Technology in recent times especially since Covid 19 pandemic has become a vital part of our lives. The tech onslaught has extended its influence to even transforming the sports world, particularly mind sports on having online versions and also enabling Computer programs to achieve a level of out performing the best of human players.
Allsportspk as part of its tech series continues to take a closer look at the extraordinary new technologies in sports. And also brings forth for its readers the knowledge about how technological advancements in sports are revolutionizing the sports we play and watch.
For the interest of our keen readers, Allsportspk tech team in this article brings forth the most notable software’s which have become an integral part of the Word game of Scrabble.
Maven and Quackle
Scrabble is a game of imperfect information with a huge branching factor; techniques applied in games such as chess do not work here. Thereby, computer Scrabble programs combine a selective move generator, simulations of likely game scenarios, and an algorithm to produce a program with a caliber of world champion’s.
Maven was the first program to exemplify this against a human opponent. It was designed in USA by Brian Sheppard in 2002. Having defeated several world champions, Maven applies a 3-ply strategy and various heuristics for simulation (heuristics are a set of evaluation parameters that can instantly solve the problems when traditional approaches are often slow).
On the other hand, Quackle was created by two Amercians’ Jason Katz-Brown and John Laughlin in 2006 and has beaten World Champion, David Boys. It calculates win probability and considers rack leave heuristics.
Woogles.io
One of the first obstacles any word game enthusiast needs to overcome is finding where to play with other people. Competing with other players in person is preferable but not always possible. That’s where Woogles.io comes to create the connectivity between players and also online tournaments participants.
Woogles.io was launched on 15 th of October 2020; it was a project started by a handful of dedicated Scrabble fanatics however, the most well-known creator is César Del Solar – an American competitive Scrabble players and programmer. Woogles.io is a free-to-use site that brings word aficionados together for online Scrabble fun. This site accommodates various platforms such as OMGWords which delivers an online scrabble alternative and tools like anagrams and puzzles to let people improve their skills. All virtual global tournaments such as the WESPA Youth Cup and WESPAC have been directed using Woogles.io during the pandemic.
WT-Wali Timer
Created by Wali Khubaib in 2017, a scrabble player and IT developer based in Pakistan. WT is a top-notch application containing everything a Scrabbler needs. The app started with containing merely a timer and a word checker however, some developments were made to the application. It is an all in one tool consisting of a Scrabble timer, word checker and a word search.
The Word Search feature allows the user to search up acceptable words concurrently improving the vocabulary. Wali Timer is the most ideal and user-friendly application to use during a Scrabble match and it supports both NWL18 and CSW21.
Z– Zyzzyva and A- Aerolith
If you are a Scrabble fan, you might know about the time when the French World Scrabble Champion was a person who could not understand a word of French. Since Scrabble does not require stating the meanings of the words, the word merely needs to be valid. Hence, how the magician pulled off the act was by simply learning how the words spelled. To memorize words, the two significant platforms include Zyzzyva and Aerolith.
Collins Zyzzyva is a program that is particularly valuable for learning words and practicing your anagramming skills. It allows you to search for words, anagrams, and definitions, as well as giving yourself quizzes; it also has a full-screen Word Judge mode, which can be useful for determining the validity of words while playing matches.
Like Zyzzyva, Aerolith is also a word memorization and training website. It was created by César Del Solar in 2007. Aerolith provides a fun and fast-paced way to learn words quickly making the users improve at more than just Scrabble. These programs help players to increase their vocabulary bank, consequently raising the odds of winning the games.
