1. Sight of the Board: Practice
The following three game situations will test your ability to identify hot spots and find the best moves over the board. Take about 10 minutes for each game then check out our analysis.
Game 1
There are three moves here scoring over 30 - can you find them? They are all
common (garden-variety) words.
Which of the three is best?
What would you do?
Did you spot MISFORTUNE from H1 for 45 points or the double-double IMPORTS from
5E for 44? Well done if you did. However, the best play is simply 8L MITT/MY from
8L for 37 keeping the promising letter combination S-P-R. Experts generally
consider the S is worth about 10 points - so the extra 7 or 8 points for IMPORTS
or MISFORTUNE are not worth it here. MITT also stops a potentially high-scoring
play for your opponent from 8L to the TWS.
Game 2
On this board there are plenty of high-scoring X-plays on offer using words from your everyday vocabulary?
Which is the best move both for score and strategy
What would you do?
Did you find the high-scoring spots for EXAM - 8L EXAM/BE for 47, 9H EXAM/TE/HEX/ERA for 51, and 1A EXAM/MA for 55? What about H1 MINX for 63 or 1K AXMEN for 66? Well spotted if you did. The best play, though, is GUNFIGHTER overlapping the M of MOAN and the O of OW from A8 for a sharpshooting 64 points. This move retains EXAM on the rack and a guaranteed 50+ score next time.Game 3
In this game there are five high-scoring Q moves of over 35 points. Can you find them all? Which one is best here?
Two of the five involve unusual 5-letter Q-words which you will find in the List of five-letter words containing J X Q and Z.
What would you do?
The five Q plays are:- 13C QUORUM for 36
- C10 MAQUI/MU/AS for 38 - a MAQUI is a Chilean evergreen plant yielding a medicinal wine.
- 2M QUA/QI/UN/AG for 44
- 5A QUORUM/UT/UR/UM for 40 and - best of all
- 8A QUOIFS for 54 - a QUOIF is a close-fitting cap of white silk once worn by sergeants-at-law and can also be spelt COIF (as in a lady's COIFFURE).