TLW96 - Nomads Results

Scrabble Books
How to Win at Scrabble, by Andrew Fisher and David Webb.
ISBN: 0-7134-8820-4
Published by B T Batsford, an imprint of Chrysalis Books
Recommended price: £12.99
The publisher’s summary describes the book thus:
Scrabble is basically a straightforward game. The
strategy used by top players can be easily understood
and adopted by average players. Written by two
international experts of the game, How to Win at
Scrabble, for the first time, aims to describe in a
readable and entertaining fashion the experts’ strategies and
techniques for winning at Scrabble. Their advice gives even Sunday afternoon
players the chance to be the best.
About the Authors
Andrew Fisher and David Webb are two of the most successful tournament
players in the UK, and have been involved in competitive Scrabble at the highest
level for over a decade. They have represented England at the World Scrabble
Championships on several occasions, and also competed at the World
Championships in Las Vegas in 2001.
Andrew lives in Melbourne, Australia and David lives in Harpenden,
Hertfordshire.
Graeme Thomas writes:
This is a long-awaited book on Scrabble techniques, by two of the game’s best players. As
the authors point out much of this material has been available in specialist magazines, but
never in book form like this. The book is eleven chapters and 160 pages long, but it is
crammed with useful techniques.
Chapter one is the introduction. It claims that the book is aimed at all levels of player, but
I feel that the complete novice may start to become overwhelmed early on. The true
market is, I feel, the player of middle or higher ability who wants to improve. But there is
help for the novice, if he or she can stand the pace.
Chapter two describes the words used in the game, and outlines the scale of the problem
of learning them all. Short sections describe the relative advantages and disadvantages
of the words of each length. This is followed by a description of hooks — what are they,
and why are they important? Finally, a summary gives a suggested order for learning
words.
Chapter three tells how to learn words. Various techniques are given, and the merits of
each are noted. This is the heart of the book. The rest of the book is important, but all of
the methods described there rely on a massive vocabulary, and there is really no substitute
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for learning the words. But studying this chapter should, at least, make the job a little
easier.
Chapter four, on strategy, is a bit of a mixture, as it covers a lot of ground. The section on
“key factors” is worth the price of the book on its own. The section on defence is well
worth a read, too. The authors recommend paying little attention to defence. If this view
becomes more widespread, perhaps we’ll have few dull games of attrition.
Chapter five covers the endgame. The authors point out that it is here that many games
are won or lost, and so they devote a separate chapter to it, even though it is really part of
“strategy”. Many of the concepts discussed here are simple in theory, but hard to apply
properly in practice. The guidance offered here is sound.
Chapter six is on the mental approach. It tends, at times, to approach the
metaphysical, but the underlying theme is clear. A positive mental attitude, especially
when circumstances appear to be conspiring against you, is vital for performing at
your best.
Chapter seven is about improving your game. The key to improvement is to measure your
performance, and then see how much those measurements improve over time. Various
measurement methods are given, and they’ll all lead to improved play.
Chapter eight is about resources and equipment. It details where to buy the tournamentquality
equipment that makes playing so much easier. The section on tile bags is
particularly impassioned.
Chapter nine tells us about competitive Scrabble, from clubs to the World Championships.
The club and tournaments described are the UK ones.
Chapter ten is a detailed analysis of a game from the 1999 World Championships, between
Mark Nyman and Joel Wapnick. It was chosen because it illustrates the points made in the
previous chapters.
Chapter eleven is the conclusion. I quote, in part:
The primary reason your authors play Scrabble is for the pleasure and fun it
brings. We also found that the better we got, the more fun we had.
Competitive Scrabble also gave us excitement, a sense of achievement, and a
modicum of prize money, not to mention friendship with people from around the
world who share our passion for the game.
That’s what the book is all about — fun and excitement.
Finally, the authors stoop to bribery:
If any of our readers have been inspired by this book to enter a tournament in
which your authors are also competing, please feel free to make yourself known
to us. We would be delighted to hear of your progress, and one of us(!) will
gladly buy you a drink.
The book concludes with a glossary, several appendices, and an index.
This book is an excellent description of the way to improve at Scrabble. It will take a great
deal of hard work to achieve mastery, but more modest efforts will still yield improvements.
I have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone who wants to get better.
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