On Mon, 18 Aug 1997, Paul M Winke wrote:

 Yesterday's Sunday New York Times has a column by James Gleick on the
 recent "computers-versus-humans Hall of Champions" held in Providence, RI.
 It appears that, other than in 'solved' games such as Connect 4, humans
 are holding their own, but perhaps not for long.  The article says that
 "the best Scrabble-playing program still could not quite beat the human
 champion". It then goes on to some inaccuracies about computers not being
 able to balance racks, etc.   Does anyone know about this event?  Which
 program is it?  Maven?  If so, which one? And who is standing in for the
 'human champion'?

If this is the same thing I found on the usenet computer.chess group, then Adam is participating. Not sure which side he represents tho.

 PS Some time ago, there was a post regarding the optimal order in which to
 study words.  Someone (Jim Geary perhaps, which would lend the argument an
 even greater credibility - Congrats) argued for studying 5-letter words
 fairly early on.  Could someone elaborate on a) why these are more
 important than 4's, especially 3-to-make-4's, and b) what is the best
 order in which to learn the 5's.   One possibility might be to learn the
 4-to-make-5's first, while another might be to learn the high-point words
 first.  Any thoughts?

Fives are the jab of Scrabble. You jab, jab, jab, boom. At the highest levels, you're not only trying to score 24+ points every turn, you're looking for the bingo. Playing off two tiles to fish to a nice leave is a weak way to play. The best model of play is to keep playing 5's that score, and with one eye to a leave, hope the bingos show up. Even when they don't, it's still a good way to play. I had several games last week where my opponents got both blanks, outbingoed me 2-0 but still lost close games, cuz I kept jabbing.

As far as studying them, I'd recommend learning the ones with a couple of yucky letters first. Knowing all the front hooks for RAVE isn't as important as knowing VODUN, UNMEW, etc.. If you look at the boards at the top of the expert sections, they are spiderlike sprawls across the board, not tight 3-to-make-4-to-make-5's. It's a punching game, not a hooking game. Given that, the 5s are a small enough set that they should all be learned anyway. After mastering the primary bingos, this should be the exclusive realm of study for improving intermediate players.

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