At school at lunchtime I went along to the board games club, which was OK. Sometimes they had competitions, such as chess, Connect 4, 'Outrage' and so on. One of these was for Scrabble, so I had a go, and won it (beating the guy who had won the 'Outrage' competition!) Thus I was in the National School's competition regional final. I came 3rd in that, but the following year (1994) our team of 2 won it. We then went on to win the National final in London. I never did win the chess or the Connect 4...
My first 'proper' tournament was in in 1995. I think the combination of the strategy, having to remember stuff and finding the moves, all of which I'm OK at, is why I find it fun to play.
The eighth biannual World Championships were staged in 2005 in London. The UK selected a team of ten according to tournament rating and I qualified, eventually finishing 31st of 102 players. A highlight was playing eventual world champion Adam Logan at table 1 in round 21.
I may add a few more items here at some point on interesting words, moves, strategy, etc.
So far I have:
The World Dictionary Debate
Sheffield Psalter Scrabble Club
Some more links
Now that I am in the US, the 'World Dictionary Debate' and postdoc research has had a direct effect on my participation in the game. For quite a while I mainly played on Quackle, to the soon-to-be-adopted Collins dictionary, although I have recently started going again to the Champaign Scrabble Club.
Last modified: Wed Jan 31 20:05:10 CDT 2007
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