Welcome to another installment of our annotated game series. Once every month or so, we'll take an interesting game from a CoCo tournament, break it down move by move, and ask the players to analyze a few of the key positions.

Not much has changed since the last time we shared a tournament game in this space - we're all still quarantined, and our tournaments are still virtual. So we thought we'd share another game from our Computer Users' Remote Event (CURE) series. This one is from CURE3 - it's a matchup between Jackson Smylie, who would go on to win the tournament, and Cedric Lewis, who also finished near the top.

Thanks to Jackson and Cedric both for sharing their thoughts - and thanks again to Conrad Bassett-Bouchard for the awesome graphic design work on the board diagrams you see below.

Let's get to the game!

Cedric: AEIOORR

exchange AIOOR +0 0

Cedric: I did not consider an opening play like OORIE or OORIER. A vowel dump from the first turn is usually unideal - it presents many scoring opportunities for my opponent and makes it harder to score next turn - and leaving an E floater will often give my opponent a bingo.

Jackson: AEIOQST

H7 QI +22 22

Cedric: ?AAEFLR

8F FAIRLEAd +61 61

Jackson: AEEIOST

I7 IRE +17 39

Jackson: My thought process was to look for plays that played only vowels in order to keep a potent bingo leave like EIST or AEIST. (F)OE was the most aggressive option, keeping the best leave (AEIST) and leaving all the 8s lanes open, but IRE scored 9 more while keeping the albeit clunkier AEOST leave. I felt like that was a worthy sacrifice, but being down by a bit already might favour the more aggressive option. I think I'd go with that if I could do it over.

Cedric: DJORSWY

K5 JOWED +32 93

Jackson: AENOPST

N2 TEOPANS +83 122

Cedric: ANRSVYY

O1 VARY +55 148

Jackson: ?AAMTTT

L4 TAM +23 145

Jackson: ?ABEETT

10C ABETTEd +63 208

Cedric: ILNNSXY

11C NIX +44 217

Jackson: EGLNPSU

12A PUNG +35 243

Cedric: EELNSWY

A12 PLEW +27 244

Jackson: EEHLORS

B14 HO +25 268

Cedric: DENOSTY

F10 TENTY +27 271

Cedric: DEFORSU

F6 OFF +11 282

Cedric: OFF is definitely unideal. Quackle's Championship Player suggests DUFF (F5), and I agree, since there are two more Us in the bag. OFF could have hurt a lot more in retrospect. OFF was also supposed to create another opportunity to bingo since the board is tight. I favor a more open board early on to have comeback opportunities since the pool did not have many heavy consonants left to score with.

Jackson: AEHKLRS

5C HARK +36 315

Cedric: DEIIRSU

G10 TRUE +22 304

Jackson: EILLNSU

4B LUN +15 330

Jackson: I liked LUN because it doesn't allow many overlaps (only words starting in DA-, which severely restricts his options), keeping the board tight with my slight lead. I was happy to block the SHARK hook even though I have an S - with two Ss remaining, I liked taking away any chance at an insta-loss from a bingo by Cedric. I still keep my S for setups or scoring plays in the future, so I felt like I was in a good position. I didn't know the word SKOFF# - had I known it, I certainly would have played LUNES in the same spot for 21 more points to better secure my odds of outrunning in a defensive battle.

Cedric: CDDIIOS

B1 COILS +26 330

Jackson: DEILSTZ

H13 TIZ +39 369

Cedric: ADDIMOO

1B CAMOODI +45 375

Cedric: Cannot go wrong by taking the points here. The bag is favorable for a bingo pickup, and I need to keep the pressure on. The unseen tiles are not ugly. My opponent would have pulled away if I didn't keep the pressure on. At this point, either of us can win the game still.

Jackson: CDEELRS 3A

CID +26 395

Jackson: I felt quite confident I was going to win the game. Although I happen to keep a bingo-beautiful EELRS leave, that was not the motive behind the play. I wanted to score points while leaving 2 tiles in the bag. I knew I wouldn't outrun a bingo, and didn't like my odds of consistently outrunning with plays that blocked one of the marginal bingo lines (such as B1 CODERS). Leaving 2 tiles in the bag with CID decreases Cedric's odds of playing an out in two, since most of his plays will leave him with ~5 tiles in the endgame, allowing me to block any out he may have.

I did not consider the threat of him fishing 1 tile and drawing unblockable bingoes - with the lanes being as bad as they are and the score being quite close, I felt it was more important to ensure victory when he doesn't bingo. I didn't see any 3 tile play that outrun consistently enough. I don't have Quackle open, so I certainly may have missed a star play that accomplishes both goals well!

(Editor's note: Nah, he didn't miss anything.)

Jackson: EEGLNRS

2G ENGS +12 407

Jackson: After Cedric's amazing fish, he now has two spots to bingo: row C and columns 12/13. I saw if an I is in the bag, he has ROADIES and AERADIOS, and I can't seem to win. If an O is in the bag, I saw he had DAIRIES/OUD. I didn't know the word DIARISED#, which would play from the D on column 13. In reality, assuming Cedric finds his bingoes, I'm toast if an I or O is in the bag (which is quite likely given his fish, certainly more than the 3/8 that raw probability would suggest).

I chose a play that blocked what I thought was the most dangerous lane (row C) and seemed to outrun consistently with all the non-bingo racks Cedric could have. I didn't permute this fully, but played enough tiles to likely leave me with an out and score decently while blocking.

Cedric: ADEIORS

L8 AERADIOS +73 450

(EILR) +8 458

Cedric: This game was fun!

(Editor's note: Yes. Yes, it was.)

Final score: Cedric 458, Jackson 407.