A math teacher recently became the top female Scrabble champion in the UK—scoring 1,000 points more than her opponents.
Natalie Zolty outsmarted scrabble grandmaster Gary Oliver to claim the top spot by playing the word ‘zendiks’, which means heretics or unbelievers.
The 61-year-old won the top division during the UK Open competition held January 9th in Reading, England, after she was triumphant in 12 out of 15 games.
Despite admitting she doesn’t know what many of her winning words mean, Natalie spends hours a day learning thousands of words from the dictionary and practicing 500 anagrams while watching TV.
Now she has revealed her top tips for budding players wanting to take the next step towards becoming a master player—and it all starts with simple two letter words.
There are 107 acceptable 2-letter words listed in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 6th Edition. (See the top 10 below…)
“It’s not too difficult to learn all of them,” said the teacher from Solihull, West Midlands.
“Some of them sound weird and wonderful. Things like Xi and Za, so learn those two-letter words and you’ll be surprised at how you can rack up points.”
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Natalie took up the hobby on Facebook around 17 years ago and now she’s hoping more women start competing after noticing a clear male dominance in recent competitions.
“I just really got into it. There’s a lot of word learning and studying,” the mother-of-one told SWNS news agency. “You learn basically the entire dictionary, but you learn it in what is most valuable in a game—what words create the best points.
Read Natalie’s advice and the top 2-letter words, below:
“Always hold on to some one-point letters because you can go for a bonus, where you use all seven tiles which gives you an extra 50 points.
“Scrabble players who play at a high level are looking to try and do that maybe two or three times a game. I average around two and a half bonuses a game.
“There is also an option every turn where you can exchange letters and forfeit a turn. This frightens a lot of players and they will try to keep going, but don’t be scared to change some tiles if you really are in trouble with your letters.
“Sometimes even if you still play a word you will be left with terrible letters on your rack and you won’t score anything. There’s no point going on with dreadful letters, it will only get worse.”
“Also, keep on your rack one point letters. People think they are not worth much, but they go together to make bonus words. We call them stems.
“Another thing to be aware of is what we call hooks. A hook is a letter that will go on to the end or the beginning of a word to make another word.
“Like an s at the end to make a plural, that’s pretty straightforward. You could put s on the end of princes to make princess or h on the front of airline to make hairline. But sometimes they can be a little less obvious to spot.
“When someone plays a word, have a think about what could go on to the front or end of it and you might be able to take them by surprise.
TOP 2-LETTER SCRABBLE WORDS
ZA (11)
QI (11)
AX (9)
XU (9)
XI (9)
JO (9)
EX (9)
OX (9)
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“It’s only men that have won the world championships. I think women are a bit less competitive than men. Maybe they have a lot less free time.
“But I do wish more women would take it up—even just to try and play it. It’s great for your brain and keeping you thinking.”
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