Mark Nyman - Collins Little Book of Scrabble Secrets

Mark Nyman is pretty cool, off and on the Scrabble board. He takes the game seriously but also gets a lot of fun out of it. I was in the audience when Mark won the 1993 World Championships. As a sports enthusiast, Ive been to a few sporting events Wimbledon Finals, World Cup Cricket, etc and I can honestly say that Ive never experienced an atmosphere like that. Trailing 2 games to 1 in a best of 5 final to the Canadian Joel Wapnick, Mark recovered from a 180 point deficit in the fourth game to win that game, going on to take the title. Yes, people were standing on their seats and cheering over a game of Scrabble! I was also at the 1999 World Final where he lost the deciding game to the same opponent by just one point.

Uniquely amongst the worlds best players, Mark has experienced the highs and lows of Scrabble at its ultimate level, but he has retained his passion and joy for the game. This comes across, in spades, in this short but comprehensive book, aimed at beginners but with something for players of all abilities even if its just the skulduggery section, which is a must-read! This second edition has been revised so that it is in line with the latest publication of the authorized Scrabble wordlist Collins Official Scrabble Words. Philip Nelkon 4-time National Scrabble Champion

Blockers are words which cannot have a letter added to either the beginning or the end. This means blockers often close down part of the board. Bonuses are words, usually seven or eight letters long, which use all of your tiles to give you an extra 50 points. Hooks are words than can be transformed into another valid word by the addition of a single letter at the beginning or the end. Hooks are words than can be transformed into another valid word by the addition of a single letter at the beginning or the end.

For example: EARFUL can take a T at the front to make TEARFUL SEA can take a T at the end to make SEAT

Scrabble study always starts with the 2-letter words. The most useful of these are the ones with the highest-scoring letters, i.e. the Q and Z . So lets begin with the three most useful words in Scrabble:

QI	Life force
ZA	Pizza
ZO	Himalayan cattle

So if an I , A or O is directly below or to the right of a triple letter square, you could place the Q or Z on it and, if you can go across/down with the same word, a potential 62 points can be picked up, much to the consternation of your opponent! A common myth amongst Scrabble beginners is that the longer the word, the higher the score this is not necessarily true at all. You may AGONIZE for as little as 17 if you dont make good use of the premium squares, whereas as in secret 1 a simple ZO or ZA might get you 62 on the same turn be economical with your tiles. S , C and P respectively are the most common starting letters and together comprise over a quarter of the words in the dictionary.

So when moving your rack around its a good idea to put them at the beginning a profusion of words arise from such useful prefixes as: SEMI- , SUB- CH- , CO- POLY- , PRE-

Whether or not to insist on knowing the meanings of words played is a controversial topic and can lead to lots of arguments. The official rule is that you dont have to know them, but some people still think its just not right. If you are playing at home and insist on knowing the meanings it can lead to trouble because its a moot point how close you have to get to the exact definition. For example, you may play ZLOTY knowing its a type of currency, but your opponent may insist on you explaining from which country it originates. If you dont know, will they let you have the word? These inconsistencies can cause a fallout, so far better to stick to the not having to know rule for peaces sake. Its great to find out the meanings, but when there are 157,000 Scrabble words with 9 letters or less, it would take an incredible mind to know every meaning as well as every word.

Personally, I would rather learn a new word than a meaning of an existing word I know (shock horror), but I do enjoy picking up some of the meanings along the way. Former World Champion Pakorn Nemitrmansuk from Thailand struggles with fluent English and doesnt bother with the meanings of the more outlandish words. On the other hand, Scrabble is a great learning tool for improving vocabulary, so at the end of the day its whatever floats your boat. Just dont sneer at your opponent if they dont know a definition unless you think theyd do the same to you.

The 6-letter combination PARDON goes with every vowel to make an unusual 7-letter word and thereby give a possible 50-point bonus:

PARDON	+ A	PANDORA sea bream
+ E	PADRONE Italian inn owner
+ I	PONIARD dagger
+ O	PANDOOR a force of brutal Croatian soldiers
+ U	PANDOUR " " " "

By the way PARDON ME is an anagram of POMANDER . Use all of your 25 minutes when you play to a clock.

Dont rush into playing the first move you think of theres usually a better move you havent spotted yet. Its also worth giving yourself a couple of extra seconds after placing your move on the board and before hitting the clock to make sure youre happy with it.

There are no less than thirteen different variations of the word HELLO : HALLO HALLALOO HALLOA HALLOO HILLO HILLOA HOLLA HOLLO HOLLOA HOLLOO HULLO HULLOA HULLOO They are all verbs (apart from HALLALOO ) and HALLOES , HELLOES , HILLOES , HOLLOES and HULLOES are also okay, so there are forty-five derivatives altogether. Too many vowels on your rack can lead to disaster. Generally, the ideal ratio of consonants to vowels is 4:3. So having four vowels is a slight overload but fairly easily remedied five or more and the alarm bells start ringing.

In this case, it can take two or three turns to restore the balance, and the worst of it is you are unlikely to score well in the meantime since the vowels are worth only one point at face value. Here are some examples of lovely vowelly words to get you out of trouble quickly:

AE	one
AI	slow moving shaggy South American animal
EA	a river
IO	moth
OI	shout for attention
OU	man
AIA	Eastern female servant
AUA	mullet
AUE	Maori exclamation
EAU	a river
EUOI	a cry of Bacchic frenzy
EUOUAE	a Gregorian cadence

Its amazing how often EUOI especially comes up those followers of Bacchus had some fun didnt they? You can easily get out of a sticky situation with multiple A s if you know some of these:

AA	volcanic lava
AAL	Asian tree
ABA	Syrian camel-haired cloth
AKA	New Zealand vine
ALA	wing
AMA	water vessel
ANA	collection of reminiscences
AVA	Polynesian shrub
AWA	away
CAA	to call
FAA	fall
MAA	to bleat
ACAI	Brazilian berry