Sender: stevena@kazoo.CS.Berkeley.EDU Received: from kazoo.CS.Berkeley.EDU by arl-img-2.compuserve.com (5.67/5.930129sam) id AA04153; Tue, 21 Sep 93 21:06:16 -0400 Received: from localhost (stevena@localhost) by kazoo.CS.Berkeley.EDU (8.5/8.5) id SAA25064; Tue, 21 Sep 1993 18:03:50 -0700 Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 18:03:50 -0700 From: Steven Alexander Message-Id: <199309220103.SAA25064@kazoo.CS.Berkeley.EDU> To: 71224.72@compuserve.com, 74150.2727@compuserve.com, STEVE%HADASSAH@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL, alf@world.std.com, gary@flash.telesoft.com, jhfenton@acpub.duke.edu, jjchew@math.toronto.edu, kablooey@anarky.tch.org, mamorley@lbl.gov, stk1324@freyr.stockton.edu Subject: Scrabble FAQ, part 1 Article 12448 of news.answers: Path: agate!triangle.CS.Berkeley.EDU!stevena From: stevena@cs.berkeley.edu (Steven Alexander) Newsgroups: rec.games.board,rec.puzzles.crosswords,rec.answers,news.answers Subject: Scrabble FAQ - General Information Supersedes: <24m113$lqo@agate.berkeley.edu> Followup-To: rec.games.board Date: 16 Sep 1993 17:19:06 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 1326 Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Expires: Thu, 17 Oct 1993 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <27a76a$f7o@agate.berkeley.edu> Reply-To: stevena@cs.berkeley.edu (Steven Alexander) NNTP-Posting-Host: triangle.cs.berkeley.edu Summary: Frequently Asked Questions and their answers on the game Scrabble. Keywords: Scrabble Originator: stevena@triangle.CS.Berkeley.EDU Xref: agate rec.games.board:30884 rec.puzzles.crosswords:1262 rec.answers:2203 news.answers:12448 Last-modified: 16 September 1993 Archive-name: games/scrabble-faq/general Scrabble Frequently Asked Questions This article is posted monthly to rec.games.board, rec.puzzles.crosswords, rec.answers and news.answers. Copies are available for anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu in the directory /pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/games/board, under the name Scrabble_FAQ_-_Club_and_Tournament_Supplement (and Scrabble_FAQ_-_General_Information for the companion part). If you have better information on any of these topics, please contact me. Send all comments to stevena@cs.berkeley.edu with "FAQ" in the subject. 1. What this FAQ covers 2. The trademark Scrabble 3. Organized Scrabble activity 3.1. National Scrabble Association and Association of Premier Scrabble Players 3.2. Clubs 3.3. Tournaments 3.3.1. North American, UK and world championships 3.3.2. How club and tournament Scrabble differs from the rules in the box 3.3.3. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary and Official Scrabble Words 3.3.3.1. Why are all those stupid/non-English/indecent words allowed? 3.3.3.2. Current corrections to the OSPD 2nd ed 3.3.3.3. Current corrections to the Franklin Electronic OSPD 3.3.4. Tournament pairings 3.3.5. Tournament ratings 3.3.6. Upcoming tournaments 3.4. Organizations conducting Scrabble activity outside North America and the UK 3.5. Did the North American 1992 champion really give his $10,000 prize away to a literacy charity? 4. Differences between Scrabble in North America and in the UK 5. Publications on Scrabble 5.1. Periodicals 5.1.1. Scrabble News 5.1.2. Medleys 5.1.3. Brian Sheppard's unnamed series 5.1.4. Non-North American periodicals 5.1.4.1. Onwords 5.1.5. Defunct periodicals 5.1.5.1. Letters for Expert Players 5.1.5.2. Matchups 5.2. Books 5.3. Word lists 5.4. Word study software 6. Basic tactics and methods 7. Typical games 7.1. Typical scores 7.2. Frequency of Bingos 8. Scrabble records 8.1. Actual 8.2. Theoretical 8.3. Blocked games 9. Scrabble variants 10. Play-by-mail games 11. Scrabble paraphernalia 12. Computer versions of Scrabble 12.1. CrossWise (IBM PC) 12.2. Gameboy Super Scrabble (hand-held) 12.3. Maven (Macintosh) 12.4. Monty Plays Scrabble (hand-held) 12.5. Scramble (IBM PC) 12.6. Tyler (IBM PC, Macintosh) 12.7. US Gold Scrabble (IBM PC, Amiga, Atari ST) 12.8. Vic Rice's Game (IBM PC) 12.9. Virgin Mastertronic (IBM PC, Macintosh) 12.10. WordsWorth (IBM PC) 12.11. STrabbler (Atari) 12.12. Unix Scrabble (Unix) 13. Glossary A1. Credits [In the supplement:] A2. Roster of clubs in the US and Canada A3. Upcoming North American tournaments A4. Contacts for major Scrabble organizations worldwide 1. What this FAQ covers This article is about English language Scrabble, or more properly, Scrabble Brand Crossword Game. It is North American-centric (and to a lesser extent covers the UK), but information regarding English language Scrabble is welcome. 2. The trademark Scrabble Scrabble is a registered trademark owned in the United States and Canada by Milton Bradley Company, a division of Hasbro, Inc. In Great Britain and everywhere else in the world, by J.W. Spear & Sons PLC. Selchow & Righter, listed as the US owner on many of your boards, was bought -- in good health -- by Coleco, which shortly went into bankruptcy due to the collapse of the market for their Cabbage Patch dolls. Coleco also led itself to bankruptcy by losing a fortune on the Adam home computer flop, and the unexpected (to them) slowdown in Trivial Pursuit sales. (Trivial Pursuit was marketed in the US by Selchow & Righter). Coleco was bought up by Milton Bradley, which was in turn gobbled up by Hasbro. In North America, technically, the term Scrabble refers to any game or related product Milton Bradley cares to label that way, while the popular board game is "Scrabble Crossword Game". Most people -- including Milton Bradley's own publication -- use the term Scrabble to refer to that game, and so will this FAQ. 3. Organized Scrabble activity 3.1. National Scrabble Association and Association of Premier Scrabble Players The National Scrabble Association ("NSA") is the only organization running Scrabble activity in North America. It is a subsidiary of Milton Bradley. NSA licenses tournament and club directors. Club and tournament play, except for the national and world championships, is sanctioned but not run by NSA. Non-members are supposed to be charged an extra $5 at tournaments. Membership is $15 per year in the US, $20 (US) in Canada, and $25 elsewhere, by postal money order outside the US. National Scrabble Association c/o Williams & Company Box 700 Greenport, NY 11944 (516) 477-0033 In the UK, the Association of Premier Scrabble Players ("APSP") in the UK, an independent organization, organizes many tournaments. It may be reached at 36 Longacre Woodthorpe Nottingham, NG5 4JS United Kingdom Membership in APSP costs #5 per year; members receive a newsletter about six times per year. Its chairman, Graeme Thomas, may be reached by e-mail at gvt@uniplex.co.uk. 3.2. Clubs Clubs normally play Scrabble according to tournament rules, although sometimes accommodation for newcomers includes allowing them to refer to lists of two- and three-letter words for their first couple of visits. The current roster of active North American clubs, according to the most recent listing from the National Scrabble Association, is an Appendix to this FAQ. Some of the listings may be out of date, so call the person listed before trying to attend. For clubs in the UK, contact Philip Nelkon J.W. Spear & Sons PLC Richard House Enstone Road Enfield Middlesex United Kingdom 3.3. Tournaments 3.3.1. North American, UK and world championships "National Scrabble Championships", really for North America, are held by the National Scrabble Association in even years. In recent years these have been essentially open to anyone. A certain number of non-North American players are invited. In odd years, an invitational "World Championship" is held. The 1993 World Championship was held in August in New York; Australia is the likely location for the 1995 Championship. North American entrants qualify by rating or performance in designated qualifying tournaments. In the UK, Spears runs the National Scrabble Championship. Several regional events (apparently open only to UK residents) are used as qualifiers for the national final. Also in the UK, the APSP organizes a 17-game British Matchplay Scrabble Championship held each August. It is open to all. 3.3.2. How club and tournament Scrabble differs from the rules in the box Club and tournament Scrabble games are always two-player games. Both players must keep score. A bag is used for tiles (not the box lid). Chess clocks are used to time the game and each player is allowed a total of 25 minutes to make all of his or her moves in the game. If a player's time limit is exceeded, the game continues but the player is penalized 10 points for each minute over the time limit. The validity of words is determined, in North America (and some other places) by the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, and in the UK by Official Scrabble Words. Most other places use Official Scrabble Words, although some (including New Zealand and in most states of Australia) use both. (These references are described below in section 3.3.3.) When a player challenges one or more words in his or her opponent's move, the clock is stopped while a third party (usually a club or tournament director) looks up the challenged words (which the challenger must specify) to determine whether the move is valid. If a challenged word is unacceptable, the play is removed and the player loses that turn. In North American play, the maker of an erroneous challenge loses a turn; in the UK, and most of Australia, they do not. There are no "house rules" that many social players use, such as free exchange of four of a kind, or claiming blanks off the board by substituting for them. Once there are fewer than seven tiles left in the bag, no exchanging of tiles is allowed. At the end of a North American game, when one player uses all his or her tiles with none remaining in the bag, he or she receives double the value of the opponent's remaining tiles. In the UK, as specified in the box, that value is added to and subtracted from the players' respective scores. Both methods result in the same spread. If the two players take six consecutive turns without successfully placing any tiles on the board - due to any combination of challenges and passes -- the game ends, and both players lose the value of the tiles on their racks. A game in which neither player can make a play ends this way, although the players may simply agree that the game is over without going through all six turns. The box rules do not mention whether one can make written notes during the game. In tournaments and clubs, players are allowed to write anything they wish on their score sheet. One use of written notes is to keep track of which tiles have been played, allowing one to know which tiles remain to be played. This is known as tile- tracking, and players may use preprinted score sheets that show the tile distribution as an aid to tile-tracking. 3.3.3. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary and Official Scrabble Words The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary ("OSPD"), published by Merriam-Webster, is the official dictionary used for all tournament and club play. The OSPD first was published in 1978. It includes all words of eight or fewer letters, and simplifies the settling of Scrabble word arguments by specifically showing those words' inflections (plurals of nouns, conjugations of verbs, comparatives and superlatives of adjectives). For root words longer than eight letters, the Merriam-Webster Ninth Collegiate Dictionary is used. The Tenth Collegiate came out in May 1993 and will soon replace the Ninth, perhaps by January 1, 1994. The OSPD does include inflected forms of up to eight letters whose roots words are longer. In 1990, a second edition of the OSPD came out in hardcover. A paperback of the OSPD2 came out in June 1993, but the paperback OSPD1 is still on many bookstores' shelves and should be avoided. Cygnus Cybernetics publishes a complete list of the words added (and the handful removed) in OSPD2. See the listing in section 5.3. The OSPD was created because in the 1950s Selchow & Righter sold the right to put out Scrabble word lists to Jacob Orleans and Edmund Jacobson, authors of Scrabble Word Guide, a 1953 book based on the Funk and Wagnalls Dictionary. The official publication, Scrabble News, is still circumspect about publishing word lists, tending to print them in small chunks to conform to some idea of their remaining rights. Parallel to the OSPD for North America, the UK has Official Scrabble Words ("OSW"), which lists all rules-acceptable words in the Chambers English Dictionary ("Chambers") (known as Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary before the 1988 edition) whose uninflected roots have nine or fewer letters, and words of nine or fewer letters which are inflections of longer words. Challenges of longer words are looked up in Chambers. For trademark reasons, the OSPD is not sold outside North America, and OSW is not sold in North America. 3.3.3.1. Why are all those stupid/non-English/indecent words allowed? The OSPD was formed according to the rules of Scrabble, allowing all non-capitalized words without apostrophes or hyphens, which are not designated as foreign. In a compromise between the number of words in a standard college dictionary (such as Funk & Wagnalls, in use before the OSPD) and an unabridged dictionary, the OSPD, 1st ed., included all words found in at least one of five major college dictionaries, which in the judgment of Merriam-Webster's lexicographers (contracted by the trademark holder to do this) met the rules. To some extent, this succeeds at capturing the language, not as some set of Scrabble players would have it, but as it is -- according to professional lexicographers. 3.3.3.2. Current corrections to the OSPD 2nd ed. The cumulative corrections to the OSPD 2nd ed., all corrected in the most recent printings, are: p16 ALIYAH: -YAHS (not -YAS) 108 CLAUGHT: -ING (not -INT) 109 CLEEK: CLAUCHT (not CLAUGHT) 213 FLANKEN: pl. FLANKEN 272 HONDLE: -DLED, -DLING, -DLES (not -DLIED or -DLIES) 273 insert HOOTY adj HOOTIER, HOOTIEST 321 LEAP: add LEPT as third past 359 insert MISENROLL v -ED, -ING, -S 364 MOJO: add MOJOES 451 delete PREFROZE; insert PREFREEZE v -FROZE, -FROZEN, -FREEZING, -FREEZES to freeze beforehand 481 delete REARMICE; insert REARMOUSE n pl. -MICE reremouse 477 REFALL: add REFALLS 488 delete REREMICE; insert REREMOUSE n pl. -MICE a bat (a flying mammal) 537 SJAMBOK: definition should be "to flog" 635 UNMESH: -ES (not -S) 638 UPFRONT adj 639 URB: pl. URBS 643 delete VANIR 675 insert XANTHATE n pl. -S a chemical salt Some of these "corrections" muddy the rule that all uninflected words in the OSPD have eight or fewer letters. 3.3.3.3. Current corrections to the Franklin Electronic OSPD additions deletions --------- --------- AMNIA AMNIONIA BRITISH CAUDILLOS CAUDILLLOS CHEERLEADED CHINESE CHRISTMAS CLUBBERS CRACKLES CRACKLEES CRIOLLOS CRIOLLLOS EXPIATING GONIONIA GRAMS HALAZONES HIGGLED HONDLES HONDLIES HORNBEAMS IRISH ITALIAN MACHES MISEATE OPALESCING OPALESCESCING OUTDRAGGING OUTEATE OVEREATE OVERLIT REFALLS S SISSIES SIES UNCLOGGING UNDEREATE 3.3.4. Tournament pairings Most North American tournaments are ranked according to win-loss record first, followed by the total of point margin in each game. A few tournaments score according to a predetermined number of credits for winning and for each ten points of margin. Australian tournaments use total game score as the secondary factor. In small tournaments or ones in where the field is sufficiently divided, each player plays every other once. This is called a round robin. In all the other tournament designs, who one plays depends on where one stands in the tournament so far. In the first round, generally the players pre-tournament ratings temporarily stand in for the tournament rank. The modified form of Swiss pairing used at North American Scrabble tournaments is best described by example. Suppose 64 players are at the tournament. In round one, the first player plays the 33rd, the second plays the 34th, etc., and the 32nd plays the 64th. In round two, the same top plays middle is used for the top and bottom halves of the tournament separately: 1 plays 17, 2 plays 18, down to 16 plays 32, and 33 plays 49, down to 48 plays 64. This continues with groups shrinking by a factor of two at each round. Because determining the pairings between rounds can take so long in this method (computers are fast, but data entry can be slow), often the field is divided into four groups, instead of two. So with 64 players, 1 17 33 49 would be grouped together, as would 2 18 34 50, and 16 32 48 64. These groups of four then each play a round robin. Note that this "speed-pairing" method provides the better players an advantage. Denote the four quartiles in order as A, B, C, D. Then the A player plays a B, C and D, while the D plays an A, B and C; this tends to reinforce the pre-tournament estimate of the players' strengths, and thus detracts from the aim of a tournament -- to recognize performance, not rank. A simple improvement has rarely been tried, to have each A player also matched against an A from another group, etc. This models the round robin in small, and seems inherently fairer. (If anyone has references to scholarly treatments of the fairness of tournament design, I would be grateful to be supplied with them, for ongoing research.) In the UK, most tournaments are run by the (un-modified) Swiss pairing method, in which players in blocks of decreasing size play a random member of the next lower block. 3.3.5. Tournament ratings North American tournaments players get a rating in the range 500 to ~2150 which indirectly represents the probability of winning against any other rated player. This probability depends only on the difference between the two players' ratings as follows: rating probability difference of winning 400 .919 300 .853 200 .758 100 .637 50 .569 0 .500 -50 .431 -100 .363 -200 .242 -300 .147 -400 .081 This represents the area under the standard bell-shaped curve where 300 points are taken as one standard deviation. (The table shows some sample points on this curve, adequate for good approximations of rating calculations by interpolation, although actual calculations use the exact curve.) To keep current on a player's actual quality of play, the rating is updated in every tournament played. First, the number of games one is expected to win is calculated. Let's use as an example a two game tournament, in which player P begins with an 1800 rating, and plays opponents rated 1900 and 1725. P's rating is 100 below the 1900 players, so P is expected to win .363 fraction of a game; P's ratings is 75 above the other player's, so P is expected to win .603 of a game (halfway between .637 and .569). So in the two games, P is expected to win a total of .966 games. Let's say P won one game. That's .034 more than expected. P's rating goes up some constant multiple of this number. Well, actually it's not a constant, but depends on how many tournament games P has ever played and how high P's rating is. games played Rating < 50 >=50 below 1800 30 20 1800-1999 24 16 2000 & up 15 10 The UK ratings are somewhat similar but simpler: the probability of the better player winning is supposed to be 50% plus the rating difference, as a percent. The Australian rating system is the same as the North American. 3.3.6. Upcoming tournaments For a listing of upcoming North American tournaments, see the Appendix. 3.4. Organizations conducting Scrabble activity outside North America and the UK Memberships in the Australian Scrabble Players Association, which is independent of the trademark holder, is $10 per year ($8 in some states). It publishes 'Across the Board', which has columns on playing, and tournament listings. It may be reached at The Scrabble Enquiry Centre PO Box 405 Bentleigh, 3204 Australia (03) 510 9381 Australian Scrabble Players Association 3 Ocean St Ormond, Victoria, 3204 Australia (03) 578 6767 In Israel, English language Scrabble is played by several clubs. There is a large one in Jerusalem. Tournaments are rated under a copy of the North American system. There are occasional national tournaments. Sam Orbaum, who once wrote a weekly Scrabble column for the Jerusalem Post, runs the Jerusalem club, which meets at ICCY, 12 Emek-Refaim Street, Jerusalem at 7:30pm JST Tuesdays. He can be reached at (02)767967 (H), (02)315654 (W). The Thailand National English language Scrabble tournament has drawn as many as 885 contestants, including some top North Americans. Nigeria and Japan each have an active English language Scrabble tournament scene. For addresses of many English language Scrabble organizations and contacts, see the Appendix. 3.5. Did the North American 1992 champion really give his $10,000 prize away to a literacy charity? Yes. By pre-arrangement, since Joe Edley also is vice president of NSA, he agreed to give away any money he won in the 1992 championship to an appropriate charity. He presented his $10,000 prize for first place to Literacy Volunteers of America. 4. Differences between Scrabble in North America and in the UK OSW and Chambers govern Scrabble play in the UK. In the UK, a player erroneously challenging suffers no penalty. The UK has a second form of Scrabble play that is waning: high-score tournaments, where only the total of one's own scores matters. Since one's "opponents'" scores are irrelevant, play in this system aims for open boards and encourages elaborate setups often independently mined by the two players. 5. Publications on Scrabble 5.1. Periodicals 5.1.1. Scrabble News This is a publication of the National Scrabble Association, National Scrabble Association c/o Williams & Company Box 700 Greenport, NY 11944 (516) 477-0033 and comes with the $15 annual membership. Puzzles, contests, gossip, intermediate and advanced tactics, official information from NSA and Milton Bradley, tournament listings and tournament results. 5.1.2. Medleys Probably the highlight of this well-edited, entertainingly written monthly is the game annotations. One game per month is annotated in full. Three interesting positions are analyzed by readers, with quotes. Word lists, study techniques, anecdotes, humor, opinions and upcoming tournament listings round out the publication. The only drawback is a long-running two page tournament advertisement in this 12 page newsletter. Available for $30 per year (12 issues). Add $1 if drawn on a non-US bank and under $15. Medleys 3814 Ashworth Ave N. Seattle, WA 98103 (206) MED-LEYS 5.1.3. Brian Sheppard's unnamed series Unnamed series of (named) booklets deeply analyzing specific positions. By the author of the program Maven, which is an important tool for move analysis. $42 for one year, $5 each. Brian Sheppard 296 Old Marlboro Road Concord, MA 01742 5.1.4. Non-North American periodicals 5.1.4.1. Onwords Billing itself as the "Scrabble Enthusiasts' Magazine", this is the only publication substantially written by more than one person. It features numerous columns, lists, analyses, letters and tournament reports. Subscriptions are #6 for 6 issues in the UK, #10 elsewhere. Allan Simmons Onwords Magazine Shilling House 1 Woolmer Hill Haslemere Surrey, GU27 1LT United Kingdom Onwords may merge with the APSP's newsletter within about a year. 5.1.5. Defunct periodicals 5.1.5.1. Letters for Expert Players This letter-form publication, which ceased in December 1986, still forms a rich mine of top expert opinion on interesting positions. Back issues may (possibly) still be available from: Albert Weissman 11 White Rock Road Westerly, RI 02891 5.1.5.2. Matchups Besides detailed tournament results, Matchups picked up from the Letters in using a panel of experts to annotate interesting positions. Suspended publication in July 1991. Back issues may be available from the address for Tyler, section 12.2, below. 5.2. Books The Champion's Guide to Winning at Scrabble, Joel Wapnick. Best for advanced players, with sophisticated analyses of many positions and good study techniques. Out of print. The Ultimate Guide to Winning Scrabble, Michael Lawrence & John Ozag, (Bantam). Good for beginners to intermediates; covers many of the basic approaches to analysis. Out of print, but may be available from Edward R. Hamilton, a mail-order remainder bookseller. Scrabble Tournament Success, a booklet focusing on the thought processes which can help intermediate players improve. Available from the author, an excellent player, for $7.50. Darrell Day 5 Westglen Place Plano, TX 75074 British Scrabble books: Official Scrabble Words, Chambers Comprehensive listing of 2-9 letter words in the official Scrabble word reference, the Chambers dictionary. Championship Scrabble, Alan Richter Play Better Scrabble, Michael Goldman Scrabble, Darryl Francis The Scrabble Book, Derryn Hinch covers both British & North American Scrabble The Scrabble Puzzle Book, Gyles Brandreth Scrabble World Championship, Gyles Brandreth and Darryl Francis 5.3. Word lists Numerous lists and other items are available from Cygnus Cybernetics: For a brochure write to Cygnus Cybernetics Corporation 2013 Weathertop Fort Collins, CO 80526 (303) 490-1288 info@cygcyb.com or e-mail to: info@cygcyb.com. The Blank Book, 2nd ed., Alan Frank Shows all letters with which each set of six and seven letters anagrams to make a word. Also specifies whether more than one word can be formed. Spiral bound. $20 + $3 shipping from Matchups, section 12.2, below. The Olde-Fashioned Anagram Book, Alan Frank All words 2 thru 8 letters anagrammed according to their alphabetized letter sets. Spiral bound. $14 + $3 shipping (or $32 + $4 shipping together with the Blank Book 2nd ed. above) from Matchups, section 12.2, below. The Complete Blankbook, Mike Baron & Jim Homan Lists all 6- and 7-letter sets forming 7- and 8-letter words and all bingos formed. In US, postage paid: $42.50/39.98/39.95/38.00 each when ordering 1/2/3-9/10. In Canada, add $5 per address, elsewhere $10. Wordbooks & Listmats, P.O. Box 2848, Corrales NM 87048-2848. The Family Bingo Tree Similar to the two above, it groups together all 7- and 8-letter words formable from each 6-letter set. Contact Randy Hersom (section 5.4). Double List Word Book, Ethel Cannon Sherard OSPD1 based, alphabetically by word length and by last letter. Has numerous omissions. Gwethine Publishing Co, P.O. Box 41344, Los Angeles, CA 90041. The Scrabble Word-building Book, Saleem Ahmed; $5.95 Inconsistent in inclusion of new OSPD2 words; numerous errors. The Official Scrabble Word Finder This is useless for Scrabble. Official Scrabble Word Guide. Grosset & Dunlap This 1953 book, still found in stores, is based roughly on the Funk & Wagnalls dictionary then current. Official Scrabble Lists For the UK; lists based on OSW; many useful playing hints. Available in the same places as OSW. Official Scrabble Words on Compact Disk This is supplied for Sony's Data Diskman. Search facilities are reportedly poor. Official Scrabble Players Electronic Dictionary Produced by Franklin, this credit-card sized device contains the OSPD2. It does anagram queries and queries with blanks in fixed position. Some proper nouns have crept in as acceptable words, apparently from careless scanning of the printed OSPD2. Available for $48.00 + $5.00 delivery from Cygnus Cybernetics (see section 5.3; this is the only supplier that ships each device with a card listing all the current corrections -- for which, see section 3.3.3.3, above), or $59.99 from Radio Shack (currently on sale for $49.99). Late rumor suggests that the Franklin OSPD may be withdrawn because of wrangling between Franklin and Milton Bradley about the proceeds. 5.4. Word study software Word Study System, $99 at last information, is at least a bit difficult to configure, but a very effective study system. Jeff Widergren 19397 Zinfandel Ct. Saratoga, CA LexAbility, besides a anagram study system, includes a feature allowing play of Scrabble by modem. Randy Hersom 115A Rhyne St. Morgantown, NC 28655 Puzlpack, $20 Chuck Fendall Recroom Recware P.O. Box 307 Pacific Grove, CA 93950 Anna, $99, quizzes on anagrams, emphasizing words missed over time, allows custom lists as well as functioning as an anagrammer Mary Rhoades 2325 Shady Grove Dr. Bedford, TX 76021 (817) 545-3216 6. Basic tactics and methods Rack Balance Some groups of letters combine well, others poorly. Most obviously, racks full of vowels or of consonants are usually hard to play. Also, racks with duplicate letters -- even "good" letters (except most often S and sometimes E) -- reduce flexibility. Therefore, give weight in evaluating possible plays to how well the leave combines. As a corollary, also consider what replacement tiles you're likely to draw. For example, if the choice between playing FARM and FORM is otherwise indifferent, and there are many "A"s unplayed but few "O"s, use the A to minimize the likelihood of duplication on the next rack. The simplest application of attending to leave is attempting to keep good tiles. On average, S, E, R, and so on form words most flexibly, and are particularly conducive to bingos. Choices between letters lower down also matter: P is better than B. But racks with Z or X tend to score high without playing long words. Which type of "good" letter is best to keep varies. In applying all these ideas, consider the board situation. If there is a prime spot for a T, not used by the candidate plays, but none for an S, prefer to play off the S. If the letters available to be played through are mostly consonants, lean further toward keeping vowels. Tile-tracking Since the set of tiles in a game is always the same, knowing what is left is as useful to the Scrabble player as to the card-counting blackjack player -- only easier. While some find tracking hurts their concentration, after practice, most do it without disruption. Others count only when they see a specific need. Tracking allows better rack balancing: knowing there are many more "A"s than "O"s outstanding allows one to lean toward playing an A. It keeps one aware of whether the Q is outstanding, and of the risk and opportunity in other tiles which fit particularly well or poorly with the board. Finally, once no tiles remain in the bag, tracking determines what exactly is on the opponent's rack. Just before the bag is empty, it allows fairly confident guessing what the opponent has. These allow all kinds of end-game play: set-ups, plays to assure the opponent cannot go out and enable one to throw out all rules of thumb and simply analyze cases for how to win. Challenging One of the tactical considerations for challenging is not special to Scrabble. If the only way you can lose is to challenge your opponent's word, refrain. If winning requires a successful challenge (plus perhaps some further luck) and there is any chance the word is phony, challenge. It is generally best not to challenge a bingo if an alternative bingo was playable. I once played (P)SCHENT for several fewer points than CH(A)STEN because I knew my opponent would be outraged that I'd try such a stupid word on him. He should have calmed his emotions and considered my alternatives. Of course, had he found the over ten point better play, he might have inferred I had missed it, and challenged. Consider the possibility that you are better off with the (possibly) phony word on the board. If it creates a lucrative opening for you, or makes especially good use of your rack, offset the point benefit to you against the benefit to opponent of not losing this turn. Weight this calculation using your degree of certainty as to whether the word is good. Use your right to challenge all words formed. Since the director gives only one ruling on the acceptability of all challenged words, your opponent may be uncertain which word was phony and try the bad word again. Study The great variety in learning styles prevent any definitive recommendation of study methods, but there are some principles. Study the words most likely to occur. Know the two-letter words cold, since they are essential to common parallel plays. On the way to learning the three-letter words solidly, learn all front and back extensions for the twos. Learning the part of speech and the meaning of the two-letter words helps many people assimilate this; it is a technique that allows many to derive dual benefit from all kinds of study. Also extra likely to occur because of the reward, as well as worthy of special study simply because of the reward, are the seven- and eight-letter words. Many techniques are possible. One top player has memorized an ordered list of these words each of which is the first element of one of a set of subsidiary lists which encompass the entire set of bingos. That method is only for the very dedicated. Practice anagramming by matching the remaining letters to a common suffix or prefix. Some claim success in extending this technique to allow recognition of words which, for example, contain the letters ING but form only a non-"-ING" word, such as LINGOES. Unless you have a photographic memory, try to learn words in small enough sets that you can master them to the point that you recognize both when you can and cannot anagram to one of them. For example, learn the list of all eight letter words containing exactly the vowels EEIIO (EOLIPILE and others). Then the phony OLEINIZE will not get by you, nor will you try it yourself. Practice anagramming at any time there are words around you whose meaning you do not need to concentrate on. This will soon take over your life so that even reading the newspaper, SENATOR will translate to TREASON and ATONERS, deeply affecting your world-view. For some very effective techniques, see back issues of Medleys (section 5.1.2). 7. Typical games 7.1. Typical scores In a 27 game, 194 participant tournament in 1988, the average score was 368.6, standard deviation 60.6 and the distribution of scores: 180 2 420 214 190 1 430 165 200 2 440 141 210 5 450 101 220 26 460 100 230 27 470 58 240 19 480 63 250 56 490 53 260 78 500 34 270 101 510 24 280 137 520 19 290 185 530 12 300 205 540 6 310 257 550 6 320 309 560 4 330 325 570 7 340 336 580 1 350 345 590 1 360 325 600 2 370 331 610 0 380 325 620 0 390 328 630 0 400 276 640 0 410 225 650 1 7.2. Frequency of Bingos In the 1983 national championship among 32 selected players, players got 2.9 bingos per game between them in games that happened to be annotated. 8. Scrabble records 8.1. Actual The following records are for sanctioned (that is, in an official club or tournament) North American play. The high combined score and the high individual score were both obtained in a 1993 California tournament, by Mark Landsberg who scored 770 against his opponent's 335. The high margin of victory including phonies was by Ken Lambe of Michigan, who scored 716 versus his opponent's 147, using a single phony. Longest consecutive opening sequence of bingos by one player: Jeremiah Mead of Massachusetts played five in a 1989 North American championship tournament game. 8.2. Theoretical These records allow words only from the OSPD (only the 1st ed. happens to be used) or the Webster's 9th Collegiate Dictionary. The highest single scoring play, found by Kyle Corbin, shown with the hooked words: A1 OXYPHENBUTAZONE 1458 1A OPACIFYING 63 2A XIS 10 4A PREINTERVIEWED 26 8A BLADDERLIKE 57 11A AFORETHOUGHT 18 12A ZONETIME 29 15A EJACULATING 63 +bonus 50 The highest combined score, using the OSPD 1st ed. and Webster's 9th, found by Steven Root of Massachusetts: H2 LANKEST 74 8F METRICAL 60 8A GRAVIMETRI(C)ALLY 293 2F SULTANA(S) 61 1E HE, ES 7 1E HEN, NU 8 1I UT, UT, TA 6 1I UTA, AN 5 1M ON OS 3 L2 AR 2 L2 ARF 12 1A OXYPHENBUTAZONE, BLANKEST, ZARF 1576 5E GINKGOES, ZARFS 123 B1 XI 18 O7 PYRUVATE 67 N14 WE, WE 20 D8 VERDITER 76 13B DIT 8 B13 DE 6 B13 DEI 4 15D ROT 3 G14 OE, ROTE 6 13G JOE, JO 35 I13 BA, JOB 22 I13 BAH 8 14I AI 4 K14 LI, AIL 5 11D DEADWOOD 106 15A MICROTECHNIQUES, IN, PYRUVATES 1264 +2 times "F" 8 8.3. Blocked games The position from which no play is possible no matter what tiles are held, which is reached with the fewest plays is: (J) J U S S O X (X)U which is blocked after the fourth move only because no third blank is available for (J)UJUS. Without using blanks, the shortest, found by Alan Frank of Massachusetts, is: H WUD HUMIC DIG C 9. Scrabble variants In Anagram Scrabble (Clabbers, to some), where in the usual game, a word in the dictionary may be used, the adjacent tiles need only anagram to such a word. If there is a challenge, the challengee must come up with a single word to which the challenged set of letters anagram. Tiles are still fixed in position once placed. In an idea being discussed in Medleys, called New Scrabble, the role of luck in the draw of blanks is reduced in that both players have one blank, not in the bag, which they may use to replenish their rack once during the game. No known tournaments have been run with this variation. Ecology Scrabble allows recycling blanks, as alluded to in section 3.3.2. In Duplicate Scrabble, players all play the same board, competing for high score on each move. Duplicate tournaments are held in France. 10. Play-by-mail games Open-book Scrabble by snail mail is run by Medleys. (See section 5.1.2 for its address.) Medleys charges $5 for a round, plus $3 per game in a round; players participate in from 2 to 8 simultaneous games. In the UK, the Postal Scrabble Club is very active. See the Appendix for a contact. 11. Scrabble paraphernalia Braille Scrabble is sold in North America by Milton Bradley. Blind players do play in tournaments, bringing their own braille sets, which have visible printed letters. Standard-issue tiles are "braillable", that is, particular letters (and especially blanks) can be distinguished inside the bag by feel. Protiles prevent this. They are long-lasting, and lost tiles are replaced by the seller without charge. Protiles, which are preferred in tournaments, are sold for $18 per set (10% off for 10 or more) by Robert Schoenman Box 408 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 The Franklin Mint sells a Scrabble set (complete with a copy of the OSPD, 2nd ed.) for $495. No serious tournament player I know owns one, except for the winner of a Franklin-sponsored tournament set up to promote this garish item. This set is also available in the UK at an even higher price. A cover of light plastic mesh for the Deluxe edition of Scrabble allowing collecting tiles from the board all at once is available from Mary Lou Thurman 2627 24th St. Lubbock, TX 79410 (806) 744-7702 Cygnus Cybernetics supplies a device called TopSpin to make your supposedly freely turning deluxe Scrabble set turn better. It is really just a pair of ball-bearinged metal plates stuck to the base and top of the board with two-sided thick tape, available at hardware stores. From Cygnus (see section 12.1), it is $7.50 + $3.50 shipping/handling. 12. Computer versions of Scrabble There are (1) Scrabble-playing programs licensed in the US and UK; (2) "crossword game" programs which can be configured to play Scrabble; and (3) programs which ignore the trademark and copyright issues. All are represented below. For a citation to a publication on efficient Scrabble move finding, see section 12.13, below. 12.1. CrossWise (IBM PC) A ridiculously fast player which plays at the highest level, twice having won the international Computer Olympiad at Scrabble. Highly configurable, with a professionally programmed interface. Contains all OSPD2 words, but no others over eight letters. (An augmentation of the dictionary to cover all words up to 15 letters is $12.50.) No setup capability; hinting ability is "limited" to showing all moves in score order. $35 + $4.50 shipping/handling. Cygnus Cybernetics Corporation 2013 Weathertop Fort Collins, CO 80526 (303) 490-1288 info@cygcyb.com A UK variant of CrossWise is described in section 12.7. 12.2. Gameboy Super Scrabble (hand-held) Based on American Heritage Dictionary, not OSPD. Unknown whether still available. 12.3. Maven (Macintosh) The version used by the author and a few others is an extremely strong player. I do not know whether the version sold is the same. Maven costs $75 (+$5 for non-US shipment). The program keeps track of various statistics about the registered player, so orders must include the name of the player, and (if available) their current rating. Brian Sheppard 296 Old Marlboro Road Concord, MA 01742 An IBM PC version should be coming out later this year. 12.4. Monty Plays Scrabble (hand-held) Ritam Corporation. Originally available for the IBM PC and Apple II, since 1987 only as a hand-held unit. Comes with 20,000 words from OSPD1, upgradable to about 40,000, which is still incomplete. Deplorable strategy. The hand-held version requires scrolling around a small screen to find the board area of interest. Reportedly sometimes changes the letter represented by a played blank. Apparently no longer licensed by Milton Bradley, its current availability is unknown. 12.5. Scramble (IBM PC) This is a very pretty game. But note this from the documentation: "Q. How come I can see my opponent's rack? Shouldn't it be hidden? A. You must be thinking of some other crossword game. This is Scramble. In Scramble, you get to see your opponent's rack." The machine player plays for high score on each turn. While substitution of a user-provided dictionary for the quite incomplete one supplied is provided for, this slows down an already slow game. Ted Gruber Software P.O. Box 13408 Las Vegas, NV 89112 12.6. Tyler (IBM PC, Macintosh) Written for the IBM PC and ported to the Macintosh (not very smoothly, I am told), this version is distinguished by a complete OSPD2 and Merriam-Webster dictionary up to 15 letters, with a UK dictionary also available, by good strategy and by good setup and hint facilities. (I regularly use it to automatically critique my tournament games.) Unfortunately, the latest version, 3.04 is flaky, and the author has not been upgrading as frequently as he had been. $50. Matchups 35 Gardner St. Arlington, MA 02174 12.7. US Gold Scrabble (IBM PC, Amiga, Atari ST) Licensed for sale in the UK, this is essentially similar to CrossWise (section 12.1), but comes with the complete contents of the OSW. Reviews in the APSP newsletter say "a splendid opponent ... speed is quite astonishing ... graphics and facilities are excellent." Cost is around #30. 12.8. Vic Rice's Game (IBM PC) This goes under the name "Scrabble" but for clarity, I'm denominating it according to its author's name. Available from Vic Rice 4026 Bayou Grove Dr. Seabrook, TX 77586 and from the bulletin board system (BBS) where the author resides: Ed Hopper's PC Board (713) 782-5454 12.9. Virgin Mastertronic (IBM PC, Macintosh) Licensed for sale in the US. Sold in three versions, about $15, $25 and $35. The standard version has about 20,000 words from the OSPD1. The two deluxe versions have the complete OSPD1 with some errors. In the IBM PC program, the deluxe version adds VGA graphics. The $35 version is the deluxe for Windows, which stops running when in the background. Reportedly plays at the level of a middling tournament player, but with no discernable strategy. Also reportedly very slow, with the deluxe versions, holding the full OSPD1, taking two to three minutes per move on a 386/33. 12.10. WordsWorth (IBM PC) Shareware version uses a US English dictionary of only 15000 words, all of no more than six letters. Registration brings two 65000+ word dictionaries (US English and UK English). Currently in version 1.1. Registration costs 75 S. African Rand, $25 US or #20. Graham Wheeler P.O. Box 15525 Vlaeberg Cape Town 8018 South Africa 12.11. STrabbler (Atari) Shareware, it is available for anonymous ftp from atari.archive.umich.edu in the directory /atari/Games). It requires an Atari with at least 1MB of memory. Words are played by click-and- drag using the mouse. The program plays solely for high score. It contains a 45000 word editable and browsable dictionary. 12.12. Unix Scrabble (Unix) Available over the Internet via the Gopher system. This program, by James A. Cherry, has to be compiled for the target machine. It comes with an American Scrabble dictionary, which is editable. Currently in version 1.30. No review, since I cannot get it to compile on my Sun4. 12.13 CRAB (Unix, Sun and Vax) Based on their article in a research journal: The World's Fastest Scrabble Program Andrew Appel and Guy Jacobson Communications of the A.C.M. v.31 no.5, May 1988 this product from Jacoppel Enterprises (currently in version 1.3) appears primarily designed to demonstrate the speed of their move- finding method, but does permit a real, player-versus-machine game to be played. Their method is no longer the fastest (their timings on more sophisticated machines are far outdone by CrossWise on a lowly IBM PC), but illuminating nonetheless. 13. Glossary Bingo: A play that uses all seven of a player's tiles, earning a 50-point bonus. Good tournament players average one to two such plays per game. The unlovely term "bingo" is used by North American players. British players say "bonus play" or just "bonus". Double-Double, Triple-Triple: A play that covers two double word scores, or triple word scores, respectively, scoring quadruple or nonuple ("hey, it's in Chambers") the raw score of the word. Hook: A play adding one letter to one end of of a word already played, while creating a main word perpendicular to the extended word. Parallel Play: A play making several words perpendicular to the main word by extending existing words or inserting letters between existing tiles. Phony: A word played that is not in the official dictionary or dictionaries. A1. Credits Many thanks to Jim Homan for numerous corrections and improvements. Also to Graeme Thomas, particularly for information on Scrabble outside of the US and Canada, and to Barry Harridge and Philip F.X. Ryan for information on Australia. Thanks also to Edith Berman, Gary Dismukes, Steven Gordon, Adam Logan, Maggie Morley, Larry Sherman and Harriet Strasberg for helpful comments. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Steven Alexander Comp Sci grad student stevena@cs.berkeley.edu & non-practicing lawyer extraordinaire {I'm really wonderful at not practicing}