# Scrabble with a purely defensive player..

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-with-a-purely-defensive-player/621240>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [May 8, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-with-a-purely-defensive-player/621240 "2012-05-08T03:09:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-with-a-purely-defensive-player/621240/22 "2012-08-19T06:24:06Z")

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> [@Jragon](#):
>
> While I don’t disagree, you can’t deny that the person who knows quixotic is a word has an advantage over the person who thinks they has a really crappy hand\*.

But you don’t need to have ‘quixotic’ in your vocabulary to be successful at Scrabble, you only need to know that it is a specific string of symbols that is legally playable. There are expert, world-class Scrabble players who don’t speak, write, or understand English–anyone would consider their (English) vocabularies to be beyond atrocious. So how can they be top-level Scrabble players? Because they know what strings of symbols are playable and they excel at the strategy of the game.

You see this phenomenon (to a lesser extent) even with native English-speakers. For example, it’s a given that knowing all the two letter plays is essential. But some of these “words”\*\*\*\*\* aren’t even English words at all (other than as personal nouns or abbreviations–neither of which is allowed in Scrabble) so even a highly-educated English-speaker’s vocabulary won’t help him in the world of competitive Scrabble.

\*\*\*\*\*Consider these legal Scrabble ‘words’: **AB, AE, AR, BO, DE, MM, NE, OE, OM, PE**

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**Author:** ![Rex\_Goliath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rex\_Goliath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Goliath)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-with-a-purely-defensive-player/621240/23 "2012-08-25T19:04:24Z")

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> [@Jragon](#):
>
> While I don’t disagree, you can’t deny that the person who knows quixotic is a word has an advantage over the person who thinks they has a really crappy hand\*.

My all-time greatest Scrabble victory came when I was about 100 points shy of victory, on literally the last turn of the game, just as my ass of a roommate was preening and grinning, I managed to drop quixotic on double triple-words with the triple-leter on the X (plus a vertical or two). He was speechless.

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**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scrabble-with-a-purely-defensive-player/621240/24 "2012-08-26T08:53:47Z")

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> [@Rex\_Goliath](#):
>
> My all-time greatest Scrabble victory came when I was about 100 points shy of victory, on literally the last turn of the game, just as my ass of a roommate was preening and grinning, I managed to drop quixotic on double triple-words with the triple-leter on the X (plus a vertical or two). He was speechless.

What a quixotic story that is.

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