I’m back on top and it feels so good. As regular readers of this blog know, I play Wordle at the New York Times everyday. Each day one five letter word is selected and the player must guess the word by choosing a word and being informed of which letters are correct, in place, and not in place. I choose to play the “difficult” version where each succeeding word must retain a found letter in the next guess, eliminating the ability to triangulate and eliminate other letters.

To judge a players ability NYT has created a “WordleBot” program which also plays the word every day. WordleBot has the advantage of a computer with access to many faster and deeper options than the human brain. It is a tough opponent and it shows me up on a regular basis. To be honest the key to each day’s fewest guesses is the choice of the starting word. WordleBot uses PLATE which statistically is the best start word statistically most of the time. I use AROSE which is the starting word recommended by my hero Will Shortz, puzzle editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle and longtime puzzle master. Played right (think letter placement patterns first) I occasionally do better than WordleBot and on those occasions I trumpet it here in my blog.

Here is a screen shot of today’s statistics:

As you can see, my average 3.5 guesses temporarily outpaces WordleBot’s 3.6. For my stats to date here is my readout:

So I get to dance today, tomorrow WordleBot may very well exceed my score again. But I get to celebrate today. Wordle on!