From Aardvark to Zyzzyva you don't know SHIT

March 12, 2024 8:28 PM

From TED To PERNOCTATED, Scrabble’s Best Player Knows No Limits by Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak
posted by lalochezia (6 comments total)

I just finished reading this! Nigel seems like a very interesting person, funny too as I appreciated his little joke about the meaning of Pernoctated.
posted by Carillon at 10:06 PM on March 12

Wow, thanks, lalochezia. The story of Nigel's utter dominance of Scrabble seems like the sort of thing my internet habits would have led me to before this, but I'd never heard of him. This well-written article, and the mind-blowing occasion of PERNOCTATED, was a great way to learn about him.
posted by straight at 10:25 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]

...in part because I didn't follow betaray's link and watch this great Will Anderson video about an incredible challenge Nigel made in 2008, found in a comment on a great Scrabble post from blue shadows about Anderson's Scrabble videos.

Anderson also has a fun video about Nigel's PERNOCTATED game. I love his sports-commentator delivery and the way he'll discuss the "obvious" moves available to the players each move of the game as if of course any spectator would see them.
posted by straight at 11:05 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]

Stefan Fatsis is a treasure for Scrabble players and a good player himself. He and I have a 1-1 lifetime record against each other and since I quit playing I guess it’ll stay that way . Really smart guy. I never got to meet Nigel as I’m not in that league , but he’s legendary. I’ve seen him accepting a big cash prize at the Nationals and he clearly is zero percent motivated by money or heck, even winning . It’s like he’s just trying to find the best available
move and that happens to correlate with winning.
posted by caviar2d2 at 6:48 AM on March 13 [7 favorites]

I recently played a 15 letter word. GRAPH was the first play, H on the double letter, naturally. BIOGRAPHERS made a great second play for my opponent, 57 points even though not a bingo. It wasn't until later in the game that I added AUTO-.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:56 AM on March 13 [4 favorites]

Stefan Fatsis is a good writer: adventurous, funny, thoughtful, humane, and broadly curious. The podcast Hang Up And Listen that he co-hosts is really good, too. He strikes me as someone who would make a good MeFite. :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 8:12 AM on March 13