Need suggestions for developing Scrabble like game in WPF

Hi
I want to develop a game like Scrabble in WPF for which I need some suggestions

For Visuals:
1. What controls can be utilized to represent a (let's say 9 x 9) matrix? I would need ability to associate each cell with an id to know its state at all times during execution.

2. How can I inject different visual properties to a cell of matrix?

3. Would I need something like separate layers for base board, and tiles?

For logic:
4. How to go about validating a word and possible words around it?


Please advise. Thanks
PJ