Strategy Session: Lingo (part 1)
Lingo is a game show that currently runs on GSN, a pay TV channel, which bills itself the “Network for Games.”
Lingo is a word game. Two teams of two go head-to-head to win a usual prize of US$5,000. Nowadays there is a possibility of winning $10,000 or more, but winning those amounts is luck and has no bearing on strategy.
When your team has “control,” you have five attempts to guess a five-letter word. You are given the first letter of the word to start. With each guess, the letters in the word you guess are identified as either (a) being in the word and in the correct position, (b) being in the word but not in the correct position, or (c) not being in the word at all. In a nutshell, it’s Mastermind meets hangman.
To understand the rules of the game, I recommend you watch the show. Failing that, see either GSN’s Lingo site or the expansive description of the Lingo experience of former contestant Robert McKee. Mr. McKee is a true aficionado and even created his own Lingo game emulator (wow!). You can also play Lingo against virtual competition at GSN’s website for fun (and sometimes for money and a chance to appear on a live game).
The First Two Guesses
As McKee points out, one superb strategem for solving Lingo puzzles is to come prepared with a pair of words for each starting letter. The trick is to choose two words that cover the spectrum of the most common letters found in words. As every Wheel of Fortune fan knows, the five most common consonants are S, T, R, N, and L, while vowels in order of descending frequency are E, A, O, I and U. You should use as many of these 10 letters in the first two words that you guess. However, since the first letter is pre-determined, you will be able only to assess the membership of just 8 of these letters.
For example, let’s say the word begins with a “C.” The first two guesses you might use could be CLEAT and COINS. Based on what the game board shows, you then customize your guesses, hoping to nail the word by the fifth guess.
Savvy strategists like McKee have shown the utility of this strategy, but there is more that one could do. I will ruminate further about optimal strategy in part 2. To whet your appetite, note than the two suggested “C” words did not include the common letters R or U.