Strong Expert in Scrabble

I had an excellent tournament in Montreal two weeks ago, finishing 2nd only to Adam Logan, former world champion. I gained about 150 rating points and then finished 2nd in Calgary this past weekend to climb over the 1700 level for the first time.

All the studying is starting to pay off!

Unlike chess, where I started to see walls I was hitting (but have since overcome) I don't see any such walls yet in scrabble. So I'll keep at it and see where it leads.

My studying is progressing with about 100 new anagrams a day, focusing on bingos (7's and 8's) and 6's (often neglected area of study). I also work on hooks, extensions (5+3) and even long words. Studying long words is useful for enhancing your ability to play through words on the board, ex CITE + DILNOSU = UNSOLICITED. The exact words you study aren't necessarily all that helpful, but build important skills along the way.

Juraj

Chess Expert at Last

After about 10 years or more of tournament chess, I finally achieved an expert rating (over 2000).

Here are my games from the Calgary International tournament, from May 23-24, ... I think I was extremely lucky to win with Brad Booker in round 4 but probably could have won my last round game against Ali Razzaq. I finished in a three way tie for first place, winning $150, but more importantly crossing the 2000 line.

http://www.jpivovarov.com/jpivovarov/Chess/calgaryinternational.htm