The Scrabble Community
THE SCRABBLE COMMUNITY
NSA: The National Scrabble Association (NSA), founded in 1978, is a collaboration between Hasbro and Scrabble enthusiasts. The NSA is responsible for the National School SCRABBLE Program, SCRABBLE Media Relations, and publishes the SCRABBLE News. The NSA also maintains a list of casual Scrabble clubs on its website (http://www2.scrabble-assoc.com/CasualClubs.asp) and operates an online store of Scrabble merchandise (www.wordgear.com). Membership costs $20 ($25 outside the U.S. and Canada) and gets you a subscription to the SCRABBLE News. If you are a member, you can log into the site and access back copies of the SCRABBLE News and some other useful PDF documents (a glossary of common terms, a short history of Scrabble, a tip sheet, etc.). Until July 1, 2009, the sale of publications like the OLW2 at www.wordgear.com were restricted to NSA members.
NASPA: The North American SCRABBLE Players Association (NASPA) is the official organization for competitive clubs and tournaments. It was formed in response to Habro’s decision in 2009 to end funding for these activities. As of July 1, 2009, a NASPA membership is required to participate in sanctioned tournaments ($30 for a regular membership). The NSA now focuses on promoting casual play, although it still funds and supports the National School Scrabble Program. Both the Rules Committee and the Dictionary Committee were transfered to NASPA. A very thorough FAQ about the changes to the NSA and the formation and responsibilities of NASPA is available on the NASPA website: www.scrabbleplayers.org.
BOOKS:
Everything Scrabble: Third Edition
This books is a good place to start (it’s written by Joe Edley; it’s been around for a while, but it’s a classic). It’s about how to play the game (i.e. tips and strategies), not about the game itself (although there are a few pages on the history of the game and the OSPD).
This book is written by Mike Baron (with a foreword by Brian Cappelletto). It is an extensive collection of word lists. The value of this book lies mainly in its organization. Technology and the availability of programs like Zyzzyva (www.zyzzyva.net) make it possible for individuals to quickly and easily compile their own word lists, so reproducing most of the lists found in this book is no longer difficult. The challenge for newbies is to decide what lists to produce and what order to learn them in. The table of contents (which lists the included word lists in roughly the order in which the author suggests they be studied), the introduction, the forward, and the introduction to bingo stems (pg. 30) make this book worth the purchase.
Word Freak, by Stefan Fatsis is the best book out there about the community and culture of competitive Scrabble. It’s a good read, even if you’re not a Scrabble player.
Another book that is often recommended is How to Win at Scrabble, by Andrew Fisher & David Webb (2004; this book should not be confused with a different book published in 1953 with the same title). This book is sometimes listed under it’s original title, The Art of Scrabble. I believe the book is out of print (but you may be able to find a used copy or get a copy through your local library).
THE CHEAT SHEET: A minimum level of competency is required to enjoy competitive Scrabble. In this respect, Scrabble is no different that numerous other activities (for example, in order to enjoy playing a round of golf, you have to exceed some basic skill threshold, or the experience is unlikely to be enjoyable – for you or anyone playing with you). In the case of Scrabble, The Cheat Sheet has emerged as a widely-recognized summary of the basic word knowledge required to avoid embarrassing oneself in competitive play (and it’s 1 page, front and back). The version I’ve linked to below includes the 101 acceptable two-letter words, jqxz words from two to four letters in length, the 1015 acceptable three-letter words, all two-to-three hooks, vowel dumps (i.e. words that are at least 70% vowels) from two to five letters in length, two-i four-letter words (there aren’t any two-i three letter words), the one two-u word (ulu) and all 15 two-u four letter words. It can downloaded here: www.cross-tables.com/cs. Different versions of The Cheat Sheet can be downloaded from numerous other sites.
SCRABBLE CLUBS: NASPA maintains a list of all sanctioned clubs in North America (this is a different list than the “casual” club list maintained by the NSA): http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/Club_roster. Many of these clubs maintain their own web sites (and many of these sites are linked from this list page). These sites are great sources of tips, strategies, world lists and other useful links. A list of casual clubs can be found here: http://www2.scrabble-assoc.com/CasualClubs.asp.
SCRABBLE SETS: Competitive players use smooth tiles (that can’t be “brailled” in the bag), and boards that rotate and that have raised grids (to hold the tiles). Although there are a couple commercial sets that, more or less, meet these specifications (see links below) competitive players prefer custom boards and protiles (http://www.protiles.net). Here are a few links to custom board sites (I’m sure there are others): http://samtimer.com/st-samboard.html, http://www.adjudicator3000.com, http://www.freewebs.com/customscrabbleboards. Here are links to the commercial sets referred to above: Deluxe Turntable Scrabble, Scrabble Onyx Edition.
LINKS: Various links are posted in the panel on the right (and in a post entitled “Links”).
Additions, suggestions and comments are welcome – please post below (or email us at contact@oldtownscrabble.com).
