The Official Scrabble Puzzle Book (Paperback)

by Joe Edley (Author) "Below is a representation of a SCRABBLE Brand Crossword Game board..." (more)
Key Phrases: playable bingo, bonus squares, given board position (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Calling all players, beginners and experts alike! Here are the plays you can't afford to miss: 800 puzzles to sharpen your thinking and hone your crossword skills, specially designed and selected by SCRABBLE superstar Joe Edley, the only two-time winner of the National SCRABBLE® Championship and coauthor of Everything SCRABBLE®.

Learn how to:

"Read the board" and see where you can score the most points -- and where you can't.

Increase your word game skills with 97 must-know two-letter words

Build knockout numbers with bonus squares, two-letter words and parallel plays

Score with the high-point tiles: J, Q, X, and Z

Balance your rack by playing off weak three-, four-, and five-tile combinations

Find the key to success with bingos and seven-letter plays

Find the Ideal Play -- eight questions to ask yourself, plus the Ideal Play on computer

Win at SCRABBLE -- six key factors

Find the best play in real game action -- fifty actual games re-created in this book, complete with the author's analysis and computer simulation results.

National champion Joe Edley aims to enhance your SCRABBLE-playing skills. Discover tips, shortcuts, and special plays in actual game situations, and a battery of increasingly complex puzzles as you learn to play with the pros.

About the Author
Joe Edley is the 1980 National Scrabble Champion and is widely considered one of the foremost experts on the game today.  He lives on Long Island.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Pocket; Later printing. edition (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671569007
• ISBN-13: 978-0671569006
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #238,733 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Improving your game, November 30, 2004

By	Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

You can pick up some good tips on how to beat your opponents from two-time National Scrabble Champion Joe Edley along with some challenging puzzles in this modest Scrabble puzzle book. I particularly recommend the material on pages 194-202 where Edley suggests that you develop the habit of asking yourself questions before making a play.

For example, question number one is, "Do I have a bingo?" (A good first question!) Question number two is the obvious, Which bonus squares are available, but question number three really gets to the nitty-gritty of good play: "Can you 'hook' any words? Look at every word already on the board and ask yourself if any single letter can be added to the front or back to form another word." Also important is question number four: "What will my 'leave' be after I've made my play?"

Too often the beginning player does not pay enough attention to the tiles he or she is going to be stuck with after a play. Sometimes, Edley advises, it is better to make a lower-scoring play in order to leave oneself with tiles likely (with a little help) to form a bingo.

The bulk of the book is devoted to Scrabble puzzles on various themes, e.g., "Placing your letters on hot spots"; using the J, Q, X and Z; two-, three-, four- and five-tile plays, etc. There is a diagram of the Scrabble grid with some plays already made. Underneath the diagram are the letters in several different racks. You are asked to find the best play. Edley recommends that you do the puzzles by setting them up on your own Scrabble board. I think that is the best way as well since the diagrams in the book are in black and white and so the bonus squares are not colored, and are highlighted only by the letters "DWS," "DLS" ("Double Word Score," "Double Letter Score"), etc. This makes it hard to get a quick feel for where to look. At least that was my experience.

A handy feature is the list of the 97 two-letter words allowed in official Scrabble tournaments on page 7. (I think that has been changed to 96 with "da" now being disallowed.) Interesting features include the weighed scores for answers to the various puzzles. For example, for the puzzle on page 93 there is an "expert" score (for five racks) of 155, a "good" score of 145, and an "average" score of 120. But Edley also gives his score of 164 and challenges you to beat it.

There are 800 puzzles, so this book will last through many a long winter's night; however this is not as good a book as the more substantial Everything Scrabble (revised 2001) by Edley (along with John D. Williams, Jr.), which I also recommend for the serious Scrabble player.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scrabble Puzzle Book Review, February 23, 2006

By	BRUCE STRONG (Brantford, ON Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is excellent as it contains many ways to improve and versify your Scrabble skills. There are many new games and approaches, which can range from novice to challenging. It contains many new words and methods of setting up the board during play, and if one really examines the games, one will certainly improve their Scrabble skills. As well, there are many games provided that will take hours to decipher and play.

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, April 12, 2005

By	Dwayne Barclay (Terre Haute, IN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is very useful for those of us who like playing word games, especially the page of two letter words.