How to Win at Scrabble: Tips and Strategies

Learn the tips expert Scrabble players use to win at the tournament level!

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• The Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary (recommended)

1. Don't just look for the best word you can make with the tiles on your rack. Take advantage of what is on the board already.

2. 
    
   RANT- 4 points; TAN - 12 points

   Play words alongside other words instead of intersecting them. You will get points for all the 2- or 3-letter words you make along the way.
   On the board shown, If TRUE, LAUGH, and ROYAL have already been played, the word RANT is worth four points, but playing the word TAN, using exactly the same letters, is worth 12 points, because it also creates the words TO, AY, and NA.

3. Memorize all the legal 2-letter words.
   (At this time,) they are:
   AA AB AD AE AG AH AI AL AM AN AR AS AT AW AX AY BA BE BI BO BY DE DO ED EF EH EL EM EN ER ES ET EX FA GO HA HE HI HM HO ID IF IN IS IT JO KA LA LI LO MA ME MI MM MO MU MY NA NE NO NU OD OE OF OH OM ON OP OR OS OW OX OY PA PE PI RE SH SI SO TA TI TO UH UM UN UP US UT WE WO XI XU YA YE YO
   If you are very ambitious, start learning all the 3-letter words as well.

4. Memorize all the words that contain a 'q' without a 'u.'
   (At this time,) they are: FAQIR FAQIRS QAID QAIDS QANAT QANATS QAT QATS QINDAR QINDARKA QINDARS QINTAR QINTARS QOPH QOPHS QWERTY QWERTYS SHEQALIM SHEQEL TRANQ TRANQS

5. Try to place your words on "DOUBLE WORD SCORE" and "TRIPLE WORD SCORE" spaces. Try to save your high-scoring tiles for "DOUBLE LETTER SCORE" and "TRIPLE LETTER SCORE" spaces.

6. Look for ways to build on words already played. If you can spell a word containing 's,' place it so the 's' lands at the end of another word. You'll get points for both.

7. Play defensively, and know your opponent! Don't risk placing your word within a few blocks of a TRIPLE-WORD-SCORE space unless you're confident your opponent will not be able to build on your word.

8. Try not to place a vowel directly adjacent to an open "DOUBLE LETTER SCORE" or "TRIPLE LETTER SCORE" space. This will make it more difficult for your opponent to place a high-scoring consonant on the bonus space, where it will earn him/her more points.

9. When almost all the tiles have been drawn, start counting the tiles of each letter on the board and on your rack. This way, you can learn which letters your opponent is likely to have.

Tips & Warnings

• Players who manually shuffle the tiles on their racks find more words!
• Try to keep a nearly even balance of vowels and consonants on your rack; aim for about 4 consonants and 3 vowels. Be especially careful not to get stuck with too many of one or the other as you near the end of the game.