The Scrabble Solution
By Philip Johnston
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The Scrabble Solution
 You have probably played Scrabble at some stage, and will know how
hard it can be to turn a jumble of meaningless letters into a high
scoring word.
Take for example the following seven letters:
YFIACNN
Yuck. How can anyone turn that into a word? How can the fates be so
cruel? With letters like these, there's just not much you can do.
But there is something you can do.
One technique Scrabble players use when they are stuck is to simply
juggle the letters around, and wait for new possibilities to leap out.
You are not trying to create words doing this, simply rearrange what is
already there at random. The results are unpredictable, but anything is
better than being stuck!
So we juggle YFIACNN and get NCIYNAF.
Hmmmm. No help there.
Juggle again: YCFNAIN Um.....nope
And again: NFANCYI Aha! We can use the word "fancy", and in
fact...hang on....could it be?....yes!.....a seven letter word!
INFANCY! We've gone from stuck to a huge score just by juggling!
This word was there all the time. Sometimes it just takes a little
random mixing to uncover it. You won't always uncover a seven letter
word, but it will help you see options and letter combinations that you
may never have considered otherwise.
Ok, so now I can beat my music teacher at Scrabble. But how does this idea help my practising?
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