Strategy to Improve Your Score Ana Valdez English 314 October 17, 2006 Introduction to the Game A History Rules of Play Developing Strategy During the Great Depression, an unemployed architect named Alfred Butts developed the first version of what he titled “Lexico” - a game that combined the element of chance with skill. Players formed words using letter tiles and placing them on a board crossword-style. Originally, word length determined score, but after Butts’ careful study of letter occurrence on the front page of the New York Times, he gave individual letter tiles point values according to how often they appeared. After five years of no commercial success and rejection from both Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers to manufacture Lexico, Butts’ friend James Burnot bought the game, simplified the rules, rearranged premium squares on the board, and renamed it Scrabble. The game was Copyrighted in 1948, but was still produced through low-scale operations. Then Jack Strauss, the owner of Macy’s Department Store, discovered and fell in love with game. After he began selling Scrabble at his store, the game became a must-have for every household. Since then, 100 million sets of Scrabble have been sold in 29 languages and 121 countries, making it the most popular language game ever produced. Scrabble is a word game for two to four people. Players form words using up to seven letter tiles to score. Certain spots on the board are bonus squares that multiply letter or word point values. Words must be interconnected and placed on the 15 x 15 board left to right, top to bottom in crossword fashion. Words are only valid if they are in The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. After a player makes a word, he draws random letters to replace those he used. Instead of using a turn to make a word, a player can exchange up to seven of his tiles and redraw new letters. Players can also challenge the validity of words opponents spell. If the word is incorrect, the player who made the word must remove it and his turn is over. Play continues until one player has placed all letters on the board or until no player can make a word after three successive attempts. The highest score wins. The key to playing Scrabble is developing strategy. Knowing which letters to use when and where is critical. This manual provides instructional methods for beginners to improve game tactics and maximize points. 2 Letter Usage Power Tiles Vowels The easiest way to improve your Scrabble strategy is to exploit the power tiles. These are the Q, K, Z, X and J tiles, the highest scoring individual letters, shown in Figure 1. Even if the letters are not played on a bonus square, their point value alone can boost your score. However, these coveted letters are best played in short, easy-to-memorize words (and on bonus squares—obviously). It’s much easier said than done, but this can greatly improve your ability to create power-tile words. Words that contain Q but not U are always handy. Some easy ones include qat, qaid, tranq, qanat, and qindar. They are short and contain common letters to combine with Q. Whether the Q is played on a double letter bonus square or the word is placed on a triple word square, you’re guaranteed to score 22-48 points with just those words. Other words to learn include short words that combine the power tiles. Try using jax, zek, kex, zax, jinx, or quiz. They’re easy to spell and short enough to have space on the board for playing them. Keep in mind that using short words also blocks power tiles in tight areas, making it difficult for them to be reused. See the Appendix for additional power-tile words to play. All good Scrabble players need to know how to get rid of a rack of vowels. Two out of every five letters drawn are likely to be vowels, so it’s a good idea to know words that contain mostly vowels in case you’re faced with letter combinations like those in Figure 2. These words may sound strange, but they’re great tools for dumping vowels: eerie, aalii, louie, cooee, zoeae, and aquae. Note that the last two words contain Z and Q, respectively. If these power tiles are open on the board, try to get rid of your vowels next to them and score even more points. If you’re not overwhelmed with vowels, you can still make use of this tactic. For example, any vowel can be added to the letter X to make a two-letter word. These are ax, ex, xi, ox, and xu. You can almost always make a play with one vowel if you’re stuck, but make the most out of that vowel and tack it onto a power tile. The Appendix contains other two-letter words that use a vowel and a power tile. Figure 1 Did you know? A qindar is a subunit of Albanian currency. Kex are dried, hollow plat stems. A cooee is a call to attract a person’s attention. Xi is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet. Figure 2 3 High Score Moves High Points Word Expanders High scores absolutely require good use of the bonus squares. Doubling or tripling word and letter scores can win a game. The best use of letter bonus squares is certainly with a power tile. The word squares give a high return for playing power tiles as well, but also highly reward adding stems to words to create new words. Figure 3 shows this: adding mis– to fired on a triple word square scored 42 points. This tactic is key for high-scoring players. Look for letters already on the board that are close to double or triple word squares. Consider using those letters while you try to create words from the letters on your rack. This will help you find a word to play in a premium location. Remember to protect premium squares for yourself as well. Do not leave a vowel on the board next to an open bonus square. This allows your opponent to easily place a consonant (with a good probability of having a high point value) next to the open vowel on the bonus space. Figure 3 Discussing high point strategy introduces an important concept: adding stems to words to create longer words. This an excellent way to benefit from letter values already played on the board. Shuffle your tiles often to find potential stems. This helps you see more play possibilities. Look for common letter groups, like non-, mis-, mid-, dis-, -able, -ful, and -ize, to add to words on the board. These prefixes and suffices are simple ways to expand root words. Another way to add onto words is to look at the letters in STARLINE. This combination of eight letters can easily be rearranged into hundreds of stems and even whole words (see Figure 4 for some ideas). Always try to keep at least two letters from STARLINE on your rack. They are the most common letters used in stems and can usually make a play if your other letters can not be used. In addition to learning common stems, familiarize yourself with common root words. Some of the best include light, stag, aqua, and tax. Figure 4 ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Light: alight, backlight, delight, skylight, enlighten, highlight, jacklight, twilight Stag: hostage, postage, upstage, stagecoach, wastage, staggy Aqua: aquade, aquaria, aquatic, paraquat, aquarist Tax: ataxia, ataxy, eutaxy, overtax, taxon, pretax, subtaxa, syntax, taxicab The Appendix contains a helpful list of common word stems and roots. 4 Thinking Ahead Rack Management To make the most of your letters, manage them! Learning to save letters can be hard to do, but you must master the temptation to play them before considering your options. Keep blank tiles for words late in the game when there is less flexibility with word placement. However, longer words are best played early in the game when there is more available space. The following tips are particularly helpful for managing the letters S and Y: ♦ Add the letter in front of or after a word already on the board to create a primary word. ♦ Also use the letter to create a secondary word perpendicular to the primary word. ♦ Try to save a valuable consonant to play in the secondary word. ♦ Ideally, make this play over a bonus square. Figure 5 shows an S being added to pat to make spat, the primary word. The S also spells a secondary word, sex, vertically, using a power tile and covering a triple word square. This scored 36 points. Either word alone would have been only 6 or 10 points. Defense Figure 5 You may not realize it, but every play in Scrabble is both offensive and defensive. How so? The word you play is offensive, because it scores you points. The play is also defensive if you’ve considered word location, proximity to bonus squares, and the leftover letters in your rack. Figure 6 shows a play that does not incorporate defense: wok is left unguarded, adjacent to an open double word square. Your opponent could easily pluralize this on his next turn and create a secondary word, perhaps tripling the points you earned for wok originally. Do not make your play unless you’ve considered what your next play will be. If you neglect this, you may have to exchange your letters and sacrifice scoring points on that turn. Do not leave vowels or valuable consonants open next to bonus squares, either. Be conscious of these things before every word you make. Figure 6 5 Game Time It’s your turn Scrabble Resources Now that you’ve been exposed to strategies for playing Scrabble, it’s time to put what you’ve learned into action. Try these tips next time you play a game to see how much they affect your score and the way you approach choosing which letters to play. Are you shuffling your tiles to find as many words as you can? Do you find yourself keeping track of words and letters close to bonus squares? Are you considering what your opponent will play after you, and what you will do next? You should. Perhaps the tactics in this document inspired other strategies you would like to try. This is excellent. Skills are meant to build on themselves. If you practice playing Scrabble with strategy, you will certainly become a better player. Good luck! Check out these helpful resources for improving your Scrabble strategy: ♦ Memorize word lists under Tips and Tools at: http://www.hasbro.com/scrabble/home.cfm ♦ Type in letter combinations to see word outputs at: http://www.puzzledepot.com/wordfinder2/wordlists.html ♦ Choose a word to see possible expansions at: http://www.thewordlist.com/myPHPnuke/html/rootwords. php ♦ Play Scrabble on CD-ROM for practice against the computer (available at Amazon.com, Best Buy, and other gaming stores). ♦ Purchase The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (available at Barnes and Noble, Target, and other bookstores). ♦ Last but not least, buy a Scrabble game set if you do not already own one! (Look for one online or at any department or gift store.) 6 Appendix: Word Lists QAT QOPH QANAT QINDAR QWERTY QINDARKA QAID FAQIR TRANQ QINTAR SHEQEL SHEQELIM JAX KAZOO JOKE KEX ZAX JEEZ JEZAIL ZEK QUIZ JINX AEON ODEA BEAU IOTA LIAISE UNEASE OLIO LATU ASEA AUROUS TAENIA COOEES Vowel + Power AX XI EX QI XU JO OX KI ZA Common Stems NONANTIMIDDISCONREEXPRECOM- -ABLE -FUL -LY -IZE -FY -ISM -ER -LE -ING TAX LIMP STAG EXAM IMP TONIC ATOM LIGHT AQUA EXTRA WAX RIFT Q without U Words Power Tile Combos Vowel Swamp Common Roots These words, and many others, are all in The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, which contains all the words legal in a game of Scrabble. 7 Sources “A2Z WordFinder: Scrabble Word Lists and Tips.” A2ZNews.com. 2006. http:// www.puzzledepot.com/wordfinder2/wordlists.html. 15 October 2006. “All About Scrabble.” Hasbro.com. 2006. http://www.hasbro.com/scrabble/pl/page.history/dn/ home.cfm. 12 October 2006. Hammond, Christina. Personal Interview. 8 October 2006. Hammond, Christopher. Personal Interview. 8 October 2006. “Scrabble.” Wikipedia.com. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble. 6 October 2006. “Scrabble History.” 2006. http://www.mattelscrabble.com/en/adults/history/index.html. 7 October 2006. Stern, Linda J. “Doublecross/Wordox Lists and Tools.” The Word List. 2001. http:// www.thewordlist.com/myPHPnuke/html/index.php. 14 October 2006. Photographs courtesy of Christina Hammond. 8