What Can You Learn About A Person By Playing Scrabble With Them?

Everything you need to know.

I’ve heard it said that you can learn everything you need to know about a person on the golf course. Surely this is true, but since I am a board game girl and not a golfer, I would say the same about playing Scrabble with someone.

Here’s what I’ve learned about people after playing thousands of games of Scrabble, both online and the old-school board game.

Intelligence- It’s not all about having a big vocabulary and putting words together. It’s about strategy. A well-placed two-letter word can be worth more than a “bingo” (when you use all 7 letters, resulting in an extra 50 points in addition to word value). The World Champion Scrabble players are typically not even English speakers, but mathematicians who have learned the words, and where to best place them on the board.

That is not to say that all intelligent people are good at Scrabble, but the best players I’ve known are super smart, and will catch on quick, even if they’ve never played before. The most pleasant players are also emotionally intelligent, and have fun with the game, rather than exhibiting some of the problematic traits lined out below.

Patience- This is not an issue with the online game so much, as quite often a round…