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
Scrabble six and nine games are played each day. There are also clubs in the UK and many other countries. There are a number of internationally rated SOWPODS tournaments. During off hours at tournaments, many players socialize by playing consultation (team) "Scrabble", Clabbers, Anagrams, Boggle, Words with Friends, Scramble with Friends and other games. Maven is a computer opponent for the game, created by Brian Sheppard. The official "Scrabble" computer game in North America uses a version of Maven as its artificial intelligence and is published by Atari. Outside North America, the official "Scrabble" computer game is published by Ubisoft. Quackle