• Making a play[edit] The first played word must be at least two letters long, and cover H8 (the center square).

• A proper play uses one or more of the player’s tiles to form a continuous string of letters that make a word (the play’s “main word”) on the board, reading either left-to-right
  or top-to-bottom.

• In tournament play, a challenge may be to the entire play or any one or more words formed in the play, and judges (human or computer) are used, so players are not entitled
  to know which word(s) are invalid.

• Plays covering a DWS and a TWS simultaneously (6× the word value, or 18× if a DWS and two TWS squares are covered) are only possible if a player misses the center star on
  the first turn, and the play goes unchallenged (this is valid under North American tournament rules).

• • It was made clear that: o words could be played through single letters already on the board, o a player could play a word parallel and immediately adjacent to an existing
  word provided all crossing words formed were valid, o the effect of two premium squares was to be compounded multiplicatively.

• CON played under (JACK) simultaneously forming (J)O and (A)N. Any combination of these is allowed in a play, as long as all the letters placed on the board in one play lie
  in one row or column and are connected by a main word, and any run of tiles on two or more consecutive squares along a row or column constitutes a valid word.

• (For several years, a game could not end with a cumulative score of 0–0, but that is no longer the case, and such games have since occurred a number of times in tournament
  play, the winner being the player with the lower total point value on their rack and thus a score less negative than the opponent’s.

• The player challenged must then look up the words in question using a specified word source (such as the NASPA Word List, the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, or Collins
  Scrabble Words), and if one or more of them is found to be unacceptable, the play is removed from the board, the player returns the newly played tiles to their rack, and the turn is forfeited.

• • Play at least one tile on the board, adding the value of all words formed to the player’s cumulative score.

• End of game[edit] A game of magnetic Pocket Scrabble approaching its end, where players have fewer than seven tiles remaining Under North American tournament rules, the game
  ends when either: 1.

• If a player has made a play and has not yet drawn a tile, the opponent may choose to challenge any or all words formed by the play.

• • Finally, if seven tiles have been laid on the board in one turn, known as a “bingo” in North America and as a “bonus” elsewhere, after all of the words formed have been
  scored, 50 bonus points are added.

• Although 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 renamed the game Scrabble, a real word which means “to scratch frantically”.

• Examples[edit] Plays can be made in several ways (in what follows, it is assumed that the word JACK has been played on a previous turn; letters in parentheses represent tiles
  already on the board): • Adding one or more letters to an existing word, e.g.

• • A change in the wording of the rules could have been interpreted as meaning that a player may form more than one word on one row on a single turn.

• • It was made clear that: o a tile can be shifted or replaced until the play has been scored, o a challenge applies to all the words made in the given play.

• SOWPODS, the combined OTCWL+OSW list now used in much of the world, known today as Collins Scrabble Words.

• [20]) When the game ends, each player’s score is reduced by the sum of their unused letters; in addition, if a player has used all of their letters (known as “going out” or
  “playing out”), the sum of all other players’ unused letters is added to that player’s score.

• The main word must either use the letters of one or more previously played words or else have at least one of its tiles horizontally or vertically adjacent to an already played
  word.

• This is common for “parallel” plays that make up to eight words in one turn.

• If player A holds, player A’s clock still runs, and player B may not draw provisional replacement tiles until 15 seconds after the hold was announced (which tiles must then
  be kept separate).

• [4] Game details The game is played by two to four players on a square game board imprinted with a 15×15 grid of cells (individually known as “squares”), each of which accommodates
  a single letter tile.

• Thereafter, any move is made by using one or more tiles to place a word on the board.

• • If a player makes a play where the main word covers two DWS squares, the value of that word is doubled, then redoubled (i.e.

• In most North American tournaments, the rules of the NASPA Games organization stipulate instead that players who have gone first in the fewest previous games in the tournament
  go first, and when that rule yields a tie, those who have gone second the most go first.

• Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares.

• Each tile is marked with its point value, with a blank tile — the game’s equivalent of a wild card — played as the word’s first letter.

• If any words other than the main word are formed by the play, they are scored as well and are subject to the same criteria of acceptability.

• This is particularly the case in close games with more than two players.

• S is one of the most versatile tiles in English-language Scrabble because it can be appended to many words to pluralize them (or in the case of most verbs, convert them to
  the third person singular present tense, as in the word PLUMMETS), Alfred Butts included only four S tiles to avoid making the game “too easy”.

• The two games had the same set of letter tiles, whose distributions and point values Butts worked out by performing a frequency analysis of letters from various sources, including
  The New York Times.

• Clubs also typically hold at least one open tournament per year.

• Almost all tournament games involve only two players; typically, each has 25 minutes in which to make all of their plays.

• When the letters to be drawn have run out, the final play can often determine the winner.

• Although it is unnecessary, additional words formed by the play are sometimes listed after the main word and a slash.

• In an English-language set, the game contains 100 tiles, 98 of which are marked with a letter and a point value ranging from 1 to 10.

• The key difference between the OSPD and the NWL is that the OSPD is marketed for “home and school” use, without words which their source dictionaries judged offensive, rendering
  the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary less fit for official Scrabble play.

• The penalty for an unsuccessful challenge (where all words formed by the play are deemed valid) varies considerably, including: • “Double Challenge”, in which an unsuccessfully
  challenging player must forfeit the next turn.

• Although casual games are often played with unlimited time, this is problematic in competitive play among players for whom the number of evident legal plays is immense.

• There is no limit on how long player A may hold the play.

• He placed a large order, and within a year, “everyone had to have one”.

• • Playing all seven tiles is officially called a “bingo” in North America and a “bonus” elsewhere.

• Scoring[edit] The score for any play is determined this way: • Each new word formed in a play is scored separately, and then those scores are added up.

• The score for this play would be (2 × 10 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1) × 2 = 48 (following the order of operations).

• [21] There are two popular competition word lists for English-language Scrabble: • NASPA Word List (NWL, also known as OTCWL, OWL, or TWL) • Collins Scrabble Words (CSW, also
  called “Collins” or “SOWPODS”) The first predominates in the U.S., Canada, Israel and Thailand, and the second in English Scrabble in the rest of the world.

• The normal approach is for players to each draw one tile.

• The player is then required to make another play, with no penalty applied.)

• • The main word (defined as the word containing every played letter) is scored.

• Under NASPA tournament rules, a player may request to “hold” the opponent’s play to consider whether to challenge it, provided that the opponent has not yet drawn replacement
  tiles.

• [22] Challenges[edit] Main article: Challenge (Scrabble) The penalty for a successfully challenged play is nearly universal: the offending player removes the tiles played
  and forfeits their turn.

• An example of a Scrabble game in progress using Quackle, an open-source program.

• If player A successfully challenges after player B drew provisional replacement tiles, player B must show the drawn tiles before returning them to the bag.

• • Exchange one or more tiles for an equal number from the bag, scoring nothing, an option available only if at least seven tiles remain in the bag.

• In official club and tournament games, play is between two players or, occasionally, between two teams, each of which collaborates on a single rack.

• A scoreless turn can also theoretically occur if a play consists of only blank tiles, but this is extremely unlikely in actual play.

• Clubs in North America typically meet one day a week for three or four hours and some charge a small admission fee to cover their expenses and prizes.

• A play is usually identified in the format xy WORD score or WORD xy score, where x denotes the column or row on which the play’s main word extends, y denotes the second coordinate
  of the main word’s first letter, and WORD is the main word.

• It is theoretically possible to achieve a play covering three TWS squares (a 27× word score), although this is extremely improbable without constructive setup and collaboration.

• Or a player can put down a legal word that appears to be a phony hoping the other player will incorrectly challenge it and lose their turn.

• Tournaments are also played using CSW in North America, particularly since Hasbro ceased to control tournament play in 2009.

• Words must read either left-to-right or top-to-bottom.

• (In some online games, an option known as “void” may be used, wherein unacceptable words are automatically rejected by the program.

• When the play of a single tile forms words in each direction, one of the words is arbitrarily chosen to serve as the main word for purposes of notation.

• The game also has two blank tiles that are unmarked and carry no point value.

• • Modified “Single Challenge”, in which an unsuccessful challenge does not result in the loss of the challenging player’s turn, but is penalized by the loss of a specified
  number of points.

• The game is sold in 121 countries and is available in more than 30 languages; approximately 150 million sets have been sold worldwide, and roughly one-third of American and
  half of British homes have a Scrabble set.

• Competitive play Club and tournament play[edit] Main article: English-language Scrabble See also: Category:Scrabble competitions Tens of thousands play club and tournament
  Scrabble worldwide.

• The player who picks the letter closest to the beginning of the alphabet goes first, with blank tiles taking precedence over the letter A.

• He manufactured a few sets himself but was not successful in selling the game to any major game manufacturers of the day.

• All tournament (and most club) games are played with a game clock and a set time control.

• • The previously unspecified penalty for having one’s play successfully challenged was stated: withdrawal of tiles and loss of turn.

• The Scrabble Players Championship (formerly North American Scrabble Championship): organized by NASPA Games, an open event attracting several hundred players, held around
  July–August every year in the United States.

• A game of Scrabble in French Next, players decide the order in which they play.

• J is also difficult to play due to its low frequency and a scarcity of words having it at the end.

• [17] Evolution of the rules[edit] The “box rules” included in each copy of the North American edition have been edited four times: in 1953, 1976, 1989, and 1999.

 

Works Cited

[‘o “History of Toys and Games: Scrabble”. history.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008.
o ^ “The History of Scrabble®”. Mind Sport Olympiad. Archived from the original on June 8, 2011.
o ^ “Spell bound”. The Guardian. London. June
28, 2008. Retrieved January 2, 2009.
o ^ Jump up to:a b “Scrabble: 60 facts for its 60th birthday”. The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
o ^ “Scrabble”. mindsports_scrabble.php. Retrieved
April 29, 2015.
o ^ Jump up to:a b c “Official Tournament Rules – NASPAWiki”. scrabbleplayers.org. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
o ^ “Letter positions in Scrabble”. scrabblestats.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2016.
o ^ Tierney, John
(May 24, 1998). “Humankind Battles for Scrabble Supremacy”. The New York Times Magazine.
o ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Fatsis, Stefan (2002). Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players. ISBN 0-14-200226-7.
o ^
“James Brunot entry on Board Game Geek”. boardgamegeek.com.
o ^ Edley, Joe; Williams, John D. Jr. (With) (2001). Everything Scrabble. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-04218-1.[page needed]
o ^ Fatsis, Stefan (July 7, 2001). Word Freak: Heartbreak,
Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players. HMH. pp. 171–172. ISBN 978-0-547-52431-3.
o ^ Jump up to:a b Fatsis, Stefan (August 17, 2012). “The Case of the Stolen Blanks”. Slate. Retrieved August 19, 2012. Scrabble
transitioned from living-room novelty—nearly 4 million sets were sold in 1954—to competitive passion in the 1960s, when it landed alongside chess, backgammon, and bridge in smoke-filled games parlors in New York City. … When the tiles were placed
in bags during games, unscrupulous players could feel around for the blanks because they had no grooves, a tactic known as “brailling”.
o ^ Jump up to:a b “History of Scrabble”. Scrabble-assoc.com. April 26, 2003. Archived from the original on March
16, 2010. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^ Scrabble (1984–1990) at IMDb. Retrieved 2012-08-19.
o ^ “The Development of Scrabble” (PDF). media.wix.com. November 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 1, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
o ^
“Scrabble in the National Toy Hall of Fame”. word-grabber.com – The Word Game Community.
o ^ Jump up to:a b “Scrabble – a Brief History and Evolution of the Rules, 1949–1999”. DonaldSauter.com. September 2010.
o ^ “Scrabble Game Rules” (PDF).
Hasbro. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 16, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
o ^ game-by-game results for Marlon Hill in Albany, NY July 2010 at cross-tables.com
o ^ “[Loopful] Two Letter Words Allowed In Scrabble”. Word Buff. Retrieved
June 8, 2015.
o ^ “SOWPODS – NASPAWiki”. North American Scrabble Players Association.
o ^ “Australian Masters and State Team Challenge”. www.scrabble.org.au. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
o ^ “NASPA Official Tournament Rules (effective January 4, 2017)”
(PDF). December 1, 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
o ^ “World English-Language Scrabble® Players Association Game Rules, Version 4.0” (PDF). October 1, 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original
on April 11, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
o ^ “WESPA News: Scrabble Champions Tournament Announcement”. WESPA.
o ^ “Internationally Rated SOWPODS Events”. Members.ozemail.com.au. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^ “Scrabble FAQ Contents”. Archived
from the original on August 27, 2005. Retrieved July 30, 2005.
o ^ Jump up to:a b c “830-point Game at the Lexington Scrabble Club”. Wolfberg.net. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^ Jump up to:a b c Fatsis, Stefan (October 26, 2006). “830! How a carpenter
got the highest Scrabble score ever”. Slate Magazine. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^ game-by-game results for Joel Sherman in Stamford, CT 2011 at cross-tables.com
o ^ Jump up to:a b “Scrabble FAQ”. Home.teleport.com. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^
“Round 5 scores”. centrestar.co.uk. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
o ^ “Rik Kennedy-Toh Weibin annotated game (cross-tables.com)”. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
o ^ “Meet ‘Mr. 850′ Toh Weibin”. WESPA. January 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
o ^ Jump
up to:a b “World Record: Highest Losing Score”. Dallasopen.com. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^ Coty Dolores Miranda (February 19, 2009). “World Scrabble record set in Ahwatukee tournament”. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^ [1]
Game summary
o ^ “Chew vs Kaufman”. Math.toronto.edu. June 15, 1997. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^ “2013 WYSC Stories”. World Youth Scrable.
o ^ “2008 NSC Live Coverage, Round 5”. Scrabble-assoc.com. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^ Based on the
respective distribution of each tile, the odds of drawing MUZJIKS in order is the product of the fractions 2⁄98, 4⁄97, 1⁄96, 1⁄95, 9⁄94, 1⁄93, and 4⁄92. This value must then be multiplied by factorial of 7—the number of tiles for which the factorial
is the number of combinations—to obtain the probability of drawing the tiles in any order.
o ^ Glenday, Craig (April 29, 2008). Guinness World Records 2008. Random House Publishing Group. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-553-58995-5. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
o ^
Jump up to:a b “Tournament records – All-time best”. Scrabble.org.au. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^ Jump up to:a b “WSC Player Information: Karl Khoshnaw”. Retrieved April 27, 2006.
o ^ game-by-game results for James Leong in Brandon, MB 2015 at
cross-tables.com
o ^ game-by-game results for Doug Brockmeier in Elmhurst, IL 2011 at cross-tables.com
o ^ game-by-game results for Chris Cree in Houston, TX 2007 at cross-tables.com
o ^ “Scrabble Association Archives – Nigel Richards, 7th Lim
Boon Heng Cup, 22 Mar 2009”. Singapore Scrabble Association. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
o ^ Jump up to:a b Record for the Highest Scoring Scrabble Move at scrabulizer.com
o ^ “Record for the Highest Scoring Scrabble Move”. Scrabulizer.
o ^
“Alphabet City Light – Final Report”. azspcs.com. September 26, 2014. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
o ^ McWhirter, Norris (1985). Guinness Book of World Records 1985. Sterling Publishing. ISBN 0-8069-0264-7.[page needed]
o ^ “A Computer Program Wins
Its First Scrabble Tournament”. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2007. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
o ^ “quackle/quackle”. September 21, 2020 – via GitHub.
o ^ “Scrabble for Amiga (1993)”. MobyGames.
o ^ “Computer Scrabble for Commodore 64
(1984)”. MobyGames.
o ^ “World of Spectrum – Computer Scrabble”. World of Spectrum.
o ^ “Scrabble for Game Boy Advance – GameFAQs”. gamefaqs.gamespot.com.
o ^ “Scrabble”. Metacritic.
o ^ “Scrabble (USA) : Hasbro Interactive : Free Borrow &
Streaming”. Internet Archive.
o ^ “Scrabble”. PlayStation.
o ^ “Scrabble – Kindle Store”. www.amazon.com.
o ^ “Scrabble 2009”. www.game.co.uk.
o ^ Henry, Lesley-Anne (September 27, 2007). “Slang word shock on Scrabble video game”. The Belfast
Telegraph. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
o ^ “Legal Troubles Mount for Scrabulous – Hasbro Sues for Infringement”. efluxnews. July 27, 2008. Archived from the original on July 30, 2008.
o ^ “Facebook shuts off Scrabulous after Hasbro sues”. Los Angeles
Times. Bloomberg News. July 29, 2008. Archived from the original on August 5, 2008.
o ^ Sivaraman, Aarthi (December 15, 2008). “Hasbro withdraws suit against Scrabulous creator”. Reuters. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
o ^ Jump up to:a b Foley, Stephen
(April 8, 2004). “Mattel takes on Scrabulous in war of the words”. The Independent. London. Retrieved April 8, 2008.
o ^ Jump up to:a b c Timmons, Heather (April 7, 2004). “Scrabble Tries to Fight a Popular Impostor at Its Own Game”. The New York
Times. Retrieved April 8, 2008.
o ^ “Facebook update spells A-N-G-E-R”. The Daily Telegraph. Sydney, Australia. June 6, 2013.
o ^ “The Man Behind the Facebook Scrabble League”. word-grabber.com. June 3, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
o ^ “How
Scopely took over the Scrabble mobile game franchise from EA”. venturebeat.com. March 8, 2020. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
o ^ “Cross words force Scrabble app developer back to drawing board”. theaustralian.com.au. June 3, 2020. Retrieved June 17,
2020.
o ^ Voinov, Vitaly. 2010. Words should be fun: Scrabble as a tool for language preservation in Tuvan and other local languages. Language Documentation & Conservation 4. 213–230.
o ^ “The Hub Announces”. Buzzerblog. Archived from the original
on March 29, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2011.
o ^ “Scarabeo – Sito ufficiale”. editricegiochi.it. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
o ^ Warren, Jane. “Cut-throat world of competitive Scrabble as Allan Simmons is BANNED for cheating”. The Express. Retrieved
April 6, 2018.
o ^ New Tile Lock Scrabble: Amazon.co.uk: Toys & Games. ASIN 1223063151.
o ^ “Winning Moves Games Tile Lock Super Scrabble: Amazon.co.uk: Toys & Games”. www.amazon.co.uk.
o ^ “Scrabble Word Finder”.
o ^ “Prestige Scrabble”.
www.leisuretrends.co.uk.
o ^ “Mattel Scrabble Deluxe New Version”. www.johnlewis.com.
o ^ “Scrabble Deluxe Edition Game | Scrabble”. scrabble.hasbro.com.
o ^ “Scrabble Glass Edition”. www.leisuretrends.co.uk.
o ^ “Large Print Scrabble”. shop.rnib.org.uk.
o ^
“Large Print Scrabble”. www.leisuretrends.co.uk.
o ^ “Braille Scrabble”. shop.rnib.org.uk.
o ^ Scrabble Player’s Handbook. scrabbleplayershandbook.com.
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/istolethetv/2470177960/’]