Today Lieven Marchand dashed my hopes for a September monthly challenge victory. I fought very hard and my opponent was just too tough. See Game #83659.

The loss caused my rating to slide, giving top rating to Tore Sandmark. He has taken many monthly tournaments and is a very strong player. Congrats to him!

At some point it becomes impossible not to mention how great Indy is at GWG! With 60 wins and only four losses, he is apparently destined to take many monthly tournaments as well as the championship. I think that Indy has not lost since 2003-10-09! It may just be my conceit, but I believe that I took the level of GWG play to a higher level after Big Bad Wolf (BBW) dominated early on. Now the era of Indy is approaching. Can anyone topple him?

I should not neglect to mention michael, who won the fourth championship. Also Nick Wedd and Kleese2 who took monthlys in January and May. Congrats to them too.

I had a lot of luck in the monthly that I won. It is clear to me that you, and Tore, are much stronger players.

But I am posting because I am puzzled by Game #83659. Both players bid up to 47.5, and then Lieven made “licentiousnesses” for 42. How can this make sense? My guess is that they were both planning on making more valuable words (my robot finds santalol for 72), but after Lieven won the bidding, he spotted that his planned word gave too much away.

I meant to post the above under my own name, not my robot's. Anyway - congratulations to all players in the top ten!

Nick

I have not posted anything on this site before, but after reading both Scot's and Nick's comments, I felt it was time to add a contribution.

GWG is a lovely game and I find it wonderful that so many people enjoy playing it. In my opinion it is a combination of scrabble and chess; the simplicities and complexities hidden in the rules mean all levels of players can enjoy the game.

I still consider myself relatively new to GWG, and although I am doing well, I still am learning all the time. This is my first Championship and I have come to realise something that I had not previously anticipated. Such is the quality of the first leauge group, that tactics and forward-planning is not enough. Stamina, endurance and motivation become increasingly more important, and for this reason it makes it even more impressive, in fact amazing, that Scot has dominated the last 4 Championships (2 x winner; 1 x runner up; 1 x 3rd) and has accumulated no less than 5 monthly cup victories.

Scot is a true Champion and I am sure will have a big part to play in many future tournaments.

My comparison of GWG to chess is mainly because of the three stages of the game - Beginning, Middle and Endgame. This leads me to Nick's question regarding the opening bids, since I too have difficulties in this part of the game. Sometimes it can be the most important part of the GWG and can determine the course and even the result of the game.

I have read in previous postings (see 'Opening Bids' in GWG Forum) some simple formulae to help calculate opening bids (e.g. P - N/2; 0.8 x P). I think these are great for those just starting to play GWG, I certainly used them in my first few games, and later, with some forward planning, I was able to further fine tune the bids.

I think that the advanced player needs to catagorise the openings and apply a separate strategy to each, not only in terms of bidding but also in play. These are the catagories that I believe exist:

(i) There is one obvious high scoring word (60+) available on the opening board

(ii) There are several high scoring words available on the opening board

(iii) There are no high scoring words available on the opening board

(iv) There is one obvious high scoring word available on the board AND a wild tile will be available to the next player

(v) There are several high scoring words available on the board AND a wild tile will be available to the next player

(vi) There are no high scoring words available on the opening board AND a wild tile will be available to the next player

(vii) There is one obvious high scoring word available on the opening board AND there is a chance that after the next players turn, you will get a wild tile

(viii) There are several high scoring words available on the opening board AND there is a chance that after the next players turn, you will get a wild tile

(ix) There are no high scoring word available on the opening board AND there is a chance that after the next players turn, you will get a wild tile

The difference between (ii) and (iii) is subtle, but with high scoring words, you will often open up the board. With low scoring words, it is possible to keep the board tight.

I think that the formulae suggested in the 'Opening Bids' forum above is only applicable to catagory (i) where you are reasonably certain what the opening word will be, and can therefore accurately anticipate the opponent's next move.

It is my belief that Scot vs Lieven Marchand (game 83659) would fall into catagory (ii) and they obviously applied a different strategy.

I think that catagory (ix) is the toughest of all and I experienced this in the current championship (see Scot vs Indy game 93270).

OK, I will stop here but I would be interested to hear any comments on the above, on whether you think the catagories are correct/complete, on what strategies you would apply to each or whether I have taken the opening game to far and that it is much simpler than I have made it seem.

thanks and best regards,

Indy

I was willing to take a penalty to play first to remove the 2 *s. I hadn't found santalol but even if I had been aware of it, I wouldn't have chosen it since I didn't want to give Scot a *. So after the first exchange, I've given up 5 odd points to remove two *s, which I thought was reasonable.

Congratulations to Mirror Man, who is the latest Monthly cup winner. Mirror Man has proved to be an outstanding player and secured the cup with a win over the current Championship holder, Michael.

Since November last year, no-one has managed to successfully defend their monthly cup, and this doesn't look likely to change in the current June trophy. Who will be able to break the MC Curse….?

The monthly cups are definitely cursed for me…every single one of 'em i joined so far i finished second place…I'm luckier in the championship ;).

Congrats to all who defeated me in those cups!

Also congrats to the top 5 in current championship who gave and are still giving eachother very tough battles. And goodluck to those that remain in the running for taking the title.

Well, I shoulda seen it coming, but I had figured Indy to win the championship becuase he beat me. michael is dominating as he took over top rating a few days ago and is in great position to take the second championship. My two remaining games decide it. If michael beats me then michael wins. If only mirror_man beats me then he wins. I only win if I can win both games. BTW, here are the top five rated players as of this moment: michael-2033 Scot-2027 Indy-2007 mirror_man-1991 Tore Sandmark-1969

I meant fifth championship.

Some days ago, Indy captured the top GWG rating. Congrats!

With what is perhaps the highest ever rating in GWG, mirror_man has captured the sixth championship. Congrats!

Now I suspect that the seventh will also soon start before the nightmare game ever finishes from the fourth championship.

Thanks for the congrats!

Actually Indi's rating was higher for a while, in particular, after our game in championship. He seems to have taken a slight dip in the last week or two, but I wouldn't be surprised if he overtakes me again soon.

The long game is finnaly over. It's sort of an anticlimax for me to resign, but I'm burnt out on GWG. I'm travelling to California with my large family and I'm connecting by dial up from a motel. That difficulty compels me to resign. Thanks to you all for a great contest and my hat is off to michael for the victory.

The 7th Championship has been won again by Mirror Man - congratulations to him, a worthy champion who won with a perfect 100% record, a feat only matched by Scot in the 3rd Championship.

GWG has become stronger and stronger in recent months. You now need 1939 to break into the top 10 which is phenomenal! With new kids on the block like Reiner, Abigail, David and Magicode, hopefully we can make it harder for Mirrorman to win an unprecedented 3rd title!

Well done and roll on Championship VIII

Well, mirror_man won't get a third championship in a row, for the simple reason he's not competing. In fact, none of the previous winners is participating in the current championship.