Will Anderson

Will's Play of the Week #12 - Learning from the Best(Bot)

Will's Play of the Week #11 - One Move Was A Lot Better

Will's Play of the Week #10 - X's and O's

Hey folks!
Another intriguing position to show you all today - a classic example of a solution that isn't difficult to spot, but may be very difficult to fully appreciate.

I seem to have conflicts for almost all of the events I'm interested in for the first half of the year, so I'm taking the opportunity to play in the Atlantic City, NJ tournament this weekend - my first multiday tournament since last August. Definitely expect to get some good content from there, whether f...

Will's Play of the Week #9 - Welcome to 2026!

Hey all, happy belated holiday season & new year! It's time to get back to posting Will's Play of the Week.

To reiterate a couple things I say in the video:

I want to thank our recent influx of new patrons - it's hugely appreciated as we continue along our journey of growing the audience for & interest in competitive Scrabble. Of course, I'd also extend those thanks to all patrons, new or old. I'm working hard (as hard as I've ever worked on anything in my life) to conti...

Adam Logan extended interview!

Hey folks,
As I allude to my YT video today, here is the full, unedited footage of my conversation with Adam Logan about his experiences and most pivotal plays from the 2025 World Championship!

A couple notes: I had Quackle set to a North American lexicon for much of the video, so a couple moves aren't listed in the generated choices when we discuss them, but this shouldn't affect the analysis or viewing experience much.

Of course, much of this will be duplicated from the YouT...

Will's Play of the Week #8 - Hi, Everyone

Hi, everyone! It's time for another Will's Play of the Week!

This is a really fun position where elite-level word knowledge isn't necessary to find the answer - should be a fun puzzle for those of you who are Scrabblers yourselves.

As I mention in the video, I'm going to endeavor to pick positions where the best available play is the same in both NWL and CSW - I know I have a mix of patrons focusing on each of these two lexicons, and I want everyone to feel as included as possib...

Patron Game Breakdown #2 - A Very Sticky Endgame

This game comes to us from Patron Ben M., who played a really interesting endgame recently!

For Scrabble engine users out there:
The prior standard engine, Quackle, runs into issues in the endgame when the optimal sequences have very high depth. The newer engine Macondo has made a huge step forward in this area and is capable of solving any endgame, no matter the depth.

However, in situations like this, entering the correct command is key!

Here's what happens in Ben's ...

WESPAC 2025 Preview

It's time to preview the 2025 WESPAC!

First things first: as a reminder, I will not be attending the World Championship this year, for reasons detailed in this post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/road-to-ghana-137170278

However, I'm still so excited to follow along and contribute from afar - I'll be doing daily recaps after each day's streaming action over at 2025-11-09 18:17:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Patron Game Breakdown #1 - Charles vs Goliath!

Hey folks! Today we have our first game breakdown submitted by a member of my Patreon community, Charles Cue.

Charles recently made his return to tournament Scrabble after playing in the World Youth Championship some 15 years ago. He submitted a fantastic game against one of Canada's elite expert players, Dean Saldanha - not an easy opponent in your first tournament back! There were many really cool positions in this game, especially on Charles' JOTA turn, where the engine finds anothe...

Will's Play of the Week #7 - An even *worse* blunder?

As promised in my most recent YouTube video, here's a breakdown of my other biggest blunder from the National Championship this year. At first glance, the play highlighted here appears to be a very minor mistake, and nowhere near as egregious as allowing Robin to play FLANGER against me, but I'm actually more disappointed in this move than any other. I think it's a great learning opportunity not only for myself, but hopefully for you, too!

After this, we'll return to highlight...

Will's Play of the Week #6: I'm A Vowel HOG

Hey folks! Really instructive position today from a recent game of mine. The primary theme is adjusting to a really unique unseen tile pool late in a game. I didn't navigate this situation optimally in the actual game but seeing what I should have done was a real "Eureka!" moment for me, so I decided to share it with you all in this WPotW!

Will's Play of the Week #5: I Need to L2S

Hey folks! Back in my pre-Scrabble days as a World of Warcraft player, I used to hear (and, embarrassingly probably say) the phrase "L2P" - a snobbish phrase intended to motivate someone to "learn to play" more effectively. In this video, you'll see why I need to take my own advice and "L2S": learn to better use my S tile. The play I should have made in this position should have been quite clear, but I missed it. See if you can find it yourself!

Will's Play of the Week #4 - This Game Was RIGGED!

It's time for another Will's Play of the Week!

I thought this was a particularly interesting turn from a recent club game. When considering making a very aggressive move, putting your opponent to the test, there's a lot of factors to account for, and the position in this video was no exception!

Will's Play of the Week #3 - Take The BAIT

Hey folks! Another WPOTW coming at you today on quite the closed board. This is a position where coming up with the candidate moves might be not quite as a difficult as usual for this series, but coming up with all the nuances behind each candidate choice is a bit more challenging. These sorts of positions used to be nightmares for me, but now I really enjoy them even though I wouldn't say I'm the best at navigating them. Enjoy!

Will's Play of the Week #2: I Didn't Have a CLUE

Hey folks! I'm going to aspire to upload my Will's Play of the Week videos on midweek days, so that they don't run too close to my Sunday main channel uploads.

When could giving up 52 points on the scoreboard ever be the right call in a Scrabble game? In this position, that may well have been what was called for.

NOTE for CSW players - LUZ# was not an option for me in this game, or it would have been well worth consideration at the bottom in the CLUE spot.
2025-09-11 20:31:55 +0000 UTC View Post

(EARLY ACCESS) The Insane Scrabble Comeback That Sparked a Championship Run

Hey folks! Thanks to your support, I'll be able to finish more of my videos a few days early, rather than work throughout the weekend to finish each release. This video will go live on YouTube on Sunday, Sept. 7, but you get to see it a few days early! It's about Nigel Peltier's insane Round 27 game against Orry Swift at the recent Scrabble Players Championship. Enjoy!

Will's Play of the Week #1: It's Not U, It's I

Hello patrons, thank you for supporting my channel!

I've largely moved away from purely educational Scrabble content on my main YouTube channel, but I'd like to try a new format where I take the most interesting play from my weekly club sessions here in the Philly area and turn it into a little lesson of sorts. This one came out a little longer than I'd like, but future episodes should be shorter. It's from a club game I played in August 2025 against local expert Joe Petree. Enjoy &...

Road to Ghana update

Hey everyone!

I've recently been getting more frequent questions about the upcoming World Scrabble Championship in Ghana - in particular, why haven't I made any new Road to Ghana episodes, and why is my name not on the roster of signups?

I haven't wanted to announce anything until I was 100% sure, but unfortunately, I'm now at the point where I can say definitively that I will not be attending this year's championship.

Travelers headed to many countries in South America and ...