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Written by HG

Category: Wordplay

Published: 14 February 2019

Hits: 2547

A quick Valentine's quiz for you :

 

What are the 7 letter words you make with :

HEARTS + L

HEARTS + O

HEARTS + V

HEARTS + E ?

 

There are 13 words to find. Just under half are everyday English words.

 

 

 

Answers below:

 

 

 

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HEARTS+L = HALTERS, HARSLET, LATHERS, SLATHER,THALERS

HEARTS+O = ASTHORE, EARSHOT, HAROSET

HEARTS+V = HARVEST, THRAVES

 

HEARTS+E = AETHERS, HEATERS, REHEATS

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Written by HG

Category: Wordplay

Published: 25 January 2019

Hits: 2665

Time for a puzzle!

 

 

 

There is nothing more infuriating in Scrabble than finding a bonus word on your rack, and realising it won’t play. This is where remembering anagrams is useful.

 

 

 

Below are 10 racks of letters, each can be anagrammed into 2 different words. Some are everyday words, others a bit more obscure.

All have as their base, at least 6 relatively common letters so you are quite likely to find them on your rack.. just waiting to be anagrammed to a 7 letter word!

 

 

 

Here are the 10 racks, each with 2 anagrams. How many of the 20 anagrams can you find ? 

 

Try to find between 10-13, well done if you found 14-17, and excellent if you found more than 17!

 

ADEILST  

 

 

ABDEINR 

 

 

ACDEINS 

 

 

ADEIRSV 

 

 

AEEIMNT 

 

 

AEGGINR 

 

 

AEEIRST 

 

 

EFILORT 

 

 

EIILOST 

 

 

EINNOST 

 

 

Answers below:

 

 

 

coming soon

 

 

 

just a bit longer

 

 

 

nearly there

 

Answers here :

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADEILST  - DETAILS, DILATES

 

ABDEINR – BANDIER, BRAINED

 

ACDEINS – CANDIES, INCASED

 

ADEIRSV – ADVISER, VARDIES

 

AEEIMNT – MATINEE, ETAMINE

 

AEGGINR – GEARING, NAGGIER

 

AEEIRST – AERIEST, SERIATE

 

EFILORT – LOFTIER, TREFOIL

 

EIILOST – IOLITES, OILIEST

 

 

EINNOST – INTONES, TENSION

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Written by HG

Category: Wordplay

Published: 05 January 2019

Hits: 2590

Christmas Puzzle 2018.

 

 

 

This puzzle has been inspired by a game played between two of our members a few weeks back.

 

One of the players had an unplayable Q, the other player failed to maximise her score as she played her remaining tiles in 2 moves.
Frequently if your opponent is stuck with one tile it can be profitable to play out slowly.

 

 

 

Using this Christmas themed board below and the rack AESTUWZ how many points can you score before the end of the game ?

 

Please email me answers (so others don't know how many you got!) Remember to include your individual move scores. (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

 

Can you score more than 50 points ? 70 ? over 100 ?

 

The highest score will be published on the website in the New Year... will it be yours ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Scrabble Puzzle 2018 – The Highest Answer

 

 

 

The highest score we found on the above board is 134.

 

If you attempted the puzzle and you didn’t get near this score, don’t worry -  hopefully you will see how the score can be achieved and if you look back at your solution you will discover how you could have scored more.

 

But how did we did we score 134 ?

 

 

 

Firstly, despite the puzzle’s preamble, the Q is playable (onto the I of SLEIGH). Your first move MUST block this space. Failure to do this will result in one move from you and one move from your opponent.

 

You have various ways to block the Q. Here are a few :

 

TI (4);    IT/TI (4); WIT/TI (16);  ZIT (34);  AI (4) ; AIT (7); LA/AE (4); WE(5): SI (4); SIT (7)

 

It follows therefore we have a few choices so we need to concentrate on which titles would be more useful in future moves. (For example, using the S for 4 is wasteful as it can accrue more points by pluralising PRESENT-s for 10. )

 

 

 

It also useful to remember that if your opponent cannot play, you have as many moves as you have letters (in this case as many as 7 moves). Playing slowly, by building up the letters in a word, you will be re-accruing all the points for the original word.

 

For example, if you select WIT/TI as your first move, you will score 16 points.

 

If you play IT/TI (4) and then WIT (14) you will score 18. Two points more.

 

 

 

Another way to accrue points is to set up multi-directional premium squares.

 

Taking the IT/TI (4), WIT (14) example, we could then play an A making LAW/AE (8) giving a total of 26.

 

However, playing IT/TI (4) then LAW/WIT/AE as the second move scores 30, giving a total of 34.   8 points more.

 

 

 

But the W is not the only letter than can be placed in the triple letter score. A ‘Z ‘  can be used to make ZIT.   This is how one of the better totals can be achieved:

 

 

 

IT/TI                         4                           Total     4

 

LEZ/ZIT/EE           66                           Total   70

 

WHOLLY               20                           Total   90

 

AB                          12                           Total 102                              (using the B of BOX)

 

ICES/SI                  16                           Total 118

 

GU                           6                           Total 124                              (using the G of MANGER)

 

 

 

Our 10 point Z, added 60 points to the total !

 

 

 

But, there is another place on the board where the Z can score lots of points.

 

Making AZO in parallel to BOX.

 

 

 

IT/TI                         4                           Total     4

 

ZO/ZO                   22                           Total   26                              (building up to AZO)

 

AZO/AB                48                           Total   74

 

ZOEA/EE              17                           Total   91                              (a sneaky hole created by the ZO/ZO move)

 

WHOLLY               20                           Total 111

 

ICES/SI                  16                           Total 127

 

GU                           6                           Total 133                              (using the G of MANGER)

 

 

 

This gives a higher total of 133.

 

 

 

But wait !

 

At the top of this article we said the highest is 134. Where did the extra 1 point come from?

 

A game of Scrabble is over when one player has no tiles left or there 6 moves of zero (passes, challenges, changes). You have 2 free plays at playing a speculative move before playing a valid move (GU 6). (Your opponent’s Q passing are 3 of the 6 moves). DOUM is ripe for guessing and scores 7, giving a total of 134.

 

 

 

Please note : this article has concentrated on blocking the Q with IT/TI, as it turns out TI (4) is equally valid. We have not managed to get such a high score by blocking the Q in any other way.

 

 

 

 

Also note we will still have the Q to add onto our score and subtract form out opponents, giving 154 points accrued in the endgame.

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Written by HG

Category: Wordplay

Published: 24 December 2018

Hits: 2588

Hope you have a great Christmas and New Year! 

 

For those struggling with the  Christmas Endgame Puzzle here is something a little easier..

 

what are 4 5 letter words you can make with XMAS and a blank ?

 

Three are fairly well known.

 

Answers below

 

 

 

Answers below

 

 

 

 

 

Answers below

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solution  : 

 

EXAMS

MAXES

MAXIS

MOXAS

 

 

Happy Christmas!