NYT Wordle #1197: How I solved it

 

 

Image courtesy: www.nytimes.com/

Today, the 28th of September 2024, is game 1197 of NYT Wordle. I try to solve this daily and have completed 356 of these over the last couple of years. So here is my Wordle journey for today, which includes my guesses, thought process, some statistics, and, of course, the ANSWER!

I always start my Wordle with 'Trace'. Let's see what that resulted into:

After the first guess:

⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛

Alright, so we got letters 2 and 3. With this, I know that the first letter can only be W, P, D, F, G, K, B, or a vowel. Let's put together a few sets of possibilities with this information:

 

🅦🅡🅐✖✖:

-

🅟🅡🅐✖✖:

1. Prank

2. Prawn

🅓🅡🅐✖✖:

3. Drawn

4. Drain

5. Drawl

6. Drank

🅕🅡🅐✖✖:

7. Frail

8. Frank

🅖🅡🅐✖✖:

9. Grand

10. Grail

11. Grass

12. Gravy

🅚🅡🅐✖✖:

-

🅱🅡🅐✖✖:

13. Brand

14. Brass

15. Brash

16. Brain

17. Brawn

18. Braid

19. Bravo

(Vowel)🅡🅐✖✖:

-

Unlike other occasions, I feel that the list of words I put together today should contain at least 80-90% of total possible answers. So let's analyze:

• For the 1st spot, B has come out as the overwhelming favourite followed by 'G' and 'D'
• 10/19 words have 'N's' in them
• Amongst words which do not have 'N', 3 words have 'L's' and 'S's' each, 2 of them have 'V's', and 2 have 'D's'
• In terms of vowels, 5 words have an 'I', 12 of them have a lone 'A', 1 has an 'O', and another has 'Y'.
• In terms of frequency, there are 6 'D's', 4 'W's' in all, 5 'S's', and 3 'K's'

The analysis takes me to the following strategy:

• Have a 'B' in the guess, at any spot
• Have a 'D', either in the 1st or 5th spot
• Include an 'I' in the word
• Have 'N' in the 4th or 5th spot
• Try and include 'W', 'L', 'S', or 'K' in that particular order of preference

I think the most obvious choice is to go with 'Blind'. It fulfils a decent number of criteria, so let's go with 'Blind' without wasting any more time

After the second guess:

🟩⬛🟨🟨⬛

Awesome! There is just one possible solution left, and it is 'Brain'. 

After the third guess:

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Fantastic! I already know that my analysis was spot on today. Wordlebot rates my skill 99/99. 

My 219th 3/6 in 357 games. Average guesses 3.261. 

See you tomorrow!