From: Rich Baker <rgb5@cornell.edu>
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 1998 05:54:53 -0500
Subject: Consensus Game #1, Turn #5
Message-id: <3.0.2.32.19980201055453.007a7100@postoffice.mail.cornell.edu>

Obviously, 5c CoCOUNSEL is our best move here. (well, perhaps 5c COCoUNSEL, but I prefer to put the blank next to the dws.) Scores the same as SULFONiC and is nowhere near as dangerous. I don't agree with Bob Crowe's opinion that one shouldn't vote for a move that you might not find at the board. The whole point of a consensus game is to use our collective ability to find and analyze the best moves.

I'm not sure if we can conclude anything about opponent's kept tile except that it wasn't a U (REUNIFY). At first, I assumed it wasn't an S because of h11 SYREN for 45 points, but now I look back and I'm not sure. I might have sacrificed 13 points to keep S as opposed to IF on this board. If that kept tile WAS an S, our 43 point lead may disappear fast. (Of course, if you had listened to me, we wouldn't have set up the h column, and the PLAZA-s hook wouldn't be worth much. As I pointed out, there isn't much use setting up hot spots that we have almost no chance of using very soon.) If opponent didn't keep an S, it has a 20% chance of drawing one. We have a whopping 23% chance at an S if we make no assumption about opponent's kept tile. The game may well be decided by which of us is luckiest in drawing the esses.

Rich Baker 1942, 5c CoCOUNSEL