HISTORY

OF SCRABBLE
In 1931 Alfred Butts translated
lifelong his of crossword puzzles into
lov a
e
analysis A key
of the to thelanguage.
English game wasButts
board the front
studied Butts'
page of The New York
game.
Times to calculate how frequently each
letter of the alphabet was used. He then
used each letter's frequency to determine
how many of each letter he would include
in the game. He included only four "S"
tiles so that the ability to make words
plural would not make the game too
easy.
HISTORY
OF SCRABBLE
Butts initially called the game
"Lexiko", but later changed the name to
"Criss Cross Words", after considering "It",
and began to look for a buyer. The game
makers he originally contacted rejected
the idea, but Butts was tenacious.
Eventually, he sold the rights to
entrepreneur and game-lover James
Brunot, who made a few minor adjustments
to the design and renamed the game
"Scrabble", a word meaning "to grope
frantically" (from the Dutch "Schrabben", to
scrape or scratch)
 The Official
Scrabble
Board
Design

Key:
2×LS = Double letter score
3×LS= Triple letter score
2×WS / ★= Double word score
3×WS = Triple word score
 Scrabble Board is composed of 225
squares and 100 tiles. It can be played
by two or more person.
POINTS PER LETTER
BEFORE THE GAME

Player’s Turns. Put all letter tiles into the

tile
bag or any suitable container.
Draw for the first play. The
player drawing the letter
nearest the beginning of the
alphabet plays first. A blank
supersedes all other tiles.
Return the tiles into the bag
and reshuffle. Each player
draws 7 tiles and places them
on his/her track. Turn of
players follow clockwise.
BEFORE THE GAME

Word Judge. To decide word challenges,

a word judge is elected by the
players who may be one of
them. He or she may also act as
the scorekeeper
who keeps a tally of each
player’s score, entering it after
each turn.
BEFORE THE GAME

Dictionary. Before the game

begins, the players must
first agree on the
dictionary to be used in
settling challenges on
what words to allow or not
to allow.
PLAYING THE GAME

Start of Play. The first player forms a

word with two or more of
his/her letters and positions it
on the board to read across
or down with one letter on
the center (MB) square.
Placing a word diagonally on
the board is not allowed.
PLAYING THE GAME

Completing a Turn. A
player completes a turn by

counting and
announcing the score
for the turn. The
player then draws as
many letter tiles as
played, thus, always
keeping 7 letters on
his/her track.
PLAYING THE GAME

Subsequent Turns. Play

proceeds to the left. The
second player, and then
each in turn, adds one
or more letters to those
already played to form
new words. All letters
played on a turn must be
placed in one row across
or down the board to
form one complete word.
PLAYING THE GAME

Forming New Words.

New words may be formed
by:
-Adding one or more letters to a word or
letters already on the board.

-placing a word at right angles to word

already on the board. The new word must
use one of the letters already on the board
or add a letter to it.

-placing a complete word parallel to a

word already played so that adjacent
letters also form complete words.
PLAYING THE GAME

Blank Tiles. The two blank

tiles may be used as
any letters. When
playing a blank, the
player must state which
letter it represents. It
remains that latter for
the rest of the game.
PLAYING THE GAME

Replacing Tiles. Any player may use his

or her turn to replace any or all
of the tiles in his/her rack,
discarding them face down,
drawing the same number of
new tiles from the bag, and
mixing the discarding tiles with
those remaining in the bag.
Replacing tiles is considered a
turn and the score is zero.
PLAYING THE GAME

Passing. A player may voluntarily miss a

turn.
Instead of placing tiles on the board
or
replacing tiles, a player may also
decide to pass whether or not
he/she I s able to make a word or
words.

Passing a turn scores zero.

PLAYING THE GAME

Challenge. Any word may be a challenged

before the next player starts a turn.
If the word challenged is
unacceptable, the challenged player
takes back his/her letter tiles, loses
that turn and scores zero. If the
word challenged is acceptable, the
score is entered and the game
continues with no penalty to the
challenger.
SCORING THE GAME

Turn Score. The score of each turn is the sum

of the letter values in each word
formed or modified on that turn plus
the additional points obtained from
placing letters on premium squares.
The score value of each letter is
indicated by the number at the
bottom of the tile. The score value of
a blank is zero.
SCORING THE GAME

Premium Letter Squares. The premium

letter
square “DOUBLE LETTER
SCORE”
doubles the value of the letter
placed on it, and “TRIPLE
LETTER SCORE” triples the
value of the letter placed on
it.
SCORING THE GAME

Premium Word Squares. The premium square “DOUBLE WORD

SCORE” doubles the score of the word when one of the
letters is placed on it, and “TRIPLE WORD SCORE” triples
the score of the word when one of its letters is placed on it.
Count LETTER premiums if any, before doubling or tripling
the WORD score. If a word is formed that covers TWO
double word squares, the score is doubled then redoubled
(4 times word score). If a word is formed that covers TWO
triple word squares, the score is triple then retripled (9
times word score).
SCORING THE GAME

Pearly Twins. The two blanks by

themselves have no score
value but when a blank is
played on a premium word
square, the value of the
word is doubled or tripled as
indicated.
SCORING THE GAME

Multiple Score. When two or

more words are formed
in the same play, each
is scored. The common
letter is counted with full
premium value, if any, for
each word.
SCORING THE GAME

Bingo Score. Any player who

plays 7 tiles on a turn,
scores a bonus of 50
points added to the total
of his/her score for the
turn.
ENDING THE GAME

-The game ends when all the tiles have been drawn
and one of the players has used all the tiles in his/her rack.
The game also ends when all possible plays have been
made or all players have passed twice in a consecutive turns.
ENDING THE GAME

-At game’s end, each player’s score is reduced by the

sum of his/her rack unplayed letters. In addition, if a player
used all tiles on his/her rack, the sum of the other players’
unplayed letters is added to that player’s score.
ENDING THE GAME

-The player with the

highest final score WINS
the game. Players who tie
for the highest final score
shall equally be
considered as winners
(DRAW).