Word Duel Guide: Win the Five-Letter Race

The rules

1. The same hidden five-letter word for both players, drawn from the Daily Word list.
2. Six guesses each; every guess must be a real word.
3. Each letter is marked: in the right spot, in the word but elsewhere, or not in the word.
4. You see the other player's rows as colour patterns only.
5. The player who solves in fewer guesses wins. With the same number, the one who solved first. Running out of guesses, or giving up, loses to any solve.
6. Online, a duel lasts five minutes at most; against the robot there is no limit, though the robot keeps guessing. The robot guesses slowly on Easy and quickly and well on Hard.

The opening still matters most

A strong opener (five different common letters, two vowels in their usual spots: SLATE, CRANE, TRACE, ROAST, ARISE) finds more letters on the first guess, and in a race the first guess is the one you cannot make up for later. Have your opener ready before the duel starts and type it at once. Pair it with a second word of five new letters (CORNY, POUND, MILKY) for the days the first finds little. The Daily Word strategy guide covers openers, letter frequency and double letters in depth.

Reading the other player's patterns

The opponent's rows tell you how close they are, not what they have found:

• Lots of green early: they are close. Play for a solve now rather than a scouting guess, even at some risk.
• A row of nothing: their guess found no letters; it was probably an opener you can rule out of your own thinking only if you know their habits (you don't), so ignore the letters and read the pace.
• Two greens in the same spots across two of their rows: they have fixed letters and are cycling candidates. If you are also cycling candidates, speed decides it: type faster.
• They have stopped: either they solved (the duel ends) or they are thinking. Keep going.

The one hard rule: never slow down to read patterns. Glance between guesses, not during them.

When to gamble

In Daily Word, a scouting guess that uses no known letters is often right, because only your own guess count matters. In a duel, a scouting guess costs a guess that the opponent might not spend. The trade-off:

• If the opponent's rows show little progress, scouting is safe: you have time.
• If the opponent has three or four greens, guess a candidate even if several remain. A 40% chance of winning now beats a certain solve on guess five if they will finish on four.
• With two candidates left and the opponent close, guess the more common word first.

Speed habits

• Use the keyboard on a computer and the on-screen keyboard on a phone; do not switch mid-duel.
• Type the whole word and press Enter; do not hunt for letters one at a time on screen.
• Keep your candidate list in your head as a pattern (_ A T _ _), not as a sentence.
• Do not retype a word the marks have already ruled out; the dimmed keys show what is gone.

Playing the robot

Easy guesses slowly and loosely, which is good for practising openers without pressure. Normal plays sensibly at a human pace. Hard guesses quickly and well: it is a race against a strong opponent, and beating it regularly means solving in three or four most of the time.

Common mistakes

1. A slow or weak opener. The first guess is the race's start line.
2. Scouting when the opponent is close. Read their greens before a scouting guess.
3. Watching their rows instead of thinking. Glance, don't stare.
4. Reusing excluded letters in a hurry. Speed is no use on a refused or wasted guess.
5. Giving up at five guesses. A sixth-guess solve still beats an opponent who runs out.

Glossary

• Pattern: the colours of a row, visible to both players.
• Scouting guess: a guess chosen to test new letters rather than to solve.
• Candidate: a word that fits all your marks so far.
• Tie-break: with equal guesses, the faster solve wins.