Concatenations

by Allan Stagg

Your task is to turn one word into another by a series of operations. Each operation costs a number of points, as follows.

2 pts - Change a single letter (e.g. BURN becomes TURN)
3 pts - Change the position of all letters, (e.g. POST becomes STOP)
4 pts - Add a letter (e,g, CARD becomes CARED)
4 Pts - Take away a letter (e.g. CARED becomes CARD)

In each case, each word in the chain must be found in my dictionary, or the Scrabble Official Words book. Each turn I will give two words, and a target score that I have achieved. If your solution's score is more than mine, but within 5 pts, you will score 5 - the difference between our two scores. If your solution equals mine you will score 5 plus a bonus point, and if it beats it you will score this plus 2 points for each point your score is better than mine. For example, if the target is 19 pts, 23 will score 1 pt, 20 will score 4 pts, 19 will score 6 pts and 18 will score 8 pts.