SCRABBLE Features

How To: Get an Official SCRABBLE Rating to Play in Tournaments

Many new players wonder how one actually gets a rating in SCRABBLE. Now, we're talking about an official rating, not one you would get on SCRABBLE Beta or with the ISC WordBiz player — I mean an "Official SCRABBLE Rating". A rating that allows you to play in the National SCRABBLE Championship (NSC), which is held once every year (sometimes two).

News: The Many Ways to Play SCRABBLE

If you're like me, you want to play Scrabble all the time. But you can't drag your Scrabble board everywhere, without drawing attention. Not to mention bringing it to work's probably a bad idea.

News: W.E.L.D.E.R. Blends Bejeweled, Boggle and Scrabble into Word-Building Addiction

There are tons of mobile apps out there for the gaming logophile, but there's a new word building game taking over iPhones and iPads, and it not only wants you to have fun, it wants you to fight back in the "war against words". It's the Word Examination Laboratory for Dynamic Extraction and Reassessment. But you can just call it W.E.L.D.E.R. Since its release earlier this month, W.E.L.D.E.R. has developed quite a following with its addicting mesh of Bejeweled, Boggle and Scrabble gameplay. It...

News: Winning with 2-Letter Words

When your opponent throws down "AA", you tell them no abbreviations, but alas... it's not. They build "ZA" on the board for 64 points, and you say it's slang, but it's in the dictionary. Next is "EF", and you let them know that spelling out letters is not allowed and ridiculous... but it's totally legit.

Scrabble Challenge #4: How Fast Are You at Building Words? Find Out…

A recent study in Canada concluded that competitive Scrabble players are twenty percent faster than non-Scrabble players at identifying real words on a Scrabble rack. In light of this news, this week's challenge is actually just a game of Scrabble Sprint from Pogo.com.

News: Nigel Richards Wins $20,000, Becomes First Ever Two-Time World Scrabble Champion

Last weekend the 2011 World Scrabble Championship was held at the Hilton Hotel in Warsaw, Poland. There were 106 players competing from 44 countries for the $20,000 first place prize and title of World Scrabble Champion.

News: NFC-Equipped Sifteo Cubes One Up Hasbro's Scrabble Flash Word Game (But Costs 5X More)

Last year, Hasbro unveiled Scrabble Flash, an electronic version of the popular word game which consists of five SmartLink letter tiles that can communicate with one another using near field communication (NFC) to spell and score words. It's an interesting (and fun) way to build your Scrabble vocabulary for words ranging from two to five letters, but that's about it.

News: $(r4BBL3 = SCRABBLE in L33tsp34k

JUAREZ. PH33R. SUX0R. If you know what these mean, then you probably spend way too much time on the internet. If you're as bewildered as I was, these words actually mean something in leetspeak.

Scrabble Challenge #7: Can You Solve This Bingo Parallel Play for 150+ Points?

If you haven't noticed yet, I've started dishing out some "Scrabble Bingo of the Day" articles that showcase interesting and somewhat unusual seven-letter words (or longer) that could give you an extra 50-point bonus on the board, as long as you empty your rack. So, for this week's Scrabble Challenge you'll have to get your brain in gear, because it's a tough one based of high-scoring bingo plays.

Scrabble Challenge #14: Which Variant Word Wins the Game (And Which Doesn't)?

Nearly every game takes strategy to win, but when it comes to games like Scrabble and Words with Friends, you've also got to have a lexically inclined mind full of wonderful and weird words. Most start out by learning all of the two-letter words in the Scrabble dictionary, then work their way up to three-letter words. But where do you go from there?

News: ANUS or ASSHOLE?

Dirty SCRABBLE. Everybody likes to play dirty, but we're not talking bluffing with fake words or closing up the board—we're talking actual "dirty" and offensive words.

Choose Your Scrabble Typeface: A-1 Designer Edition Coming Soon?

Designer Andrew Clifford Capener has made an alternative to the classic Scrabble board that celebrates the expression of typeface. It isn't in production yet, but Capener's set would offer tiles in a variety of different fonts:

News: Top 10 Christmas Gift Ideas for the SCRABBLE Enthusiast

The holiday season is here, and if you didn't already pick up a SCRABBLE set during Black Friday or Cyber Monday, then you still have time to buy the perfect gift for your lexical-minded friend. There's sure to be deals out there over the next couple of weeks, you just need to browse the web and search store shelves for the best deal.

Scrabble Challenge #15: What Would Be Your First Move in Words with Friends?

The concept of Scrabble and Words with Friends is the same—play words, score points, win. But the games require different strategy in terms of letter placement, premium squares, tile point values and word choices. Here's the main differences between the two games.

News: Craftsters Resuscitate Old SCRABBLE Boards Back to Life

Who could resist a retro SCRABBLE board game for two bucks? Suereal definitely couldn't, especially with the challenge of totally revamping a board game into something genuine and creative. Craftster's Craft Challenge #51 last June was meant to bring life back to an old board game with the following expectations:

News: SCRABBLE Blast from EA now available on the iOS App Store

Are you a Scrabble fan? Want to play Scrabble for free on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad? Well, look no further. Just recently, EA has released a new game of theirs, SCRABBLE Blast, onto the App Store. SCRABBLE Blast allows you to play 2 out of the 4 game modes possible for free, however, if you want to get the other 2 modes you’ll have to either download SCRABBLE Free or pay $1.99 via a in-app purchase to obtain those other 2 modes.

Scrabble Challenge #18: Can You Win at Scrabble Rack Attack?

As touched upon in the past, knowing all of the possible words you can play is key to being a better Scrabble player. If you don't have the vocabulary, then you can't compete against the best of the best, and you'll never even get the chance to spar against professionals such as Nigel Richards, Joe Edley, Andrew Fisher, and Wayne Kelly.

Scrabble Challenge #19: Would You Rather Play a Phoney or a Phoney-Looking Word?

Bluffing is one of the key components of poker. You may have a horrible hand, but if you can play it cool and raise the bet, you might just be able to convince your opponents otherwise and induce a few folds. But if you can't handle a little subterfuge, then you shouldn't be playing the game. Even the slightest tell could give you away. You have to maintain a poker face, no matter what.

News: Joel Sherman Breaks Scrabble Record with 803-Point Game

What's your highest scoring game of Scrabble? Since starting this Scrabble World, I've been able to break 500 points on a regular basis. This year I've even managed to break the 600-point barrier a couple times. If you ask me, that's a pretty hefty sum to score in one game, but I'm not on par with the professionals yet.

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: GRAMARYE

GRAMARYE n pl. -S occult learning; magic 64 points (14 points without the bingo)

News: "In Scrabble, anything is possible"

Slogan: "In Scrabble anything is possible. Grand National Tournament September 23, 2006." Beautiful young women are portrayed as rivals, hateful and violent. Ready to injure, kill to outweigh the other, a board game!

New Game by Hasbro: Electronic SCRABBLE Flash

Nope, this isn't a flash game version of SCRABBLE. There's already one of those (and a multitude of imitations) for the Apple iPhone, iPod, and Facebook. This is an electronic game, and it's not a "handheld" game like the SCRABBLE Pocket Pogo Touch Screen Game (pictured right). It's an entirely new way to play everybody's favorite word game, and it's called SCRABBLE Flash (BOGGLE Flash outside of the U.S. and Canada).

Word Nerds Unite: Planning a SCRABBLE-Themed Wedding

Wedding themes are no rarity, but a SCRABBLE wedding? I never would have guessed, until I came across "10 Ways to Incorporate Scrabble Into Your Wedding" at CasaSugar. Now, I'm one of the biggest SCRABBLE nerds out there, but I could never see myself getting hitched amongst SCRABBLE tiles and SCRABBLE cakes and SCRABBLE cuff links. I'd also be afraid that none of my guests would actually come if they knew SCRABBLE was the theme. Hell, it's hard enough to get any of my friends to play a simple...

News: All of the Other SCRABBLE Prints & Posters

This is my fourth (and final) installment on SCRABBLE adverts. I'm sure there's a lot I haven't found, but that's for another day. But this post features all of the remaining SCRABBLE advertisements (prints and posters) that haven't already been listed in my previous posts:

Scrabble Challenge #2: Can You Find the Highest Scoring Move?

Get ready to rack your brains, because it's time for another Scrabble Challenge! I may have gone a little overboard on last week's challenge (there was over 25 anagrams to solve), so I'm slimming things down this week. This time, there's only one puzzle.

Scrabble Challenge #3: Can You Find the Game Killing Triple-Triple?

There are two types of Scrabble players in the world—those who enjoy it and those who love it. I definitely fall into the latter category. Unfortunately, most of my friends don't. I'm lucky to have a few who simply enjoy it from time to time—some are even standing on the edge of Scrabble geekdom, afraid to take that last step. Maybe someday.

Scrabble Challenge #11: Would You Pass Up the Opening Move?

In these weekly Scrabble Challenges, so far we've covered two-letter words, double bingos, high scoring moves, triple-triples, last moves, parallel plays, phoneys and opening moves. For this week's puzzle, we're revisiting the strategy for opening moves.

SCRABBLE Evolution: From Boards & Brew to Pockets & Programs to Cheats & Cheating

SCRABBLE. I miss it.

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: SHAITAN

SHAITAN n pl. -S an evil spirit 60 points (10 points without the bingo)

News: Complete List of SCRABBLE Commercials (VIDEO)

The SCRABBLE Brand trademark has been around since 1948, but video advertisements for the popular board game didn't appear until the start of this millennium. Although there may be a few SCRABBLE video spots out there that predate 2000, I haven't come across them.

News: SCRABBLE Hits Casinos

SCRABBLE is taking the world by storm. It's everywhere. You can play it on Facebook, iPhone, iPod, Nintendo DS, PSP, mobile phones... you name it, it's there. And you can even gamble online, like with SCRABBLE Cubes on WorldWinner.

The Beautiful Word: A Beastly Closeup on Scrabble Art from Ogilvy & Mather

Ogilvy & Mather are no amateurs when it comes to Scrabble. They may not play the game, but they sure know how to promote it. The prestigious advertising and marketing agency has created several video commercials for Mattel, not to mention over 60 amazing print adverts that are funny, hip and sometimes salaciously naughty.

News: How SCRABBLE (& 2 Men) Created Trivial Pursuit — RIP Chris Haney

Chris Haney, one of the creators of the Trivial Pursuit board game, died Monday, May 31st. But what does Chris Haney and Trivial Pursuit have to do with SCRABBLE?

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: ZEPHYRS

ZEPHYRS n sing. ZEPHYR gentle breezes 74 points (24 points without the bingo)

News: Extreme Scrabbling

If you thought playing Scrabble in your grandparents' kitsch and musty old house was your most dangerous gaming experience, you haven't heard of Extreme Scrabble yet.

News: New WESPA Ratings System Launched for World Tournament Scrabble

WESPA, the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association, has released its first major overhaul of the ratings system since inception,. Several known issues faced by the old system have been remedied, with the new system available online through Aardvark. The changes make ratings fairer, particularly for new players in the system.

Possible Scrabble Challenge: Creating Poetry From All the Tiles

Now here's a challenge for the above-average Scrabble fan - can you create a good poem out of all the tiles, in iambic pentameter? The poem that's created here doesn't make too much sense, but it does sounds really pretty if you read it out loud. Scrabble Tile Poem.

Scrabble Bingo of the Day: REREMICE

REREMICE 62 points (12 points without the bingo) Definition: bats (flying mammals) [n/pl.]

News: More Scrabble to the death...