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Scrabble Bingo of the Day: ZUGZWANG

ZUGZWANGn pl. -S  a situation in chess that forces a disadvantageous move

81 points (31 points without the bingo)

You may not ever get a chance to play zugzwang on the Scrabble board, since it requires two G tiles and two Z tiles (obviously one Z being a blank), but you've probably already experienced it if you play chess frequently.

Chess endgame position with black and white pawns and kings.Black to move. Black is in zugzwang because he must move and lose the game.

A zugzwang, which means "compulsion to move" in German, is when a player is required to make an undesirable or disadvantageous move in chess, when they would rather not make a move at all. In the United States, before and directly after World War II, it was sometimes referred to as squeeze, straightjacket and move-bound, until zugzwang itself took precedence as the main term.

Chess game position with pieces arranged on the board and notation displayed on the side. The most famous of all zugzwangs: Samisch vs. Nimzovich, 1923. White to move and lose.

Being forced into a zugzwang by your opponent usually results in pieces being taken and positional disadvantage that usually takes the player from a draw to a loss or from a win to a draw.

So, just what is a Scrabble Bingo?

A bingo is when a player empties his or her rack in one turn, placing all seven of their letters on the board to create a word that's at least seven letters long. The term "bingo" is used primarily in the U.S., but elsewhere it's simply known as a "bonus" because you get a bonus of 50 points added to your turn's score. "Scrabble Bingo of the Day" will focus on these high scoring plays, teaching you some interesting and possibly unusual seven-letter or longer words accepted in a game of Scrabble.

Track future Bingo of the Days:

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