Scrabble Trivia and Strategies

Scrabble is the #2 Selling Board Game

Mar 7, 2009
Jan Peterson

Scrabble Board - rodetohell morguefile

Scrabble is one of the most popular games ever invented, played by children and families in millions of homes, in tournaments and online.

Scrabble is a popular game for all ages. The National Scrabble Association (NSA) has 10,000 members in the U.S. and Canada and sanctions 175 tournaments and a National Championship annually.

History of Scrabble

According to The Great Idea Finder Website article “Scrabble”, Alfred Butts, an out-of-work architect during the Great Depression, invented the Scrabble game in the 1930s, calling it "Criss Cross Words". It combined his love for crossword puzzles and anagrams. He played the game with family and friends, attempting to commercialize it unsuccessfully.

In 1948 a revised game was marketed by Mr. and Mrs. James Brunot, who manufactured 2400 sets in 1949 and lost $450. Eventually, rights to manufacture and distribute the game were licensed to Selchow and Righter Company in 1972.

Today it ranks #2 in leading board games in America, according to The Great Idea Finder website, just behind Monopoly, and the intellectual property rights are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc.

Scrabble the Ultimate Word Game

Hasbro’s website has additional history about how Mr. Butts developed the board layout and the value for each letter. It also contains a Scrabble dictionary and Word Builder Tool. The Word Builder can be used to enter letters to discover different combinations that form words. They provide interesting facts:

The game contains 100 letter tiles and 225 squares.
Total face value of all letters is 187.
Top Scrabble players average 35 points per play.
There are 96 two letters words.
The official dictionary is Merriam-Webster's Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, 3rd Edition (OSPD3.
MaxiAid produces a Braille version of Scrabble for Hasbro.

Online Scrabble

There are several game websites to play scrabble. Club Pogo, an online game site, offers the full version of Scrabble to their members for free. Their “Scrabble by Pogo” game has three game room set-up choices: House Rules, Traditional, and Custom. If a player wants to play by Official Scrabble Rules, they should play Pogo's Traditional version:

Words cannot be checked against the dictionary before played.
Words can be challenged by the opponent.
The two letter word dictionary is available throughout play.
Blank tiles cannot be picked up and replayed.

Pogo's House version differs from the Traditional version as follows:

As words are played they are electronically verified against the dictionary, and incorrect words will not be accepted.
The point value of each word is calculated and displayed before play.
Blank tiles can be reused and assigned a different letter value
Tiles in the rack are pre-screened to avoid bad combinations
Hints are available
The full dictionary can be used during word play

Basic Strategic Tips For Scrabble

Scrabble is more than just making words. Experienced players use the board and their letters strategically to make higher scoring words. These four tips will improve scores:

Use high scoring tiles (J,Q,X, or Z) on premium squares.
When adding 1 letter to a word, always make a second word with it.
Look for prefixes (re,un,over) and suffixes (ing,ed,er,ier) to add to played words.
Use "S" to make a plural form of a played word.
Work toward a Bingo (7 letter word using all tiles) by saving letters that can create prefixes or suffixes

Hasbro's website states, “In 1992, School SCRABBLE became available nationwide. Now, more than a half million kids have SCRABBLE in over 15,000 classrooms nationwide using this program.

Scrabble has provided hours of challenging fun for families for more than seventy years. In addition, it has become a great educational tool that teachers endorse. If awards were given to game inventors, surely Mr. Alfred Butts would receive such an award!