We see where they're coming from. Taking notes on a board game ain't exactly a wild weekend in Vegas. We respectfully disagree. True Gs know that, when it comes to competitive games, you're not really there to beat your opponent.
You're there to beat yourself, specifically, the version of yourself that played last time. Getting good takes time and focus; that's true of every hobby from aquascaping to zymurgy. Protip: those are both really good Scrabble words. But, as hobbyists of every kind know well, there's no feeling quite like the quiet satisfaction of knowing, not just feeling but knowing for certain, that you're getting better at something you love.
For more reasons to put time and energy into the world's most popular word game, check our our 5 reasons to play Scrabble. Good luck and have fun! Matt Salter has been a professional writer for over 10 years. He is a gaming and technology expert, and world-class word nerd. To unpracticed players, Scrabble can feel like a game of extremes. The bag doles out letters at random.
Opportunities appear or disappear. That perfect chance to put an X on a triple word score never happens. It's luck, right? If you want to get good at Scrabble and its siblings, you need to start thinking average. Bringing up your average score by letter, word and game is how you achieve steady, serious improvement in play. What Is an Average Score? That's easy! For one thing, the odds are against you — even the most plentiful letter in the bag, the E, makes up just 12 of the tiles in Scrabble, and no consonant appears more than six times.
But more importantly, you're unlikely to score enough points to justify fishing. Playing one letter at a time usually means you're scoring very few points.
Even if you magically draw the A for NUCLEAR and score 70 points, it may not be enough to make up for all the low-scoring plays you made on the previous turns. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options.
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Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Mark Abadi. I'm a nationally ranked Scrabble player who's played in tournaments across the United States. Inexperienced Scrabble players tend to make the same basic mistakes, and eliminating them from your game will take your skills to the next level. The mistakes include playing too fast, holding on to the Q, and wasting the best two tiles in the game.
They play the first word they see. They think the best play is the one that scores the most points. They waste the two best tiles in the game. They hold on to the Q way too long. They never exchange their letters. They don't bluff. Beat a much higher-rated player, and it goes up a lot. These are akin to Elo ratings in chess , and are determined with fairly complex formulae. The median rating of a tournament player is roughly To crack the top in the country, it takes a rating of Top about His peak rating of is the highest anyone has ever achieved with a minimum of games played.
According to Scrabble data site cross-tables. The annual National Championship — a game marathon — is the biggest and most prestigious tournament in the country. Currently, players are registered, with 92 in the elite first division, competing for the title. Ninety-one of them will be chasing Nigel Richards.
Here are all of his results in major Scrabble championships. The World Scrabble Championship is biennial. Richards, who was born in New Zealand and got his start in a Scrabble club in Christchurch, picked up the game from his mother, a secretary, at the incredibly late age of His personal story, though, is almost as obscure as the words he plays. He rarely gives interviews, and even in person lurks behind an enormous beard. Still, journalists and bloggers have uncovered a few facts.
Richards is a serious bicyclist. He moved to Kuala Lumpur, and represents Malaysia in international events. To do what? Cree asked. We can be sure there is at least one book Richards already knows well: the Scrabble dictionary. He is said to conjure up images of specific pages of the dictionary when recalling words. And, while he largely rejects the notion, Richards is widely said to have a photographic memory.
I am a competitive Scrabble player myself — I peaked at a ranking of rd in the country. In the one tournament I played in where Richards competed — the Nationals in Dallas, which he won — he had an undeniable presence. But the presence is paradoxical. For all the pre-tournament hype, the rumors, the legends, and, frankly, the fear of playing Richards, he exudes utter calm. Emphasis on quiet.
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