--- title: Scrabble Championships Buffalo: Winning Tips, Top Players description: In advance of this year's national championships, TIME asked experts to let their secrets out of the bag canonical: https://time.com/3083164/scrabble-championships-buffalo-tips/ author: Katy Steinmetz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-06T11:16:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:11.941Z og:title: Scrabble Championships Buffalo: Winning Tips, Top Players og:description: In advance of this year's national championships, TIME asked experts to let their secrets out of the bag og:url: https://time.com/3083164/scrabble-championships-buffalo-tips/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d7b209eec64ffdb/69869e7ed0b6f2cfcd30594c/136008733.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Scrabble "A" lettered tiles are displaye og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scrabble Championships Buffalo: Winning Tips, Top Players twitter:description: In advance of this year's national championships, TIME asked experts to let their secrets out of the bag twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d7b209eec64ffdb/69869e7ed0b6f2cfcd30594c/136008733.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Tile Me More! 6 Scrabble Tips From Top Players by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Aug 6, 2014 11:16 AM UTC  Scrabble "A" lettered tiles are displayed on December 15, 2011 in Paris. The Standard and Poor's ratings agency warned France, Germany and 13 other eurozone members that they faced a possible downgrade of their AAA credit ratings. AFP PHOTO THOMAS COEX (Photo credit should read THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images) Scrabble "A" lettered tiles are displayed on December 15, 2011 in Paris. The Standard and Poor's ratings agency warned France, Germany and 13 other eurozone members that they faced a possible downgrade of their AAA credit ratings. AFP PHOTO THOMAS COEX (Photo credit should read THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images)THOMAS COEX — AFP/Getty Images by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Aug 6, 2014 11:16 AM UTC If you like watching other people be really good at word games, then a most exciting time of the year is upon you. On Aug. 9,[ the National Scrabble Championships](http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/2014%5FNational%5FSCRABBLE%5FChampionship#Live%5FEvent%5FCoverage) will begin in Buffalo, N.Y., and won’t conclude until a player is deemed supreme. To celebrate this annual battle of the tiles, TIME reached out to top players and asked them what secrets they might share with the masses. Here’s what they said. **“Players of all levels should try to keep their thoughts two turns ahead.”** This nugget comes from John Chew, co-president of the North American Scrabble Players Association. Each play, he says, should lead to a player being ahead in points not after the current turn but after the following one. **“Look for common prefixes and suffixes.”** Separating out groups or pairs of letters often found at the beginning or end of words can help you make sense of what’s left, says Chris Cree, also co-president of the Association. Take a scramble of letters like: EGINRTY. Throw the -ING suffix on the right, place the RE- prefix on the left, he says, and you’ve got RETYING all straightened out. **“STUDY.”** If you’re serious about playing Scrabble, top female player Robin Pollock Daniel says that [hitting the books](http://www.amazon.com/Official-Scrabble-Players-Dictionary-Edition/dp/0877798222) is the way to go. This not only helps you spot sanctioned words, she says, but helps you brilliantly challenge missteps among your opponents. Studying, for instance, is likely the only way you’re to learn that M-B-A-Q-A-N-G-A (a style of jazz-influenced popular music) or Q-U-I-N-Z-H-E-E (a snow shelter) are both totally allowed. The latter, incidentally, is among new words [just added](http://time.com/3080213/scrabble-dictionary-words-selfie-frenemy-bromance/) to the official Scrabble dictionary. **“Learn from people who play better than you.”** True Scrabble players, Daniel says, have learned how to check their egos at the church basement door. Studying other people’s games, in person, and online, is one of the best ways to make your own game better. **“Play different word games—don’t just play Scrabble over and over!”** Fully exercise your nerd muscles with a round of Boggle, Quiddler or Word Yahtzee, says Will Anderson, currently ranked #6 among Scrabble players in North America. You can even use your Scrabble tiles to play another game, like [Pirate Scrabble](https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Anagrams.html), a.k.a. Anagrams, a.k.a Grabscrab. **“Stop, look some more.”** When you find a word you want to play, Daniel says, don’t be rash and throw it down all willy-nilly-like. Reset your brain box and see if you can find another word. “Sometimes it will be your original choice,” she says, “but more often than not, you’ll find something superior.” _This is an edition of Wednesday Words, a weekly feature on language. For the previous post,_ [_click here_](http://time.com/3055547/what-is-a-cliche-quiz/)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3083164/scrabble-championships-buffalo-tips/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3083164/scrabble-championships-buffalo-tips/"},"headline":"Tile Me More! 6 Scrabble Tips From Top Players","datePublished":"2014-08-06T11:16:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:11.941Z","description":"In advance of this year's national championships, TIME asked experts to let their secrets out of the bag","url":"https://time.com/3083164/scrabble-championships-buffalo-tips/","keywords":["Living","Newsfeed","Culture","Buffalo"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d7b209eec64ffdb/69869e7ed0b6f2cfcd30594c/136008733.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d7b209eec64ffdb/69869e7ed0b6f2cfcd30594c/136008733.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Scrabble \"A\" lettered tiles are displaye","caption":"Scrabble \"A\" lettered tiles are displaye","creditText":"THOMAS COEX — AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3083164/scrabble-championships-buffalo-tips/","name":"Tile Me More! 6 Scrabble Tips From Top Players"}}]}] ```