Tips from the Champions – Barry Grossman

Barry Grossman, author of Play like a Scrabble Champion, tells us his top tips.

1. There are several places on the board to play a 5-letter word where you can double the score of the first or last letter, and also double the whole word. So learning some words beginning or ending with JQXZ like AFLAJ, TRANQ, XOANA and ZOOEA can pay dividends.

2. Always mentally check whether a word played by you or your opponent can have a letter added to the beginning or end to form a new word. If so, you may be able to play a word at right angles to the one on the board and score for two words.

3. Remember American spellings are part of the Collins Official Scrabble Words, so you can play words like COLOR, MATH and COEDITS.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.

Related Articles

Other Articles

Using the letter G

The G is generally best got rid of as soon as possible (you will notice ‘guest’ begins with G – is this just coincidence?). Less experienced players often get very excited when they get -ING on their rack, thinking they will make a seven-letter word with it. It’s not as… Read More

Words with American spellings

Scrabble has always allowed American spellings – more than ever since the North American word list was incorporated into the one used by the rest of the world. So have no fear about playing COLOR or TRAVELED (as against the British… Read More

Using Q without a U

For most casual players, the letter that fills them with more dread than any other is the Q. Needing a U to be able to use it with any ‘normal’ word, it can leave you effectively playing with six tiles (removing any chance of a bonus, of course) or force… Read More