More than 80 years ago, the American Engineer Alfred Mosher Butts, who was unemployed at the time, invented Scrabble. Since then it has spread to almost every country in the world. It has even been adapted to languages other than English. Scrabble has become one of the most popular board games worldwide. The game is only made of two main components; the board and the tiles. The Scrabble board is a 225 square grid, while the tiles, 100 in total, have letters of the alphabet and the number of points each letter gives you. To win a scrabble game, you need to create words that score higher than your opponent’s.
This is easier said than done, but fear not, with these scrabble strategies you will play like an expert.
Don’t underestimate twos and threes
Most inexperienced players usually underestimate short words made of only two or three letters. They usually opt for longer words. However, these little ones can drive your score to the roof when used wisely. They can also be useful because you can add a letter or two to them and make a whole new word. Two-letter words like “in”, “he”, “is”, and “ox” could easily become “fin”, “the” “his”, and “fox”. The same goes for three-letter words like “air”, “eat “ and”car “ can become”fair “,”feat “, and “carb”.
Improve your vocabulary
Scrabble is a game that depends on two essential skills: Knowing many words and being able to spell them with the letter tiles in front of you. This may seem like a no-brainer, but the question is how? There are many ways in which you could expand your vocabulary. You could follow a word of the day program or you could read the dictionary and get better acquainted with new words you haven’t heard of before.
But what use would it be knowing the words if your mind blanks at the sight of scrambled letters! To beat your fears and enhance your Scrabble skills you could go over a list of unscrambled words on the internet, or opt for a word unscrambler when the competition is too fierce. These smart tools allow you to make the best out of the tiles you’re dealing with. This way, you could find every possible variation, giving you an immediate advantage and making an expert out of you.
Use the high scorers
In Scrabble, not all letters are created equally. Take advantage of letters like Q (worth 10 points), X (Worth 8 points), and J (Worth 8 points). It could be a slam-dunk for you if you manage to source words using these high scorers on boxes that give you double or triple letter score, or better yet, double or triple word score.
The issue with the letter Q, however, is that not many words use that letter and the ones that do usually have it followed by the letter U. This is tricky because there are only four “U” tiles in the game, and they would probably be used in other words. Do not despair, there is a way out. Luckily there are a number of words that use the letter Q without attaching it to the “U” including faqir, niqab, qadi, and qi, learn them and you would have a serious strategic advantage over your competitors.
Utilize add ons
Piggybacking on words your opponent has already scored is a smart and slick way to win. The easy way to do it is by adding the letter “S” at the end of the word, making it plural or changing its tense, but be careful; the “s” is a precious letter so don’t waste it unless it increases your score substantially. Another way to do it is by adding a prefix before the word or a suffix after it. Knowing your prefixes and suffixes can boost your score. For example, “play” could become “player” and “toxic” could become “nontoxic” and that way you get the score of the original word (without multiplication even if it is on a multiplying square) in addition to the score of the letters you added.
Bingo!
No, not that bingo. In a game of Scrabble Bingos are words that include all the letters in your hand. These majestic ones give you satisfaction and earn you the envy of your opponents, but that’s not all. Bingo words grant you fifty score points in addition to your original word’s score. A couple of those and you would have the game in your pocket.
In the age of cyberspace technology and online gaming, board games in general, and Scrabble in particular, have remained popular among different age groups in every country on the map. This board game can keep any group of friends entertained. So, arm yourself with these strategies and prepare for hours of healthy competition and a lot of fun.