Strategic Elimination

Definition

Strategic elimination is the disciplined practice of choosing guesses that remove the most remaining candidates rather than chasing the answer directly. Because solving and eliminating are mathematically equivalent goals, focusing on elimination produces higher-information guesses.

Why it matters

An elimination mindset cures the beginner habit of guessing low-probability answers too early and prevents redundant guesses that test already-known information.

Examples

• Playing a sacrifice word to resolve a -ATCH/-ITCH/-OTCH cluster in one move.
• Rejecting a guess that re-tests a confirmed green.

Best practices

• Ask what each guess eliminates that you cannot already eliminate.
• Use sacrifice guesses to clear look-alike clusters.

Frequently asked