Will Anderson

In (this) article (link to Scrabble: A Great Brain Game for Adults), I discuss many of the reasons that Scrabble is a great brain game for adults. But the beauty of Scrabble is that everyone can appreciate its appeal, including kids. Thanks to Scrabble’s status as a family game, many parents teach their children the rules of Scrabble from a young age. It’s how I learned the game myself. But whether you’re a parent looking to introduce your child to a game that will have lasting benefits long into adulthood, or a kid interested in picking up an awesome new hobby, Scrabble is a great choice.
<h3>Scrabble is Timeless</h3>
When I was younger, I liked to read books, play sports, and play video games. When I would find a video game I really liked, it would become my sole focus for months at a time. Eventually, I would move on to the next “big game,” leaving the previous one behind. I still play video games today, but much of my ‘gaming time’ is taken up by Scrabble. Why? Because I know that while the latest ‘flavor of the month’ video game is likely to disappear from the scene in a few years, Scrabble will continue to stand the test of time.  If you’re a young person looking to form a hobby that you can take with you into adulthood and beyond, Scrabble is a great choice. Scrabble has been around for 80 years for a reason.  The game features a perfect blend of words, elegant design, and strategic depth. It may not have the graphics of the latest PC or console game, but to use another gaming term, you really can’t beat Scrabble’s replayability. Each and every game is different from the last.
<h3>Life Lessons</h3>
Scrabble has lots to teach young people about life. But Scrabble is just a word game, I hear you saying. Hear me out. Scrabble is a game where the better player wins most of the time, but there’s a significant luck element involved too. You can’t win every game, and you have to learn to lose with grace and humility. This is a wonderful lesson that many young people, my younger self included, could benefit from learning. When I was young, I hated to lose. As you can read in my (origin story &#8211; link to other blog), my mom beat me in Scrabble repeatedly at first, and though I liked the game, I didn’t want to keep playing if it meant I would lose. I certainly would have benefited from sticking with Scrabble and understanding that giving your best effort, even if it means losing sometimes, is so much better than trying to win each and every time, and being angry when you fall short.  Scrabble teaches you to focus on the process, rather than the result. In life, not everything goes your way, but having a consistent approach and a good attitude in everything you do will produce the best results in the end. Because of its perfect blend of skill and fortune, Scrabble teaches players of all ages this lesson, but it’s especially impactful for kids.
<h3>A Great Brain Workout</h3>
Scrabble is an amazing brain workout. Every part of your brain gets a turn to shine. And for young people, whose brains are primed for learning, Scrabble is a great way to practice a diverse array of skills. Of course, Scrabble is a word game first and foremost. Playing Scrabble will expand your vocabulary and improve your literacy skills. That’s a given. But Scrabble also tests your memory as you learn more words in the dictionary and recall them in-game. Many people are surprised to learn that Scrabble has plenty of math involved, too. Adding and multiplying the scores of your plays and keeping score is just the start. Later on, experienced players will begin to incorporate probability and more advanced calculations into their decision-making. There’s a reason many of the strongest Scrabble players have backgrounds in math. Scrabble even tests your spatial awareness. The geometry of the board can develop in so many different ways.   But even after all of that, Scrabble is a game that tests your critical thinking skills above all. Finding words, doing math, and understanding board geometry is just the start.  Learning critical thinking skills is a huge emphasis for kids, and Scrabble can teach those skills while also being incredibly fun.
<h3>Making New Friends</h3>
As a young person, finding new friends with similar interests and hobbies is really fun. If you’re lucky enough to have a School Scrabble program at your school or nearby, you can find lots of other kids who have a similar love of words and puzzle-solving. I’ve been lucky enough to work as a commentator for many of the National School Scrabble Championships over the course of the last decade, and many of the young players who rose through the ranks together remain great friends to this day. Mix in forming awesome friendships with all of the benefits of Scrabble described above, and you’ve got an amazing game for kids to get into.  
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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/scrabble-a-great-brain-game-for-kids-play-scrabble/">Scrabble: A Great Brain Game For Kids</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

In (this) article (link to Scrabble: A Great Brain Game for Adults), I discuss many of the reasons that Scrabble is a great brain game for adults. But the beauty of Scrabble is that everyone can appreciate its appeal, including kids. Thanks to Scrabble’s status as a family game, many parents teach their children the rules of Scrabble from a young age. It’s how I learned the game myself. But whether you’re a parent looking to introduce your child to a game that will have lasting benefits long into adulthood, or a kid interested in picking up an awesome new hobby, Scrabble is a great choice.
Scrabble is Timeless
When I was younger, I liked to read books, play sports, and play video games. When I would find a video game I really liked, it would become my sole focus for months at a time. Eventually, I would move on to the next “big game,” leaving the previous one behind. I still play video games today, but much of my ‘gaming time’ is taken up by Scrabble. Why? Because I know that while the latest ‘flavor of the month’ video game is likely to disappear from the scene in a few years, Scrabble will continue to stand the test of time.  If you’re a young person looking to form a hobby that you can take with you into adulthood and beyond, Scrabble is a great choice. Scrabble has been around for 80 years for a reason.  The game features a perfect blend of words, elegant design, and strategic depth. It may not have the graphics of the latest PC or console game, but to use another gaming term, you really can’t beat Scrabble’s replayability. Each and every game is different from the last.
Life Lessons
Scrabble has lots to teach young people about life. But Scrabble is just a word game, I hear you saying. Hear me out. Scrabble is a game where the better player wins most of the time, but there’s a significant luck element involved too. You can’t win every game, and you have to learn to lose with grace and humility. This is a wonderful lesson that many young people, my younger self included, could benefit from learning. When I was young, I hated to lose. As you can read in my (origin story &#8211; link to other blog), my mom beat me in Scrabble repeatedly at first, and though I liked the game, I didn’t want to keep playing if it meant I would lose. I certainly would have benefited from sticking with Scrabble and understanding that giving your best effort, even if it means losing sometimes, is so much better than trying to win each and every time, and being angry when you fall short.  Scrabble teaches you to focus on the process, rather than the result. In life, not everything goes your way, but having a consistent approach and a good attitude in everything you do will produce the best results in the end. Because of its perfect blend of skill and fortune, Scrabble teaches players of all ages this lesson, but it’s especially impactful for kids.
A Great Brain Workout
Scrabble is an amazing brain workout. Every part of your brain gets a turn to shine. And for young people, whose brains are primed for learning, Scrabble is a great way to practice a diverse array of skills. Of course, Scrabble is a word game first and foremost. Playing Scrabble will expand your vocabulary and improve your literacy skills. That’s a given. But Scrabble also tests your memory as you learn more words in the dictionary and recall them in-game. Many people are surprised to learn that Scrabble has plenty of math involved, too. Adding and multiplying the scores of your plays and keeping score is just the start. Later on, experienced players will begin to incorporate probability and more advanced calculations into their decision-making. There’s a reason many of the strongest Scrabble players have backgrounds in math. Scrabble even tests your spatial awareness. The geometry of the board can develop in so many different ways.   But even after all of that, Scrabble is a game that tests your critical thinking skills above all. Finding words, doing math, and understanding board geometry is just the start.  Learning critical thinking skills is a huge emphasis for kids, and Scrabble can teach those skills while also being incredibly fun.
Making New Friends
As a young person, finding new friends with similar interests and hobbies is really fun. If you’re lucky enough to have a School Scrabble program at your school or nearby, you can find lots of other kids who have a similar love of words and puzzle-solving. I’ve been lucky enough to work as a commentator for many of the National School Scrabble Championships over the course of the last decade, and many of the young players who rose through the ranks together remain great friends to this day. Mix in forming awesome friendships with all of the benefits of Scrabble described above, and you’ve got an amazing game for kids to get into.  
Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.					
	The post Scrabble: A Great Brain Game For Kids appeared first on Scrabble.

Scrabble: A Great Brain Game For Kids

<h5>INTRODUCTION</h5>
Like all the best games, Scrabble is easy to learn but difficult to master. Still, If this is your first time <a href="https://playscrabble.com/">playing Scrabble</a>, you should familiarize yourself with the rules of the game.
Every game of Scrabble starts with the same set of tiles. In English, there are 100 tiles. Common letters like the E appear frequently, and less common letters like the Q and Z appear only once. These less common letters are worth more points to compensate.
Valid words include words of any part of speech, except for proper nouns, abbreviations, or words requiring hyphens or apostrophes. Keep in mind that there are words that look like proper nouns but are still in the dictionary for other reasons. For example, TEXAS is a valid Scrabble word, not because it’s a state, but because it’s the section of a steamboat that includes the crew’s quarters. 
<h5>BASIC GAMEPLAY</h5>
To begin each game, both players are given seven tiles from the tile bag. The website determines which player goes first at random.
If you’re going first, place a word on the board with at least one letter of that word touching the center star. You may play either across or down, as long as you touch the center star. Diagonal words are not permitted. Your word must be at least two letters in length.
Click “Submit” or hit Enter on the keyboard to submit your word and end your turn.
Once you play your word, you will be given new tiles from the tile bag to replace the ones you’ve used. Until the very end of the game, when there aren’t enough tiles left, you’ll always be given seven tiles to use. 
Your opponent will then get a turn to make a move of their own. The game will proceed with players alternating turns until the end of the game.
All letters played on each individual turn must be placed in only one row or column. 
You may play your letters alongside other letters on the board. In fact, it’s encouraged! But when you do this, ALL of the words formed by your play must be valid Scrabble words.
<h5>SCORING</h5>
Scores are automatically calculated when you enter a word. The score of your move is the sum of the letter values in each word formed by your play, plus additional points obtained from placing letters on Premium Squares.
There are four types of Premium Squares &#8211; Double Letter, Triple Letter, Double Word, and Triple Word Scores. The letter bonuses multiply the value of individual letters, and the word bonuses multiple the value of the full word. The center star is a Double Word square.
Once a Premium Square has been used, it may not be used again by connecting a new word to that square on a later turn. On later turns, the values of letters played on Premium Squares are simply the face value of that letter.
When you can, forming words that connect two different types of Premium Squares is a great way to rack up points. First, individual letter bonuses are calculated; then, word bonuses are calculated.
If you form multiple words on one play using the same Premium Square, you get the bonus for each word formed. 
Playing all seven of your tiles on a turn is known as a “bingo” or a “bonus.” You receive 50 bonus points in addition to the regular score of your word!
<h5>BLANKS</h5>
Two of the 100 tiles in English-language Scrabble are “blanks.” You may use them as any letter you wish. This makes them extremely valuable. When playing a blank, you will be shown a pop-up menu to designate which letter you would like the blank to become. The blank remains that same letter for the rest of the game. Blanks are worth zero points regardless of which letter you choose, but their flexibility more than makes up for it.
<h5>SWAPPING TILES</h5>
If you cannot find a word on your turn, you may use your turn to swap tiles instead. Select “Swap” from the menu and click on the tiles you want to swap. Those tiles will return to the bag, and you’ll receive new tiles in their place. This counts as your turn, scoring zero points, and your opponent will get the next move. But if you have very poor tiles (all vowels, all consonants, etc.), this can sometimes be your best option!
<h5>CHALLENGES</h5>
You can play using automatic word validation, where all of your moves are checked automatically against the <a href="https://playscrabble.com/dictionary">Scrabble dictionary</a> when you attempt to submit them.
You can also play using challenges.
If you play with challenges enabled, you will be able to make plays that are not valid words in the Scrabble dictionary. It will be up to your opponent to challenge the word. By the same token, your opponent will be able to do the same, and it will be up to you to challenge.
If you play an invalid word and your opponent challenges, your word will be removed from the board, you will receive zero points for your turn, and your opponent will be given the next move.
If you play a valid word and your opponent challenges your word, congratulations! You won the challenge. The result will now depend on the challenge rule used in your game.
If you’re playing with a “point” challenge rule, you will receive extra points for your move. If you’re playing with a “turn” challenge rule (also known as “double challenge”), your opponent will lose their turn, and you will be given the next move.
Let’s recap this from the opposite point of view now.
If you challenge a word your opponent plays and it is not in the dictionary, the word will be removed from the board, they will receive zero points for that turn, and it will immediately become your turn.
On the other hand, if you challenge a word your opponent plays and it IS a valid Scrabble word, you have lost the challenge. Either your opponent will gain more points for their move, or you will lose your turn, granting your opponent the next move.
<h5>TIME</h5>
There are several options for the amount of time you would like to spend playing your game. In each case, both you and your opponent will receive the same amount of time. For example, in a 3-minute game, you and your opponent will each have 3 minutes of time to spend on your moves. In a 45-minute game, both your and your opponent will each have 45 minutes of time. 
This timer does not reset after each move. It represents the total time you have to make all of your moves in the game, so you need to budget it wisely. Use your opponent’s turns to think about your next move without losing any time from your clock.
If you use up all of your time in a game, you will enter overtime, signified by the color red. As soon as you enter overtime, you will receive a penalty of ten points. For each full minute of overtime you spend, you will lose ten additional points. Your point penalty will display alongside your score. Once you have depleted your overtime, you will immediately forfeit the game, even if you have a higher score than your opponent.
<h5>TILE BAG</h5>
The tiles you have yet to see either on the board or on your rack are displayed on-screen at all times. You’ll see three numbers: Tile Bag, Vowels, and Consonants.
When the Tile Bag number drops below 7 tiles, you will no longer be permitted to exchange. When it drops to 0 tiles, you will no longer be given replenishment tiles after your plays.
All of the tiles you have yet to see are displayed individually in the window below, including the tiles on your opponent’s rack. The numbers for Vowels and Consonants remaining are pulled from this window. This is why the sum of these numbers will add up to 7 more tiles than the number shown for the Tile Bag for most of the game.
When the Tile Bag is empty, displaying “0” on screen, the contents of the window below it will be your opponent’s exact tiles. They will also be able to see your exact tiles at this juncture of the game. Use this information to guide your plays at the end of each game!
<h5>TURN HISTORY</h5>
The Turn History window shows the plays made in the current game, from most recent to least recent. Clicking any word in this window will reveal its definition.
<h5>END OF GAME</h5>
When all of the letters have been drawn, and one player empties their rack using their last letter/s, the game is over. The player with tiles remaining on their rack will subtract the value of those tiles from their score. This same value will then be added to the score of the player who used up their tiles.
<h5>SKIPPING AND RESIGNING</h5>
You may skip your turn at any time by clicking “Skip” and confirming your choice in the pop-up menu. In general, this is only done when a player cannot find any valid moves on a turn.
You may also resign your game at any time by clicking “Resign” and confirming your choice in the pop-up menu.
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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/scrabble-rules-official-scrabble-web-games-rules-play-scrabble/">The Official Rules of Scrabble</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

INTRODUCTION
Like all the best games, Scrabble is easy to learn but difficult to master. Still, If this is your first time playing Scrabble, you should familiarize yourself with the rules of the game.
Every game of Scrabble starts with the same set of tiles. In English, there are 100 tiles. Common letters like the E appear frequently, and less common letters like the Q and Z appear only once. These less common letters are worth more points to compensate.
Valid words include words of any part of speech, except for proper nouns, abbreviations, or words requiring hyphens or apostrophes. Keep in mind that there are words that look like proper nouns but are still in the dictionary for other reasons. For example, TEXAS is a valid Scrabble word, not because it’s a state, but because it’s the section of a steamboat that includes the crew’s quarters. 
BASIC GAMEPLAY
To begin each game, both players are given seven tiles from the tile bag. The website determines which player goes first at random.
If you’re going first, place a word on the board with at least one letter of that word touching the center star. You may play either across or down, as long as you touch the center star. Diagonal words are not permitted. Your word must be at least two letters in length.
Click “Submit” or hit Enter on the keyboard to submit your word and end your turn.
Once you play your word, you will be given new tiles from the tile bag to replace the ones you’ve used. Until the very end of the game, when there aren’t enough tiles left, you’ll always be given seven tiles to use. 
Your opponent will then get a turn to make a move of their own. The game will proceed with players alternating turns until the end of the game.
All letters played on each individual turn must be placed in only one row or column. 
You may play your letters alongside other letters on the board. In fact, it’s encouraged! But when you do this, ALL of the words formed by your play must be valid Scrabble words.
SCORING
Scores are automatically calculated when you enter a word. The score of your move is the sum of the letter values in each word formed by your play, plus additional points obtained from placing letters on Premium Squares.
There are four types of Premium Squares &#8211; Double Letter, Triple Letter, Double Word, and Triple Word Scores. The letter bonuses multiply the value of individual letters, and the word bonuses multiple the value of the full word. The center star is a Double Word square.
Once a Premium Square has been used, it may not be used again by connecting a new word to that square on a later turn. On later turns, the values of letters played on Premium Squares are simply the face value of that letter.
When you can, forming words that connect two different types of Premium Squares is a great way to rack up points. First, individual letter bonuses are calculated; then, word bonuses are calculated.
If you form multiple words on one play using the same Premium Square, you get the bonus for each word formed. 
Playing all seven of your tiles on a turn is known as a “bingo” or a “bonus.” You receive 50 bonus points in addition to the regular score of your word!
BLANKS
Two of the 100 tiles in English-language Scrabble are “blanks.” You may use them as any letter you wish. This makes them extremely valuable. When playing a blank, you will be shown a pop-up menu to designate which letter you would like the blank to become. The blank remains that same letter for the rest of the game. Blanks are worth zero points regardless of which letter you choose, but their flexibility more than makes up for it.
SWAPPING TILES
If you cannot find a word on your turn, you may use your turn to swap tiles instead. Select “Swap” from the menu and click on the tiles you want to swap. Those tiles will return to the bag, and you’ll receive new tiles in their place. This counts as your turn, scoring zero points, and your opponent will get the next move. But if you have very poor tiles (all vowels, all consonants, etc.), this can sometimes be your best option!
CHALLENGES
You can play using automatic word validation, where all of your moves are checked automatically against the Scrabble dictionary when you attempt to submit them.
You can also play using challenges.
If you play with challenges enabled, you will be able to make plays that are not valid words in the Scrabble dictionary. It will be up to your opponent to challenge the word. By the same token, your opponent will be able to do the same, and it will be up to you to challenge.
If you play an invalid word and your opponent challenges, your word will be removed from the board, you will receive zero points for your turn, and your opponent will be given the next move.
If you play a valid word and your opponent challenges your word, congratulations! You won the challenge. The result will now depend on the challenge rule used in your game.
If you’re playing with a “point” challenge rule, you will receive extra points for your move. If you’re playing with a “turn” challenge rule (also known as “double challenge”), your opponent will lose their turn, and you will be given the next move.
Let’s recap this from the opposite point of view now.
If you challenge a word your opponent plays and it is not in the dictionary, the word will be removed from the board, they will receive zero points for that turn, and it will immediately become your turn.
On the other hand, if you challenge a word your opponent plays and it IS a valid Scrabble word, you have lost the challenge. Either your opponent will gain more points for their move, or you will lose your turn, granting your opponent the next move.
TIME
There are several options for the amount of time you would like to spend playing your game. In each case, both you and your opponent will receive the same amount of time. For example, in a 3-minute game, you and your opponent will each have 3 minutes of time to spend on your moves. In a 45-minute game, both your and your opponent will each have 45 minutes of time. 
This timer does not reset after each move. It represents the total time you have to make all of your moves in the game, so you need to budget it wisely. Use your opponent’s turns to think about your next move without losing any time from your clock.
If you use up all of your time in a game, you will enter overtime, signified by the color red. As soon as you enter overtime, you will receive a penalty of ten points. For each full minute of overtime you spend, you will lose ten additional points. Your point penalty will display alongside your score. Once you have depleted your overtime, you will immediately forfeit the game, even if you have a higher score than your opponent.
TILE BAG
The tiles you have yet to see either on the board or on your rack are displayed on-screen at all times. You’ll see three numbers: Tile Bag, Vowels, and Consonants.
When the Tile Bag number drops below 7 tiles, you will no longer be permitted to exchange. When it drops to 0 tiles, you will no longer be given replenishment tiles after your plays.
All of the tiles you have yet to see are displayed individually in the window below, including the tiles on your opponent’s rack. The numbers for Vowels and Consonants remaining are pulled from this window. This is why the sum of these numbers will add up to 7 more tiles than the number shown for the Tile Bag for most of the game.
When the Tile Bag is empty, displaying “0” on screen, the contents of the window below it will be your opponent’s exact tiles. They will also be able to see your exact tiles at this juncture of the game. Use this information to guide your plays at the end of each game!
TURN HISTORY
The Turn History window shows the plays made in the current game, from most recent to least recent. Clicking any word in this window will reveal its definition.
END OF GAME
When all of the letters have been drawn, and one player empties their rack using their last letter/s, the game is over. The player with tiles remaining on their rack will subtract the value of those tiles from their score. This same value will then be added to the score of the player who used up their tiles.
SKIPPING AND RESIGNING
You may skip your turn at any time by clicking “Skip” and confirming your choice in the pop-up menu. In general, this is only done when a player cannot find any valid moves on a turn.
You may also resign your game at any time by clicking “Resign” and confirming your choice in the pop-up menu.
					
	The post The Official Rules of Scrabble appeared first on Scrabble.

The Official Rules of Scrabble

If you’re an experienced Scrabble GO player but haven’t yet played Scrabble on <a href="https://playscrabble.com/">PlayScrabble.com</a>, take heart &#8211; it’s still the same game you know and love.



But there are some differences between the two platforms that you’ll want to keep in mind as you dive into Scrabble games on PlayScrabble.com.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">TIMERS</h4>



The first difference you’ll notice right away is that the games on PlayScrabble.com are timed. You can choose between time settings and play a game with the duration of your choice.



Scrabble GO games are asynchronous, meaning they can take place with players playing at their own pace at different times of the day. Scrabble GO does offer Live PVP to allow for a real-time experience, but PlayScrabble.com is focused much more on the real-time version of Scrabble play.



When you notice your timer getting low, do your best to hurry and make your moves quickly. If you use up all your time, that’s it! Your opponent will be the winner, no matter what the score of the game is at the time.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">RATINGS</h4>



In Scrabble GO, you’ll notice that in your profile, you have a Scrabble Score that measures your activity in the app. You also have an Average Word Score that can be helpful to see how you stack up with your opponents.



On PlayScrabble.com, you’ll also have a numerical rating that tracks your performance over time. You can click on your name in-game to see this rating, as well as your average game score and average word score that you’re familiar with from Scrabble GO.



Remember, in Scrabble, there’s an element of luck that’s out of your control. Sometimes you’ll get a good run of the tiles and your rating will spike, and other times you’ll hit a rough patch and that number will drop. Over the long haul, you’ll get a good feeling for your rating level, and hopefully, as you continue to play, you’ll see that rating improve!



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">PHONIES</h4>



In Scrabble GO, if you attempt to play a word that isn’t in the dictionary, you’ll be given back your tiles and the game will ask you to try again. This setting is known as “void challenge” because all the words that end up being played are valid words. As a result, in these games, there’s no reason to include the ability to challenge, so the option to challenge is left “void.”



On PlayScrabble.com, void challenge is available for those who prefer it, but you’ll also be able to play with options that allow you to play words that aren’t in the dictionary, forcing your opponent to challenge them. You can also challenge words your opponents play that you don’t recognize. Some players really enjoy the cat-and-mouse game that bluffing adds to Scrabble. This is also known as playing a “phoney.”



Double challenge is particularly painful. If you challenge your opponent’s word, and it ends up being valid, you’ll lose your next turn, and your opponent will get a second play! However, if you’re right, and their play isn’t in the dictionary, they’ll be the ones to lose their turn. High risk, high reward!



Other challenge rules allow you to challenge with slightly less risk. For example, 5 point challenge allows you to challenge a word, knowing that if it’s in the dictionary, your opponent will gain 5 extra points. However, if you’re right, and their play is invalid, they’ll still lose their turn, just as they would in double challenge. It gives you much more incentive to challenge any word you’re not certain of.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">TILE BAG</h4>



The tile bag is a really useful feature in Scrabble GO, accessible via the menu in the lower right corner of the screen. Just tap the bag with the number on it to bring up the tiles that haven’t been played yet. The app keeps track of this for you as the game proceeds, and when there are no tiles left to draw, the tiles you see on that screen are the tiles your opponent holds on their rack.



On PlayScrabble.com, this information is even more accessible. The tile bag is available to you at all times on the upper right side of your screen. As the game progresses, make sure you’re taking a look at the information provided there! If there are many more consonants left than vowels, do your best to hang on to the vowels on your rack. If it’s the reverse, with a boatload of vowels remaining, make sure you hang on to a consonant or two. And if there are lots of blanks, esses, and high-scoring tiles left to be played, consider playing more tiles than you usually would to try and get them.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">TURN HISTORY</h4>



Just like the tile bag, the turn history is available in Scrabble GO as well. First, access the tile bag as described above, and then toggle the display from Tile Bag to Turn History. Tapping any of the words you see will bring up their definition.



On PlayScrabble.com, this information is also available on-screen to you at all times. And just like on your phone, you can click on any word to display its definition. Learning new words is a lot of fun!



The turn history window shares space with your chat window, so make sure to toggle the turn history on if you want to see all of the words that have been played. The color-coding of the letters will show you which bonus squares you used on that move.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">OTHER FEATURES</h4>



On PlayScrabble.com, you won’t find any boosters, collectible tiles, or minigames. These features are part of the reason I enjoy Scrabble GO so much. Every day, there are new events, tiles, and themed opponents to play.



But if you’re someone who just wants to play classic Scrabble without all the bells and whistles, PlayScrabble.com is for you.



On the other hand, PlayScrabble.com is chock full of other content for you to enjoy. If you’re reading this article, you probably know that you can find articles just like this one about all sorts of Scrabble topics on the playscrabble.com Blog. There’s a <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Scrabble forum</a> to chat about the game with your fellow players. Sometime soon, there will be a “Watch Live” tab where you can watch and interact with other Scrabble players on live streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube.



Between Scrabble GO and PlayScrabble.com, whether you only have a few minutes to play a couple of moves or you’re ready to play several games in one sitting, there are now two great options to play Scrabble. Hopefully, this article will help you get the most out of Scrabble Web!



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Do you want to discuss this article with the community? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#categories/blog-discussions" rel="noreferrer noopener">Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.</a></h6>
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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/guide-to-playscrabble-com-play-scrabble/">Guide to PlayScrabble.com</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

If you’re an experienced Scrabble GO player but haven’t yet played Scrabble on PlayScrabble.com, take heart &#8211; it’s still the same game you know and love.



But there are some differences between the two platforms that you’ll want to keep in mind as you dive into Scrabble games on PlayScrabble.com.



TIMERS



The first difference you’ll notice right away is that the games on PlayScrabble.com are timed. You can choose between time settings and play a game with the duration of your choice.



Scrabble GO games are asynchronous, meaning they can take place with players playing at their own pace at different times of the day. Scrabble GO does offer Live PVP to allow for a real-time experience, but PlayScrabble.com is focused much more on the real-time version of Scrabble play.



When you notice your timer getting low, do your best to hurry and make your moves quickly. If you use up all your time, that’s it! Your opponent will be the winner, no matter what the score of the game is at the time.



RATINGS



In Scrabble GO, you’ll notice that in your profile, you have a Scrabble Score that measures your activity in the app. You also have an Average Word Score that can be helpful to see how you stack up with your opponents.



On PlayScrabble.com, you’ll also have a numerical rating that tracks your performance over time. You can click on your name in-game to see this rating, as well as your average game score and average word score that you’re familiar with from Scrabble GO.



Remember, in Scrabble, there’s an element of luck that’s out of your control. Sometimes you’ll get a good run of the tiles and your rating will spike, and other times you’ll hit a rough patch and that number will drop. Over the long haul, you’ll get a good feeling for your rating level, and hopefully, as you continue to play, you’ll see that rating improve!



PHONIES



In Scrabble GO, if you attempt to play a word that isn’t in the dictionary, you’ll be given back your tiles and the game will ask you to try again. This setting is known as “void challenge” because all the words that end up being played are valid words. As a result, in these games, there’s no reason to include the ability to challenge, so the option to challenge is left “void.”



On PlayScrabble.com, void challenge is available for those who prefer it, but you’ll also be able to play with options that allow you to play words that aren’t in the dictionary, forcing your opponent to challenge them. You can also challenge words your opponents play that you don’t recognize. Some players really enjoy the cat-and-mouse game that bluffing adds to Scrabble. This is also known as playing a “phoney.”



Double challenge is particularly painful. If you challenge your opponent’s word, and it ends up being valid, you’ll lose your next turn, and your opponent will get a second play! However, if you’re right, and their play isn’t in the dictionary, they’ll be the ones to lose their turn. High risk, high reward!



Other challenge rules allow you to challenge with slightly less risk. For example, 5 point challenge allows you to challenge a word, knowing that if it’s in the dictionary, your opponent will gain 5 extra points. However, if you’re right, and their play is invalid, they’ll still lose their turn, just as they would in double challenge. It gives you much more incentive to challenge any word you’re not certain of.



TILE BAG



The tile bag is a really useful feature in Scrabble GO, accessible via the menu in the lower right corner of the screen. Just tap the bag with the number on it to bring up the tiles that haven’t been played yet. The app keeps track of this for you as the game proceeds, and when there are no tiles left to draw, the tiles you see on that screen are the tiles your opponent holds on their rack.



On PlayScrabble.com, this information is even more accessible. The tile bag is available to you at all times on the upper right side of your screen. As the game progresses, make sure you’re taking a look at the information provided there! If there are many more consonants left than vowels, do your best to hang on to the vowels on your rack. If it’s the reverse, with a boatload of vowels remaining, make sure you hang on to a consonant or two. And if there are lots of blanks, esses, and high-scoring tiles left to be played, consider playing more tiles than you usually would to try and get them.



TURN HISTORY



Just like the tile bag, the turn history is available in Scrabble GO as well. First, access the tile bag as described above, and then toggle the display from Tile Bag to Turn History. Tapping any of the words you see will bring up their definition.



On PlayScrabble.com, this information is also available on-screen to you at all times. And just like on your phone, you can click on any word to display its definition. Learning new words is a lot of fun!



The turn history window shares space with your chat window, so make sure to toggle the turn history on if you want to see all of the words that have been played. The color-coding of the letters will show you which bonus squares you used on that move.



OTHER FEATURES



On PlayScrabble.com, you won’t find any boosters, collectible tiles, or minigames. These features are part of the reason I enjoy Scrabble GO so much. Every day, there are new events, tiles, and themed opponents to play.



But if you’re someone who just wants to play classic Scrabble without all the bells and whistles, PlayScrabble.com is for you.



On the other hand, PlayScrabble.com is chock full of other content for you to enjoy. If you’re reading this article, you probably know that you can find articles just like this one about all sorts of Scrabble topics on the playscrabble.com Blog. There’s a Scrabble forum to chat about the game with your fellow players. Sometime soon, there will be a “Watch Live” tab where you can watch and interact with other Scrabble players on live streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube.



Between Scrabble GO and PlayScrabble.com, whether you only have a few minutes to play a couple of moves or you’re ready to play several games in one sitting, there are now two great options to play Scrabble. Hopefully, this article will help you get the most out of Scrabble Web!



Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.
					
	The post Guide to PlayScrabble.com appeared first on Scrabble.

Guide to PlayScrabble.com

<a href="https://playscrabble.com/">Playing Scrabble</a> is a challenge no matter how much experience you have. Sometimes, no matter how much time you’re using to play, it still doesn’t feel like enough.
That’s why we have overtime!
Overtime is extra time available for you to use after the main game timer has expired. However, there’s a catch. Entering overtime will result in a score penalty of 10 points, with an additional 10 point penalty for each extra minute of overtime you need after the first.
Overtime doesn’t last forever. If you use up all of your overtime, the game is over, and your opponent will win the game!
&nbsp;
<h4>DEFAULT TIME SETTINGS</h4>
The default game settings are as follows:
3 Minutes + 1 Minute Overtime
15 Minutes + 5 Minutes Overtime
25 Minutes + 10 Minutes Overtime
45 Minutes + 15 Minutes Overtime
&nbsp;
These time durations represent the time allotted for each player to complete the full game, not just a single turn.
In other words, in a 3 minute game with 1 minute of overtime, both players will have three minutes each to complete all of their moves in the game before incurring an overtime penalty.
You can budget your time in any way you choose. For example, in a 45-minute game, if you feel like it, you can take 15 minutes to think about your first move, and you’ll have 30 minutes remaining to make the rest of your moves.
Your clock only runs when it’s your turn. Using your opponent’s turn to think about your next move is a great way to avoid using as much time from your own clock.
&nbsp;
<h4>OVERTIME PENALTIES</h4>
Once you use up your game timer, you’ll enter overtime and receive a penalty of 10 points. This means that 10 points will be deducted from your current score.
Your timer will turn red to indicate that you’ve entered overtime, and your total number of penalties will appear near your score in red as well.
<img decoding="async" class="wp-image-960 size-full" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/OT1.png" alt="" width="448" height="149" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/OT1.png 448w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/OT1-300x100.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px" />
Be careful &#8211; you’ll receive additional 10 point penalties for each extra minute of overtime you need after the first.
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-961" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/OT2.png" alt="" width="441" height="148" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/OT2.png 441w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/OT2-300x101.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 441px) 100vw, 441px" />
And once your overtime is fully depleted, you’ll immediately lose the game, no matter how many points you’re ahead!
&nbsp;
<h4>POSTGAME</h4>
If you use up all of your overtime, you’ll lose the game no matter what.
But sometimes, calculating the margin of victory will still be necessary &#8211; for example, if you’re competing in a tournament format, where the margin of victory is used as a tiebreaker.
In addition to forfeiting your game, using up all of your overtime will result in a 100 point penalty to your score. If your score is still higher than your opponent’s after this penalty, the winning player’s score will increase to one point higher than yours. These situations are extremely rare.
The bottom line is &#8211; when you see your timer turn red, you’re in overtime, and you should play as fast as you can or risk losing the game!
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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/timer-overtime-rules/">Timer &#038; Overtime Rules | Play Scrabble</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

Playing Scrabble is a challenge no matter how much experience you have. Sometimes, no matter how much time you’re using to play, it still doesn’t feel like enough.
That’s why we have overtime!
Overtime is extra time available for you to use after the main game timer has expired. However, there’s a catch. Entering overtime will result in a score penalty of 10 points, with an additional 10 point penalty for each extra minute of overtime you need after the first.
Overtime doesn’t last forever. If you use up all of your overtime, the game is over, and your opponent will win the game!
&nbsp;
DEFAULT TIME SETTINGS
The default game settings are as follows:
3 Minutes + 1 Minute Overtime
15 Minutes + 5 Minutes Overtime
25 Minutes + 10 Minutes Overtime
45 Minutes + 15 Minutes Overtime
&nbsp;
These time durations represent the time allotted for each player to complete the full game, not just a single turn.
In other words, in a 3 minute game with 1 minute of overtime, both players will have three minutes each to complete all of their moves in the game before incurring an overtime penalty.
You can budget your time in any way you choose. For example, in a 45-minute game, if you feel like it, you can take 15 minutes to think about your first move, and you’ll have 30 minutes remaining to make the rest of your moves.
Your clock only runs when it’s your turn. Using your opponent’s turn to think about your next move is a great way to avoid using as much time from your own clock.
&nbsp;
OVERTIME PENALTIES
Once you use up your game timer, you’ll enter overtime and receive a penalty of 10 points. This means that 10 points will be deducted from your current score.
Your timer will turn red to indicate that you’ve entered overtime, and your total number of penalties will appear near your score in red as well.

Be careful &#8211; you’ll receive additional 10 point penalties for each extra minute of overtime you need after the first.

And once your overtime is fully depleted, you’ll immediately lose the game, no matter how many points you’re ahead!
&nbsp;
POSTGAME
If you use up all of your overtime, you’ll lose the game no matter what.
But sometimes, calculating the margin of victory will still be necessary &#8211; for example, if you’re competing in a tournament format, where the margin of victory is used as a tiebreaker.
In addition to forfeiting your game, using up all of your overtime will result in a 100 point penalty to your score. If your score is still higher than your opponent’s after this penalty, the winning player’s score will increase to one point higher than yours. These situations are extremely rare.
The bottom line is &#8211; when you see your timer turn red, you’re in overtime, and you should play as fast as you can or risk losing the game!
					
	The post Timer &#038; Overtime Rules | Play Scrabble appeared first on Scrabble.

Timer & Overtime Rules | Play Scrabble

Have you ever noticed that it feels like your brain is getting a great workout when you&#8217;re playing Scrabble? That&#8217;s because it&#8217;s true. There aren&#8217;t many games that give you a total brain workout the way Scrabble does.
Are you looking for a game that will keep your brain sharp and slow the effects of aging? Read on to learn why Scrabble is the perfect choice.
<h4>Your Brain on Scrabble</h4>
Scrabble is a game that demands skills from across the cognitive spectrum.
First and foremost, Scrabble is a word game&#8230;but it also functions as a booster to your recall as well as your ability to retain information. Scrabble&#8217;s gameplay emphasizes linguistic processing and word recognition to such a degree that you&#8217;re guaranteed to encounter words you&#8217;ve never seen before. 
And when you do, it&#8217;ll be those same short, and long-term memory skills that come into the picture. 
Seasoned Scrabble players may even study word lists to help improve their performance in Scrabble. This expands their memory capabilities even further. There are lots of word games out there that activate these parts of your brain. 
But we&#8217;re just scratching the surface of Scrabble&#8217;s brain-boosting powers!
<h4>Wait&#8230;Is Scrabble a Math Game Too?</h4>
In addition to Scrabble&#8217;s linguistic and memory elements, there are mathematical components to the game that you might not appreciate at first glance. Would you believe that many of the world&#8217;s best Scrabble players have backgrounds not as writers or editors &#8211; but in mathematics?
That&#8217;s because Scrabble is a math game, too.
First of all, in Scrabble, you have to count up your plays using addition and multiplication (at least when you&#8217;re playing on a physical board). But there&#8217;s more than basic mathematics at play. 
For experienced players, Scrabble is also all about probabilities and playing the odds.
The Tile Bag is a great example of this. You can calculate your odds of drawing a certain letter, your odds of your opponent having certain letters, the imbalances between consonants and vowels, and more.
That&#8217;s a lot of math!
Scrabble also tests your understanding of geometry. The formation of words tends to make angles in a variety of configurations. You&#8217;ll see that Scrabble will keep your spatial reasoning faculties just as sharp as your language processing abilities.
<h4>Critical Thinking</h4>
We&#8217;ve established that Scrabble tests your language processing, memory, mathematics, and spatial reasoning skills.
But Scrabble is also an incredibly deep strategic game. Just finding the words is only one piece of the puzzle that is Scrabble! Figuring out what to do with those words once you see them is an amazing brain workout as well.
Scrabble strategy ranges from simplistic to mind-bending complexity. On some moves, you&#8217;ll be able to score 60 points with QI or ZA. 
That&#8217;s not too tricky.
On other moves, you&#8217;ll have a variety of options, none of which stand out. To select between them, you&#8217;ll need to develop a strategic objective. You&#8217;ll think critically about the score of the game, the state of the board and which bonus squares are available, the importance of key letters, and the tendencies of your opponent.
The richness of an actionable Scrabble strategy ensures that there&#8217;s always more to learn no matter how experienced a player you are. Trust me on this one &#8211; I&#8217;m still learning about the game myself!
And that makes for a pretty amazing brain workout.
<h4>The Science Agrees</h4>
But don&#8217;t just take my word for it (pun intended).
A slew of scientific studies confirms that Scrabble is indeed a great brain game. Researchers found that skilled Scrabble players use <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945215001069" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more parts of their brains</a>.
Meaning that every game requires each player to perform deep-thought computations such as word recognition, memory, and visual perception than normal people.  Scrabble has also been shown to slow the effects of aging and protect against degenerative diseases like Alzheimer&#8217;s Disease. Playing word games like Scrabble can even <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100111155114.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">compensate for lack of formal education regarding memory and protection against dementia.</a>
One of the best ways to stave off cognitive decline is to make an effort to learn new things, no matter your age.
In Scrabble, learning new words is a core part of the game. Playing other experienced players is a wonderful way to pick up some new words and new strategies and ideas.
<h4>Forging Friendships</h4>
Lastly, another important way to keep your brain healthy is to socialize and form friendships with other people. <a href="https://playscrabble.com/">Playing Scrabble</a> is a great way to create friendships with Scrabble players across generational and cultural boundaries.
Theoretically, you could experience all of the above benefits of Scrabble while playing by yourself or against a computer. But adding in the social component adds even more benefit for your brain.
Combine those social benefits with all of the rest that Scrabble offers, and it&#8217;s hard to think of a better brain game!
<h6>Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/scrabble-a-great-brain-game-for-adults/">Scrabble: A Great Brain Game For Adults</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

Have you ever noticed that it feels like your brain is getting a great workout when you&#8217;re playing Scrabble? That&#8217;s because it&#8217;s true. There aren&#8217;t many games that give you a total brain workout the way Scrabble does.
Are you looking for a game that will keep your brain sharp and slow the effects of aging? Read on to learn why Scrabble is the perfect choice.
Your Brain on Scrabble
Scrabble is a game that demands skills from across the cognitive spectrum.
First and foremost, Scrabble is a word game&#8230;but it also functions as a booster to your recall as well as your ability to retain information. Scrabble&#8217;s gameplay emphasizes linguistic processing and word recognition to such a degree that you&#8217;re guaranteed to encounter words you&#8217;ve never seen before. 
And when you do, it&#8217;ll be those same short, and long-term memory skills that come into the picture. 
Seasoned Scrabble players may even study word lists to help improve their performance in Scrabble. This expands their memory capabilities even further. There are lots of word games out there that activate these parts of your brain. 
But we&#8217;re just scratching the surface of Scrabble&#8217;s brain-boosting powers!
Wait&#8230;Is Scrabble a Math Game Too?
In addition to Scrabble&#8217;s linguistic and memory elements, there are mathematical components to the game that you might not appreciate at first glance. Would you believe that many of the world&#8217;s best Scrabble players have backgrounds not as writers or editors &#8211; but in mathematics?
That&#8217;s because Scrabble is a math game, too.
First of all, in Scrabble, you have to count up your plays using addition and multiplication (at least when you&#8217;re playing on a physical board). But there&#8217;s more than basic mathematics at play. 
For experienced players, Scrabble is also all about probabilities and playing the odds.
The Tile Bag is a great example of this. You can calculate your odds of drawing a certain letter, your odds of your opponent having certain letters, the imbalances between consonants and vowels, and more.
That&#8217;s a lot of math!
Scrabble also tests your understanding of geometry. The formation of words tends to make angles in a variety of configurations. You&#8217;ll see that Scrabble will keep your spatial reasoning faculties just as sharp as your language processing abilities.
Critical Thinking
We&#8217;ve established that Scrabble tests your language processing, memory, mathematics, and spatial reasoning skills.
But Scrabble is also an incredibly deep strategic game. Just finding the words is only one piece of the puzzle that is Scrabble! Figuring out what to do with those words once you see them is an amazing brain workout as well.
Scrabble strategy ranges from simplistic to mind-bending complexity. On some moves, you&#8217;ll be able to score 60 points with QI or ZA. 
That&#8217;s not too tricky.
On other moves, you&#8217;ll have a variety of options, none of which stand out. To select between them, you&#8217;ll need to develop a strategic objective. You&#8217;ll think critically about the score of the game, the state of the board and which bonus squares are available, the importance of key letters, and the tendencies of your opponent.
The richness of an actionable Scrabble strategy ensures that there&#8217;s always more to learn no matter how experienced a player you are. Trust me on this one &#8211; I&#8217;m still learning about the game myself!
And that makes for a pretty amazing brain workout.
The Science Agrees
But don&#8217;t just take my word for it (pun intended).
A slew of scientific studies confirms that Scrabble is indeed a great brain game. Researchers found that skilled Scrabble players use more parts of their brains.
Meaning that every game requires each player to perform deep-thought computations such as word recognition, memory, and visual perception than normal people.  Scrabble has also been shown to slow the effects of aging and protect against degenerative diseases like Alzheimer&#8217;s Disease. Playing word games like Scrabble can even compensate for lack of formal education regarding memory and protection against dementia.
One of the best ways to stave off cognitive decline is to make an effort to learn new things, no matter your age.
In Scrabble, learning new words is a core part of the game. Playing other experienced players is a wonderful way to pick up some new words and new strategies and ideas.
Forging Friendships
Lastly, another important way to keep your brain healthy is to socialize and form friendships with other people. Playing Scrabble is a great way to create friendships with Scrabble players across generational and cultural boundaries.
Theoretically, you could experience all of the above benefits of Scrabble while playing by yourself or against a computer. But adding in the social component adds even more benefit for your brain.
Combine those social benefits with all of the rest that Scrabble offers, and it&#8217;s hard to think of a better brain game!
Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.					
	The post Scrabble: A Great Brain Game For Adults appeared first on Scrabble.

Scrabble: A Great Brain Game For Adults

Hello, Scrabble fans!
In this<a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://playscrabble.com/news-blog/these-are-the-best-scrabble-players-in-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> article</a>, I introduced you to some of the world’s strongest Scrabble players, including Nigel Richards, Adam Logan, David Eldar, and Wellington Jighere.
Let’s continue on with Volume 2 of this series, including our first players from the United States and Thailand!
<h4>PANUPOL SUJJAYAKORN</h4>
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-926 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Panupol.jpeg" alt="" width="382" height="512" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Panupol.jpeg 382w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Panupol-224x300.jpeg 224w" sizes="(max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px" />
Panupol Sujjayakorn is a legend of the game of Scrabble. He won the World Scrabble Championship in 2003, when he was only 18 years old.
Panupol hails from Thailand, which has long been one of the top Scrabble playing countries in the world. His 2003 victory marked the first time that a world champion was crowned from a country for which English is not the first language.
In fact, many elite Scrabble players from Thailand speak only conversational English. Despite this disadvantage, Panupol’s knowledge of the <a href="https://playscrabble.com/dictionary">Scrabble dictionary</a> is encyclopedic. It’s not uncommon for players from Thailand to be introduced to Scrabble as a way to learn English and wind up embracing the strategic depth of the game instead. But Panupol’s skills go far beyond dictionary command. He’s also known as an incredibly precise tactician and master of the endgame.
It’s been a while since Panupol and other elite players from Thailand came to the United States to compete in the North American Scrabble Championship, which he very nearly won in 2005. In part, this is because of Thailand’s switch to the international Collins dictionary. Still, I’ve had the occasion to play him a number of times both before and after Thailand’s dictionary switch, including a game in which he scored 600 points against me!
Gracious in both victory and defeat, Panupol truly exhibits a champion’s temperament. Among his countrymen, only the now-retired Pakorn Nemitrmansuk, who is also a former World Champion, has a resume that rivals Panupol’s achievements. For a country that churns out expert Scrabble players the way Thailand does, that’s saying a lot.
<h4>JESSE DAY</h4>
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-928 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/jesse-day.png" alt="" width="424" height="424" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/jesse-day.png 424w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/jesse-day-300x300.png 300w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/jesse-day-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px" />
Jesse Day has perhaps the most impressive resume in overseas play of any American-born player. In both 2018 and 2019, Jesse came up just short against Nigel Richards in the finals of the World Championships in the UK and India, respectively, including an incredible seven-game match in 2019 where Nigel barely prevailed 4 games to 3. He also battled Nigel in the finals of Thailand’s national championship, the King’s Cup, that same year, with Nigel again proving victorious. Jesse’s games against Nigel are some of the most entertaining and best exhibitions of Scrabble skill ever displayed.
On the home front, Jesse won the North American Scrabble Championship in 2019, and was the runner-up in 2015. He holds the Grandmaster title bestowed by NASPA and has scores of tournament wins in regional events. Jesse is one of the most widely-traveled people I know, and speaks six languages; he’s also incredibly well rounded, with interests ranging from the NBA, ultimate frisbee, and trivia.
Jesse’s play style is marked by creativity and flexibility. No lead is too big or deficit too steep to dissuade Jesse from thinking carefully and deeply about a move. As a result, Jesse is always a threat to make a huge comeback in a game. I’ve played Jesse a number of times, and no lead ever feels safe. As with many of the other players in this series, Jesse is nearly completely unflappable, with the ideal competitive mindset to withstand the swings of luck inherent in Scrabble tournament play.
Sometimes, Jesse’s tendency to think deeply about his moves gets him into trouble with the clock. But he’s perfectly capable of playing well under time pressure, and when he plays at a quick pace from the start, watch out. It seems like when Jesse is in the zone, only Nigel Richards is capable of beating him. And given that Nigel is the undisputed greatest of all time, that’s a nice place to be.
<h4>AUSTIN SHIN</h4>
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-929 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/austin-shin.jpeg" alt="" width="362" height="512" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/austin-shin.jpeg 362w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/austin-shin-212x300.jpeg 212w" sizes="(max-width: 362px) 100vw, 362px" />
Austin Shin is the only player to have ever won championships in both North America and the UK, a feat which he accomplished in the same year (2017). Austin very nearly won the North American Championship again in 2019, when he placed second behind Jesse Day.
Austin started playing Scrabble at an incredibly early age, and was the runner-up at the inaugural World Youth Scrabble Championships to David Eldar, who was featured in Volume 1 of this series. After that promising beginning, he’s become an even better player, over time, to the point where he is now one of the world’s strongest. 
Austin’s playing style is best summed up with his own trademark catchphrase: “Scoring Never Stops.” Austin really does have a knack for scoring, managing to wring solid scores from weak tiles and huge scores from good ones. His board vision and play-finding abilities are exceptional, and he’s known as an extremely strong blitz player. But his catchphrase encapsulates more than just his scoring ability &#8211; it reflects his relentless approach to each game and to each tournament he plays.
Austin relocated to the US after marrying fellow Scrabble player Lindsay Shin (link). He and his family organize one of the premier events on the live tournament circuit in North America, the Crescent City Cup in New Orleans, Louisiana; he’s a regular contributor to this blog (link); and he and David Eldar led an initiative called Tablet Scrabble to combine the benefits of over-the-board and digital Scrabble by using tablet computers.
Austin was also the winner of the online NASPA Tournament of Champions, played on Scrabble GO. In the finals of that event, he was down 3 games to 0 before coming back to win 4-3. Scoring never stops, indeed. Nobody will be surprised if he eventually adds a World Championship to his trophy case.
<h6>Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/the-best-scrabble-players-in-the-world-vol-2/">The Best Scrabble Players in the World, Vol. 2</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

Hello, Scrabble fans!
In this article, I introduced you to some of the world’s strongest Scrabble players, including Nigel Richards, Adam Logan, David Eldar, and Wellington Jighere.
Let’s continue on with Volume 2 of this series, including our first players from the United States and Thailand!
PANUPOL SUJJAYAKORN

Panupol Sujjayakorn is a legend of the game of Scrabble. He won the World Scrabble Championship in 2003, when he was only 18 years old.
Panupol hails from Thailand, which has long been one of the top Scrabble playing countries in the world. His 2003 victory marked the first time that a world champion was crowned from a country for which English is not the first language.
In fact, many elite Scrabble players from Thailand speak only conversational English. Despite this disadvantage, Panupol’s knowledge of the Scrabble dictionary is encyclopedic. It’s not uncommon for players from Thailand to be introduced to Scrabble as a way to learn English and wind up embracing the strategic depth of the game instead. But Panupol’s skills go far beyond dictionary command. He’s also known as an incredibly precise tactician and master of the endgame.
It’s been a while since Panupol and other elite players from Thailand came to the United States to compete in the North American Scrabble Championship, which he very nearly won in 2005. In part, this is because of Thailand’s switch to the international Collins dictionary. Still, I’ve had the occasion to play him a number of times both before and after Thailand’s dictionary switch, including a game in which he scored 600 points against me!
Gracious in both victory and defeat, Panupol truly exhibits a champion’s temperament. Among his countrymen, only the now-retired Pakorn Nemitrmansuk, who is also a former World Champion, has a resume that rivals Panupol’s achievements. For a country that churns out expert Scrabble players the way Thailand does, that’s saying a lot.
JESSE DAY

Jesse Day has perhaps the most impressive resume in overseas play of any American-born player. In both 2018 and 2019, Jesse came up just short against Nigel Richards in the finals of the World Championships in the UK and India, respectively, including an incredible seven-game match in 2019 where Nigel barely prevailed 4 games to 3. He also battled Nigel in the finals of Thailand’s national championship, the King’s Cup, that same year, with Nigel again proving victorious. Jesse’s games against Nigel are some of the most entertaining and best exhibitions of Scrabble skill ever displayed.
On the home front, Jesse won the North American Scrabble Championship in 2019, and was the runner-up in 2015. He holds the Grandmaster title bestowed by NASPA and has scores of tournament wins in regional events. Jesse is one of the most widely-traveled people I know, and speaks six languages; he’s also incredibly well rounded, with interests ranging from the NBA, ultimate frisbee, and trivia.
Jesse’s play style is marked by creativity and flexibility. No lead is too big or deficit too steep to dissuade Jesse from thinking carefully and deeply about a move. As a result, Jesse is always a threat to make a huge comeback in a game. I’ve played Jesse a number of times, and no lead ever feels safe. As with many of the other players in this series, Jesse is nearly completely unflappable, with the ideal competitive mindset to withstand the swings of luck inherent in Scrabble tournament play.
Sometimes, Jesse’s tendency to think deeply about his moves gets him into trouble with the clock. But he’s perfectly capable of playing well under time pressure, and when he plays at a quick pace from the start, watch out. It seems like when Jesse is in the zone, only Nigel Richards is capable of beating him. And given that Nigel is the undisputed greatest of all time, that’s a nice place to be.
AUSTIN SHIN

Austin Shin is the only player to have ever won championships in both North America and the UK, a feat which he accomplished in the same year (2017). Austin very nearly won the North American Championship again in 2019, when he placed second behind Jesse Day.
Austin started playing Scrabble at an incredibly early age, and was the runner-up at the inaugural World Youth Scrabble Championships to David Eldar, who was featured in Volume 1 of this series. After that promising beginning, he’s become an even better player, over time, to the point where he is now one of the world’s strongest. 
Austin’s playing style is best summed up with his own trademark catchphrase: “Scoring Never Stops.” Austin really does have a knack for scoring, managing to wring solid scores from weak tiles and huge scores from good ones. His board vision and play-finding abilities are exceptional, and he’s known as an extremely strong blitz player. But his catchphrase encapsulates more than just his scoring ability &#8211; it reflects his relentless approach to each game and to each tournament he plays.
Austin relocated to the US after marrying fellow Scrabble player Lindsay Shin (link). He and his family organize one of the premier events on the live tournament circuit in North America, the Crescent City Cup in New Orleans, Louisiana; he’s a regular contributor to this blog (link); and he and David Eldar led an initiative called Tablet Scrabble to combine the benefits of over-the-board and digital Scrabble by using tablet computers.
Austin was also the winner of the online NASPA Tournament of Champions, played on Scrabble GO. In the finals of that event, he was down 3 games to 0 before coming back to win 4-3. Scoring never stops, indeed. Nobody will be surprised if he eventually adds a World Championship to his trophy case.
Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.					
	The post The Best Scrabble Players in the World, Vol. 2 appeared first on Scrabble.

The Best Scrabble Players in the World, Vol. 2

Whether you’re a newcomer or a Top Worldwide Scrabble Player, you’ll find something to enjoy in each game. I love that Scrabble is a blast to play regardless of your skill level.

&nbsp;

With that being said, the best players in the world have attained a level of Scrabble mastery that is truly incredible. Watching them compete is a pleasure for any Scrabble fan.

&nbsp;

In this article, I’d like to introduce you to some of the top worldwide Scrabble players. This isn’t an exhaustive list, and it’s in no particular order, but all of these players are surely among the world’s best.

&nbsp;

<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NIGEL RICHARDS</h4>

&nbsp;

<div class="wp-block-image" style="text-align: center;">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-989 size-medium" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/nigel-300x225.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/nigel-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/nigel.jpeg 512w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
<figcaption>Nigel Richards</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>

&nbsp;

Quite simply, by any standard, Nigel is the GOAT: the greatest of all time. Hailing from Malaysia, Nigel has won the World Scrabble Championship five times. No other player has won more than once. He’s won a staggering array of national-level titles: five in North America, twelve in Singapore, fifteen in Thailand, and many others around the globe.

&nbsp;

As if those accomplishments in English-language Scrabble weren’t enough, Nigel stunned the world by learning the entire French <a href="https://playscrabble.com/dictionary">Scrabble dictionary</a> in a matter of weeks and winning the French National Scrabble Championship in 2015. He then repeated this remarkable feat in 2018. Most astoundingly, he did this while barely being able to speak any French!

&nbsp;

Playing great Scrabble requires many different skills: learning words, unscrambling them, finding places to play them, choosing between different options. Somehow, Nigel is the best at each and every one of these.

&nbsp;

Nobody has a better memory or more ability to find and play words of seemingly any length, and his vision of the board is unmatched. Nigel routinely makes strategic plays that boggle the minds of even other elite players, who eventually unravel the logic behind them in awe. His ability to solve endgame positions, which require an approach similar to chess, is flawless.

&nbsp;

Still, to me, it’s Nigel’s temperament that’s always flabbergasted me most. Elite Scrabble players pour so much of themselves into the game. It’s only natural that wins would be exciting, and losses deflating.

&nbsp;

But one anecdote from the must-read Scrabble book Word Freak says it best. When another player tells Nigel that he can never tell whether Nigel has just won or lost a game by his expression, Nigel answers, “That’s because I don’t care.”

&nbsp;

Easy to say. But Nigel really and truly means it. I’ve faced Nigel in live play several times, and no matter how lucky I get, he seems completely unfazed and is always gracious.

&nbsp;

Although I’ve found Nigel to be easygoing and fun to chat with one-on-one, he’s notoriously uninterested in interviews or media attention, preferring to stay out of the spotlight whenever possible. He’d rather play another game than talking about the previous one. Fortunately for him, more so than any other player, his accomplishments speak for themselves.

&nbsp;

<h4 class="wp-block-heading">ADAM LOGAN</h4>

&nbsp;

<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized">
<figure id="attachment_990" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-990" style="width: 226px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-990 size-medium" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/adam-226x300.jpeg" alt="" width="226" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/adam-226x300.jpeg 226w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/adam.jpeg 385w" sizes="(max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-990" class="wp-caption-text">Adam Logan at the BAT tourney &#8211; April, 2007 &#8211; He wonthe Premier Division</figcaption></figure>
<figcaption>Adam Logan at the BAT tourney &#8211; April 2007 &#8211; He won the Premier Division</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>

&nbsp;

A former world champion and two-time North American champion, Adam Logan is one of the strongest players in the world. He’s Canada’s top player, with a whopping five Canadian Scrabble Championships to his name. Many people believe that having a background in English with a strong working vocabulary is the best predictor of Scrabble skills. In fact, at the elite level, you’re much likelier to encounter mathematicians like Adam.

&nbsp;

In tournament Scrabble, players are given 25 minutes to make all of their moves in each game. Making moves quickly can be a double-edged sword. You might force your opponent into time pressure, but you’re also more likely to make mistakes of your own.

&nbsp;

Adam is a blindingly fast player. He’s able to play extremely precise Scrabble while using hardly any time on his clock. In my experience playing against Adam, I always feel that I’m on the verge of running out of time. He makes his moves in seconds, while I take minutes to think. I’ve heard stories of his incredible prowess in blitz Scrabble, where players have only a handful of minutes on their clock instead of the full 25. It’s no surprise that many consider Adam to be the best blitz player in the world.

&nbsp;

I’ve found Adam to be kind and personable, and other players from Ottawa speak reverently about him. Much like Nigel, he much prefers to play the game than talk about it. Adam is quiet, but his calm, friendly demeanor and prodigious Scrabble abilities ensure that when he speaks, everyone listens.

&nbsp;

<h4 class="wp-block-heading">DAVID ELDAR</h4>

&nbsp;

<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-992 size-full" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/david.jpeg" alt="" width="248" height="248" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/david.jpeg 248w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/david-150x150.jpeg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px" />
<figcaption>David Eldar</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>

&nbsp;

A former world champion, twice national champion in his native Australia, and a former North American champion to boot, David Eldar is easily in the top handful of Scrabble players worldwide. His talent was evident from an early age: he was the winner of the inaugural World Youth Scrabble Championship in 2006, and became the youngest player ever to be ranked in Australia’s top 10 players.

&nbsp;

David’s battles with Nigel Richards are some of the most entertaining Scrabble games ever played. Many players are intimidated by Nigel’s incredible abilities, and end up playing worse than usual due to nerves or fear. On the other hand, David seems to play at his absolute best against Nigel. In 2017, when David won the World Scrabble Championship, he had to go through Nigel in the quarterfinals to do it. In 2019, the two met in the finals once again, with Nigel coming out on top.

&nbsp;

Personally, I’ve faced off against David in a great many online games, but only one live game, something I hope to rectify when international play can resume in earnest. He’s an incredibly difficult opponent to face, constantly coming up with clever ideas and almost never making a serious mistake. In addition to his dominance in Scrabble, David has also enjoyed a long, successful career in poker.

&nbsp;

In contrast to other elite players, David is more than comfortable speaking his mind and has a razor-sharp sense of humor. Every now and then he provides live commentary for Scrabble events, which is unfailingly hilarious. For a while, he was streaming online Scrabble gameplay at <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/deldar182" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.twitch.tv/deldar182</a> &#8211; toss him a follow so that you don’t miss it when he starts up again.

&nbsp;

<h4 class="wp-block-heading">WELLINGTON JIGHERE</h4>

&nbsp;

<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-993 size-medium" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/wellington-300x300.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/wellington-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/wellington-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/wellington.jpeg 512w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
<figcaption>Wellington Jighere</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>

&nbsp;

Wellington is a former World Scrabble Champion, African Champion, and Nigerian National Champion. He’s commonly recognized as the strongest player from the African continent. This is no mean feat, as Nigeria, in particular, has become one of the strongest Scrabble playing countries in the world. With Wellington at the vanguard, Nigeria has even achieved the top overall ranking of any country in the world in recent years.

&nbsp;

Wellington was the first African player to become World Champion in 2015. He finished 3rd in his first attempt in 2007, demonstrating immediately that he had the potential to win it all, and also finished 4th in 2017.

&nbsp;

Wellington is admired not only in Nigeria, but throughout the world both for his extremely high level of Scrabble skill, but for his soft-spoken, thoughtful demeanor. He’s also active in the Nigerian Scrabble community and designed his own customized Scrabble board, the WELLYBoard. I have to add that he’s also a sharp dresser, with some of the most stylish hats in the game.

&nbsp;

I’ve never played Wellington over the board, but I greatly look forward to meeting this accomplished champion in person sometime soon.

&nbsp;

<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>

&nbsp;

<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Do you want to discuss this article with the community? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#categories/blog-discussions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.</a></h6>
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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/these-are-the-best-scrabble-players-in-the-world/">These Are the Best Scrabble Players in the World</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

Whether you’re a newcomer or a Top Worldwide Scrabble Player, you’ll find something to enjoy in each game. I love that Scrabble is a blast to play regardless of your skill level.

&nbsp;

With that being said, the best players in the world have attained a level of Scrabble mastery that is truly incredible. Watching them compete is a pleasure for any Scrabble fan.

&nbsp;

In this article, I’d like to introduce you to some of the top worldwide Scrabble players. This isn’t an exhaustive list, and it’s in no particular order, but all of these players are surely among the world’s best.

&nbsp;

NIGEL RICHARDS

&nbsp;



Nigel Richards



&nbsp;

Quite simply, by any standard, Nigel is the GOAT: the greatest of all time. Hailing from Malaysia, Nigel has won the World Scrabble Championship five times. No other player has won more than once. He’s won a staggering array of national-level titles: five in North America, twelve in Singapore, fifteen in Thailand, and many others around the globe.

&nbsp;

As if those accomplishments in English-language Scrabble weren’t enough, Nigel stunned the world by learning the entire French Scrabble dictionary in a matter of weeks and winning the French National Scrabble Championship in 2015. He then repeated this remarkable feat in 2018. Most astoundingly, he did this while barely being able to speak any French!

&nbsp;

Playing great Scrabble requires many different skills: learning words, unscrambling them, finding places to play them, choosing between different options. Somehow, Nigel is the best at each and every one of these.

&nbsp;

Nobody has a better memory or more ability to find and play words of seemingly any length, and his vision of the board is unmatched. Nigel routinely makes strategic plays that boggle the minds of even other elite players, who eventually unravel the logic behind them in awe. His ability to solve endgame positions, which require an approach similar to chess, is flawless.

&nbsp;

Still, to me, it’s Nigel’s temperament that’s always flabbergasted me most. Elite Scrabble players pour so much of themselves into the game. It’s only natural that wins would be exciting, and losses deflating.

&nbsp;

But one anecdote from the must-read Scrabble book Word Freak says it best. When another player tells Nigel that he can never tell whether Nigel has just won or lost a game by his expression, Nigel answers, “That’s because I don’t care.”

&nbsp;

Easy to say. But Nigel really and truly means it. I’ve faced Nigel in live play several times, and no matter how lucky I get, he seems completely unfazed and is always gracious.

&nbsp;

Although I’ve found Nigel to be easygoing and fun to chat with one-on-one, he’s notoriously uninterested in interviews or media attention, preferring to stay out of the spotlight whenever possible. He’d rather play another game than talking about the previous one. Fortunately for him, more so than any other player, his accomplishments speak for themselves.

&nbsp;

ADAM LOGAN

&nbsp;



Adam Logan at the BAT tourney &#8211; April, 2007 &#8211; He wonthe Premier Division
Adam Logan at the BAT tourney &#8211; April 2007 &#8211; He won the Premier Division



&nbsp;

A former world champion and two-time North American champion, Adam Logan is one of the strongest players in the world. He’s Canada’s top player, with a whopping five Canadian Scrabble Championships to his name. Many people believe that having a background in English with a strong working vocabulary is the best predictor of Scrabble skills. In fact, at the elite level, you’re much likelier to encounter mathematicians like Adam.

&nbsp;

In tournament Scrabble, players are given 25 minutes to make all of their moves in each game. Making moves quickly can be a double-edged sword. You might force your opponent into time pressure, but you’re also more likely to make mistakes of your own.

&nbsp;

Adam is a blindingly fast player. He’s able to play extremely precise Scrabble while using hardly any time on his clock. In my experience playing against Adam, I always feel that I’m on the verge of running out of time. He makes his moves in seconds, while I take minutes to think. I’ve heard stories of his incredible prowess in blitz Scrabble, where players have only a handful of minutes on their clock instead of the full 25. It’s no surprise that many consider Adam to be the best blitz player in the world.

&nbsp;

I’ve found Adam to be kind and personable, and other players from Ottawa speak reverently about him. Much like Nigel, he much prefers to play the game than talk about it. Adam is quiet, but his calm, friendly demeanor and prodigious Scrabble abilities ensure that when he speaks, everyone listens.

&nbsp;

DAVID ELDAR

&nbsp;



David Eldar



&nbsp;

A former world champion, twice national champion in his native Australia, and a former North American champion to boot, David Eldar is easily in the top handful of Scrabble players worldwide. His talent was evident from an early age: he was the winner of the inaugural World Youth Scrabble Championship in 2006, and became the youngest player ever to be ranked in Australia’s top 10 players.

&nbsp;

David’s battles with Nigel Richards are some of the most entertaining Scrabble games ever played. Many players are intimidated by Nigel’s incredible abilities, and end up playing worse than usual due to nerves or fear. On the other hand, David seems to play at his absolute best against Nigel. In 2017, when David won the World Scrabble Championship, he had to go through Nigel in the quarterfinals to do it. In 2019, the two met in the finals once again, with Nigel coming out on top.

&nbsp;

Personally, I’ve faced off against David in a great many online games, but only one live game, something I hope to rectify when international play can resume in earnest. He’s an incredibly difficult opponent to face, constantly coming up with clever ideas and almost never making a serious mistake. In addition to his dominance in Scrabble, David has also enjoyed a long, successful career in poker.

&nbsp;

In contrast to other elite players, David is more than comfortable speaking his mind and has a razor-sharp sense of humor. Every now and then he provides live commentary for Scrabble events, which is unfailingly hilarious. For a while, he was streaming online Scrabble gameplay at https://www.twitch.tv/deldar182 &#8211; toss him a follow so that you don’t miss it when he starts up again.

&nbsp;

WELLINGTON JIGHERE

&nbsp;



Wellington Jighere



&nbsp;

Wellington is a former World Scrabble Champion, African Champion, and Nigerian National Champion. He’s commonly recognized as the strongest player from the African continent. This is no mean feat, as Nigeria, in particular, has become one of the strongest Scrabble playing countries in the world. With Wellington at the vanguard, Nigeria has even achieved the top overall ranking of any country in the world in recent years.

&nbsp;

Wellington was the first African player to become World Champion in 2015. He finished 3rd in his first attempt in 2007, demonstrating immediately that he had the potential to win it all, and also finished 4th in 2017.

&nbsp;

Wellington is admired not only in Nigeria, but throughout the world both for his extremely high level of Scrabble skill, but for his soft-spoken, thoughtful demeanor. He’s also active in the Nigerian Scrabble community and designed his own customized Scrabble board, the WELLYBoard. I have to add that he’s also a sharp dresser, with some of the most stylish hats in the game.

&nbsp;

I’ve never played Wellington over the board, but I greatly look forward to meeting this accomplished champion in person sometime soon.

&nbsp;

Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.

&nbsp;

Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.
					
	The post These Are the Best Scrabble Players in the World appeared first on Scrabble.

These Are the Best Scrabble Players in the World

Okay, so you have the basics (link) and intermediate (link) strategies down. It&#8217;s time to tackle some more advanced strategies for playing high-quality Scrabble.  
<h4>Tile Tracking</h4>
Have you noticed the Tile Tracking section of the game screen?
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-918 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/advanced.png" alt="" width="512" height="339" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/advanced.png 512w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/advanced-300x199.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />
When you draw new tiles from the bag after placing a word, or when your opponent plays a word, those tiles will be removed from the Tile Tracking window.
This means that as the game progresses, there will be fewer and fewer letters in this window.
How can you use the information you find there?
As you progress through a <a href="https://playscrabble.com/">Scrabble game</a>, the importance of the Tile Tracking window grows. The odds of your opponent holding the tiles you see in the window increase, but the odds of you drawing key tiles that have yet to be played also increase.
Here are some things to think about when examining the Tile Tracking window:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How far along in the game is it? If it&#8217;s still early, it&#8217;ll be hard to use the information you find there. If it&#8217;s midway through or in the latter stages of the game, it&#8217;s time to start looking more closely. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Are there many more consonants than vowels remaining? If so, be wary of using your vowels since you won&#8217;t be likely to draw more. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Are there many more vowels than consonants remaining? In that case, you&#8217;ll want to hold on to your consonants if possible. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Have the J, Q, X, and Z been played yet? These are critical tiles that can greatly impact the game. For example, if it&#8217;s late in the game, you have a lead, and there&#8217;s a big scoring spot open with a lot of these high-point tiles yet to be played, blocking that spot will become a higher priority than usual since the odds of your opponent holding these letters are much greater than average. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How many S and blank tiles are remaining? These are the best tiles in Scrabble for playing bingos. If you&#8217;re ahead in a game and many of these tiles have yet to be played, you may want to try and block any key openings or hooks before your opponent can use them since they&#8217;re likely to be on your opponent&#8217;s rack. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">On the other hand, if you&#8217;re trailing towards the end of a game and there are lots of S, and blank tiles left unplayed or good places to score with unplayed JQXZ tiles, you should strongly consider playing more tiles than usual in an effort to draw those valuable letters yourself. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">There are countless other ways to use the Tile Tracking window that depend on your individual game scenario. Did you just draw a Q without a U later in a game, but all four U&#8217;s are still available to be drawn? Perhaps using up your other letters to try and draw a U is a good idea. Are there seven I&#8217;s still unplayed, and do you have an I on your rack? Do your best to use your I since you&#8217;re likely to draw another.</li>
</ul>
Try to use the Tile Tracking window like a detective looking for clues. What details can you uncover that can help you make a better play? As the game progresses and as the number of unplayed tiles dwindles, these clues will become more and more important.
<h4>Endgame</h4>
Once you or your opponent draws the final tile from the bag, you&#8217;ve reached the final stages of your game, known as the endgame.
The Tile Tracking window at this point in the game will display &#8220;Tile Bag: 0&#8221; to denote the fact that the bag is empty. But the rest of the window will show the exact letters your opponent has.  
Earlier on in the game, you may ask questions like: Does my opponent have the Q? Does my opponent have an S and blank?
In the endgame, you&#8217;ll know the answers to these questions with certainty and can plan accordingly.
Experienced players will even attempt to mathematically calculate the &#8220;best sequence&#8221; or, to use a term from chess, the &#8220;best line&#8221; of plays in each endgame.
In many games, playing a strong endgame only affects your margin of victory or defeat. But sometimes, playing an accurate endgame will be the difference between winning and losing the game!
Here are some basic principles of endgame play in Scrabble:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Remember, in Scrabble, the player who uses up all of their letters first will end the game. If possible, you want to be the one to do this. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Take a look at your opponent&#8217;s letters and see what options they have. Can they use all of their letters in one move? If they have multiple moves that use up all of their letters and you can&#8217;t block them all, you may want to try and block their highest-scoring option of the bunch. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Even if your opponent can&#8217;t play all of their letters, they might have a play that scores head and shoulders above any other option, and you&#8217;ll want to block that move if you can. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">On the other hand, you need to maximize your own score as well. Look for the highest-scoring plays you can find, but before you make those plays, try to envision whether or not they give your opponent something new that they didn&#8217;t have before. For example, if your highest scoring endgame move scores 30 points but it gives your opponent a 50 point response, it might not be the best choice. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">One common theme in endgames is a sequence where you make a move, your opponent makes a move, and you make a second move using the rest of your tiles, ending the game. (This is known as an &#8220;out-in-two.”)  In these scenarios, you want to find a one-two punch that scores the most points. This might mean passing up your highest-scoring play. For example, if you have a 30 point play available, but your next best play after that will score only 5 points, giving you a total of 35, that wouldn&#8217;t be as good as two plays of 20 points, giving you a total of 40. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">If your opponent has certain tiles like the Q, C, or V, which are notoriously difficult to play in 2-letter words, you may be able to execute a technique known as a &#8220;stick,&#8221; so-called because those tiles will be &#8220;stuck&#8221; to your opponent&#8217;s rack, unable to be played. When you see that your opponent has tiles like this, take a moment to visualize where they might be played. Sometimes, there won&#8217;t be a spot for them. Other times, there will only be one spot for them, which you can block before they get to use it. Once your opponent is stuck with a tile, you can play your tiles individually to maximize your score or make setup plays that your opponent will be powerless to block. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Similarly, if your opponent has only consonants or only vowels, they may struggle to block you if you open a nice scoring spot for yourself in the endgame. Take note of these situations and try to be creative!</li>
</ul>
Endgames take time and practice, but they can yield some of Scrabble&#8217;s most interesting strategic plays!
<h4>Open and Closed Boards</h4>
As you play more Scrabble, you&#8217;ll start to get an instinctive feel for which boards offer lots of opportunity for scoring plays and bingos and which do not.
Boards with many of these opportunities are known as &#8220;open,&#8221; while boards without them are known as &#8220;closed.&#8221;
It&#8217;s a matter of personal preference which type of board you most enjoy playing on. If you prefer a tight, tactical battle, you might want to aim for a closed board. If you enjoy high-scoring, back-and-forth shootouts, you might prefer an open board.
However, even if you prefer open boards, you&#8217;ll often benefit from trying to close the board again if you&#8217;re ahead in a game. And, by the same token, if you prefer closed boards, but you&#8217;re trailing in a game, you&#8217;ll probably want to try and create a more open board, which will help you come back from your deficit.
So what are the characteristics of open and closed boards?
An open board has a variety of available scoring spots, hooks, and open tiles to play through. A closed board has few scoring spots, few available hooks to use, and few open tiles to play through. 
A closed board will often have a large number of parallel plays that constrict both players&#8217; options. Let&#8217;s look at a couple examples.
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-919 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/fame.png" alt="" width="512" height="493" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/fame.png 512w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/fame-300x289.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />
This is an open board.
For scoring plays, there are two Triple Word squares accessible here (the top center and top right), and parallel plays on top of FAME or underneath BORAGE will score quite well.
It&#8217;s an even better board for bingos. RESTRIVE takes N and S hooks, and almost any 7-letter word will play, forming a two-letter word with the A of AARGH. The S of RESTRIVE is also a great letter for playing 8-letter bingos, as is the second E of RESTRIVE.
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-920 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/toon.png" alt="" width="512" height="491" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/toon.png 512w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/toon-300x288.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />
This board is a closed board.
There are no easily accessible triple word scores and no easy scoring spots at all.
It&#8217;s also very difficult to fit a bingo on this board. The only way to fit a 7-letter word would be a word starting with S forming REINS, or perhaps a word hooking AMA or OMA on the left side of the board, where MA was played. Playing an 8-letter bingo won&#8217;t be much easier, with only very specific and unlikely options available (the Ls in WAULS and FLAIR and the Os and N of TOON).
To close an open board, try to find parallel plays that close off many open tiles at once, and try to identify and block useful hooks your opponent might play.
To open a closed board, try to make plays that grant you access to multiple new parts of the board at once, and do your best to make plays that offer you hooks in the future.
Getting comfortable with both open and closed boards will help you hold more of your leads and make more comebacks in games where you&#8217;re trailing!
<h6>Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/how-to-play-scrabble-3-advanced-strategies/">How to Play Scrabble &#8211; #3: Advanced Strategies</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

Okay, so you have the basics (link) and intermediate (link) strategies down. It&#8217;s time to tackle some more advanced strategies for playing high-quality Scrabble.  
Tile Tracking
Have you noticed the Tile Tracking section of the game screen?

When you draw new tiles from the bag after placing a word, or when your opponent plays a word, those tiles will be removed from the Tile Tracking window.
This means that as the game progresses, there will be fewer and fewer letters in this window.
How can you use the information you find there?
As you progress through a Scrabble game, the importance of the Tile Tracking window grows. The odds of your opponent holding the tiles you see in the window increase, but the odds of you drawing key tiles that have yet to be played also increase.
Here are some things to think about when examining the Tile Tracking window:

How far along in the game is it? If it&#8217;s still early, it&#8217;ll be hard to use the information you find there. If it&#8217;s midway through or in the latter stages of the game, it&#8217;s time to start looking more closely.
Are there many more consonants than vowels remaining? If so, be wary of using your vowels since you won&#8217;t be likely to draw more.
Are there many more vowels than consonants remaining? In that case, you&#8217;ll want to hold on to your consonants if possible.
Have the J, Q, X, and Z been played yet? These are critical tiles that can greatly impact the game. For example, if it&#8217;s late in the game, you have a lead, and there&#8217;s a big scoring spot open with a lot of these high-point tiles yet to be played, blocking that spot will become a higher priority than usual since the odds of your opponent holding these letters are much greater than average.
How many S and blank tiles are remaining? These are the best tiles in Scrabble for playing bingos. If you&#8217;re ahead in a game and many of these tiles have yet to be played, you may want to try and block any key openings or hooks before your opponent can use them since they&#8217;re likely to be on your opponent&#8217;s rack.
On the other hand, if you&#8217;re trailing towards the end of a game and there are lots of S, and blank tiles left unplayed or good places to score with unplayed JQXZ tiles, you should strongly consider playing more tiles than usual in an effort to draw those valuable letters yourself.
There are countless other ways to use the Tile Tracking window that depend on your individual game scenario. Did you just draw a Q without a U later in a game, but all four U&#8217;s are still available to be drawn? Perhaps using up your other letters to try and draw a U is a good idea. Are there seven I&#8217;s still unplayed, and do you have an I on your rack? Do your best to use your I since you&#8217;re likely to draw another.

Try to use the Tile Tracking window like a detective looking for clues. What details can you uncover that can help you make a better play? As the game progresses and as the number of unplayed tiles dwindles, these clues will become more and more important.
Endgame
Once you or your opponent draws the final tile from the bag, you&#8217;ve reached the final stages of your game, known as the endgame.
The Tile Tracking window at this point in the game will display &#8220;Tile Bag: 0&#8221; to denote the fact that the bag is empty. But the rest of the window will show the exact letters your opponent has.  
Earlier on in the game, you may ask questions like: Does my opponent have the Q? Does my opponent have an S and blank?
In the endgame, you&#8217;ll know the answers to these questions with certainty and can plan accordingly.
Experienced players will even attempt to mathematically calculate the &#8220;best sequence&#8221; or, to use a term from chess, the &#8220;best line&#8221; of plays in each endgame.
In many games, playing a strong endgame only affects your margin of victory or defeat. But sometimes, playing an accurate endgame will be the difference between winning and losing the game!
Here are some basic principles of endgame play in Scrabble:

Remember, in Scrabble, the player who uses up all of their letters first will end the game. If possible, you want to be the one to do this.
Take a look at your opponent&#8217;s letters and see what options they have. Can they use all of their letters in one move? If they have multiple moves that use up all of their letters and you can&#8217;t block them all, you may want to try and block their highest-scoring option of the bunch.
Even if your opponent can&#8217;t play all of their letters, they might have a play that scores head and shoulders above any other option, and you&#8217;ll want to block that move if you can.
On the other hand, you need to maximize your own score as well. Look for the highest-scoring plays you can find, but before you make those plays, try to envision whether or not they give your opponent something new that they didn&#8217;t have before. For example, if your highest scoring endgame move scores 30 points but it gives your opponent a 50 point response, it might not be the best choice.
One common theme in endgames is a sequence where you make a move, your opponent makes a move, and you make a second move using the rest of your tiles, ending the game. (This is known as an &#8220;out-in-two.”)  In these scenarios, you want to find a one-two punch that scores the most points. This might mean passing up your highest-scoring play. For example, if you have a 30 point play available, but your next best play after that will score only 5 points, giving you a total of 35, that wouldn&#8217;t be as good as two plays of 20 points, giving you a total of 40.
If your opponent has certain tiles like the Q, C, or V, which are notoriously difficult to play in 2-letter words, you may be able to execute a technique known as a &#8220;stick,&#8221; so-called because those tiles will be &#8220;stuck&#8221; to your opponent&#8217;s rack, unable to be played. When you see that your opponent has tiles like this, take a moment to visualize where they might be played. Sometimes, there won&#8217;t be a spot for them. Other times, there will only be one spot for them, which you can block before they get to use it. Once your opponent is stuck with a tile, you can play your tiles individually to maximize your score or make setup plays that your opponent will be powerless to block.
Similarly, if your opponent has only consonants or only vowels, they may struggle to block you if you open a nice scoring spot for yourself in the endgame. Take note of these situations and try to be creative!

Endgames take time and practice, but they can yield some of Scrabble&#8217;s most interesting strategic plays!
Open and Closed Boards
As you play more Scrabble, you&#8217;ll start to get an instinctive feel for which boards offer lots of opportunity for scoring plays and bingos and which do not.
Boards with many of these opportunities are known as &#8220;open,&#8221; while boards without them are known as &#8220;closed.&#8221;
It&#8217;s a matter of personal preference which type of board you most enjoy playing on. If you prefer a tight, tactical battle, you might want to aim for a closed board. If you enjoy high-scoring, back-and-forth shootouts, you might prefer an open board.
However, even if you prefer open boards, you&#8217;ll often benefit from trying to close the board again if you&#8217;re ahead in a game. And, by the same token, if you prefer closed boards, but you&#8217;re trailing in a game, you&#8217;ll probably want to try and create a more open board, which will help you come back from your deficit.
So what are the characteristics of open and closed boards?
An open board has a variety of available scoring spots, hooks, and open tiles to play through. A closed board has few scoring spots, few available hooks to use, and few open tiles to play through. 
A closed board will often have a large number of parallel plays that constrict both players&#8217; options. Let&#8217;s look at a couple examples.

This is an open board.
For scoring plays, there are two Triple Word squares accessible here (the top center and top right), and parallel plays on top of FAME or underneath BORAGE will score quite well.
It&#8217;s an even better board for bingos. RESTRIVE takes N and S hooks, and almost any 7-letter word will play, forming a two-letter word with the A of AARGH. The S of RESTRIVE is also a great letter for playing 8-letter bingos, as is the second E of RESTRIVE.

This board is a closed board.
There are no easily accessible triple word scores and no easy scoring spots at all.
It&#8217;s also very difficult to fit a bingo on this board. The only way to fit a 7-letter word would be a word starting with S forming REINS, or perhaps a word hooking AMA or OMA on the left side of the board, where MA was played. Playing an 8-letter bingo won&#8217;t be much easier, with only very specific and unlikely options available (the Ls in WAULS and FLAIR and the Os and N of TOON).
To close an open board, try to find parallel plays that close off many open tiles at once, and try to identify and block useful hooks your opponent might play.
To open a closed board, try to make plays that grant you access to multiple new parts of the board at once, and do your best to make plays that offer you hooks in the future.
Getting comfortable with both open and closed boards will help you hold more of your leads and make more comebacks in games where you&#8217;re trailing!
Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.					
	The post How to Play Scrabble &#8211; #3: Advanced Strategies appeared first on Scrabble.

How to Play Scrabble – #3: Advanced Strategies

Have you ever wondered how many tiles there are in the game of Scrabble? The answer is pretty easy to remember: there are exactly 100 tiles in the game of Scrabble. But do you know how many tiles there are for each letter of the alphabet? There are lots of things to know about Scrabble&#8217;s tileset that can improve your game!
<h4>How To Use Scrabble’s Vowels and Consonants</h4>
Out of the 100 tiles in Scrabble, 42 are vowels, 56 are consonants, and 2 are blanks. So there are slightly more total consonants than total vowels.  Here&#8217;s how that looks visually: <img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-937 size-full" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters1.png" alt="" width="512" height="411" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters1.png 512w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters1-300x241.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />   Scrabble&#8217;s inventor, Alfred Mosher Butts, arrived at this distribution by counting the individual letters in the words of his local newspapers. That&#8217;s dedication! This means that, in general, English words contain slightly more consonants than vowels.
<h4>When To Use Vowels In Scrabble</h4>
There are 12 Es, 9 As, 9 Is, 8 Os, and 4 Us in Scrabble.   <img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-938 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters2.png" alt="" width="512" height="220" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters2.png 512w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters2-300x129.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />   There are only 5 different vowels, compared to 21 different consonants. As a result, you&#8217;re more likely to find yourself with two, three, or more of the same vowel than you are with multiple tiles of the same consonant.  Something else to notice about vowels is that they&#8217;re all worth one point apiece. It&#8217;s tougher to score a lot of points with vowels than with consonants. On the other hand, vowels like E, A, and I frequently appear in longer words. If you&#8217;re able to find a word that uses all seven of your letters (known as a &#8220;Bingo&#8221;), you&#8217;ll receive a huge bonus of 50 extra points. That often makes up for the vowels being only one point! Vowels are also critical to getting the most out of your consonants. Words like QI, ZA, XU, and JO contain one high-scoring consonant and one vowel, and you&#8217;ll need both to get those huge scores.
<h4>When To Use Consonants In Scrabble</h4>
There are many different types of consonants in Scrabble. Some consonants are worth 1 point, just like the vowels.   <img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-940 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters3-1.png" alt="" width="512" height="431" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters3-1.png 512w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters3-1-300x253.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />   The L, N, R, S, and T appear in words much more frequently than their higher-scoring counterparts.  Even though they&#8217;re worth only one point, you&#8217;ll be able to get a 50-point bonus for using all of your letters more often with these tiles. You&#8217;ll also combine these lower-point consonants with higher-point consonants and vowels to make heavy scoring plays. Of this group, the S is the most valuable tile by far. You can pluralize almost any noun or verb with an S.  Make sure that when you use an S, it&#8217;s giving you several extra points that you wouldn&#8217;t get otherwise. The D and G are worth 2 points.   <img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-942 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters4-1.png" alt="" width="382" height="203" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters4-1.png 382w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters4-1-300x159.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px" />   These letters are still good for playing longer words thanks to suffixes like &#8211;ED and &#8211;ING, but not quite as good for that purpose as their one-point peers. The B, C, M, and P are worth 3 points.   <img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-943 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters5.png" alt="" width="217" height="398" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters5.png 217w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters5-164x300.png 164w" sizes="(max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px" />   As a group, these tiles are jacks of all trades, masters of none: decent both for playing long words and for playing shorter scoring plays. The F, H, V, W, and Y are worth 4 points, and the K is worth 5 points.   <img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-944 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters6.png" alt="" width="198" height="512" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters6.png 198w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters6-116x300.png 116w" sizes="(max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px" />   These higher-scoring tiles don&#8217;t appear as often in words as their lower-scoring counterparts, which is why they score slightly more points. They tend to become the focal point of your rack when you have them. Finally, there are the &#8220;power tiles.&#8221;   <img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-945 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters7.png" alt="" width="110" height="372" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters7.png 110w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/letters7-89x300.png 89w" sizes="(max-width: 110px) 100vw, 110px" />   These letters appear very infrequently in words, so there&#8217;s only one of each in Scrabble, but they get a huge boost in score to make up for it!
<h4>How to Use Scrabble Blanks</h4>
What about those last two tiles &#8211; the blanks? The blanks are the best tiles in the <a href="https://playscrabble.com/">game of Scrabble</a>. Perhaps you&#8217;re saying “how could a tile worth zero points be the best tile?” It&#8217;s because you can turn the blank into any of the other letters in the alphabet &#8211; it&#8217;s your choice. (Regardless of the letter you pick, the blank is always worth zero points.) Have you ever been frustrated that you&#8217;re one letter away from a great word? Is there a great place to use your J, Q, X, or Z, but you don&#8217;t have the right vowels to score huge? With a blank tile in hand, you never have to feel this way. If you&#8217;re a new player, make sure you spend the blank wisely. Don&#8217;t tack it onto a word that doesn&#8217;t need it. Do your best to combine it with lower-scoring tiles to play a Bingo or, if you&#8217;re just starting out, don&#8217;t be afraid to use it to achieve good scores with your higher-scoring tiles like the J, Q, X, and Z.
<h4>Other Scrabble Vowel and Consonant Tips</h4>
Remember, there are slightly more consonants in Scrabble than vowels, and they range in score from 1 to 10 points. This is why, in general, it&#8217;s better to have slightly too many consonants than it is to have slightly too many vowels. In either case, your options for forming words will be restricted. But with too many consonants, you&#8217;ll often still be able to achieve decent scores. With too many vowels, all of which are worth only one point, you&#8217;ll often struggle to score very much at all. Before you make a move in Scrabble, take a look at the letters you aren&#8217;t playing (known as your &#8220;leave,&#8221; since those are the letters you leave for your next turn). Do your best to keep a balanced mixture of consonants and vowels. When in doubt, keep an extra consonant instead of an extra vowel. This reflects the natural skew of words in English to contain slightly more consonants than vowels.
<h4>Other Languages &amp; Final Thoughts</h4>
All of the above advice pertains to the English language Scrabble, but other languages have slightly different sets of letters. Some languages use 102 tiles instead of 100.  The number of each letter varies depending upon its frequency in that specific language. Understanding the distribution of letters in Scrabble will help you use your tiles more efficiently. Additionally, it&#8217;ll help you move from turn to turn with a good balance of vowels and consonants. Good luck!
&nbsp;
<h6>Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>
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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/how-many-letter-tiles-are-there-in-scrabble-and-how-to-best-use-scrabble-tiles-in-a-game/">How Many Letter Tiles Are There in Scrabble, and How To Best Use Scrabble Tiles in a Game?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

Have you ever wondered how many tiles there are in the game of Scrabble? The answer is pretty easy to remember: there are exactly 100 tiles in the game of Scrabble. But do you know how many tiles there are for each letter of the alphabet? There are lots of things to know about Scrabble&#8217;s tileset that can improve your game!
How To Use Scrabble’s Vowels and Consonants
Out of the 100 tiles in Scrabble, 42 are vowels, 56 are consonants, and 2 are blanks. So there are slightly more total consonants than total vowels.  Here&#8217;s how that looks visually:    Scrabble&#8217;s inventor, Alfred Mosher Butts, arrived at this distribution by counting the individual letters in the words of his local newspapers. That&#8217;s dedication! This means that, in general, English words contain slightly more consonants than vowels.
When To Use Vowels In Scrabble
There are 12 Es, 9 As, 9 Is, 8 Os, and 4 Us in Scrabble.      There are only 5 different vowels, compared to 21 different consonants. As a result, you&#8217;re more likely to find yourself with two, three, or more of the same vowel than you are with multiple tiles of the same consonant.  Something else to notice about vowels is that they&#8217;re all worth one point apiece. It&#8217;s tougher to score a lot of points with vowels than with consonants. On the other hand, vowels like E, A, and I frequently appear in longer words. If you&#8217;re able to find a word that uses all seven of your letters (known as a &#8220;Bingo&#8221;), you&#8217;ll receive a huge bonus of 50 extra points. That often makes up for the vowels being only one point! Vowels are also critical to getting the most out of your consonants. Words like QI, ZA, XU, and JO contain one high-scoring consonant and one vowel, and you&#8217;ll need both to get those huge scores.
When To Use Consonants In Scrabble
There are many different types of consonants in Scrabble. Some consonants are worth 1 point, just like the vowels.      The L, N, R, S, and T appear in words much more frequently than their higher-scoring counterparts.  Even though they&#8217;re worth only one point, you&#8217;ll be able to get a 50-point bonus for using all of your letters more often with these tiles. You&#8217;ll also combine these lower-point consonants with higher-point consonants and vowels to make heavy scoring plays. Of this group, the S is the most valuable tile by far. You can pluralize almost any noun or verb with an S.  Make sure that when you use an S, it&#8217;s giving you several extra points that you wouldn&#8217;t get otherwise. The D and G are worth 2 points.      These letters are still good for playing longer words thanks to suffixes like &#8211;ED and &#8211;ING, but not quite as good for that purpose as their one-point peers. The B, C, M, and P are worth 3 points.      As a group, these tiles are jacks of all trades, masters of none: decent both for playing long words and for playing shorter scoring plays. The F, H, V, W, and Y are worth 4 points, and the K is worth 5 points.      These higher-scoring tiles don&#8217;t appear as often in words as their lower-scoring counterparts, which is why they score slightly more points. They tend to become the focal point of your rack when you have them. Finally, there are the &#8220;power tiles.&#8221;      These letters appear very infrequently in words, so there&#8217;s only one of each in Scrabble, but they get a huge boost in score to make up for it!
How to Use Scrabble Blanks
What about those last two tiles &#8211; the blanks? The blanks are the best tiles in the game of Scrabble. Perhaps you&#8217;re saying “how could a tile worth zero points be the best tile?” It&#8217;s because you can turn the blank into any of the other letters in the alphabet &#8211; it&#8217;s your choice. (Regardless of the letter you pick, the blank is always worth zero points.) Have you ever been frustrated that you&#8217;re one letter away from a great word? Is there a great place to use your J, Q, X, or Z, but you don&#8217;t have the right vowels to score huge? With a blank tile in hand, you never have to feel this way. If you&#8217;re a new player, make sure you spend the blank wisely. Don&#8217;t tack it onto a word that doesn&#8217;t need it. Do your best to combine it with lower-scoring tiles to play a Bingo or, if you&#8217;re just starting out, don&#8217;t be afraid to use it to achieve good scores with your higher-scoring tiles like the J, Q, X, and Z.
Other Scrabble Vowel and Consonant Tips
Remember, there are slightly more consonants in Scrabble than vowels, and they range in score from 1 to 10 points. This is why, in general, it&#8217;s better to have slightly too many consonants than it is to have slightly too many vowels. In either case, your options for forming words will be restricted. But with too many consonants, you&#8217;ll often still be able to achieve decent scores. With too many vowels, all of which are worth only one point, you&#8217;ll often struggle to score very much at all. Before you make a move in Scrabble, take a look at the letters you aren&#8217;t playing (known as your &#8220;leave,&#8221; since those are the letters you leave for your next turn). Do your best to keep a balanced mixture of consonants and vowels. When in doubt, keep an extra consonant instead of an extra vowel. This reflects the natural skew of words in English to contain slightly more consonants than vowels.
Other Languages &amp; Final Thoughts
All of the above advice pertains to the English language Scrabble, but other languages have slightly different sets of letters. Some languages use 102 tiles instead of 100.  The number of each letter varies depending upon its frequency in that specific language. Understanding the distribution of letters in Scrabble will help you use your tiles more efficiently. Additionally, it&#8217;ll help you move from turn to turn with a good balance of vowels and consonants. Good luck!
&nbsp;
Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.
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Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.					
	The post How Many Letter Tiles Are There in Scrabble, and How To Best Use Scrabble Tiles in a Game? appeared first on Scrabble.

How Many Letter Tiles Are There in Scrabble, and How To Best Use Scrabble Tiles in a Game?

My Toughest Scrabble Loss. In this blog post, I will write about a thrilling win recorded by Ian Weinstein in round 16 of the 2016 North American Scrabble Championship. Why? Because I was his opponent, and it was the toughest loss of my career. It’s easy to recall your greatest game, best word, or best comeback. But in Scrabble, one player’s amazing comeback might be the other player’s crushing loss. It’s important to remember that your opponents are just as entitled to experience these moments as you are and to do your best to celebrate their achievements as you would your own. But in the moment, this is much easier said than done.
<h5>Let’s set the stage.</h5>
Going into the 2016 Nationals, I was the second seed out of 72 players in Division 1, consisting primarily of the country&#8217;s strongest players. The top seed was the legendary David Gibson, former National Champion and widely regarded as the greatest American player of all time. I had been highly seeded in other years, but I remember feeling like I was at the top of my game and that I really had a chance to win it all for the first time. After 15 rounds, the event was just about halfway over. I was in fourth place overall at 10 wins and 5 losses, and my next opponent was Ian Weinstein, a top expert from Florida who was cruising thus far with a 14-1 record. David was in second place at 11-4. This was my chance to slow Ian down and fight my way back into one of the top spots. Moreover, my game with Ian would be played on “Board 1”, where the highest-ranked player in the standings always competes against their opponent. These games are always live-streamed online. Ian got the first bingo with TELERAN (an air traffic control system), but I responded with FOMENTs to take a solid lead.
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-762 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-143-Ian-107-269x300.png" alt="" width="269" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-143-Ian-107-269x300.png 269w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-143-Ian-107.png 410w" sizes="(max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px" />
I then immediately drew a second bingo out of the bag, CHATEAUS. A very lucky break. I was now firmly in command, up by 84 points.
&nbsp;
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-763 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-211-Ian-137-269x300.png" alt="" width="269" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-211-Ian-137-269x300.png 269w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-211-Ian-137.png 410w" sizes="(max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px" />
&nbsp;
As the game progressed, my lead dwindled somewhat, but the board position still strongly favored me.
&nbsp;
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-769 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-349-Ian-298-1-269x300.png" alt="" width="269" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-349-Ian-298-1-269x300.png 269w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-349-Ian-298-1.png 410w" sizes="(max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px" />
&nbsp;
At this score, Ian needs to bingo. But there’s almost no space on the board at all to do so. The only realistic spot where Ian can play all seven of his letters is through the S in CHATEAUS. I had considered playing in that spot on my previous turn when I had played LIER underneath BOY, but leaving that spot open meant I would be vulnerable to 50+ point J plays by Ian there. I couldn’t find a play that both blocked the S and scored enough to withstand a big J play.  Ian then made a great play of LOXED (to supply with liquid oxygen).
&nbsp;
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-770 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-349-Ian-311-1-269x300.png" alt="" width="269" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-349-Ian-311-1-269x300.png 269w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-349-Ian-311-1.png 410w" sizes="(max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px" />
&nbsp;
Now, in addition to the S of CHATEAUS, Ian had created a second bingo line. Any seven-letter word ending in A or E would play on top of the L of LOXED. Ian had forced me into a very tricky situation.
&nbsp;
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-766 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/full-situation-188x300.png" alt="" width="188" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/full-situation-188x300.png 188w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/full-situation.png 410w" sizes="(max-width: 188px) 100vw, 188px" />
&nbsp;
From my point of view, the unseen tiles looked terrible, but keep in mind that Ian just played off just his L and O to play LOXED. If he had had any of the J, W, or Y, he very likely would have attempted to play those tiles off as well, since those three tiles are very difficult to play bingos with, and he needs to bingo to win this game. I did my best to determine which of the two bingo lanes was most dangerous and eventually decided that the lane on top of LOXED felt more dangerous since the S of CHATEAUS required a very specific fit, with the S as the fifth letter of an eight-letter word. So I played VOLE, placing the V out in space to prevent Ian from making any overlapping plays.  Shockingly, Ian then used his letters of AAAIRU? to bingo through the S of CHATEAUS with an incredible move: MAIASAUR (a species of herbivorous dinosaur). This was his only playable bingo.
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-767 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-361-Ian-377-269x300.png" alt="" width="269" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-361-Ian-377-269x300.png 269w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Will-361-Ian-377.png 410w" sizes="(max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px" />
I remember staring at MAIASAUR for a while in disbelief. I can’t remember whether or not I told Ian what a beautiful play he had made. I suspect I was too shell-shocked to remember my manners, so I’d like to add, five years later: beautiful play, Ian. I briefly retook the lead by playing the J and Y I had suspected were still lurking in the bag for me to draw, but Ian was able to score just enough on his final move to defeat me by a final score of 398 to 394.
&nbsp;
<img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-771 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/final-score-1-269x300.png" alt="" width="269" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/final-score-1-269x300.png 269w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/final-score-1.png 410w" sizes="(max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px" />
<h5>Recap</h5>
For my toughest Scrabble loss, I was in the lead nearly the entire way in a game I desperately needed to win, only to lose by single digits after a shocking late-game bingo, all while being live-streamed to a wide audience of Scrabble fans. The funny thing is, even if I had successfully blocked MAIASAUR, his rack of AAAIRU? Would still have given him AQUARIA on top of the L of LOXED. And I could have improved upon my play of VOLE with a play that blocked just as well and scored better. At the time, these realizations brought me no comfort. I thought I was ready to win the national championship, but my reaction to this loss proved that while I knew enough words and strategy to do it, I still had a lot of work to do as a competitor and person. I wasn’t able to shake off my loss to Ian. I went on to lose 7 out of my next 8 games, including my very next game to David Gibson. My 10-5 record turned into a woeful 11-13 in a flash. While I did rebound by winning my final 7 games, the damage was done. Learning how to rebound from a tough loss is a skill every bit as important as learning the <a href="https://playscrabble.com/dictionary">Scrabble dictionary</a> or mastering Scrabble strategy. For me, and maybe for most of you as well, this is something that can only be learned the hard way.  
<h6>Would you like to contribute to the <a href="https://dev.playscrabble.com/news-blog/">Scrabble Blog</a>? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/my-toughest-scrabble-loss/">My Toughest Scrabble Loss &#8211; Will Anderson</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

My Toughest Scrabble Loss. In this blog post, I will write about a thrilling win recorded by Ian Weinstein in round 16 of the 2016 North American Scrabble Championship. Why? Because I was his opponent, and it was the toughest loss of my career. It’s easy to recall your greatest game, best word, or best comeback. But in Scrabble, one player’s amazing comeback might be the other player’s crushing loss. It’s important to remember that your opponents are just as entitled to experience these moments as you are and to do your best to celebrate their achievements as you would your own. But in the moment, this is much easier said than done.
Let’s set the stage.
Going into the 2016 Nationals, I was the second seed out of 72 players in Division 1, consisting primarily of the country&#8217;s strongest players. The top seed was the legendary David Gibson, former National Champion and widely regarded as the greatest American player of all time. I had been highly seeded in other years, but I remember feeling like I was at the top of my game and that I really had a chance to win it all for the first time. After 15 rounds, the event was just about halfway over. I was in fourth place overall at 10 wins and 5 losses, and my next opponent was Ian Weinstein, a top expert from Florida who was cruising thus far with a 14-1 record. David was in second place at 11-4. This was my chance to slow Ian down and fight my way back into one of the top spots. Moreover, my game with Ian would be played on “Board 1”, where the highest-ranked player in the standings always competes against their opponent. These games are always live-streamed online. Ian got the first bingo with TELERAN (an air traffic control system), but I responded with FOMENTs to take a solid lead.

I then immediately drew a second bingo out of the bag, CHATEAUS. A very lucky break. I was now firmly in command, up by 84 points.
&nbsp;

&nbsp;
As the game progressed, my lead dwindled somewhat, but the board position still strongly favored me.
&nbsp;

&nbsp;
At this score, Ian needs to bingo. But there’s almost no space on the board at all to do so. The only realistic spot where Ian can play all seven of his letters is through the S in CHATEAUS. I had considered playing in that spot on my previous turn when I had played LIER underneath BOY, but leaving that spot open meant I would be vulnerable to 50+ point J plays by Ian there. I couldn’t find a play that both blocked the S and scored enough to withstand a big J play.  Ian then made a great play of LOXED (to supply with liquid oxygen).
&nbsp;

&nbsp;
Now, in addition to the S of CHATEAUS, Ian had created a second bingo line. Any seven-letter word ending in A or E would play on top of the L of LOXED. Ian had forced me into a very tricky situation.
&nbsp;

&nbsp;
From my point of view, the unseen tiles looked terrible, but keep in mind that Ian just played off just his L and O to play LOXED. If he had had any of the J, W, or Y, he very likely would have attempted to play those tiles off as well, since those three tiles are very difficult to play bingos with, and he needs to bingo to win this game. I did my best to determine which of the two bingo lanes was most dangerous and eventually decided that the lane on top of LOXED felt more dangerous since the S of CHATEAUS required a very specific fit, with the S as the fifth letter of an eight-letter word. So I played VOLE, placing the V out in space to prevent Ian from making any overlapping plays.  Shockingly, Ian then used his letters of AAAIRU? to bingo through the S of CHATEAUS with an incredible move: MAIASAUR (a species of herbivorous dinosaur). This was his only playable bingo.

I remember staring at MAIASAUR for a while in disbelief. I can’t remember whether or not I told Ian what a beautiful play he had made. I suspect I was too shell-shocked to remember my manners, so I’d like to add, five years later: beautiful play, Ian. I briefly retook the lead by playing the J and Y I had suspected were still lurking in the bag for me to draw, but Ian was able to score just enough on his final move to defeat me by a final score of 398 to 394.
&nbsp;

Recap
For my toughest Scrabble loss, I was in the lead nearly the entire way in a game I desperately needed to win, only to lose by single digits after a shocking late-game bingo, all while being live-streamed to a wide audience of Scrabble fans. The funny thing is, even if I had successfully blocked MAIASAUR, his rack of AAAIRU? Would still have given him AQUARIA on top of the L of LOXED. And I could have improved upon my play of VOLE with a play that blocked just as well and scored better. At the time, these realizations brought me no comfort. I thought I was ready to win the national championship, but my reaction to this loss proved that while I knew enough words and strategy to do it, I still had a lot of work to do as a competitor and person. I wasn’t able to shake off my loss to Ian. I went on to lose 7 out of my next 8 games, including my very next game to David Gibson. My 10-5 record turned into a woeful 11-13 in a flash. While I did rebound by winning my final 7 games, the damage was done. Learning how to rebound from a tough loss is a skill every bit as important as learning the Scrabble dictionary or mastering Scrabble strategy. For me, and maybe for most of you as well, this is something that can only be learned the hard way.  
Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.
&nbsp;					
	The post My Toughest Scrabble Loss &#8211; Will Anderson appeared first on Scrabble.

My Toughest Scrabble Loss – Will Anderson

If you have the rules of Scrabble (link) and the basics (link) down, it’s time to learn some intermediate strategies to take your game up a notch!
<h4>Rack Leave</h4>
If you play enough Scrabble, you’ll eventually experience situations where you have too many vowels or too many consonants.
What if I told you that many of these situations can be avoided once you start thinking about one new concept?
That concept is “rack leave,” often referred to as simply your “leave.”
Your leave is the set of letters that you don’t play on your turn.
For example, if I play FIERY from this rack on the first move of the game, my leave would be NS.
<img decoding="async" class="wp-image-909 size-full aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Fiery.gif" alt="" width="512" height="288" />
Your leave serves as the foundation for your next turn. 
When you consistently make moves that keep good leaves, you can greatly reduce the number of times you have all vowels or all consonants. 
So what makes a good leave?
Good leaves often possess an even balance of consonants and vowels, sometimes with a slight skew towards consonants.
For example, good rack leaves could consist of two consonants and one vowel, two consonants and two vowels, or three consonants and two vowels. It’s also helpful to avoid duplicated tiles in your rack leaves. 
Let’s look at an example of how to use the concept of rack leave.
With this opening rack, a reasonable move is ZIP for 28 points.
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-910 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/zip.gif" alt="" width="512" height="288" />
But ZITI is a better play, even though it scores only 26 points (2 fewer than ZIP).
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-912 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/zitti-1.gif" alt="" width="512" height="288" />
The reason for this is that EIP is a much better leave than EIIT.
Instead of keeping three vowels and one consonant, including two Is, you can use up an extra vowel and avoid keeping duplicated tiles for a cost of only two points.
Try to think of every move you make as a combination of the score of your word and the quality of your rack leave. If you can sacrifice some points to greatly improve the quality of your rack leave, it’s often a good idea to do so.
<h4>Basic Defensive Principles</h4>
In my first article about the basics, I wrote about the importance of bonus squares and parallel plays as ways to really pump up your score.
But in Scrabble, we’re not just playing by ourselves. We have an opponent to think about, too!
One of the very first defensive principles to understand is to try and avoid placing vowels next to the bonus squares if possible.
The reason is that a vowel next to a bonus square allows your opponent to place high-scoring consonants there and make heavy scoring parallel plays of their own.
Sometimes, this makes a huge difference.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re getting ready to play FIERY as your first move. Whether you play it with the F on the center star or with the Y on the center star, it scores the same.
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-913 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/firey2.gif" alt="" width="512" height="288" />
Where should you play your word? If the scores are the same in both spots, does it really matter?
The answer is: you should play FIERY on the left, with the Y on the center star, to avoid placing a vowel next to a Double Letter square. 
To see why, imagine that your opponent has the X.
After the right-side FIERY, your opponent could score 45 points with a play like MIX, making a parallel play with the X on the Double Letter square.
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-914 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/mix.gif" alt="" width="512" height="288" />
But after the left-side FIERY, those same tiles can only score 29 points. Because there are no vowels next to open bonus squares, the damage the X or other high-scoring tiles can do is limited.
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-916 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/mix2-1.gif" alt="" width="512" height="288" />
Sometimes, placing vowels next to bonus squares is unavoidable, and that’s okay. But if you’re choosing between several similar options, do your best to avoid placing vowels near those lucrative bonus spots!  
<h4>Bingos</h4>
As a newer player, you might be surprised to realize that you can use all of your tiles in one move to achieve an extra 50 bonus points. 
It’s the Scrabble equivalent of a “home run” or a “touchdown.” At first, it feels nearly impossible to do!
But I promise you that with time, practice, and an understanding of how longer English words are formed, you can add this dimension to your game.
I’ve written an article dedicated entirely to playing bingos that you can find here: (link) I also made a video on this topic with some of the same tips if you prefer: (link)
<h6>Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/how-to-play-scrabble-2-intermediate-strategies-play-scrabble/">How to Play Scrabble &#8211; #2: Intermediate Strategies | Play Scrabble</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

If you have the rules of Scrabble (link) and the basics (link) down, it’s time to learn some intermediate strategies to take your game up a notch!
Rack Leave
If you play enough Scrabble, you’ll eventually experience situations where you have too many vowels or too many consonants.
What if I told you that many of these situations can be avoided once you start thinking about one new concept?
That concept is “rack leave,” often referred to as simply your “leave.”
Your leave is the set of letters that you don’t play on your turn.
For example, if I play FIERY from this rack on the first move of the game, my leave would be NS.

Your leave serves as the foundation for your next turn. 
When you consistently make moves that keep good leaves, you can greatly reduce the number of times you have all vowels or all consonants. 
So what makes a good leave?
Good leaves often possess an even balance of consonants and vowels, sometimes with a slight skew towards consonants.
For example, good rack leaves could consist of two consonants and one vowel, two consonants and two vowels, or three consonants and two vowels. It’s also helpful to avoid duplicated tiles in your rack leaves. 
Let’s look at an example of how to use the concept of rack leave.
With this opening rack, a reasonable move is ZIP for 28 points.

But ZITI is a better play, even though it scores only 26 points (2 fewer than ZIP).

The reason for this is that EIP is a much better leave than EIIT.
Instead of keeping three vowels and one consonant, including two Is, you can use up an extra vowel and avoid keeping duplicated tiles for a cost of only two points.
Try to think of every move you make as a combination of the score of your word and the quality of your rack leave. If you can sacrifice some points to greatly improve the quality of your rack leave, it’s often a good idea to do so.
Basic Defensive Principles
In my first article about the basics, I wrote about the importance of bonus squares and parallel plays as ways to really pump up your score.
But in Scrabble, we’re not just playing by ourselves. We have an opponent to think about, too!
One of the very first defensive principles to understand is to try and avoid placing vowels next to the bonus squares if possible.
The reason is that a vowel next to a bonus square allows your opponent to place high-scoring consonants there and make heavy scoring parallel plays of their own.
Sometimes, this makes a huge difference.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re getting ready to play FIERY as your first move. Whether you play it with the F on the center star or with the Y on the center star, it scores the same.

Where should you play your word? If the scores are the same in both spots, does it really matter?
The answer is: you should play FIERY on the left, with the Y on the center star, to avoid placing a vowel next to a Double Letter square. 
To see why, imagine that your opponent has the X.
After the right-side FIERY, your opponent could score 45 points with a play like MIX, making a parallel play with the X on the Double Letter square.

But after the left-side FIERY, those same tiles can only score 29 points. Because there are no vowels next to open bonus squares, the damage the X or other high-scoring tiles can do is limited.

Sometimes, placing vowels next to bonus squares is unavoidable, and that’s okay. But if you’re choosing between several similar options, do your best to avoid placing vowels near those lucrative bonus spots!  
Bingos
As a newer player, you might be surprised to realize that you can use all of your tiles in one move to achieve an extra 50 bonus points. 
It’s the Scrabble equivalent of a “home run” or a “touchdown.” At first, it feels nearly impossible to do!
But I promise you that with time, practice, and an understanding of how longer English words are formed, you can add this dimension to your game.
I’ve written an article dedicated entirely to playing bingos that you can find here: (link) I also made a video on this topic with some of the same tips if you prefer: (link)
Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.					
	The post How to Play Scrabble &#8211; #2: Intermediate Strategies | Play Scrabble appeared first on Scrabble.

How to Play Scrabble – #2: Intermediate Strategies | Play Scrabble

Hi, Scrabble players! My name is Will, and I’m a former North American Scrabble Champion. Even if you’re just starting out as a Scrabble player, I can guarantee that we have something in common. Neither of us was born knowing how to play Scrabble. We all start our Scrabble journeys from the same place! I hope my tips and advice will help you as you embark on your own Scrabble journey.  
<h4>The Rules</h4>
If you’re completely new to Scrabble, you should familiarize yourself with the rules of Scrabble (here &#8211; link). You might also find it helpful to look at (this post &#8211; link) about how many letters there are in the game of Scrabble with some extra tips on how to use them. With that as your foundation, let’s talk about some basic strategies that you can use to play better Scrabble.  
<h4>2-Letter Words</h4>
The two-letter words are the foundation of the game of Scrabble. As you continue to <a href="https://playscrabble.com/">play more Scrabble</a>, you’ll begin to learn more and more of these words because they appear so often. As of 2021, there are 127 two-letter words, twenty of which are unique to the UK English dictionary.
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-883 size-medium" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Play-Scrabble-The-Basics-300x169.png" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Play-Scrabble-The-Basics-300x169.png 300w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Play-Scrabble-The-Basics.png 512w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
There are several reasons these words are so important. First, they’re the easiest way to use your highest-scoring tiles. Playing words like QI, ZA, XU, and JO can be simple ways to score lots of points. Next, they allow you to play more of the words you see. Sometimes, knowing the two-letter words will be the difference between placing that nice word you see on your rack onto the board or having nowhere to put it. Finally, two-letter words allow you to place a word alongside other words on the board. This is known as a parallel play (more on these below).  
<h4>Bonus Squares</h4>
It only takes a quick glance at the Scrabble board to see all the brightly colored squares and understand that they must be important.
<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-884 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/dl.png" alt="" width="58" height="57" /><img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-886 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/tl.png" alt="" width="58" height="58" /><img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-885 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/dw.png" alt="" width="58" height="58" /> <img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-887 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/tw.png" alt="" width="58" height="58" />
These are the bonus squares. The Double Letter (DL) and Triple Letter (TL) squares boost the scores of individual letters, and the Double Word (DW) and Triple Word (TW) squares boost the value of your entire word. (The center star required for the opening move of the game is a Double Word square.) One approach to use when playing Scrabble is to look at your tiles and identify the ones that score the most points. Then look at the board and try to place those tiles on the best bonus squares you can reach!  
<h4>Parallel Plays</h4>
A parallel play occurs when you play your word alongside a word already on the board. Parallel plays combine the power of two-letter words and bonus squares. You can rack up a lot of points in one move by adding several additional words to the score of your “main” word. For example, on this turn, I’m about to play AJAR for 21 points.
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-888 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ajar1-266x300.png" alt="" width="266" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ajar1-266x300.png 266w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ajar1.png 454w" sizes="(max-width: 266px) 100vw, 266px" /> But by shifting the position of my word to form a parallel play, I can play AJAR for 42 points instead!
<img decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-889 aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ajar2-269x300.png" alt="" width="269" height="300" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ajar2-269x300.png 269w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ajar2.png 459w" sizes="(max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px" />
If you can make a parallel play that forms two words with the same bonus square, you’ll receive that bonus twice! In the example above, the J is on a double letter score, and I’ve formed two words with it at once &#8211; AJAR and JO. That means the J alone is worth 32 points! I get extra points for AG and AN as well.  
<h4>Hooks</h4>
A hook is a letter added to the front or back of a word that’s already been played.
It’s a great way to fit the words you see on your rack onto the game board. Some hooks are easier to identify, such as an S to pluralize a word or a D to change a verb tense.
Others are tricky and completely change the meaning of the word, like in this example:
<img decoding="async" class="wp-image-908 size-full aligncenter" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/bugged-3.gif" alt="" width="512" height="288" />
Do your best to think about potential hooks &#8211; not only for words that have already been played but for words that you’re considering playing during your turn.
<h6>Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/how-to-play-scrabble-1-the-basics/">How to Play Scrabble &#8211; #1: The Basics</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

Hi, Scrabble players! My name is Will, and I’m a former North American Scrabble Champion. Even if you’re just starting out as a Scrabble player, I can guarantee that we have something in common. Neither of us was born knowing how to play Scrabble. We all start our Scrabble journeys from the same place! I hope my tips and advice will help you as you embark on your own Scrabble journey.  
The Rules
If you’re completely new to Scrabble, you should familiarize yourself with the rules of Scrabble (here &#8211; link). You might also find it helpful to look at (this post &#8211; link) about how many letters there are in the game of Scrabble with some extra tips on how to use them. With that as your foundation, let’s talk about some basic strategies that you can use to play better Scrabble.  
2-Letter Words
The two-letter words are the foundation of the game of Scrabble. As you continue to play more Scrabble, you’ll begin to learn more and more of these words because they appear so often. As of 2021, there are 127 two-letter words, twenty of which are unique to the UK English dictionary.

There are several reasons these words are so important. First, they’re the easiest way to use your highest-scoring tiles. Playing words like QI, ZA, XU, and JO can be simple ways to score lots of points. Next, they allow you to play more of the words you see. Sometimes, knowing the two-letter words will be the difference between placing that nice word you see on your rack onto the board or having nowhere to put it. Finally, two-letter words allow you to place a word alongside other words on the board. This is known as a parallel play (more on these below).  
Bonus Squares
It only takes a quick glance at the Scrabble board to see all the brightly colored squares and understand that they must be important.
 
These are the bonus squares. The Double Letter (DL) and Triple Letter (TL) squares boost the scores of individual letters, and the Double Word (DW) and Triple Word (TW) squares boost the value of your entire word. (The center star required for the opening move of the game is a Double Word square.) One approach to use when playing Scrabble is to look at your tiles and identify the ones that score the most points. Then look at the board and try to place those tiles on the best bonus squares you can reach!  
Parallel Plays
A parallel play occurs when you play your word alongside a word already on the board. Parallel plays combine the power of two-letter words and bonus squares. You can rack up a lot of points in one move by adding several additional words to the score of your “main” word. For example, on this turn, I’m about to play AJAR for 21 points.
 But by shifting the position of my word to form a parallel play, I can play AJAR for 42 points instead!

If you can make a parallel play that forms two words with the same bonus square, you’ll receive that bonus twice! In the example above, the J is on a double letter score, and I’ve formed two words with it at once &#8211; AJAR and JO. That means the J alone is worth 32 points! I get extra points for AG and AN as well.  
Hooks
A hook is a letter added to the front or back of a word that’s already been played.
It’s a great way to fit the words you see on your rack onto the game board. Some hooks are easier to identify, such as an S to pluralize a word or a D to change a verb tense.
Others are tricky and completely change the meaning of the word, like in this example:

Do your best to think about potential hooks &#8211; not only for words that have already been played but for words that you’re considering playing during your turn.
Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.					
	The post How to Play Scrabble &#8211; #1: The Basics appeared first on Scrabble.

How to Play Scrabble – #1: The Basics

I didn’t always love Scrabble. In fact, after my first few games, I decided I hated it and swore I would never play again. Not the type of storybook Falling in Love with Scrabble beginning you would expect from a North American Scrabble Champion, is it?



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">NO LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT</h4>



I loved to play sports as a young child, but it was my set of plastic letters of the alphabet that I brought to the park to play with, not a baseball glove. My dad used to delight me by making toast for breakfast in the shape of whatever letter I demanded. He groaned under his breath when I asked for a particularly curvaceous letter to carve, like the Q or R. As I got older, I relegated my trusty plastic alphabet to a box in the basement. I got used to eating normally-shaped pieces of toast, but I remained a voracious reader and a lover of both words and the letters that compose them.



When I was ten or so, my mom broke out the family Scrabble set for the first time, thinking it would be the perfect game for her letter-loving son. I remember feeling captivated by the look and feel of the tiles and layout of the board and sharing her expectation that I would be a natural at this game.



But then we proceeded to play.



Even when she went easy on me, I was no match for my mom. I couldn’t find long words; every so often, she would play a bingo. She understood how to deny me access to bonus squares; I inadvertently opened them for her, and she took advantage. She understood which letters worked well together, and I didn’t.



We played several games over a short span of days, and I lost every one, usually by wide margins. For all of you out there who have that one family member you just can’t beat at Scrabble, believe me when I say that I understand your experience.



I was a very sore loser at that age, and eventually, the frustration grew to be too much for me. I remember quitting midway through another blowout loss, swearing I would never play Scrabble again. My mom pleaded with me to give it some time and watch how she played and pick up those techniques, but I was set in my decision.



How in the world did this boy end up loving Scrabble, let alone becoming a champion-level player?



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">LOVING A DIFFERENT WORD GAME</h4>



Years passed. We tried other word games like Upwords, which I enjoyed, but always turned down gentle requests to play Scrabble again. I continued to read, play sports and video games, collect sports cards, work hard in school, and enjoy a relatively well-rounded childhood overall.



Eventually, right before I turned 15, I started having health issues that doctors eventually determined to be Crohn’s Disease. I lost a lot of weight from my already-skinny frame and wasn’t able to play sports for a while. Needing a competitive outlet, I started playing arcade-style games on the internet and somehow stumbled across a game on Yahoo called Word Racer.



Word Racer is long since gone from the web, along with the rest of Yahoo’s game pages. But it was the first word game I fell in love with, setting the stage for Scrabble in the future. If you’ve ever played the game Boggle, Word Racer was essentially a variation on classic Boggle gameplay. Players typed as fast as possible to enter words they found within a grid. Unlike traditional Boggle, the only way to score points with a word was to find it first, placing a premium on speed and quick thinking.



I can still remember the excitement of the seconds counting down to the start of each game, followed by the mad dash of the opening few seconds, with every player rushing to find the highest scoring words. Even once I recovered enough to start playing sports again, I continued to play Word Racer with increasing regularity. I found that I had some talent for the game but eventually discovered players far beyond my level. I dreamed that one day I would be as good as they were. Little did I know that I would meet many of these players at Scrabble tournaments well over a decade later.



I began to pay more careful attention to the lists of words that nobody found in each round, even making primitive spreadsheets to track my favorites. Completely by accident, I was laying the groundwork for a seamless transition to competitive Scrabble, but my focus in the moment was improving at Word Racer and Word Racer alone.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">SCRABBLE RETURNS</h5>



At some point, seeing my affinity for Word Racer and other Boggle variations, my mom once again reopened the dialogue surrounding Scrabble. I wouldn’t say I had outgrown my tendency to be a sore loser, but I was at least slightly more mature at this point in my life and agreed to play. To my delight, I was much more evenly matched with my mom at this point and began to understand the allure of Scrabble as well. I remember her playing words I had never heard of before, such as VIREO (a small bird), and thinking to myself; I can use this one in Word Racer too.



Not long after this, I received the book Word Freak as a birthday gift. I remember devouring the book with gusto, amazed at the vibrant cast of characters and passionate subculture of competitive Scrabble. But somehow, it didn’t click in my mind that this was a community that would be a perfect fit for me; it felt like a great story, not a call to action.



I went off to college, where my word game playing became more sporadic. During my senior year, I started playing the game World of Warcraft. This game took an increasingly large portion of my free time as I became more addicted. I had always prided myself on being a well-rounded person with a diverse array of interests. That ceased to be the case as I poured more and more time into the game even after graduation. Eventually, I reached a breaking point where I knew something needed to change and attempted to quit.



Needing a new hobby, I received a recommendation that I try a competitive Scrabble tournament from a fellow online Boggle player who himself had played in many live Scrabble events before. The combination of my experience playing Word Racer, games of Scrabble with my mom, and familiarity with the competitive Scrabble world from Word Freak all contributed to my thought process. I eventually decided to take him up on it and find an event nearby to play, making my debut in February 2009.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">LOVE, ACTUALLY</h5>



I had come to like and appreciate Scrabble, but it was until I set foot at my first tournament that I began falling in love with Scrabble, and it happened nearly instantaneously.



The first thing about falling in love with Scrabble was the community of other players. I had the pervasive sense when meeting so many other Scrabble players for the first time that I was somehow joining a new family. Here were people of all ages, backgrounds, and personality types united in a love of word games, and Scrabble in particular. To be sure, the Scrabble world welcomes the types of eccentric personalities showcased in Word Freak. But I remember feeling like these people were simply friends I hadn’t met yet.



I quickly realized that there was a great deal that I didn’t understand about the game of Scrabble. I remember my jaw dropping as another player laid down the word DRAWTUBE across two triple word scores for a massive score of over 150 points. In my decade of playing word games online, I had never once seen that word. How in the world did he know it? I remember deciding that I, too, would like to be able to know and see words like that someday.



It was only after resolving to begin that journey of learning more about Scrabble and improving at the game that I was truly falling in love with Scrabble. I loved the process of learning new words and watching my results improve. This came easily to me because I had already experienced that process with Word Racer. But I equally loved the process of learning the strategic nuances of the game, which didn’t come nearly as easily to me. That process is still ongoing and, because of Scrabble’s brilliant complexity, always will be.



When I look back at the moments that Scrabble has allowed me to experience, I can hardly believe I’ve lived them all. I remember the hair standing up on my neck when I discovered I had clinched the North American championship in 2017. Traveling to Hong Kong and Malaysia to play Scrabble for the United States in a World Cup style event. Walking out to the mound before throwing out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game. Looking up at a giant robot playing a game of Scrabble with me. These are just a few of the countless memories I owe to Scrabble.



But the beauty of Scrabble is that you don’t have to be a champion-level player to love the game truly. Whether you play at home every so often with your family and friends, or whether you’ve devoted yourself to the journey of becoming a better <a href="https://playscrabble.com/">Scrabble player</a>, there is a timeless element of perfection to the game of Scrabble that anyone can appreciate. In a certain sense, you could say falling in love with Scrabble was immediate. You could equally say that it took me decades to reach a place in my life where I was ready to fall in love with the game. Everyone’s Scrabble love stories are different, and I greatly enjoy hearing them all. I hope you enjoyed reading mine.



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/falling-in-love-with-scrabble/">Falling in Love with Scrabble</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

I didn’t always love Scrabble. In fact, after my first few games, I decided I hated it and swore I would never play again. Not the type of storybook Falling in Love with Scrabble beginning you would expect from a North American Scrabble Champion, is it?



NO LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT



I loved to play sports as a young child, but it was my set of plastic letters of the alphabet that I brought to the park to play with, not a baseball glove. My dad used to delight me by making toast for breakfast in the shape of whatever letter I demanded. He groaned under his breath when I asked for a particularly curvaceous letter to carve, like the Q or R. As I got older, I relegated my trusty plastic alphabet to a box in the basement. I got used to eating normally-shaped pieces of toast, but I remained a voracious reader and a lover of both words and the letters that compose them.



When I was ten or so, my mom broke out the family Scrabble set for the first time, thinking it would be the perfect game for her letter-loving son. I remember feeling captivated by the look and feel of the tiles and layout of the board and sharing her expectation that I would be a natural at this game.



But then we proceeded to play.



Even when she went easy on me, I was no match for my mom. I couldn’t find long words; every so often, she would play a bingo. She understood how to deny me access to bonus squares; I inadvertently opened them for her, and she took advantage. She understood which letters worked well together, and I didn’t.



We played several games over a short span of days, and I lost every one, usually by wide margins. For all of you out there who have that one family member you just can’t beat at Scrabble, believe me when I say that I understand your experience.



I was a very sore loser at that age, and eventually, the frustration grew to be too much for me. I remember quitting midway through another blowout loss, swearing I would never play Scrabble again. My mom pleaded with me to give it some time and watch how she played and pick up those techniques, but I was set in my decision.



How in the world did this boy end up loving Scrabble, let alone becoming a champion-level player?



LOVING A DIFFERENT WORD GAME



Years passed. We tried other word games like Upwords, which I enjoyed, but always turned down gentle requests to play Scrabble again. I continued to read, play sports and video games, collect sports cards, work hard in school, and enjoy a relatively well-rounded childhood overall.



Eventually, right before I turned 15, I started having health issues that doctors eventually determined to be Crohn’s Disease. I lost a lot of weight from my already-skinny frame and wasn’t able to play sports for a while. Needing a competitive outlet, I started playing arcade-style games on the internet and somehow stumbled across a game on Yahoo called Word Racer.



Word Racer is long since gone from the web, along with the rest of Yahoo’s game pages. But it was the first word game I fell in love with, setting the stage for Scrabble in the future. If you’ve ever played the game Boggle, Word Racer was essentially a variation on classic Boggle gameplay. Players typed as fast as possible to enter words they found within a grid. Unlike traditional Boggle, the only way to score points with a word was to find it first, placing a premium on speed and quick thinking.



I can still remember the excitement of the seconds counting down to the start of each game, followed by the mad dash of the opening few seconds, with every player rushing to find the highest scoring words. Even once I recovered enough to start playing sports again, I continued to play Word Racer with increasing regularity. I found that I had some talent for the game but eventually discovered players far beyond my level. I dreamed that one day I would be as good as they were. Little did I know that I would meet many of these players at Scrabble tournaments well over a decade later.



I began to pay more careful attention to the lists of words that nobody found in each round, even making primitive spreadsheets to track my favorites. Completely by accident, I was laying the groundwork for a seamless transition to competitive Scrabble, but my focus in the moment was improving at Word Racer and Word Racer alone.



SCRABBLE RETURNS



At some point, seeing my affinity for Word Racer and other Boggle variations, my mom once again reopened the dialogue surrounding Scrabble. I wouldn’t say I had outgrown my tendency to be a sore loser, but I was at least slightly more mature at this point in my life and agreed to play. To my delight, I was much more evenly matched with my mom at this point and began to understand the allure of Scrabble as well. I remember her playing words I had never heard of before, such as VIREO (a small bird), and thinking to myself; I can use this one in Word Racer too.



Not long after this, I received the book Word Freak as a birthday gift. I remember devouring the book with gusto, amazed at the vibrant cast of characters and passionate subculture of competitive Scrabble. But somehow, it didn’t click in my mind that this was a community that would be a perfect fit for me; it felt like a great story, not a call to action.



I went off to college, where my word game playing became more sporadic. During my senior year, I started playing the game World of Warcraft. This game took an increasingly large portion of my free time as I became more addicted. I had always prided myself on being a well-rounded person with a diverse array of interests. That ceased to be the case as I poured more and more time into the game even after graduation. Eventually, I reached a breaking point where I knew something needed to change and attempted to quit.



Needing a new hobby, I received a recommendation that I try a competitive Scrabble tournament from a fellow online Boggle player who himself had played in many live Scrabble events before. The combination of my experience playing Word Racer, games of Scrabble with my mom, and familiarity with the competitive Scrabble world from Word Freak all contributed to my thought process. I eventually decided to take him up on it and find an event nearby to play, making my debut in February 2009.



LOVE, ACTUALLY



I had come to like and appreciate Scrabble, but it was until I set foot at my first tournament that I began falling in love with Scrabble, and it happened nearly instantaneously.



The first thing about falling in love with Scrabble was the community of other players. I had the pervasive sense when meeting so many other Scrabble players for the first time that I was somehow joining a new family. Here were people of all ages, backgrounds, and personality types united in a love of word games, and Scrabble in particular. To be sure, the Scrabble world welcomes the types of eccentric personalities showcased in Word Freak. But I remember feeling like these people were simply friends I hadn’t met yet.



I quickly realized that there was a great deal that I didn’t understand about the game of Scrabble. I remember my jaw dropping as another player laid down the word DRAWTUBE across two triple word scores for a massive score of over 150 points. In my decade of playing word games online, I had never once seen that word. How in the world did he know it? I remember deciding that I, too, would like to be able to know and see words like that someday.



It was only after resolving to begin that journey of learning more about Scrabble and improving at the game that I was truly falling in love with Scrabble. I loved the process of learning new words and watching my results improve. This came easily to me because I had already experienced that process with Word Racer. But I equally loved the process of learning the strategic nuances of the game, which didn’t come nearly as easily to me. That process is still ongoing and, because of Scrabble’s brilliant complexity, always will be.



When I look back at the moments that Scrabble has allowed me to experience, I can hardly believe I’ve lived them all. I remember the hair standing up on my neck when I discovered I had clinched the North American championship in 2017. Traveling to Hong Kong and Malaysia to play Scrabble for the United States in a World Cup style event. Walking out to the mound before throwing out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game. Looking up at a giant robot playing a game of Scrabble with me. These are just a few of the countless memories I owe to Scrabble.



But the beauty of Scrabble is that you don’t have to be a champion-level player to love the game truly. Whether you play at home every so often with your family and friends, or whether you’ve devoted yourself to the journey of becoming a better Scrabble player, there is a timeless element of perfection to the game of Scrabble that anyone can appreciate. In a certain sense, you could say falling in love with Scrabble was immediate. You could equally say that it took me decades to reach a place in my life where I was ready to fall in love with the game. Everyone’s Scrabble love stories are different, and I greatly enjoy hearing them all. I hope you enjoyed reading mine.



Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.
					
	The post Falling in Love with Scrabble appeared first on Scrabble.

Falling in Love with Scrabble

<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Prefixes and Suffixes Tips &amp; Tricks</h4>



Hey, <a href="https://playscrabble.com/">Scrabble Go</a> fans. We&#8217;re here with some tips about prefixes and suffixes. 
Prefixes and suffixes are groups of letters you can add to the beginning or end of a word to alter its meaning. If you&#8217;re newer to Scrabble, identifying common prefixes, and especially suffixes, when they appear on your rack is the best way to start finding longer words and eventually bingos. 
In English, suffixes are more common than prefixes because of several endings that can be added to almost any verb, like Ed and I and G. 
When you identify one of these suffixes on your rack, set it aside. All of a sudden, you have fewer letters to unscramble. 
Finding a word with seven letters is tough, but finding a word with only four or five letters combined with a suffix is much easier. Every now and then, you&#8217;ll be able to combine both a prefix and a suffix in one word. 



Start a game now and try out these tips -&gt; <a href="http://bit.ly/SGOWill" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://bit.ly/SGOWill</a>



<figure class="wp-block-video">
<div style="width: 640px;" class="wp-video">
<video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-135-1" width="640" height="360" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Prefixes-Suffixes-1.mp4?_=1" /><a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Prefixes-Suffixes-1.mp4">https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Prefixes-Suffixes-1.mp4</a></video></div>
&nbsp;
</figure>



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



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Prefixes and Suffixes Tips &amp; Tricks



Hey, Scrabble Go fans. We&#8217;re here with some tips about prefixes and suffixes. 
Prefixes and suffixes are groups of letters you can add to the beginning or end of a word to alter its meaning. If you&#8217;re newer to Scrabble, identifying common prefixes, and especially suffixes, when they appear on your rack is the best way to start finding longer words and eventually bingos. 
In English, suffixes are more common than prefixes because of several endings that can be added to almost any verb, like Ed and I and G. 
When you identify one of these suffixes on your rack, set it aside. All of a sudden, you have fewer letters to unscramble. 
Finding a word with seven letters is tough, but finding a word with only four or five letters combined with a suffix is much easier. Every now and then, you&#8217;ll be able to combine both a prefix and a suffix in one word. 



Start a game now and try out these tips -&gt; http://bit.ly/SGOWill





https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Prefixes-Suffixes-1.mp4
&nbsp;




Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.
					
	The post Scrabble Tips &#038; Tricks to Improve Your Score appeared first on Scrabble.

Scrabble Tips & Tricks to Improve Your Score

What do you know about Scrabble Bingos&#8230;?
It&#8217;s no surprise to hear that a Scrabble Bingo happens when you find words that use up all the letters on your rack. 
Bingos are the Scrabble equivalent of a home run or a touchdown. 
A Bingo in Scrabble grants you a staggering 50 points, which is a tremendous boost in your score and near-guarantees a win in most games.
Here&#8217;s what they don&#8217;t want you to know, though: The lower point letters in Scrabble are the letters most frequently seen in Bingos.
Take as much time as you need to recover from having your mind blown. 
There&#8217;s a level of strategy that takes most players years of competing to learn. That strategy is that you don&#8217;t exclusively need high-point tiles to win.
Learning to find Scrabble Bingos with lower-point tiles can be just as valuable.
When you&#8217;re just starting as a new Scrabble player, the prospect of playing Scrabble Bingos can seem daunting or even impossible. 
You have to train your eyes and reflexes.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">REDIANG JULMBED TXET</h4>



Have you ever seen this text on the internet?



<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-458" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/word-jumble.jpg" alt="" width="485" height="281" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/word-jumble.jpg 750w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/word-jumble-300x174.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px" /></figure>
</div>



Can you make sense of it?
Even if you can, you might not know why.
The human brain can read jumbled words as long as the first and last letters are correctly aligned.
Now, there&#8217;s more to unscrambling words for a Scrabble Bingo than just having the first and last letter in the right place. For example, most of the scrambled words in this image only have a couple of letters switching places. 
People, however, can read jumbled words far more quickly when the first and last letters are in the correct positions from the beginning.
If you&#8217;re just now learning how to find Scrabble Bingos, you can use this information to your advantage. 
Start with positioning different letters on your rack at the beginning and end and see if the rest of the letters fall into place. 
Don&#8217;t worry&#8211;your brain is already primed and ready to succeed at this task.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">BEGINNING AND ENDING: LETTERS &amp; SUFFIXES</h4>



Now that you&#8217;ve made it this far, we can take it one step further: using prefixes and suffixes.
There are several suffixes in Scrabble Bingos that are frequently altered. In English, verb forms, nouns, and adjectives such as -ED and -ING for verbs, -S for nouns, and -IER for adjectives.
Let&#8217;s look at some common Scrabble Bingo endings:



<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-460" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ending-letters.jpg" alt="" width="507" height="471" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ending-letters.jpg 841w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ending-letters-300x279.jpg 300w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ending-letters-768x713.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 507px) 100vw, 507px" /></figure>
</div>



You can see that the S is by far the most common ending letter mainly because it pluralizes both nouns and verbs.
But look at the other top letters on the list…. 
Thanks to the &#8211;ED suffix, the frequency of D is exceptionally high. 
You&#8217;ll find the R gets a big boost with the -ER noun form and the -IER adjective form. 
You&#8217;ll find that the G owes its spot on the list to the -ING verb form. 
Additionally, the Y appears in suffixes like -LY.
If these combinations are present on your rack, set them in order, stand back, and look at what you find.
Honestly, you&#8217;ll be amazed.
And not just because you&#8217;ll be THAT much closer to a Scrabble Bingo.
One more example…
If you have ERS, then set the letters at the end of your rack. 
Now you have to find a word with your other four tiles or a word with those tiles through a tile on the board. 
If you find one, congratulations &#8211; you&#8217;ve found a bingo!
You can see that the starting letters are more uniform than the ending letters. 
You&#8217;ll find that due to the way English words change, their first forms tend to stay the same.



<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" class="wp-image-461" src="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/starting-letters.jpg" alt="" width="497" height="463" srcset="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/starting-letters.jpg 839w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/starting-letters-300x280.jpg 300w, https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/starting-letters-768x716.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px" /></figure>
</div>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">WORD STUDY TOOLS</h4>



However, there are lots of Scrabble bingos out there that don’t have common suffixes or prefixes. Finding these can be much more difficult and takes time and practice.



After my first live Scrabble tournament, I was inspired to practice anagramming 7 and 8 letter words to improve my ability to play bingos. So I used a study tool called Zyzzyva to give myself short anagram quizzes every day.



Zyzzyva can search for words by how likely they are to appear on your rack. For example, the lower point tiles appear much more frequently in Scrabble than tiles like the J, Q, X, or Z. Therefore, learning to spot words composed primarily of low point tiles is the quickest way to improve your bingo ability.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">PATTERN RECOGNITION</h4>



I still remember how difficult it was for me to anagram the word SCENARIO at first. With those letters, you would expect the S to come at the end of the word, and certainly not the O, which rarely appears at the end of words.



Words like SCENARIO often take time and practice to see for this reason. I had my study tool give me the jumbled word in alphabetical order, known as an alphagram, every day for weeks before I could spot the word immediately.



That means each day; I would be given the letters ACEINORS to unscramble. Over time, finding words like this becomes an exercise in pattern recognition instead of unscrambling the word from scratch. 



It’s a very different process of finding words than using suffixes and prefixes, but many words with unique starting and ending letters are very difficult to find without practice.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">GOING FURTHER</h4>



If you’ve never played a bingo in a game of Scrabble before, take heart. It took me years after my first <a href="https://playscrabble.com/">game of Scrabble</a> to play one myself. So first, start with common suffixes to help you form as much of your word as possible before you start unscrambling letters. Then, if you want to improve, even more, consider using a study tool to identify the most commonly seen bingo length words and spend a couple of minutes each day practicing those words. With time and practice, you’ll add that extra dimension of bingoing to your game.



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Do you want to discuss this article with the community? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#categories/blog-discussions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.</a></h6>
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What do you know about Scrabble Bingos&#8230;?
It&#8217;s no surprise to hear that a Scrabble Bingo happens when you find words that use up all the letters on your rack. 
Bingos are the Scrabble equivalent of a home run or a touchdown. 
A Bingo in Scrabble grants you a staggering 50 points, which is a tremendous boost in your score and near-guarantees a win in most games.
Here&#8217;s what they don&#8217;t want you to know, though: The lower point letters in Scrabble are the letters most frequently seen in Bingos.
Take as much time as you need to recover from having your mind blown. 
There&#8217;s a level of strategy that takes most players years of competing to learn. That strategy is that you don&#8217;t exclusively need high-point tiles to win.
Learning to find Scrabble Bingos with lower-point tiles can be just as valuable.
When you&#8217;re just starting as a new Scrabble player, the prospect of playing Scrabble Bingos can seem daunting or even impossible. 
You have to train your eyes and reflexes.



REDIANG JULMBED TXET



Have you ever seen this text on the internet?









Can you make sense of it?
Even if you can, you might not know why.
The human brain can read jumbled words as long as the first and last letters are correctly aligned.
Now, there&#8217;s more to unscrambling words for a Scrabble Bingo than just having the first and last letter in the right place. For example, most of the scrambled words in this image only have a couple of letters switching places. 
People, however, can read jumbled words far more quickly when the first and last letters are in the correct positions from the beginning.
If you&#8217;re just now learning how to find Scrabble Bingos, you can use this information to your advantage. 
Start with positioning different letters on your rack at the beginning and end and see if the rest of the letters fall into place. 
Don&#8217;t worry&#8211;your brain is already primed and ready to succeed at this task.



BEGINNING AND ENDING: LETTERS &amp; SUFFIXES



Now that you&#8217;ve made it this far, we can take it one step further: using prefixes and suffixes.
There are several suffixes in Scrabble Bingos that are frequently altered. In English, verb forms, nouns, and adjectives such as -ED and -ING for verbs, -S for nouns, and -IER for adjectives.
Let&#8217;s look at some common Scrabble Bingo endings:









You can see that the S is by far the most common ending letter mainly because it pluralizes both nouns and verbs.
But look at the other top letters on the list…. 
Thanks to the &#8211;ED suffix, the frequency of D is exceptionally high. 
You&#8217;ll find the R gets a big boost with the -ER noun form and the -IER adjective form. 
You&#8217;ll find that the G owes its spot on the list to the -ING verb form. 
Additionally, the Y appears in suffixes like -LY.
If these combinations are present on your rack, set them in order, stand back, and look at what you find.
Honestly, you&#8217;ll be amazed.
And not just because you&#8217;ll be THAT much closer to a Scrabble Bingo.
One more example…
If you have ERS, then set the letters at the end of your rack. 
Now you have to find a word with your other four tiles or a word with those tiles through a tile on the board. 
If you find one, congratulations &#8211; you&#8217;ve found a bingo!
You can see that the starting letters are more uniform than the ending letters. 
You&#8217;ll find that due to the way English words change, their first forms tend to stay the same.









WORD STUDY TOOLS



However, there are lots of Scrabble bingos out there that don’t have common suffixes or prefixes. Finding these can be much more difficult and takes time and practice.



After my first live Scrabble tournament, I was inspired to practice anagramming 7 and 8 letter words to improve my ability to play bingos. So I used a study tool called Zyzzyva to give myself short anagram quizzes every day.



Zyzzyva can search for words by how likely they are to appear on your rack. For example, the lower point tiles appear much more frequently in Scrabble than tiles like the J, Q, X, or Z. Therefore, learning to spot words composed primarily of low point tiles is the quickest way to improve your bingo ability.



PATTERN RECOGNITION



I still remember how difficult it was for me to anagram the word SCENARIO at first. With those letters, you would expect the S to come at the end of the word, and certainly not the O, which rarely appears at the end of words.



Words like SCENARIO often take time and practice to see for this reason. I had my study tool give me the jumbled word in alphabetical order, known as an alphagram, every day for weeks before I could spot the word immediately.



That means each day; I would be given the letters ACEINORS to unscramble. Over time, finding words like this becomes an exercise in pattern recognition instead of unscrambling the word from scratch. 



It’s a very different process of finding words than using suffixes and prefixes, but many words with unique starting and ending letters are very difficult to find without practice.



GOING FURTHER



If you’ve never played a bingo in a game of Scrabble before, take heart. It took me years after my first game of Scrabble to play one myself. So first, start with common suffixes to help you form as much of your word as possible before you start unscrambling letters. Then, if you want to improve, even more, consider using a study tool to identify the most commonly seen bingo length words and spend a couple of minutes each day practicing those words. With time and practice, you’ll add that extra dimension of bingoing to your game.



Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.
					
	The post Scrabble Bingos &#8211; Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Scrabble.

Scrabble Bingos – Everything You Need to Know

There are so many reasons to love the game of Scrabble, most of which will be familiar to players of any experience level. You might love word games or classic games in general. Maybe you grew up playing with your family, and it holds a special place in your heart. Finally, you might enjoy the game’s unique blend of language, mathematics, geometry, and probability. 



Whatever your reasons are for loving Scrabble, there’s no right or wrong. I love hearing stories about how people came to fall in love with the game (here’s mine: link). However, in my experience as a competitive Scrabble player for over a decade, I’ve realized that there are even more reasons to love the game than you might expect. Here are three reasons to love Scrabble that you may not have considered before.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. EVERY GAME BECOMES UNIQUE NEARLY INSTANTLY</h4>



In Scrabble, every game involves finding words from a rack of tiles. And there are principles that you can learn that apply to almost every game. First, use your high-scoring letters to score a lot of points. Second, try to reach the most valuable bonus squares on the board when you can. Third, find bingos (words that use all 7 of your tiles) to earn 50 bonus points. Finally, look at the tiles yet to be played to guide your choices towards the end of a game.



I love Scrabble because while many of its foundational concepts are consistent from game to game, the way each game plays out is a complete surprise. Because of the sheer number of words in the dictionary, Scrabble games typically become unique after just two moves. That means the game you’ve just started is different from any game of Scrabble that’s been played before. So if you’ve ever enjoyed a game at first only to become bored with repetitive gameplay over time, rest assured: this will never happen to you with Scrabble.



Every game holds the promise of an exciting word you’ve never played, a rarely-seen strategic situation, or an electrifying conclusion. In chess, games between elite players often take between 10 and 20 moves to reach a novel position. Scrabble reaches novelty significantly earlier, no matter the skill level of the players involved in the game.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. SCRABBLE SATISFIES OUR IMPULSE TO COLLECT</h4>



As a child, I loved collecting things. Not long after I learned to walk, I developed a passion for collecting sticks and lining them up in rows. Pictures of me as a toddler often reveal a bundle of sticks laid neatly on the ground nearby or collected in my closed hand, ready for arrangement. As I grew older, I began to collect sports cards, then Marvel, Magic: The Gathering, and Star Wars card sets. I loved the feeling of acquiring a new card. Sometimes, if I was dedicated enough, I could assemble a full set. I remember proudly beholding a season’s worth of basketball or football cards formed after months of effort.



I also loved video games with collection mechanics, including Pokemon, the Final Fantasy series, the Grand Theft Auto series, and several classic Nintendo franchises, like Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario 64. There’s something deeply satisfying about collecting everything a great game has to offer, spanning the journey from zero to 100 percent over time.



For me, <a href="https://playscrabble.com/dictionary">the Scrabble dictionary</a> holds this very same allure. In Scrabble, you can think of the words you know in the dictionary as part of a huge collection, just waiting for you to add more. Of course, it’s already a lot of fun to learn a new word. Learning about an object or concept you’ve never heard of before expands your knowledge of the world and broadens your horizons. But as a Scrabble player, adding words to your ‘collection’ will improve your experience as a player and make the game even more interesting. Not to mention you’ll find yourself finally defeating that relative or friend who you just can’t seem to beat.



It can be daunting at first. The dictionary is huge. Even though you’d be surprised how many words in the dictionary you already know, there’s still a lot of words you’ve probably never seen before. But once you’ve started on your journey of learning more words, it starts to be a lot of fun to continue onward. For more information on how I “collect” new words into my Scrabble vocabulary, I made a video on the topic you might find helpful here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSh-6GWxqws" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube Video</a>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. SCRABBLE HAS LONGEVITY</h4>



As I just mentioned, I grew up playing video games. I remember playing certain games avidly for long periods before moving on to the next big game to be released. Now and then, you might come across a video game so well designed that it retains its freshness for decades into the future. But most video games, even the most popular ones in their eras, eventually fade into memory after enough time passes.



Scrabble, on the other hand, has been around for over 80 years. It’s been a popular, universally recognized board game for the vast majority of that time. According to a theory known as the Lindy Effect, the future life expectancy of non-perishable items like technology or ideas can be measured by how long those items have already existed. In other words, if an idea or a game has been around for an extremely long time, the odds are very good that it will continue to be around for an extremely long time into the future.



By this principle, chess, which is over 1,500 years old, has perhaps the longest life expectancy of any game apart from backgammon or go. On the other hand, Scrabble is a game with impressive longevity of its own compared to almost any other game outside of these other classics.



As a gamer at heart, something I love about Scrabble is that my investment of time and energy in the game is very likely to pay dividends for me throughout the rest of my life. I can’t say that about very many other games I’ve played. Most of the video games I’ve played have receded into the past. Now and then, I boot up a classic game that used to be a favorite. I’m usually mystified as to how I ever felt the game to be cutting-edge.



Scrabble’s appeal goes beyond graphics and derives primarily from its elegant, simplistic design combined with nearly limitless complexity. Because Scrabble has already proven itself to have staying power, the odds of the game persisting long into the future are nearly assured. And when you’re picking a game to play more often, take more seriously, or even fall in love with, isn’t that comforting to think about?



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#discussion/19/%EF%B8%8F-contribute-to-the-scrabble-blog/p1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click this link to send us your article.</a></h6>



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Do you want to discuss this article with the community? <a href="https://playscrabble.com/community-forums#categories/blog-discussions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.</a></h6>
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	The post <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com/three-reasons-to-love-scrabble-that-youve-never-heard-before/">3 Reasons to Love Scrabble You’ve Never Heard Before!</a> appeared first on <a href="https://scrabbleblog.wpengine.com">Scrabble</a>.

There are so many reasons to love the game of Scrabble, most of which will be familiar to players of any experience level. You might love word games or classic games in general. Maybe you grew up playing with your family, and it holds a special place in your heart. Finally, you might enjoy the game’s unique blend of language, mathematics, geometry, and probability. 



Whatever your reasons are for loving Scrabble, there’s no right or wrong. I love hearing stories about how people came to fall in love with the game (here’s mine: link). However, in my experience as a competitive Scrabble player for over a decade, I’ve realized that there are even more reasons to love the game than you might expect. Here are three reasons to love Scrabble that you may not have considered before.



1. EVERY GAME BECOMES UNIQUE NEARLY INSTANTLY



In Scrabble, every game involves finding words from a rack of tiles. And there are principles that you can learn that apply to almost every game. First, use your high-scoring letters to score a lot of points. Second, try to reach the most valuable bonus squares on the board when you can. Third, find bingos (words that use all 7 of your tiles) to earn 50 bonus points. Finally, look at the tiles yet to be played to guide your choices towards the end of a game.



I love Scrabble because while many of its foundational concepts are consistent from game to game, the way each game plays out is a complete surprise. Because of the sheer number of words in the dictionary, Scrabble games typically become unique after just two moves. That means the game you’ve just started is different from any game of Scrabble that’s been played before. So if you’ve ever enjoyed a game at first only to become bored with repetitive gameplay over time, rest assured: this will never happen to you with Scrabble.



Every game holds the promise of an exciting word you’ve never played, a rarely-seen strategic situation, or an electrifying conclusion. In chess, games between elite players often take between 10 and 20 moves to reach a novel position. Scrabble reaches novelty significantly earlier, no matter the skill level of the players involved in the game.



2. SCRABBLE SATISFIES OUR IMPULSE TO COLLECT



As a child, I loved collecting things. Not long after I learned to walk, I developed a passion for collecting sticks and lining them up in rows. Pictures of me as a toddler often reveal a bundle of sticks laid neatly on the ground nearby or collected in my closed hand, ready for arrangement. As I grew older, I began to collect sports cards, then Marvel, Magic: The Gathering, and Star Wars card sets. I loved the feeling of acquiring a new card. Sometimes, if I was dedicated enough, I could assemble a full set. I remember proudly beholding a season’s worth of basketball or football cards formed after months of effort.



I also loved video games with collection mechanics, including Pokemon, the Final Fantasy series, the Grand Theft Auto series, and several classic Nintendo franchises, like Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario 64. There’s something deeply satisfying about collecting everything a great game has to offer, spanning the journey from zero to 100 percent over time.



For me, the Scrabble dictionary holds this very same allure. In Scrabble, you can think of the words you know in the dictionary as part of a huge collection, just waiting for you to add more. Of course, it’s already a lot of fun to learn a new word. Learning about an object or concept you’ve never heard of before expands your knowledge of the world and broadens your horizons. But as a Scrabble player, adding words to your ‘collection’ will improve your experience as a player and make the game even more interesting. Not to mention you’ll find yourself finally defeating that relative or friend who you just can’t seem to beat.



It can be daunting at first. The dictionary is huge. Even though you’d be surprised how many words in the dictionary you already know, there’s still a lot of words you’ve probably never seen before. But once you’ve started on your journey of learning more words, it starts to be a lot of fun to continue onward. For more information on how I “collect” new words into my Scrabble vocabulary, I made a video on the topic you might find helpful here: YouTube Video



3. SCRABBLE HAS LONGEVITY



As I just mentioned, I grew up playing video games. I remember playing certain games avidly for long periods before moving on to the next big game to be released. Now and then, you might come across a video game so well designed that it retains its freshness for decades into the future. But most video games, even the most popular ones in their eras, eventually fade into memory after enough time passes.



Scrabble, on the other hand, has been around for over 80 years. It’s been a popular, universally recognized board game for the vast majority of that time. According to a theory known as the Lindy Effect, the future life expectancy of non-perishable items like technology or ideas can be measured by how long those items have already existed. In other words, if an idea or a game has been around for an extremely long time, the odds are very good that it will continue to be around for an extremely long time into the future.



By this principle, chess, which is over 1,500 years old, has perhaps the longest life expectancy of any game apart from backgammon or go. On the other hand, Scrabble is a game with impressive longevity of its own compared to almost any other game outside of these other classics.



As a gamer at heart, something I love about Scrabble is that my investment of time and energy in the game is very likely to pay dividends for me throughout the rest of my life. I can’t say that about very many other games I’ve played. Most of the video games I’ve played have receded into the past. Now and then, I boot up a classic game that used to be a favorite. I’m usually mystified as to how I ever felt the game to be cutting-edge.



Scrabble’s appeal goes beyond graphics and derives primarily from its elegant, simplistic design combined with nearly limitless complexity. Because Scrabble has already proven itself to have staying power, the odds of the game persisting long into the future are nearly assured. And when you’re picking a game to play more often, take more seriously, or even fall in love with, isn’t that comforting to think about?



Would you like to contribute to the Scrabble Blog? Click this link to send us your article.



Do you want to discuss this article with the community? Visit the forum with this link to start a conversation.
					
	The post 3 Reasons to Love Scrabble You’ve Never Heard Before! appeared first on Scrabble.