Scrabble Solver

For nearly two years, I have been trying to get some acknowledgement for what I believe to be record play and game in the variant SuperScrabble, as offered on the website www.thepixiepit.co.uk (and also available for "real life" play, face to face).

An image of the game can be seen here:

http://www.geocities.com/rexbickers/FourSuperBingosMay27.jpg

As you will note...

... the highest scoring play was 6259 for ANTHROPOMORPHIZATIONS (43 X 144 = 6192 plus 50 for the bingo = 6242), OM (12), TO (2) and IT (3) The rack contained AROITIS and the board contained the words NTH, OP, MORPH, ZA and ON.

My "opponent" (Christine) had the second-highest scoring play: 6110 for COMPARTMENTALIZATIONS (42 x 144 = 6048 plus 50 for the bingo = 6098), UP (7), ET (3) and ET(2).

Higher scoring individual plays could be made for either of these words, but I assert that it is not possible to achieve a higher scoring combined game score.

Best wishes,

Rex Bickers
Floyds Knobs, Indiana (USA)

wow !!

My best result in Slovak version with regular game 15 x 15 is 4459 points. I hope, this is the best world result with 99 Scrabble stones:

No. Supply Pos.Words Points Cumul.
1. VYHŔŇAP 8E VYHŔŇA 56 56
2. PONEVŠÍ 8C POVYHŔŇA 32 88
3. NEVŠÍMI 8A NEPOVYHŔŇAVŠÍMI 468+50 518 606
4. OPRAVIL J1 OPRAVILA 16+50 66 672
5. NSRÁD?O 1I NO 2 674
6. SRÁD?OV 1I NOS 3 677
7. RÁD?OVK F1 RÁD(I)OVKY 25+50 75 752
8. EAMÄSŽR 1F RE 2 754
9. AMÄSŽRA 1E ARE 3 757
10. MÄSŽRAÉ 5C MÄSOŽRAVÉ 116+50 166 923
11. ZAJOIAĎ C1 ZAJOM 22 945
12. IMAĎARÓ N8 MI 3 948
13. MAĎARÓN N1 MAĎARÓNMI 94+50 144 1092
14. BEFBŤAI 1A BEZFAREBNOSŤAMI 1431+50 1481 2573
15. OSTEĽTE C8 POSTEĽTE 32+50 82 2655
16. LODA?OM G8 HLODA(N)OM 15+50 65 2720
17. KOČTÝSL 15E KOM 5 2725
18. ČTÝSLED F14 ČO,ČO 32 2757
19. TÝSLEDO 10F TO 4 2761
20. ÝSLEDOK K8 VÝSLEDOK 30+50 80 2841
21. NIPTGEJ 15I NIK 4 2845
22. PTGEJÔN 14J PO,PI 14 2859
23. TGEJÔNE 14J POT 4 2863
24. GEJÔNEX M13 GEJ, POTE 29 2892
25. ÔNEXUUÚ 10J ÔS 25 2917
26. NEXUUÚC 15A NEEXKOMUNIKUJÚC,TU 1492+50 1542 4459

You can see it on the official site of Slovak Scrabble Company http://hramescrabble.sk/ Then click to icon "Zo života"

Have a Nice day,

Ivan Nosál
Bratislava, Slovakia

As far as I can tell, sesquioxidizing is not a word. Never.

Why?

Well, I assume the idea is contracted from oxidizing/oxidize. To oxidize something, you need it to combine (e.g.: Mg + O = MgO) with oxygen (1 definition) or get the element to lose valence electrons (another definition).

Now, a sesquioxide is a compound where there are 2 radicals (elements other than O) and 3 O's. e.g. Al2O3 is a sesquioxide.

Now as far as I know, you can only get a compound to react with something else, not combine. And then it won't be a sesquioxide - as it is strictly a compound with 2 radicals and 3 oxygen atoms.

And oxidize as in definition 2 can only relate to that - it cannot have any suffix or prefix, as in sesquioxidize (worded badly). You can't sesquioxidize something in the same way. You either oxidize it or leave it.

And if you can't sesquioxidize something, then you can't be sesquioxidizing. Simple (okay, maybe not, but if you know what I am talking about, it is).

If you happen to look up sesquioxidize/ing on Wikipedia, it defines it as creating a sesquioxide, that is wrong. That is called synthesizing a sesquioxide, as the term can only go under a strict molecule structure, and can not be altered from X2O3. whereas an oxide just needs and oxygen atom from a reaction.

So there you go. That is why lexicographers ignore sesquioxidizing.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong with anything.

--Just expanding, in paragra2 I mean that I'm pretty sure you cant combine a compound with a compound. e.g. Comp. + Comp. = Comp. + Comp. (and more, if applicable)

Actually, I may be wrong. One of the products may be a sesquioxide? But yet again, it's formed through reaction, not combination (where I think an oxide can only be formed under combination (e.g.: Mg + O = MgO)and not reaction. Where I'm implying it's only possible to make a sesquioxide by reaction.

Who knows?

-sorry, I meant "(where I think oxidization can only work through combination)"

"Requalified" is not a word in TWL.

I think "Requalified" actually is in TWL. What is your source?

Hey PlasticGuitar,

I'm impressed with your knowledge of Chemistry, but the mere fact that a thing isn't possible in reality doesn't mean the word representing it doesn't exist and can't be used to express a valid thought or give actual information.

What about your own sentence, "If you can't sesquioxidize something, then you can't be sesquioxidizing." ?

By your reasoning words like UNICORN shouldn't be in the lexicon either.

IMHO

Cheers!
jumpinmf

Unlike for many a word in Scrabble dictionaries, the Oxford English dictionary does have an entry for sesquioxide, which includes the sentence: "Hence sesquioxidation, conversion into a sesquioxide; sesquioxidic a.; sesquioxidized pa. pple., converted into a sesquioxide." Followed by some quotes from the 19th and 20th century. If "sesquioxidation" and "sesquioxidized" are considered English, "sesquioxidizing" should be too ;-)

With respect to Josepha Heifetz Byrne's 2069 point word play: this probably included many more words from her 1976 "Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words" (in which she also introduced sesquioxidizing) that you can't find in SOWPODS.

Arian Smit

@asmit- Nice find. What I was trying to say in that half-novel above (I have a tendency to over-complicate things)is that I thought sesquioxidation was the same as oxidation, oxidizing, etc. but with 2 other elements involved. But now that I word it like that, and read your post, it becomes all clear, and sesquioxidizing does make sense.

Oxidation is actually loss of electrons in a reduction-oxidation reaction, but pretty much applies to creation of oxides.

Yes, it's all so clear now! But why isn't it in the lexicon yet? Neither in 'branes', which is short for membranes (relating to the String Theory, which is a bit too complex to go into here.)

Also, I found a 2037 point play using SESQUIOXIDIZING here (note: it's a .pdf file):

http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1771&context=wordways

...which just happens to be done by Josepha Heifetz. (I think it's the same one, at least). However, the words aren't valid according to a book I have called "Collins Scrabble Words - The Official Word List" (which - if anyone's curious - has over 250,000 words).

Also, asmit, knowing how much of a whiz you are at the puzzles, how many points do you think you could get, if you were given a rack of DGQSZXI in the puzzles? =P

--PlasticGuitar

P.S. REQUALIFIED is a word in the TWL06. Check it using the solver - set the dictionary to TWL, type QUALIFIED and put in a rack of RE and there you go.

Wait, what? I come back to check the puzzles, and I see "DGQSZXI"? Oh man, that made my day.

--PlasticGuitar

@PlasticGuitar – Hey, I hadn’t seen this pdf yet. Nice digging and fun to read.

That must have been so much work, back in 1972, without the use of computers nor a unified list of words. Imagine the number of dictionaries leaved through and the number of scores hand-calculated. Though "W.E.R. Bone", as a group of Cambridge mathematicians, probably had access to some mainframe. Pity then that their benzoxycamphors was accepted and not Heifetz’s sesquioxidizing (despite Webster’s & OED’s knoledge of it). Apparently benzoxycamphor was in Webster’s Second (1934) (Ross Eckler mentions this himself in his "Word ways: the journal of recreational linguistics”, see http://books.google.com/books?id=m4ksAAAAMAAJ&q=benzoxycamphor&dq=benzoxycamphor&client=safari ). It also shows up in a Webster’s wordlist [http://0x80.org/wordlist/webster-dictionary.txt ]. This list (204125 2-15 letter words without plurals or conjugations) also has Bone's “squandermaniac”, which you can’t find anywhere ele. Jinnyrickshaw isn’t even in here though; it must be the only way you can't spell jinricksha.

Taking up Eckler’s 37-year old “impossible” challenge to improve Heifetz's score by 10 points using whatever you can find lying around seems even to me like a waste of time. Unwittingly, I stranded at a 7 points improvement using SOWPODS words only, but if any combination of word lists can be used, the sky is the limit.

--asmit

P.S. Now I understand why that familiar set of letters showed up in the puzzles. Without you-know-what-word, I'm stuck so far at a mere 729.

YOU WROTE:

"Using only words from TWL06 and only possible though unlikely moves for the entire game, I found a 1780 points play with the rack ABEOPXZ to make oxyphenbutazone."

If TWL06 is the dictionary also used on Facebook Scrabble (I think it is), your 1780 point word won't work. I know, because I tried it. REQUALIFIED is not a word in that dictionary.

Sorry. 1,778 is the limit.

Ok, I'm a bit confused on these puzzles... Is there a requirement when solving the puzzle that their be a valid path to the game state prior to playing the high scoring word? In many cases, previously existing words are longer than 7 letters and hence must have been formed by extending smaller words. It doesn't always seem obvious what the smaller words were that led to that board arrangement. Shouldn't the solution include how the board evolved to that state-- or at least the intermediate words that make up the longer words?

If there is no valid path to arrive at the state, that makes the 'solution' a lot less interesting in that it could never 'naturally' occur, even in the most contrived game play.

Okay, I have completely revamped my idea on 'sesquioxidizing' (which, as far as I know, is now scientifically correct!). However, because it's too long to post here, here's my blog post:

http://angryrantingkid.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post.html

@ jvriezen: I'm pretty sure it's a requirement for the board to be replicable under normal conditions. Once I tried using the solitaire original Lexulous to replicate one of the SOWPODS oxyphenbutazone plays above. It worked!

re:TenzingHillary

I didn't have TWL06 in book form, but used a list supposedly representing TWL06 (its name is "TWL06.txt" and you can download it from multiple sites). Both Dave Wood and I checked all words in Scrabulizer and requalified is accepted in the TWL mode. Thus, unless my TWL06.txt doesn't represent the real thing and Scrabulizer doesn't use TWL06 the 1780 solution seems to be valid. Perhaps Facebook Scrabble uses TWL98. Requalified's absence in that dictionary would explain why the previously known high score was 1778.

Arian

yes well that all sounds pretty impressive, but i dont think we will be seeing very many words of that calibre springing up in too many games up and down the country.
to be fair to myself and the average scrabble player to get a 50-100 pointer is very good and can certainly win a game,
but its nice to see what can be achieved.
jools south yorkshire.

my brain hurts