Scrabble is the game which requires its players to form words on a 15 by 15 grid by arranging 100 lettered tiles in a crossword style. It was invented in 1938 by
Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect who thought that word games were not popular because they had no score. He originally created a game called ‘Lexico’, but he changed the rules and reformed the game, so the name changed to ‘Criss-Crosswords’. The game was not very successful, and Butts was unable to sell the game to a game manufacturer.

Finally it became ‘Scrabble’ when Lawyer James Burnot bought the rights to the game in 1948. He renamed it, slightly adjusted the rules and board and marketed it successfully. Today, it is an extremely successful game, with about 33 million people playing the game regularly in North America. Additionally, over 10,000 people are a member of the National Scrabble Association.

The Game

The object of Scrabble is to receive the most points before the game ends. You can receive points effectively by-

• Placing multiple words in one turn.

• Using long words.

• Using words with letters that have lots of points.

• Using premium squares to your advantage (see below).

The game ends when a player has used all of the tiles on his rack and there are none left to draw. If this does not occur, the game continues until every play that the players can do is made. Sometimes, the game simply ends when both players agree that the game is over.

Gameplay

At the beginning of the game, each player has a tile rack. They each draw seven letters and place them on the rack. The player that goes first¹ puts the first word on the board. One tile of this word must be in the centre square. The centre square is a ‘premium square’ (see below) so the score for the first word is doubled.

From there, players may add one or more letters to letters already on the board to form more words or modify an existing one. You get points for ever letter you use, even the ones you didn’t place on the board. The rules for creating words are as follows-

• You can pluralize a word and if you add one or more letter, and you get points for the entire new word.

• A new word that is placed on the board must use one of the letters already placed on the board. In this way, all words on the board should be connected.

• You can not add words diagonally and a word can not read upwards. A word must read from left to right or from up to down.

• The word that one puts on the board must be perpendicular to the word you are adding it to. If letters from a word touch letters from words parallel to them, those letters must also form words. If you form more than one word in this way, you get points for all of the words created.

• If one letter from a word adds to the end of another word, you get points for the new word and the modified word².

When letter tiles are taken from your rack to the board, you must draw the number of tiles you placed on the board and put them on your rack. At all times, you should have seven tiles. When your turn is complete, you should announce your word and the amount of points earned. A scorekeeper should record the amount of points you earn each turn.

You may also use a turn to exchange some or all of your tiles by replacing a number tiles that you have with the same quantity of new tiles (provided that there are more than seven tiles left to draw).

If there is any doubt of whether a word exists, a player may challenge that word before the next player starts his turn. The players should look up the word in a dictionary that was agreed upon before the game began. If it is not a word, the player challenged loses his or her turn and receives zero points for that turn. If it is a word, the challenger loses his or her next turn and receives zero points for it.

Outdated, slang, colloquial, foreign and archaic words are allowed in the game. However, abbreviations, suffixes and prefixes, proper nouns and words that need additional punctuation (such as hyphens and apostrophes) to be complete are not allowed. Of course, many dictionaries do not include all verb endings, pluralisations and tenses. Normal usage of these is acceptable, but the players should read the introduction to the dictionary to understand how it explains this or abbreviates different forms of a word.

Scoring and Points

The game of Scrabble is based on a system of points. Each letter is assigned a certain number of points that it is earned when it is used. The points are normally printed on the tile with the letter.

Butts knew that some letters appeared more often than others, so he decided to come up with a system to find out which letters appeared most and which appeared least. He counted letter usage in newspapers, deciding that there would be more of the letters that appeared most and the letters that appeared least would be worth the most points. and eventually came up with this model-

A word's value is determined by adding up the value of all of the letters in the word. For example, the word ‘MUG’ is worth six points, while the word RAISE is worth five points. The shorter word is worth more because it uses less common letters than the longer word.

Additionally, there are dozens of 'Premium Squares' which boost the value of a word when you put the word on it. There are four types of Premium Squares-

• Triple Word Score - triples the value of a word that has a letter on it. Located at the corners of the board and the middle of each of the edges.

• Double Letter Score - doubles the value of the letter that is placed on it.

• Double Word Score - doubles the value of the word that has a letter located on it.

• Triple Letter Score - triples the value of any letter placed on it.

If a letter falls on more than one Premium Squares, the letter score is calculated first and then the total word score is calculated. If a letter on the Premium Square is used again in a later word, the letter only counts at its regular value. A Premium Square can only be used once per game.

Good players can use these to gain words that score up to 40 or 50 points. Placing a ‘Q’ on a triple letter score will earn you 30 points alone.

Other rules about scoring include-

• There are two blank tiles that may be used as any letter that you would like to use it as. The blank has no value in scoring.

• A ‘Bingo’ is a play where all seven available tiles are used. It gives the player an extra 50 points in addition to his score from his word points.

• At the end of the game, each player totals up the sum of the value of his remaining letters. This is subtracted from his or her total score when the scores are being added up at the end.

Tips

Tips for the game of Scrabble are outlined here. Here are some additional hints-

• There are twelve words with ‘Q’ that don’t have a ‘U’ in them. They are QAID, FAQIR, QANAT, SHEQEL, QINDARKA, SHEQUALIM, QWERTY, TRANQ, QINDAR, QINTAR, QOPH and QAT. These can be useful when you have a ‘Q’ without a ‘U’. Just make sure you have a dictionary with these words!

• Plan for Premium Squares. The word ‘AN’ on a triple word score square is worth six points, and the word ‘RAINS’, which is a much better word, but if it is not on any Premium Squares, it is worth a point less than the word ‘AN’.

• Create and use words that can be easily added on to. Pluralizing a word is a good way to earn the points of a word twice. The letter ‘S’ is a useful tool to take the points of a noun by pluralizing it or making it a verb.

• Leave spaces open for you to make additional plays with. Consider your next move, don’t leave yourself without space to create new words.

Variations

These are some of the variations you can play in this game include-

• You may change the arrangement of a word to anagrams of this word before, you play your turn, as long as it does not create any words that are not usable.

• You may replace letters on the board with letters from your rack as long as it does not form unusable words.

• You can use any word you want - and the usual restrictions on words (no abbreviations, no proper nouns etc) do not apply

• You may replace the blank tiles with the letters they represent (if you have that letter on your rack) after they have been placed down, in order to keep the blank tiles in use.

• You are given nine tiles at the beginning of the game, and keep nine tiles on your rack at all times.

• You can stack tiles on top of other one at intersections between a word and a new word - to form the new word - as long as it does not result in any unusable words.