If you look at a Scrabble board, you will see some rows and columns have both premium-letter squares and premium-word squares.
When a double- or triple-letter square and a double- or triple-word square are three or four spaces apart, you have a chance for a really big score if you can cover both, especially with a high-value tile on the premium-letter square.
A word like WINDY, with either the W or the Y on a triple-letter square and the whole thing on a double-word square, would score you forty points.
QUIT, with the Q on the double-letter square and the word tripled, would bag you sixty-nine – a bonus-level score for playing just three or four tiles. Remember to enjoy the look on your opponent’s face as you count up the points.
By Barry Grossman
Barry is a leading UK Scrabble player and winner of several tournaments. He is the author of Scrabble for Beginners (Chambers), Need to Know Scrabble, Scrabble – Play to Win and The Little Book of Scrabble Trickster. He has also contributed to numerous other books on the subject of words and word-games, has been a series champion of Channel 4’s Countdown, and has written four comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Hertford.
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