SCRABBLE® Secrets

ANTIACNE

ANTIBOSS

ANTICOLD

ANTIDORA (bread used in Russian Orthodox Communion)

ANTIFOG

ANTIGANG

ANTIJAM

ANTIKING (a rival to an established king)

ANTILEAK

ANTIMALE

ANTINUKE

ANTIPOT

ANTIROCK (preventing a vehicle from rocking)

ANTISNOB

ANTITAX

ANTIVAX (opposed to vaccination)

ANTIWEED

41 Cheats Never Prosper

Cheating is a very tricky subject to cover. If you’re just playing a casual game at home with a like-minded individual, cheating can be fun. However, if there is any degree of competitiveness involved – DON’T CHEAT – it will only end in tears.

The obvious way to cheat is to take a very subtle peep in the bag while (hopefully) your adversary is not looking – you can avoid this by insisting the bag stays above your shoulder when picking tiles. There are all sorts of house rules to combat any shenanigans, but in tournament play there have been several instances of players being banned when caught cheating.

In one event, the deathly hush of the playing area was interrupted by the organiser announcing in front of 200 people that someone had been found out – he was literally frogmarched out of the room by a security guard, never to be seen again …

Obviously, friendly games are a different matter, but if there’s any potential of upsetting your opponent rather than humouring them, don’t bother.

In any case bad karma will get you in the end.

42 Poker Face

It can be easy to tell whether your opponent has a good or bad rack by the look on their face once they’ve picked their tiles, and they can give away where they want to play their next move by staring at a particular part of the board.

This doesn’t matter too much in a friendly game but, if you want to win, it will help your cause to watch out for the giveaway signs, and not react to your own letters either facially or verbally.

I think ironically I played a lot better in the 1997 World Championship when I came 5th than when I won in 1993. The biggest mistake I remember making was not missing a good word, but when spotting a difficult winning move VOUGE (not vogue) in a vital game which seemed lost, I got over excited and my body language gave away the fact I thought I could win. My opponent, the legendary American Joe Edley, whose turn it was, later told me that if I had kept a poker face, he would not have caught on to the fact I could win the game – instead he knew I was up to something, spent extra time looking for the move he knew I’d spotted, eventually saw VOUGE, made the necessary block and won the game – very clever.

43 Know Your Ologies

Try studying these to some degree:

AEROLOGYstudy of the atmosphereAGROLOGY" " soilsAREOLOGYMarsAPIOLOGYbeesBATOLOGYbramblesCETOLOGYwhalesCHAOLOGYchaos theoryDEMOLOGYdemographyDOXOLOGYshort hymnENOLOGYstudy of wineETIOLOGY" " causes of diseasesFETOLOGYthe foetusMENOLOGYreligious calendarMISOLOGYhatred of reasoned argumentMIXOLOGYthe art of mixing cocktailsNOOLOGYstudy of intuitionNOMOLOGY" " lawNOSOLOGYclassification of diseasesOENOLOGYmore wineOINOLOGYeven more wineOOLOGYbirds’ eggsOREOLOGYmountainsPEDOLOGYchildrenPELOLOGYmud therapyPENOLOGYpunishmentRHEOLOGYmatter in physicsSEXOLOGYhuman sexual behaviourSINOLOGYChinese cultureSITOLOGYfoodUFOLOGYUFOsVINOLOGYvinesVIROLOGYviruses

OLOGY itself is also perfectly acceptable – it has a rather less cerebral anagram.

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