Turns out Bill Gates is addicted to Wordle just like the rest of us.
In a blog post on Sept. 1, the 66-year-old billionaire said he and a group of family and friends play the online word puzzle daily to compare scores and revealed his strategy for guessing the answer in four attempts or less.
“If you’ve played Wordle, you know how important it is to make your first guess strategically,” Gates wrote. “I like to start with a word that contains lots of vowels, like AUDIO or OUNCE. ADIEU is a good one too.”
That game plan is similar to the one recommended by The New York Times, which bought Wordle in January: Start with a word that has three or more vowels.
It’s equally important where you place those vowels, Gates found. “It’s easy to get fooled by words that start with a vowel,” he wrote. “I have to remind myself, ‘That vowel could be at the start or the end of the word.’ When I have two vowels, I like to try them in the second and fourth positions, like in CAGED.”
With this strategy, Gates said he usually gets the answer within four guesses, sometimes five.
The Microsoft cofounder said he also plays variations of Wordle, such as Quordle, where you guess four five-letter words in each game, and Octordle, which includes eight words.
“Unlike some time sinks, Wordle and the other puzzles are a great way to stay connected with people, because they’re the same for everyone,” he wrote.
