). Richards has a photographic memory and is known for his uncanny gift for constructing impossible words by stringing his letters through tiles already on the board. "He is probably the best Scrabble player in the world at this point," says John D. Williams, Jr.. "He's got the entire dictionary memorized. He's pretty much a Scrabble machine, if such a thing exists." So, really, how does he do it? As Richards said in an interview posted on YouTube, "I'm not sure there is a secret. It's just a matter of learning the words." All 178,691 of them.
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The French Scrabble Champ Does Not Speak French More

The French Scrabble Champ Does Not Speak French

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  • Is this a surprise? (Score:3, Informative)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Friday July 24, 2015 @07:43AM (#50173771) Journal
    Scrabble is only a game about words at fairly low levels of play. If you have two otherwise unprepared people stuck in a room with nothing but scrabble for amusement, yes, the one with the better vocabulary likely has better options. Outside of the amateurs, though, memorization of the approved dictionary(starting with words chosen for good point values, the ability to dispose of letters that are usually tricky to get rid of, and other helpful features; but ideally progressing to all of them) supplants knowledge of the language and the remaining challenge is board control and optimizing the conversion of tiles into points over the course of the game.

    There would certainly be additional prep time, even for the unusual characters who are really good at this; but the skills that the game demands for high level play should be transferable to any language(or even a nonsense dictionary) that works reasonably well with representation by a relatively small alphabet.

  • Words + Attitude = Wins (Score:5, Interesting)

    by drjoe1e6 ( 461358 ) on Friday July 24, 2015 @07:52AM (#50173799)

    It's not just his uncanny command of the dictionary (or dictionaries!) that makes Nigel a champion. He has an incredibly calm demeanor across the board. He is unflappable, regardless of tile draws or opponent's plays. The ability to focus on the next play and the strategic situation, without distraction, is critical to winning in a long tournament.

    • He has an incredibly calm demeanor across the board. He is unflappable, regardless of tile draws or opponent's plays. The ability to focus on the next play and the strategic situation, without distraction, is critical to winning in a long tournament.

      ...until the technical trick is identified.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      It's not just his uncanny command of the dictionary (or dictionaries!) that makes Nigel a champion. He has an incredibly calm demeanor across the board. He is unflappable, regardless of tile draws or opponent's plays. The ability to focus on the next play and the strategic situation, without distraction, is critical to winning in a long tournament.

      Actually, I think in a scrabble competition, they don't rely on luck of the draw - the video basically showed all the competitors with a set of tiles pre-arranged

  • First, there has never been any evidence of photographic memory. Self reporting photographic memory is akin to him self reporting having a 24" penis.

    Second, Qi is a commonly played word even in novice games, as it is one of the few Q words that can be played without a U.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Self reporting photographic memory is akin to him self reporting having a 24" penis.

      As the proud owner of a 29" penis, I'd say that 24" is a bit short.
      My porn access logs prove that my penis can stand at most 29 seconds erected.
      But, granted, I don't have a photographic memory.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      First, there has never been any evidence of photographic memory. Self reporting photographic memory is akin to him self reporting having a 24" penis. .

      I, for one, demand that a study be conducted about the correlation/causation of photographic memory with absurdly large penis size.

  • I am Estonian; I play English scrabble; many words I use have no meaning to me but I know they exist within the context of the game.

    Every (semi-decent) player knows all two-letter combinations that are essential for putting longer words in parallel.
    Give them a look: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki... [wiktionary.org]
    How many of those would you consider as a "word"?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ebh ( 116526 )

      Some of the top English-language players in the world are Thai and speak very little English.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        when game is plaid by professionals (pro gamers), this activity becomes useless waste of time and a circle jerk.
        The whole idea of a game is fucked up by pro's.

      • That is because the Thai education system uses scrabble to help teach kids English, which is a very different language to Thai. So most Thais have played the game, and so unsurprisingly a few get very good at it.

  • New rule (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Friday July 24, 2015 @08:19AM (#50173877) Journal

    Yeah, we've got a programmer in our group that we played with one night. After his second questionable 2 letter word we added a rule (democratically voted on and adopted) that you must be able to define your word and use it properly in a sentence if anyone asks.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GTRacer ( 234395 )
      Do you mean defined on the spot, or can the challenged player access any dictionary resources?

      • Re:New rule (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Friday July 24, 2015 @10:06AM (#50174529) Journal

        Defined on the spot. If you don't know what the word means, or how to use it properly, it doesn't count. It means you have to play what you know, not just a memorized list.

        • Re:New rule (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Impy the Impiuos Imp ( 442658 ) on Friday July 24, 2015 @10:31AM (#50174699) Journal

          "Democratically" implemented, i.e. a rule change after the game had begun. He should have balked.

          That's complete bull-cromulence! >:-(

          • The vote was 4:1 in favor of the rule. He was not required to continue to play, and could have resigned in protest. Not that it actually mattered much - he was vying for last anyway - but we needed to set some ground rules for future games.

            Sometimes rule changes are necessary for balance. Previously, this group may or may not have also altered the CAH rules to state that blank cards may not be played as "Two midgets shitting in a bucket."* I say may have because I'm pretty certain it was discussed, but it

    • Yeah, we've got a programmer in our group that we played with one night. After his second questionable 2 letter word we added a rule (democratically voted on and adopted) that you must be able to define your word and use it properly in a sentence if anyone asks.

      That's fine but that's not Scrabble. There is no requirement to know what word easy, just that it is a valid word. We occasionally had tournaments in college and I'd play for fun; wasn't any good but it was fun anyway. the best part was when someone looked at word and got ready to challenge it was to use it in a sentence but improperly so they'd think it wasn't a real word and lose a challenge. The mind games were as much fun as the tiles on the board.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        the best part was when someone looked at word and got ready to challenge it was to use it in a sentence but improperly so they'd think it wasn't a real word and lose a challenge

        Well, you know what they say: don't fear, threaper.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Malc ( 1751 )

      Some of my family members tried that on me once. The trouble was, having been uncomfortable previously not knowing the meaning of the words, I'd already memorised a bunch of them. They then tried to change the rules again that the words had to come from a tiny dictionary! The compromise was for me to write down the list and allow them to refer to it.

      Even the SOWPOD list of 2 letter words isn't too long and thus the meanings are easy enough to learn. I like it more than the restricted American vocabulary

    • I play (intermediate level) competitive scrabble and this is how my wife and friends handicap me if we want to play at home. Frankly I don't mind it -- as a mere mortal without Nigel's photographic memory, it helps me a lot to keep the funky words memorized if I actually learn what they mean. Plus, learning that something is a noun vs a verb makes it a lot easier to infer if you can stick an S or ING or whatever on it.

      However, I've found that people still passive aggressively rage when you're beating

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by ebh ( 116526 )

        @!#?@!ing -INGS list.

        After 11 years of tournaments, it's the only list that still pisses me off in its arbitrariness (although FEEDINGS is finally good in TWL).

    • Yeah, we've got a programmer in our group that we played with one night. After his second questionable 2 letter word

      The way you tell this it seems a programmer has to behave like a program

    • Yeah, we've got a programmer in our group that we played with one night. After his second questionable 2 letter word we added a rule (democratically voted on and adopted) that you must be able to define your word and use it properly in a sentence if anyone asks.

      I've seen this all play out before with my group of friends and their programers. Now, the key to winning at Scrabble in the early stages of casual play will be learning all the 2 letter words and their definitions followed by learning all the 3 letter words and their definitions. Somebody will begin learning the 4 letter words. Typically, this is enough to gain the edge and win even against people with really good vocabularies as they can consistantly earn points. If he had the forethought to learn all the

      • . If he had the forethought to learn all the 2 letter words, he can no doubt learn their definitions too, and then move on.

        He could, or he could accept that using all those 2 letter words is acceptable in competitive scrabble, but not beer and za games. It's a great rule for that purpose. (At least, as I've experienced it.) In casual games, I'm limited because I didn't memorize the definitions, in serious games I can use blocks of letters that make no sense, but are for some reason legal.

    • If the word is "questionable", then it should be resolved in a dictionary challenge, which is what the rules call for. Before play starts, you decide what your reference dictionary will be (Scabble publishes an official one, which is what is used in tournament play and anyone can get one if they want. It's handy, since all the things in a regular dictionary that are illegal Scrabble plays like proper nouns and so on are left out). If you think a guy's word isn't kosher, you can challenge it. If you can'

      • Today I learned that many slashdotters are categorically opposed to house-rules.

        They're trying to have fun, not prep for a tournament or slavishly follow a ruleset.

        It's similar to how I don't like playing chess against people who memorize chess openings, beyond maybe the first two moves anyway like the famous "pawn to king 4" -- I'd rather play either a different game, or a chess variant like Knightmare chess, because I want to have fun and memorizing data isn't fun. I'll memorize a ruleset but not data.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by yarbo ( 626329 )

          Many slashdotters are opposed to being scrubs. Most house rules are an attempt to make a game more fun by cutting off higher level play. You don't think it's fair that someone learned more 2 letter words than you, so you made up a way to temporarily prevent him from using them after the game started.

          You could have found counters, but you didn't, because you're a scrub.

          http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book... [sirlin.net]

    • This is why i hate playing certain games with Normals. They make up their own rules, assume that everybody plays that way and don't tell you about the made up rules till half way through the game. Typically these rules are supposed to make the game more "fun" (i.e. easy for people who don't really understand the game). I challenged somebodies word "lazer? I think you mean laser" and they didn't know what a challenge was, were surprised when their strange spelling wasn't in the dictionary, and didn't want t

    • After his second questionable 2 letter word we added a rule (democratically voted on and adopted) that you must be able to define your word and use it properly in a sentence if anyone asks.

      But that's just boring.
      A scrabble word is a scrabble word. Just agree on a dictionary and be done with it.

      If you really wanted to mess up your professional scrabble playing foe, you should have insisted on using a non-scrabble dictionary. Then qi and za (amoung others) wont be available and he'll be a lot easier to challenge.

      Besides which, any scrabble player worth his salt will be able to give the definition that is in the scrabble dictionary

      I think half the fun is out memorizing the competition.

      Cheers
      Ben

  • This is a good case in hobby sports vs professional sports.
    As a hobby, playing games helps you to have fun and improve yourself.
    As a profession, it just loads you with useless things. Like those french words the champ is unable to use.

  • Breaking News! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24, 2015 @08:45AM (#50174011)

    France passes emergency cultural laws?
    1. Require all scrabble players to speak Fluent French!
    2. Drug testing all scrabble players for ketchup and other banned un-french substances.
    3. Require all scrabble players to carry a baguette in their pocket at all times.

    • And it's Scrablé, if you don't mind.

    • 4. At the end of the game, the losing player waves a white flag and then goes on strike.
      5. The winning player is hauled before a commission which makes him/her apologize for exercising 'privilege'.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      Actually French people eat quite a bit of ketchup. But the only reason we don't keep baguette in our pocket is that it makes sitting difficult!

  • And I spell F-R-E-N-C-H-T-O-A-S-T that's 45 points with a double word score for 90 points.
  • Does this make Nigel Richards a Strong AI? John Searle's Chinese Room and all.

    • No, what he was doing is nothing at all like the intelligence demonstrated by John Searle's example. When Nigel carries on a conversation with someone who only speaks French without having any awareness of what he was actually saying then we can talk.

  • ...not as a compendium of the beauty and complexity of the English language.

    This rings particularly true, when we talk about French, of course.

  • Know that Book by heart to the letter and don't have the foggiest idea what it's supposed to tell them...

  • "it's about cold memorization and mathematical probabilities"

    How odd. I never saw Scrabble as being anything but the above with one more element, quick recall. It's a database and probabilities game.

  • Neither do the French. French is a difficult and obsolete language made of gendered nouns and unusable grammar. It used to be spoken by some remaining native French people up to the end of the XXth century (date of the American TV series landings).

  • Martian Scrabble (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The summary mentions Martian Scrabble, as if the Poster had a clue that it actually existed.

    Invented during the second week of January, 1966, at the Continental Lodge, in San Francisco, in Room 206, by a bored Irish Immigrant family.
    The Rules are very basic:
    Words must be plausible, pronounceable, and a definition must be provided. "Gxitb" is out, "Stalagotte", a fallen Stalagmite, is in.
    The Referee, sometimes called "Mom", wrote the words down with their definitions, in Pitman, on a yellow Legal Pad. Over

  • I would think the hardest part about French scrabble would be finding an e with an accent mark over it. For real though, how do they handle accented versus not? They're two different words in most cases, although that wouldn't matter for scoring.

  • I've never played scrabble. The only place I've seen scrabble played (if it is the game that looks like a crossword puzzle?) is in Hollywood movies. Somehow it smacks of anglosaxon culture.
    I'm not frrench, so I am curious: how popular is this game in France?

  • Next you'll be trying to tell us that some people play Sudoku without any knowledge of math.

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