In 2011, Mack Meller went to Stamford, Connecticut, for a Scrabble tournament. In the first round, as he was settling in, the tournament director interrupted play for an announcement. This was highly irregular. But the news warranted it: Joel Sherman, a forty-nine-year-old former world champion from the Bronx, had just finished a game with 803 points - a new world record in tournament play and the first time a tournament player had ever broken 800.
Meller and his opponent, having stopped their clocks (in tournament Scrabble each player is allotted twenty-five minutes to make all of his or her plays), placed their tiles face down and walked over to Sherman's board. So did lots of other players. Meller couldn't believe it. Eight hundred! That was Scrabble's holy grail. Sherman had used all seven of his letters - called a "bingo" and good for fifty extra points - seven times!
It was a feat for the ages, but Sherman didn't win the tournament. Meller did. He was eleven years old.
