Maven (Scrabble) on Scrabble. The problem with Alpha Beta is that some Scrabble endgames require 14 moves to play out, and it is not possible to search that deeply. This is not merely a theoretical possibility. When one player is "stuck" with a tile, then playing out all remaining tiles is impossible. In that situation the optimal strategy for both sides is usually to play one tile on each turn. Maven uses a different approach. The B* search algorithm is a selective-depth, progressive-widening algorithm that guarantees to find optimal solutions to two-player games when one can compute upper and lower bounds on
Tile tracking Tile tracking provides much of the data required to make many of the strategic decisions a player makes in the course of a game, and it has a key role in other strategic elements, including rack and board management. It is considered especially critical in the end game (when there are no tiles left in the bag and seven or fewer tiles on each player’s rack). At this point, ‘Scrabble is chess’ If both players have tracked the tiles correctly, each knows what tiles sit in the other’s final rack. Assuming a close game, the win will go to the