News

Scrabble® School-5 plus errata

Posted by Randall T on Thu September 18, 2008 at 22h53

Lesson 4, the S back-hooks should be for WOMAN, not WOMAM.
Thank you, Allan.

18 AUG 08
Lesson 5 - Parallel Plays

A parallel play is a play of 2 or more tiles alongside (above, below, left or right) a word already on the board.
This is where the importance of knowing your 2- and 3-letter words really makes a difference, not only to your score
but to your rack management. Less frequently, 4- and 5-letter word knowledge is useful, and goes hand in hand
with learning front and back hooks to words.
The strength of your ability to make parallel plays rests on your word knowledge (again), but a lot of times the
board itself can direct you into parallel plays. Here’s how:

1] look around the board to identify where there are “hot-spots” (i.e. bonus squares adjacent to words). If you
go second in a game, the first hot-spots available will be (depending on the opening play) the DLS at G7, G9, I7 & I9.
The DLS at C7, C9, M7 & M9 may also come into play early.

2] depending on whether the adjacent tiles are consonants or vowels, check your rack to see what tiles will make 2-letter words.

3] Continue along the word already on the board to see what tiles will work adjacent to them, in conjunction with your other tiles.
The more tiles you can get to overlap (or underlap) the better your score.

4] Once you’ve found a number of possibilities, look at what you rack leave will be. There should be a reasonable balance
between what you score and what you leave. Exceptions will occur, as in playing AXE for 50+ points regardless of your leave.
EXAMPLE: Opponent opens with ORBY, 8F (18 pts) and you hold ABDEJMR.
Knowing JO, you might think of RAJ - 7D (19 pts), but it opens the TWS at 8A. Notice the ‘Y’ under the DLS. You hold the
‘B’ and ‘M’ for that spot. AMBER - 7H (26 pts) is good, but it opens the TWS at 8O, as well as the Double-double line on column K.
But the AM is a good start. Working backward, we see the ‘E’ works over the ‘R’, and the ‘B’ works over the ‘O’, for BEAM - 7F (33pts).

One of the prettier plays a person can make is a bingo with at least a 5-tile overlap. Imagine all 7 tiles played parallel!

Here are 4 pairs of bingos that can overlap:
NEROLIS PHONIES INTERIM NOISOME
EMERITI IMPASTO NEOTENY OPTIMUM

QUIZ
Following are 2 columns of 7-letter words. Select one from column A and find a word in column B that will underlap as in the examples above.
col.A (TOP).....col.B (BOTTOM)
AUTOMAN.....MAIDISH
ANOSMIA.....AREOLAE
HEINOUS.....ALIENEE
ANOPSIA.....HEINOUS
STATURE.....INTERIM
SIAMESE.....SIAMESE
EMPEROR.....EMPATHY
ENJOYED.....LETDOWN
NEOTENY.....PEONISM
OPTIMUM.....NOISOME
MAXIXES.....DODOISM
NEONATE.....ANOSMIA
MONITOR.....INFERNO
ANTENNA.....DISTANT
ALIENEE.....TAXIING
LETDOWN.....EMPEROR
PEONISM.....OOLITES
EMPATHY.....ONETIME
AREOLAE.....NEONATE







Home News Tournaments Player Stats Resources About	News Scrabble® School-5 plus errata Posted by Randall T on Thu September 18, 2008 at 22h53 Lesson 4, the S back-hooks should be for WOMAN, not WOMAM. Thank you, Allan. 18 AUG 08 Lesson 5 - Parallel Plays A parallel play is a play of 2 or more tiles alongside (above, below, left or right) a word already on the board. This is where the importance of knowing your 2- and 3-letter words really makes a difference, not only to your score but to your rack management. Less frequently, 4- and 5-letter word knowledge is useful, and goes hand in hand with learning front and back hooks to words. The strength of your ability to make parallel plays rests on your word knowledge (again), but a lot of times the board itself can direct you into parallel plays. Here’s how: 1] look around the board to identify where there are “hot-spots” (i.e. bonus squares adjacent to words). If you go second in a game, the first hot-spots available will be (depending on the opening play) the DLS at G7, G9, I7 & I9. The DLS at C7, C9, M7 & M9 may also come into play early. 2] depending on whether the adjacent tiles are consonants or vowels, check your rack to see what tiles will make 2-letter words. 3] Continue along the word already on the board to see what tiles will work adjacent to them, in conjunction with your other tiles. The more tiles you can get to overlap (or underlap) the better your score. 4] Once you’ve found a number of possibilities, look at what you rack leave will be. There should be a reasonable balance between what you score and what you leave. Exceptions will occur, as in playing AXE for 50+ points regardless of your leave. EXAMPLE: Opponent opens with ORBY, 8F (18 pts) and you hold ABDEJMR. Knowing JO, you might think of RAJ - 7D (19 pts), but it opens the TWS at 8A. Notice the ‘Y’ under the DLS. You hold the ‘B’ and ‘M’ for that spot. AMBER - 7H (26 pts) is good, but it opens the TWS at 8O, as well as the Double-double line on column K. But the AM is a good start. Working backward, we see the ‘E’ works over the ‘R’, and the ‘B’ works over the ‘O’, for BEAM - 7F (33pts). One of the prettier plays a person can make is a bingo with at least a 5-tile overlap. Imagine all 7 tiles played parallel! Here are 4 pairs of bingos that can overlap: NEROLIS PHONIES INTERIM NOISOME EMERITI IMPASTO NEOTENY OPTIMUM QUIZ Following are 2 columns of 7-letter words. Select one from column A and find a word in column B that will underlap as in the examples above. col.A (TOP).....col.B (BOTTOM) AUTOMAN.....MAIDISH ANOSMIA.....AREOLAE HEINOUS.....ALIENEE ANOPSIA.....HEINOUS STATURE.....INTERIM SIAMESE.....SIAMESE EMPEROR.....EMPATHY ENJOYED.....LETDOWN NEOTENY.....PEONISM OPTIMUM.....NOISOME MAXIXES.....DODOISM NEONATE.....ANOSMIA MONITOR.....INFERNO ANTENNA.....DISTANT ALIENEE.....TAXIING LETDOWN.....EMPEROR PEONISM.....OOLITES EMPATHY.....ONETIME AREOLAE.....NEONATE
Home \| News \| Tournaments \| Player Stats \| Resources \| About