Developing Your Scrabble Skills
Learn to manage your rack. Shuffling your tiles can help you find playable words, as well as find prefixes, partial words, and common letter combinations. When looking for candidate plays, you also want to make sure your remaining tiles don't contain an imbalance of consonants and vowels, or contain duplicate tiles that will inhibit you from making a high scoring play next turn. Make sure that you exchange some of your letters if you end up with too many vowels. You should not have more than 2-3 vowels on your rack at any one time. Letters in the word RETAINS are the most versatile and useful, so consider hanging on to these letters.
Play words on premium squares. The premium squares (double letter, triple letter, double word, and triple word) can dramatically increase your score. Therefore, it is a good idea to make plays using these squares. Doing so will increase your chances of winning the game. Try to play words that cover multiple premium squares. For example, if you play a word that covers two triple word squares in the same turn, the word you played will be worth 9 times as much as normal.
Make parallel word plays whenever possible. Often in Scrabble, you can lay your word alongside (or above or below) an existing word to create a number of 2 or 3-letter words in addition to your main word. The reward for parallel plays can be significant.
Getting Higher Word Scores
Memorize high scoring words in Scrabble using tiles such as the J, Q, X, and Z. Serious Scrabble players memorize lists of high scoring words to improve their chances of winning. Some common words include QAT, XU, OXO, JIAO, JEU, ZOA, ZEE, and AJI. These words will allow you to score extremely well on future turns. Try to memorize some of the high scoring two letter words such as Jo, Qi, and Za. These words are easier to remember because they are so short, but they are also great score boosters.
Use “S” to get points from your opponent’s best plays. Although your opponent(s) may not be too pleased, you can add “S” to many words and get an easy points boost. This strategy works even better if the word is long, has a high points value, or if the “S” falls on a premium square. Watch for opportunities to add “S” to an opponent’s word as you play.
Extend words when you can. Compound words are also great score boosters in Scrabble. For example, if an opponent plays BALL and you have the letters to play AIR, then you can play AIR in front of BALL and create the compound word AIRBALL. Playing compound words like this one will improve your score and increase your chances of winning the game.
Try to play a bingo. A bingo is a word that uses all 7 tiles in your rack simultaneously in one play. In addition to the points that your play would normally score, you will get an extra 50 points added to your score. It is not always easy to find a bingo: look for 7 letter words in your rack that might fit on the board as well as 8+ letter plays that might play through existing tiles on the board.
Using Advanced Strategies
Make plays based on your lead. You can help yourself maintain a lead or get a lead by playing certain types of words. If you are trailing your opponent(s), your best bet is to play words that will open up the board and give you opportunities to make better plays. If you are in the lead, then you should play words that will keep the board closed off to your opponents and reduce their opportunities to make better plays.
Block off the premium squares. Advanced Scrabble players are always looking ahead to what their opponents might do. Get into the habit of considering what your opponent may do if you play a certain word and try to block any premium squares that your opponent may want to use during his or her turn. Keep in mind that blocking your opponent may not always be possible, but if you do it whenever possible, it may help you to hold onto your lead and win the game.
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