Shan used Google Gemini, another artificial intelligence crutch (this one I had never heard about) to do the pairings last night. I won two out of three, to take my record to 22-3:
344-356 against Charles. We each played one bingo: mine was DITZIEr (73) and Charles played SURLIeR (77). I was dealing with some awful racks, and needed to exchange twice. Those scoreless turns balanced out the two occasions I had to challenge off Charles’s phonies. I was under time pressure and with the closed board I couldn’t see how I could set up any plays without Charles making a minuscule play to block them and still stay slightly ahead.
457-398 against Steve. I played UNCLoSES (70) and FEINTED (98) and got bingo-like scores for JUGA (60) and ZINES (68). Steve played BASTING (81) and VERTiGO (77). I held the rack EIINPSZ which makes no 7LW yet only one (flashy) 8LW: PINTSIZE.
405-401 against Sid. I played BAdLAND (72) and Sid played eXISTED (76) and PUTTIES (79). With good tiles among the unseen pool, I set up a spot to possibly play a bingo there, but Sid beat me to it with PUTTIES. The score was 361-310 after my setup yet I realize of course now that I shouldn’t have created that opening with a 51-point lead and an almost guarantee of winning. With Sid now ahead I had to plan the endgame and thankfully I had the time to do it. I held the final rack EINORSU which yields URINOSE but there was noplace to play out. I played through Sid’s P to make OPINES (27), taking the score to 405-389 in my favour. I was now ahead but stuck with RU, which I couldn’t get rid of if I had an additional turn. I didn’t see how I could get 27 points any other way. Sid’s last tiles were EG, and there were numerous spots to play out, with the most points he could get at 8. Sid pored over the board, as he had a lot of time left, and verbalized that there wasn’t a chance for him to win (as he would score 8 plus get 4 points off my rack to take his final score to 401). However I could see that there was indeed a chance for Sid to win–provided he didn’t play out. One may not think of this during the endgame when one’s opponent has merely two tiles. Sid might have been resigned to score as many points as he could and play out, and accept the loss. Sid did not track tiles, as I could see his score sheet during the entire game, so he had no idea that I could not play out. However, if he had tracked and realized I was stuck with RU, he could have played his G onto ZA- for 13, to take his score to 402. There were multiple spots for me to score only 4 with either my R or U, so my score would advance to 409. Sid could score 7 more by placing his E onto the end of HON- for 7, thus going out and tying the game. He would then get 2 more points from my unplayed tile and win, 411-409.
With the Toronto Blue Jays and what could be the World Series’ deciding game tonight, baseball was on everyone’s mind. Naturally there was a Scrabble context to our conversations and I wondered what would be the shortest steal for MOOKIE, as in Mookie Betts, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ shortstop. You can’t make any 7LW with MOOKIE, yet there are four 8LW: KIMONOED, KILOMOLE, MOONLIKE and MONOKINE.