Born Roger Robinson Wright III in
Houston 1974, from his early childhood family and friends called him Trey,
a nickname meaning
“the third.”
It was as Trey that he casually joined the competitive Scrabble scene, first by attending a Scrabble Club in Houston and then competing in a tournament in Austin in 1992, the summer after his high school graduation. Wright won the prize for Best Record in the lower half of the novice division and has been hooked on competitive Scrabble ever since. Little did he know that he had embarked on a journey where he would meet some of the most colorful people in the world and emerge as National Scrabble Champion.
Scrabble is a game of word knowledge and strategy, and when he's in tournament competition, Wright says Scrabble is incredibly fun, intense and exciting.
He compares tournament Scrabble to golf, in that you have to play it to know
how great it is.When Wright plays Scrabble, he places the letters on the rack in alphabetical order. Such an arrangement of letters is called an alphagram. In preparation for tournament competition, he studies alphagrams. From a computer database, Wright studies lists of alphagrams of words that range from 5-10 letters long. By looking at any of those tens of thousands of alphagrams, Wright can, in a split second, recognize the hidden word or words.
Wright has found at least one connection between music and Scrabble: mathematics. A piece of music and the game of Scrabble are both concerned with spatial relationships, he says. "A good Scrabble player is sensitive to the geometry of the game. He can look at a board, sense its
direction and feel where it's going."The 2004 winning Scrabble board
“…Trey bingos with TEOPANS (hooking to make TREE) in the newly created spot. TREY WRIGHT is the 2004 National SCRABBLE ® Champion!! He sweeps David Gibson, who has seemed unstoppable in big finals before this, in an exciting three-game set.” ( NSA Commentary-2004)
A FEW OF WRIGHT'S WINNING BOARDS
“On a total roll, Trey Wright (Los Angeles, CA) defeats Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand) at table 1 in division 1, 408-344.” NSA Commentary-2004)
“Trey Wright (Los Angeles, CA) has essentially moved in. He's been inviting players to come lose to him for a while now. This round it is the former National and Canadian National SCRABBLE ® champ in the hot seat. Adam Logan (United Kingdom) kicks his shoes off and cross his white stocking feet under the chair, his toes curled down and under, bearing in for the long haul. An event pen is clenched between Adam's teeth and his eyes comb the board in quick flickers. Early on, Trey bingos with EMPALiNG for 74. A few turns later, Adam gets down two bingos in a row: ACIERATE for 70 and FEsTIVALS for 80. The score is then 294-293 in Adam's favor. Adam makes one more play to pull up 36. Trey then slaps down STAUMREL through the T for 72 and that was pretty much it. Trey won, 428-406.” (NSA Commentary 2004)
“An astonished Trey Wright (Los Angeles, CA) manages to overcome a nearly 200-point deficit to defeat David Gibson (Spartanburg, SC)445-437. David got down VERNIERS for 65, QUiNOAS for 98, EUpNOEAS for 64. Both blanks gone and up by a bit less than 200, I imagine David wasn't as worried as he might have been were the game closer. Just then, Trey played REACHING for 74, two turns later DABBLES for 81, and the REUNITED for 60. Not done yet, Trey's last three plays were XI for 38, JAG for 11, and YE for 32. As the game ended, Trey let out an audible sigh and pushed back from the table a bit. His eyes were wide with disbelief. Bill Geist, the CBS reporter, was entranced with their game, sitting at the end of their table and watching intently. His camera operator and boom microphone/sound man kept going back and forth to each side of the board, trying to catch the expressions and dialogue.” (NSA Commentary 2004)
“…Trey slams down GREENIE, the game's first bingo! Score 240-327 in Trey's favor. Trey is counting tiles.... David holds COOTTU?. Trey holds ADEIIO?. The score is 263-341, in Trey's favor. David holds AT and Trey has ABEIIO?. David went out with TI and gets four points from Trey's rack. Trey wins, 365-328. The room is clapping and happy for Trey. In the next round it will be David's turn to get a win!” (NSA Commentary-2004)
“…Trey opts to play QATS for 13 points, leaving two tiles in the bag. Trey is now 6 points behind - 299-305. David's rack is AAILLST. He plays LIS, emptying the bag. Trey holds DEERSUW and David holds AAILNT. David is ahead by 30, 329-299. I hear WEEP from the crowd, which would allow him to play out with SURD. Trey plays WEEP and the crowd claps. David has LAAINT - doesn't seem like he can block both of Trey's outspot, so he needs to find a good score somewhere. He has played NA for 15. Trey goes out with URDS/ATOMICS and wins an extremely exciting game .” (NSA Commentary-2004)
