Well, here is the highest score pattern:
- Code: Select all
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| Q U A D # S H O W |
| U N D E C E I V E |
| A D # F O P # E L |
| D E F L A T O R S |
| # C O A X I N G # |
| S E P T I M O L E |
| H I # O N O # A Y |
| O V E R G L A Z E |
| W E M S # E Y E N |
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Score = 146
There are a total of 46 similar solutions with this pattern, or 92 in total, counting transposes.
The reason that I think it can't be exceeded is that it's the highest scoring pattern with the two central 7 letter words equal. Why can't there be a higher score with the central words unequal? Well in theory there could be,
but in practice I found that this was never the case. Because the black cell pattern is symmetrical about the main diagonal, if it wasn't for the scrabble letter distribution constraint, the highest score would obviously be transposable (the contents of each row would be equal to the contents of the corresponding column). The letter distribution constraint prevents this from being perfectly true, but in practice it just isn't a strong enough constraint to stop the highest score occurring with the two central words equal.
I'll have a look at your new pattern, it's got 2 more black cells, which is good, and is not symmetrical about the main diagonal, which is also good.
Leren