Tom Whipple is the science editor at The Times, and a bad loser. His has spent countless hours phoning experts and distilling their knowledge - normally about rather more serious subjects than games. He has also been a feature writer for Times2 - and still writes freelance features for the Economist Intelligent Life among other magazines. His wife has stopped playing Scrabble with him because, she claims, he is the sort of person who learns all the two letter words without knowing their meaning. To which he replies - such accusations are terrible qi.