Dallas Open 2007 report
This weekend's Dallas Open was a great time! I went 12-10, didn't lose to anyone rated lower than me, and beat a few experts. Jason Katz-Brown, Rod MacNeil, and Steve Pellinen got the worst of it, and I came within 9 points of beating Dave Wiegand. I feel like I played okay overall (not great) and was treated fairly by the tile gods. However, this weekend made one thing strikingly clear to me...
I need to know more words.
I've generally taken the attitude that I'll eventually get around to learning all the words, and it's fine if that takes me a while, because there's plenty of time. That's a realistic attitude, and I like to be realistic. But after this weekend, it's just not good enough. I want to know all the words now. I need to take my word study up a notch or two.
It may be that I've had this attitude because my word knowledge has outpaced my rating, so I can usually push a lot of intermediate players around. In other words, my word knowledge hasn't really been a problem. But after my good performance in the first half of the Dallas Open pitted me against some of the top experts, I found myself with a giant gap in my brain where all the words should be. The gap didn't make me feel intimidated (though maybe I should have been), but it was bad enough that I made a lot of mistakes. I lost a lot of challenges this weekend. To give some examples of my lapses, here are nearly a dozen obvious ones I can remember without even quackling my games:
I challenged Chris Cree's opening play of SPANCEL.
I let Tom Conrad get away with DUVETTE*.
I played SEM* against Rod MacNeil, and it was challenged off.
I would have played TONDEAU* against Travis Chaney had I seen a spot for it (and there was a spot, which I missed).
I played REINFEST* against Travis Chaney, and it was challenged off.
I tried ELICITER* against Jason Katz-Brown, and it was challenged off.
I would have played YARDMEN forming NAS* against Karen Fishman if the spot hadn't been blocked.
I tried POTIONER* against April McCarley, and it was challenged off.
I let April McCarley get away with OUTSTEAL* even though I know TOLUATES.
I let Mike Willis get away with CORTOIDS*.
CORTOIDS* was especially costly since it blocked an 80-point Z play I had set up for myself. But after losing so many challenges earlier, I decided not to risk losing another one. These are not obscure low-probability words I'm screwing up. These are mistakes I should not have made, given what I currently know and expect of myself. In the meantime before I learn all the words, I guess I should practice calculating whether I would have already seen a word if it were good. But I still think the best way is just to learn them all. Then if a word is good, I would have seen it.
I've been adding a lot of random words from JumbleTime and elsewhere in the past few months. It's great, because the words are interesting and occasionally I get to play something like LENTICEL, which I played against Jason Katz-Brown. But it also takes away from the high-probability words I would otherwise be studying, and leads me to make mistakes like challenging SPANCEL because I already know PENCELS. I didn't learn PENCELS in probability order! I can also feel my skill on the high-probability words slipping as I've been working on other things. I almost missed a natural TORULAS against Travis Chaney, and I'm sure Quackle will show me lots of other misses when I get around to analyzing this weekend's games. I think it's time to go back to probability order for learning new words.
I may post a more detailed tournament report later, but probably not. Overall, the Dallas Open was a great experience. I loved playing the experts, and I came away extremely motivated to improve. If I want to be playing these guys all the time, I have to improve. So I will do it.
I need to know more words.
I've generally taken the attitude that I'll eventually get around to learning all the words, and it's fine if that takes me a while, because there's plenty of time. That's a realistic attitude, and I like to be realistic. But after this weekend, it's just not good enough. I want to know all the words now. I need to take my word study up a notch or two.
It may be that I've had this attitude because my word knowledge has outpaced my rating, so I can usually push a lot of intermediate players around. In other words, my word knowledge hasn't really been a problem. But after my good performance in the first half of the Dallas Open pitted me against some of the top experts, I found myself with a giant gap in my brain where all the words should be. The gap didn't make me feel intimidated (though maybe I should have been), but it was bad enough that I made a lot of mistakes. I lost a lot of challenges this weekend. To give some examples of my lapses, here are nearly a dozen obvious ones I can remember without even quackling my games:
I challenged Chris Cree's opening play of SPANCEL.
I let Tom Conrad get away with DUVETTE*.
I played SEM* against Rod MacNeil, and it was challenged off.
I would have played TONDEAU* against Travis Chaney had I seen a spot for it (and there was a spot, which I missed).
I played REINFEST* against Travis Chaney, and it was challenged off.
I tried ELICITER* against Jason Katz-Brown, and it was challenged off.
I would have played YARDMEN forming NAS* against Karen Fishman if the spot hadn't been blocked.
I tried POTIONER* against April McCarley, and it was challenged off.
I let April McCarley get away with OUTSTEAL* even though I know TOLUATES.
I let Mike Willis get away with CORTOIDS*.
CORTOIDS* was especially costly since it blocked an 80-point Z play I had set up for myself. But after losing so many challenges earlier, I decided not to risk losing another one. These are not obscure low-probability words I'm screwing up. These are mistakes I should not have made, given what I currently know and expect of myself. In the meantime before I learn all the words, I guess I should practice calculating whether I would have already seen a word if it were good. But I still think the best way is just to learn them all. Then if a word is good, I would have seen it.
I've been adding a lot of random words from JumbleTime and elsewhere in the past few months. It's great, because the words are interesting and occasionally I get to play something like LENTICEL, which I played against Jason Katz-Brown. But it also takes away from the high-probability words I would otherwise be studying, and leads me to make mistakes like challenging SPANCEL because I already know PENCELS. I didn't learn PENCELS in probability order! I can also feel my skill on the high-probability words slipping as I've been working on other things. I almost missed a natural TORULAS against Travis Chaney, and I'm sure Quackle will show me lots of other misses when I get around to analyzing this weekend's games. I think it's time to go back to probability order for learning new words.
I may post a more detailed tournament report later, but probably not. Overall, the Dallas Open was a great experience. I loved playing the experts, and I came away extremely motivated to improve. If I want to be playing these guys all the time, I have to improve. So I will do it.