Comments | goldfishbw: Blind spot

goldfishbw

Blind spot

Jan 22, 2010 11:39

I have a weird problem. I have a blind spot when it comes to QI. Specifically, I tend not to see potential QI plays for my opponents in the endgame (when I know they have QI) especially in the corner of the board (although it's happened on the side of the board also, but always on a TWS). Against Sandy in Portland last year, I misplayed an ( Read more... )

Comments 12

synodalhaj January 22 2010, 16:42:19 UTC

I'm with you on the QI in the corner problem! I also tend to miss OX, JO, ZA, etc in those spots. I think part of it is some sort of psychological "those 2 tile plays in the corner are for weak players... real players find big scores with longer words!" block. And to be fair, many plays in the corners (IN for 12 or whatever) just to take away "THE TRIPLE ZOMG!" are weak. But I have this same problem :)

You're not alone! kangarau January 22 2010, 16:59:46 UTC

Yes, I agree that typing this all out is an excellent way to make you more aware of this for future games, but don't feel too bad. Spouse did the same thing - and against Mark Pistolese in a critical games at the "USSO." (the Nationals at Phoenix, though called an "Open" for reasons I can't recall.)

He would/absolutely should have won this game against Mark. He simply did not see a place where he (Spouse) had a big Q play. Instead he tied. Had he won, he could have finished as high as 5th (?), I believe.

Re: You're not alone! crosstables January 22 2010, 17:10:16 UTC

That "Open" was as in the US Tennis Open, in that theoretically anyone can enter. Contrast with "Invitational".

And yeah... I play WAY better with my own tiles in a given situation than I do with my opponent's. I think I need to write down a giant Pretend Rack, with opp's tiles, on my scoresheet at the end.

Re: You're not alone! vinylchances January 22 2010, 19:12:15 UTC

The even more challenging part is the pre-endgame when your opponent has left one tile in the bag... you have this mysterious "rack" of eight tiles tracked, and you have to envision eight different endgames and solve them all in limited time. I think one of the most challenging aspects of Scrabble is developing mental shortcuts to solve scenarios like this... because given the constraints of the clock, it's pretty damn hard to go "how do I win if THIS is in the bag?" and "how do I win if THAT is in the bag?" eight different times.

Re: You're not alone! goldfishbw January 22 2010, 22:30:43 UTC

Yeah I write out the 8 different racks and look at each one and see if anything jumps out at me. It's hard to do a thorough analysis on each one.

ididjonassalk January 22 2010, 20:01:31 UTC

Heh. In Cleveland, against Steve Knapp, I had something like INSERTS on a dead board while he had OO. I saw his only out was (M)OO, and I didn't see any good block; I played (T)IS for six and he said "do you have me tracked right?" and then played (M)OO(S). I sometimes don't notice that my plays set up opponent for a better play, too ... quite annoying. Annoying and embarrassing in this case because it was like a 50-point error when I was in contention and spread could've mattered. I was lucky in the end it didn't.

And re: QI, the Grob/Linn story from Nationals is another good one in this vein (http://baxwest.livejournal.com/73759.html#cutid1 and http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=4307#27).

Jason

goldfishbw January 22 2010, 22:31:48 UTC

Yeah that happens to me a lot. A play I make opens up a play for my opponent, which I don't notice until after I've made my play. I'm always setting up hooks that I don't notice until later.

wantonhalo January 22 2010, 23:43:53 UTC

I miss TRANQ all the time!

goldfishbw January 23 2010, 00:38:13 UTC

That used to be a huge problem for me! But I recognized it, and since then I now see it. That's what makes me think I can tackle this QI problem, now that I'm aware of it hopefully I will notice it when it arises.

vinylchances January 23 2010, 06:32:45 UTC

my least favorite Q word is QUBIT. I made like a 12-point mistake last week when I burned an S stupidly to play SQUIB and QUBIT played for roughly the same score.

Q's should be followed by U's AND other vowels, damn it.

anonymous January 23 2010, 01:20:41 UTC

QI isn't a problem for me, but I've missed OMEGA as the best play six or seven times, and NERTZ alomst as many. No idea why. I do also have a "blind spot" on the board where I make most of my errors, but I'm not gonna say where it is. :)

-Lucas