- The word scrabble is also an ordinary verb: see scrabble.
Scrabble is a word board
game in which players use 100 tiles with printed letters to form words on a 15 x 15 grid with certain "premium" squares to
accumulate points. The words are formed across and down in a crossword fashion.
The name Scrabble is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. in the US and Canada and of J. W. Spear & Sons PLC elsewhere.
History
The game was invented by architect Alfred Mosher Butts in
1938, as a variation on an earlier word game he invented called Lexiko. The two
games had the same set of letter tiles, whose distributions and point values Butts worked out meticulously by counting letter
usage from the New York Times and other sources. The new game,
which he called "Criss-Crosswords", added the 15-by-15 game board and the crossword-style game play. He manufactured a few sets
himself, but was not successful in selling the game to any major game manufacturers of the day.
In 1948, lawyer James Brunot bought the rights to manufacture the game in exchange for granting Butts a royalty on every
unit sold. Though he left most of the game (including the distribution of letters) unchanged, Brunot slightly rearranged the
"premium" squares of the board and simplified the rules; he also changed the name of the game to "Scrabble", and sold sets to,
among other customers, Macy's department store, which created a demand for the game.
In 1953, unable to meet demand himself, Brunot sold manufacturing rights to Selchow and Righter (one of
the manufacturers who, like Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley Company, had previously rejected the game). J.
W. Spear & Sons began selling the game in Australia and the UK on January 19, 1955. They are now a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc.
In 1986, Selchow and Righter sold the game to Coleco, who soon after sold the game to Hasbro.
The game is commonly known as Alfapet in Sweden.
Game details
The game is played on a square (or nearly square) board with a 15-by-15 grid of cells, each of which is just large enough to
accommodate a single letter tile. In the notation system common in tournament play, the vertical columns of the board are labeled
A through O, and the horizontal rows from 1 to 15. Certain cells of the board are "premium" cells that affect scoring.
Specifically, "triple word" cells are colored dark red, "double word" cells are colored pink, "triple letter" cells are colored
dark blue, and "double letter" cells are colored light blue. The distribution of premium cells is shown at right. The center cell
H8 is often marked with a star or logo.
For information on tiles, see Scrabble
letter distributions.
During play, the letter tiles are kept in an opaque cloth bag or face down on a flat surface. Players draw tiles to fill their
"racks" of seven tiles from which they will make plays.
At the beginning of each player's turn in the game, each player will have seven letter tiles in his rack from which to choose
a play. The tiles in each player's rack are concealed from the other players. At each player's turn, he has the option to (1)
pass, forfeiting his turn and scoring nothing; (2) exchange one or more of the tiles in his rack for an equal number from the
bag, providing there are at least seven tiles remaining in the bag, scoring nothing; or (3) play a word, adding its value to his
score. To play a word, the player must use from one to seven of his tiles to form a single continuous word on the board, either
left-to-right or top-to-bottom (possibly using tiles already played). The word played must touch or cross one or more
already-played words on the board, and any other words formed by the play must be legal words and are scored as well. The first
player, who has no previously played words to touch or cross, must form a legal word of two to seven letters from the tiles in
his rack, and place it on the board in contiguous cells either left-to-right or top-to-bottom, and including center cell H8.
Some diagrammed Scrabble scoring examples may
help to clarify the play.
Each word formed in the play is scored this way: first, any tile played from the player's rack onto a previously vacant cell
that is a "double letter" or "triple letter" premium cell has its point value doubled or tripled as indicated. To this is added
the normal point value of every other letter in the word (whether newly played or existing). Then, if any newly-played tile was
placed on a "double word" premium cell, the total is doubled. Likewise if any newly-placed tile was on a "triple word" premium
cell, the total is tripled. If two newly-placed tiles in the word are played on double-word cells, the total is doubled, and then
redoubled, scoring four times the letter total. Likewise, a word played with two new tiles on triple-word cells is tripled and
then retripled for nine times the letter score. In the unlikely but possible event that a 15-letter word is formed using new
tiles on three triple-word cells (this requires using at least eight previously placed letters on other cells), the letter score
is multiplied by twenty-seven. It is not possible for double word and triple word cells to be used in the same word (since there
are no such cells in the same row or column of the board). Finally, if a player uses all seven of the tiles in his rack in a
single play, a bonus of 50 points is added to the score of that play (this is called a "bingo" in Canada and the United States,
and a "bonus" elsewhere).
A blank tile may be designated by the player as any letter; it remains as that letter thereafter for the rest of the game. As
a letter, it scores no points (even doubled or tripled) regardless of what letter it is designated, but its placement on a
double-word or triple-word cell does cause the appropriate premium to be scored for the word in which it is used. While not part
of official or tournament play, a common "house rule" allows players to "recycle" blank tiles by later substituting the tile for
the letter it designates.
After playing a word, the player draws letter tiles from the bag to replenish his rack to seven tiles. If there are not enough
tiles in the bag to do so, the player takes all of the remaining tiles.
After a player plays a word, his opponent may choose to challenge any or all the words formed by the play. If any of the words
formed are found to be unacceptable, the play is removed from the board, the player returns the newly-played tiles to his rack,
and his turn is forfeited. If all words are acceptable, then the challenger forfeits his turn (this rule varies in informal and
international play).
The game ends in North American rules when (1) one player plays every tile in his rack, and there are no tiles remaining in
the bag (regardless of the tiles in his opponent's rack); or (2) when six successive scoreless turns have occurred and at least
one word is on the board. In the first case, the player who "goes out" receives a bonus of twice the point value of his
opponent's remaining tiles. Scoreless turns can occur when a phoney is challenged off the board, when a player passes, or when a
player exchanges tiles. (This rule also varies slightly in international play).
Acceptable words
Acceptable words are those words found as primary entries in some chosen dictionary, and all of their inflected forms. Words that are
hyphenated, capitalized (such as proper nouns), marked as foreign, or appear only as part of multi-word phrases are not allowed
(unless they also appear as acceptable entries: "Japan" is a proper noun, but the verb "japan" – to decorate with black
enamel or lacquer – is acceptable). Variant spellings, slang or offensive terms, archaic or obsolete terms, and specialized
jargon words are allowed if they meet all other criteria for acceptability. "College" level dictionaries are generally used in
preference to unabridged dictionaries.
In formal competition, pre-compiled official word lists are used (usually compiled from combinations of several college
dictionaries), along with an official dictionary for backup. The pre-compiled word lists generally contain only words of two to
eight letters – those most frequently used in the game. (One letter words are impossible to play, and you only get 7 tiles
on the rack at one time, so it is very difficult to build a word that is longer than 8 letters.) The dictionary is consulted for
longer words. There are two popular competition word lists: the North American 1998 Official Club and Tournament Word List
(or for school use the bowdlerized Official Scrabble Players
Dictionary, Third Edition (OSPD3)) and the British Official Scrabble Words. North American competitions use the
Long List (http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/boards/dictionary/olwl.html) for longer words, while the
British use the Collins Dictionary. The OWL and the
OSPD3 are compiled using 7 major dictionaries, including M. Webster 10th Edition. If a word appears in 5 of the 7 dictionaries,
it is included in the OWL. If the word has an offensive meaning, it is omitted from the OSPD3. The OSPD3 available in bookstores
differs from the official competition word list in that it is marketed for "home and school" use, and has been expurgated of many
words judged offensive. These are still legal in competition. Many international competitions use both the British and American
word lists. The union of the two lists is commonly referred to as SOWPODS, derived from an anagram of OSPD+OSW. Many countries in the English Scrabble-playing world now use SOWPODS (published in the UK as
Official Scrabble Words International, or OSWI) for their own tournaments year round, with the United States, Canada, Israel, and
Thailand being notable exceptions.
Tournament play
Tens of thousands play club and tournament Scrabble worldwide. A good introduction to the tournament scene can be found in the
book Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. The intensity of play,
obscurity of words, and stratospheric scores in tournament games may come as a shock to many parlor players. There is an Example Scrabble tournament game between
two top-notch players in which the combined score was over 1000.
All tournament games are played with a game clock and a set time control. Typically each player has twenty-five minutes in which to make all of
his or her plays. For each minute by which a player oversteps the time control, a penalty of ten points is assessed. The number
of minutes is rounded up, so that if a player oversteps time control by two minutes and five seconds, the penalty is thirty
points.
There are two primary forms of tournament Scrabble. American tournaments have one set of rules and legal word list, and
international games have a separate set of rules and legal words. The international word list is a superset of the American word
list. The primary rules variation is that in international play, a player may "challenge" an opponent's play if he suspects it is
not a legal word without risking a penalty if the word is acceptable. In American play, a failed challenge results in a loss of
turn, making it possible to "bluff" with an illegal word in the hope your opponent will be afraid to risk a challenge. A new rule
was introduced in the 2001 World Championship: a failed challenge costs a player a five point penalty (added to the score of the
challenged player) but not their turn.
The most prestigious North American tournaments are the (U.S.) National Championship (http://www.scrabbleassociation.com/nsc) (an open event attracting several hundred players,
held in the summer in even years), the Canadian National Championship (http://www.scrabbleassociation.com/csc) (invitational to the top fifty players, held in the
fall in even years), and the World Championship (held in odd years, alternating between inside and outside North America, most
recently held in Kuala Lumpur (http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/tourneys/2003/wsc/) in 2003).
Clubs in North America typically meet one day a week for three or four hours and charge a small admission fee to cover their
expenses and prizes. Clubs also typically hold at least one open tournament per year. Tournaments are usually held on weekends,
and between six and nine games are played each day. During off hours at tournaments, many players socialize by playing
consultation (team) Scrabble, Clabbers, Anagrams, Boggle and other games.
Strategy and tactics
The most basic unit of Scrabble strategy is knowing which words are acceptable and which are not, according to the official
tournament reference. All serious tournament players study word lists extensively, and the world's top dozen or so players know
all 108,225 acceptable words for international play.
For a beginning club player, the most important list to memorize is acceptable two-letter words. These words allow one to
play in parallel to existing words, rather than merely extending or crossing. After mastering the two-letter words, a beginner
probably benefits most from studying other strategic concepts, rather than immediately memorizing more obscure lists.
It can be great fun to play esoteric words, but being unusual does not necessarily score more points. For example
FAERIE scores fewer points than FAIRY. Likewise it is silly to play CWM (http://en.wiktionary.org/pac/Cwm) just to prove that you know a word with no vowels if
MACAW leaves you with better rack balance.
Letters which are worth four or more points should be played on premium squares if possible, and letters such as X, H, and Y
are great if they can score in both directions, for four or six times their face value. A vowel next to a double- or
triple-letter score creates a hot spot where a valuable consonant can potentially be played for many points.
Rack management is the strategic element most overlooked by beginners. It is disadvantageous to keep duplicates of any letter
(except possibly E) or to have an large imbalance between vowels and consonants. Beginners will often lament "Why do I get all
the I's?", not realizing that they have caused their own suffering by not unloading duplicates. For example, if you hold
AADIIKR, the highest scoring word among your letters is DARK, but that leaves you with AII, which is no consonants with
three vowels including a double I. If at all possible, you should play a word containing both an A and an I, which leaves an
equal number of vowels and consonants. RADII scores fewer points than DARK, but leaves AK in your rack, for a much more
promising future next turn. Experts who know all the words will also look to play KADI or RAKI to good effect, but
you don't have to have a huge vocabulary to think about rack balance: even RAID and ARID deserve consideration
instead of DARK.
Because of the 50-point bonus for using all seven tiles in one turn, many players manage their racks specifically to get as
many seven letter words as possible. Making seven letter words is generally considered to be by far the best way to get high
scores. The letters A, E, I, N, R, S, and T are the most useful letters for this purpose, and so a good player will be extremely
reluctant to play off these letters in a shorter word unless they have more than one of the same letter. Conversely, good players
will often try to get rid of as many undesirable letters as possible per play, even if that play is not the highest scoring one
available to them, and will even trade in their undesirable tiles if they cannot get rid of enough of them. A good tactic for
intermediate level players is to memorize "bingo stems," or groups of six letters that combine well with almost any seventh
letter to form a bingo. The best bingo stem to have is SATINE, followed by SATIRE and RETINA. With SATINE on the rack, any
seventh letter except for Q, J, or Y will create a seven letter word (SATINE + A = TAENIAS; SATINE + B = BASINET;
SATINE + C = CINEAST; etc.) Since many of these seven letter words are obscure, it is useful to memorize not only the
stem, but all the possible bingos that may be created with it. In order to speed up this process both for memorization and during
play, some players utilize mnemonics, sometimes referred to by the coined term
"anamonics" (see link).
At the highest level of expert play, it is likely that a third to half of the tiles played will be played as part of a
bingo.
Computer players
Scrabble has been an object of interest for many artificial intelligence researchers and enthusiasts. As already outlined above, always playing the
word with the highest score is hardly ever the best strategy, so teaching a computer to play well requires knowledge of a number
of much more subtle strategies.
The game is especially interesting to implement because it can be broken down into two phases that are, from a computer's
perspective, fundamentally different. The first lasts from the beginning of the game up until the last tile in the bag is drawn.
During this phase, it is not known what the other players' tiles are, and the game has an element of randomness. However, when the last tile is drawn and the bag is empty, the computer can deduce from the
overall letter distribution what letters must be on the other players' racks. In particular, when playing against a single
opponent, the computer knows exactly the tiles on your rack and thus what your possible moves are for the rest of the game.
The best known Scrabble AI player is Maven, created by
Brian Sheppard. The official
Scrabble computer game in North America uses this method of artificial intelligence and is released by Atari. Outside of North America, the official Scrabble computer game is released by Mattel.
Records
The highest competitive game score is 1,049 by Phil Appleby of Lymington, Hants, UK, on June 25, 1989 in
Wormley, Herts, UK. His opponent scored just 253 points, giving Appleby a record victory margin of 796 points.
The highest competitive single-turn score recorded is 392, by Dr. Saladin Karl Khoshnaw in Manchester, UK, in April 1982. The word he used was CAZIQUES,
meaning "native chiefs of West Indian aborigines".
External links
- General
- Playing Scrabble online/by e-mail:
- The Internet Scrabble Club (http://www.isc.ro) with the software WordBiz
- The
Pixie Pit (http://www.thepixiepit.co.uk/scrabble.htm)
- Scrabble
Master (http://www.scrabble-master.hekman.net/)
- Games.com (http://play.games.com/) – Select Scrabbles from menu
- Betapet (http://www.betapet.com) – Swedish Scrabble
- Ordspel (http://www.ordspel.se) – Swedish Scrabble
- Free Scrabble-like
game (http://www.kurnik.org/literaxx)
- JDuplicate (http://www.jduplicate.org) – Free, open source word game suite
- Scrabble Download (http://www.download-free-games.com/word_game_download/scrabble.htm) – PC version of the
board game
- e-Scrabble (http://www.e-scrabble.com) – Play Scrabble games online (e-mail notification of turns);
some rules aren't strictly enforced by the server. (game written by Jared (http://www.geek-boy.com/))
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