Oman Scrabble Club

I just lost a game in the FSL because I simply didn't realise that CIDER took an A to make ACIDER. This shows how important is the value of hooks in the game. On my rack I had ACEIRTT, immediately spotted CATTIER (standard -IER), a few seconds later remembered from word study that CATTIER had two other anagrams - CITRATE and the more unusual ATRETIC. 

Had I played ATRETIC, - live it would seem as if I had studied a word list and some how learned this unusual word or online, depends on the player, cheating claims would be forthcoming. But I didn't cram new words in hoping to one day spring them on unwitting players. Simply by finding CATTIER on my rack. Easy words lead to unusual words.

For me easy words are words that can be found by using basic anagram skills ie  prefix and suffix or standard everyday usage words like MOTHERS ( SMOTHER - or the more difficult to find in a game, THERMOS). This technique has helped to make a big improvement in my word recollection during a game particularly during live play. I must confess that I only play very seriously towards the end during an online game. 
I will explain my approach using the word wall from my last post. The idea is to explain my thinking and how basic words leads to improving your scrabble vocabulary with systematic practice. Last time I posted I talked about using Aerolith.org and its wordwalls. Here is the first wordwall I conducted with a probability search:



AEINORT is considered to have the highest probability of occurring as a playable bingo. Prior to practising, I had no idea what word could be formed from this alphagram. Normally with these letters on my rack I would try -TION, or -ER, or -IER, or - OR, or - INE etc, wasting valuable time in the process and eventually losing by time or forced to hurry. I once was deducted 70 points for using an extra 7 mins in a 25 mins game. Unaware of the rule that involved giving 10 points for each extra used minute or part thereof! I digress...

So an analysis of the first wordwall against my then knowledge follows. I now know every word on the list but I will be honest and share the extent of my basic bingo knowledge in September 2013. I will use Y for words I knew beforehand and N for new words:

AEIORST - OTARIES (N) , OARIEST (N) under pressure I could make a wild guess at OARIEST, but wouldn't be sure

AEIONRS - ERASION (Y) even though I wouldn't be entirely sure if it was a word , but I would have played it anyway.

AEIGOTR - GOATIER (Y) I wouldn't be sure of this but I would have played with fingers crossed for no challenge

ADEINOR - ANEROID (N) seen it in the past but cannot find it when it is on my rack - took a while to learn this word

AEEIORT - ETAERIO (N!) if someone played this against me online, I used to assume they were cheating...

AEILNOR - ALERION (N), AILERON (N), ALIENOR (Y) The last word I would eventually locate and play 

AEILNOT - ELATION (Y), TOENAIL (N) odd one is TOENAIL, one word? ... two words? now I know it is in ELATION

AEINORT - NOTAIRE (N), OTARINE (N) ...the most probable letters and I did not know any of the words possible

AEEINRT - RETINAE (Y), TRAINEE (Y), ARENITE (N) TRAINEE has two more anagrams - good to know

AEINOST - ATONIES (Y) learned this playing on ISC through opponents

Out of 10 (with 17 words) basic and highly probable racks I knew only 7 for sure. 

With consistent word study I have fixed this deficit and now coupled with better tile management I am already feeling the benefits with a noticeable improvement in my game. In my next post I will examine another word wall maybe 11 - 20. At this point I am now at 350. That is I have worked through the probable 1 - 350 racks and remembers about 97% of them. My target? 1000 by 2015.

CIAO