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 letter distributions a "Y" it is worth 10 points, if a blank is used as a "Z" it is worth 15 points, and if a blank is used as a "K" it is worth 20 points. Each of those letters are so high in points, because they are used only in borrowed words. The score of 20 for a "K" is the highest known point value for any letter in any Scrabble score distribution worldwide. "Y" is absent in all sets except the paleographic extension of the first set because it is rare in Latin. "K" and "Z" are also absent in