Moiz

I was 8 when I came across this game, and due to English and Maths being my favourite subjects then, I got completely hooked on it. The rest is then history. I have played 800+ matches in 35 tournaments, including Junior and Senior World Championships, in over 9 countries, and have also won multiple Junior World Championships. The best thing about Scrabble is learning new words and using them with a strategy to win. Other than that, the invaluable opportunities it gives me to travel and meet like-minded people are just phenomenal.

Just like any physical game requires physical training, this mind game requires mind training. There are two aspects to it; one is learning or revising words and the other is practising those words on the board. There are dedicated software applications for both things. Before a tournament, I usually dedicate 30-60 mins learning/revising words daily and the same amount of time playing against the computer to practise those words.

Tip # 1 is to always focus on having fun and learning, and not winning. This is more of a general tip, but the best technical tip would be to not just always go after playing longer words, sometimes the shorter words also give more points if placed on the right spot e.g. on the right bonus squares present on the board.

The letter ‘Q’ is my least favourite one for two reasons; first, there are not a lot of words containing it, and second, mostly it requires an additional letter ‘U’ to make some score-worthy words.