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.

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