Division 4 Winner: Max Karten

by Whitney Gould

Max Karten and Alan Pengelly

Max Karten arrived in Dayton sure that he would win Division 4. The 92 other people in the division thought they were going to win too, but Max
turned out to be right.

The 23-year-old college student from Barrington, Rhode Island finished the five-day event with 27 wins, 4 losses, and a positive spread of 2,477. It was an impressive showing for someone who came in ranked 23rd, and had played only four previous tournaments. But Karten was confident: “I expected to win,” he said.

The lanky, freckled history major in the black baseball cap is cagey about how he prepared for his overwhelming victory. He admits to having a rating of about 1,900 on the Internet Scrabble Club (ISC), but reveals little else about his strategy. “I prepared. I don’t want to get any more specific. It would tell other players what I know and what I’m capable of,” Karten said.

Karten admits he doesn’t particularly like to read, or have a large vocabulary outside of SCRABBLE. He says he learned the game at age five from his grandmother, who refused to go easy on him: “No breaks, no mercy. She never let me win,” he recalled.

Karten will also tell you he didn’t sleep well during the Dayton contest. He says he wore the same hat, used the same pen, and engaged in the same routines every day. His proudest plays included AZOTED for 51 points and ARTICLED for 42, plays that were both unsuccessfully challenged. But, Karten says, his more vivid memories are of his disappointing plays: “I can tell you all the mistakes,” he said.

He’s equally hard on his opponents. Karten, who admits, “The only thing I care about is winning,” says those who sat opposite him “didn’t prepare well enough. That’s why they didn’t do well. I know that sounds callous, but it’s generally true.”

Don’t expect to see this blunt player in a tourney again soon. Despite the best win-loss record in all five divisions, and his $2,000 reward for coming in first, Karten says he plans to drop out for awhile. He says he’ll resurface only when he’s ready to win another division. “This is my last tournament for a long time,” he said.

Words spoken by a lot of players after a long tourney — until the next competition.

Whitney Gould is a SCRABBLE player and television news producer from Berkeley, California.