Python while/if statements not working - python-3.x

Question

I am currently learning Python and I am trying to get this game to work. Basically I assigned a word to be guessed and then sliced the word and assigned it to several other variables. Basically, each variable assigned as "letterx" is a letter which makes up part of the string variable word. The problem is getting the while statement with nested if statements to work. For some reason I can't get the guess input to equal letterx. All I get when I run the code is "No." and then the amount of turns left. However, I can't get the elif statement to work. Pretty much everything else works. I'm used to programming in Java and I am fairly new to Python so any tips or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and help! Here's the code:
#Guess The Word
word = "action"
letter1 = ""
letter2 = ""
letter3 = ""
letter4 = ""
letter5 = ""
letter6 = ""
position1 = 0
position2 = 1
position3 = 2
position4 = 3
position5 = 4
position6 = 5
letter1 += word[position1]
letter2 += word[position2]
letter3 += word[position3]
letter4 += word[position4]
letter5 += word[position5]
letter6 += word[position6]
print("Welcome to Guess the Word!\n")
count = 6
while(count != 0):
guess = input("Take a guess: \n")
if(guess != letter1 or guess != letter2 or guess != letter3 or guess !=
letter4 or guess != letter5 or guess != letter6):
count -= 1
print("No.\n")
print("Turns left: \n", count)
elif(guess == letter1 or guess == letter2 or guess == letter3
or guess == letter4 or guess == letter5 or guess == letter6):
count -= 1
print("Yes.\n")
if(count == 0):
print("Your turns are up, what do you think the word is?")
guess = input("The word is...: \n")
if(guess == word):
print("You win! That's the word")
elif(guess != word):
print("Sorry, you lose.")
Here's the program running in the Python shell:
Python 3.1.1 (r311:74483, Aug 17 2009, 17:02:12) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.
>>> ================================ RESTART ================================
>>>
Welcome to Guess the Word!
Take a guess:
a
No.
Turns left:
5
Take a guess:
c
No.
Turns left:
4
Take a guess:
t
No.
Turns left:
3
Take a guess:
i
No.
Turns left:
2
Take a guess:
o
No.
Turns left:
1
Take a guess:
n
No.
Turns left:
0
Your turns are up, what do you think the word is?
The word is...:
action
You win! That's the word

Answer 1

Let's say guess equals letter1. Then even though
guess == letter1, the first condition is still True since guess != letter2. And similarly, no matter what guess is, there is some letter (amongst letter1, letter2, etc.) which it is not equal.
So the first if condition is always True.
Instead, you could use
while(count != 0):
guess = input("Take a guess: \n")
if not guess in word:
count -= 1
print("No.\nTurns left: \n", count)
else:
count -= 1
print("Yes.\n")
By the way, it should be entirely possible to code the game without defining letter1, letter2, etc. All this code should be deleted:
letter1 = ""
letter2 = ""
letter3 = ""
letter4 = ""
letter5 = ""
letter6 = ""
position1 = 0
position2 = 1
position3 = 2
position4 = 3
position5 = 4
position6 = 5
letter1 += word[position1]
letter2 += word[position2]
letter3 += word[position3]
letter4 += word[position4]
letter5 += word[position5]
letter6 += word[position6]
Just use word[0] in place of letter1, and word[1] in place of letter2, etc.
And note you may not even need word[0], word[1]. For example,
with Python you can use
guess in word
instead of
guess in (word[0], word[1], word[2], word[3], word[4], word[5])
It's not only a lot less typing, it is more general, since guess in word does the right thing with words of any length.