On Monday, January 31, 2000 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-8, Steven Alexander wrote:
Archive-name: games/scrabble-faq/general
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 15 Jan 2000
URL: http://www.teleport.com/~stevena/scrabble/faq.html
Copyright: 1993-2000 Steven Alexander
i just found a coll tool for scrabble check it out https://www.wordswithfriend.com
Scrabble Frequently Asked Questions
This article is posted monthly to the Usenet newsgroups
rec.games.board, rec.puzzles.crosswords, rec.answers and
news.answers. Other ways to obtain it are by ftp: <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faqs/games/scrabble-faq/general> <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faqs/games/scrabble-faq/supplement>,
and by e-mail (for those without ftp access) send
To: <mailto:mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu>
Subject: send /pub/faqs/games/scrabble-faq/general
Subject: send /pub/faqs/games/scrabble-faq/supplement
Changes between versions can be found at <http://www.teleport.com/~stevena/scrabble/alpha/faqdiff.html>.
A hypertext version with additional resources is available at <http://www.teleport.com/~stevena/scrabble/faq.html>.
1. What this FAQ covers
2. The trademark Scrabble
3. Organized Scrabble activity
3.1. National Scrabble Association and Association of British
Scrabble Players
3.2. Clubs
3.3. Tournaments
3.3.1. North American, Canadian and World championships
3.3.1.1. Winners of the North American championships
3.3.1.2. Winners of the Canadian (English language) championships
3.3.1.3. Winners of the World (English language) championships
3.3.2. How club and tournament Scrabble differs from the rules in
the box
3.3.3. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary and Official
Scrabble Words
3.3.3.1. Why are all those stupid/non-English/indecent words
allowed?
3.3.3.2. Words removed from OSPD 1st ed. in 2nd ed.
3.3.3.3. Current corrections to the OSPD 2nd ed.
3.3.3.4. 9-letter root words in OSPD
3.3.3.5. Current corrections to the Franklin Electronic OSPD
3.3.3.6. Expurgation of OSPD and OSPD 3rd ed.
3.3.3.7. Successor to OSPD - TWL98
3.3.4. Tournament pairings
3.3.5. Tournament ratings
3.3.6. Upcoming North American tournaments
3.4. Organizations conducting Scrabble activity outside North
America and the UK
3.5. Who plays with which dictionary and which rules?
3.6. Crossword games on the Internet
3.6.1. Crossword games servers
3.6.1.1. Telnet-based
3.6.1.2. WWW-based
3.6.2. Crossword games mailing list
3.6.3. Crossword games related homepages
3.6.4. Crossword games related newsgroup
3.6.5. Chat
4. Differences between Scrabble in North America and in the UK
5. Publications on Scrabble
5.1. Periodicals
5.1.1. Scrabble News
5.1.2. Non-North American periodicals
5.1.2.1. Onwords
5.1.2.2. ABSP Newsletter
5.1.2.3. Forwords
5.1.2.4. Scrabble Club News
5.1.3. Defunct periodicals
5.1.3.1. Letters for Expert Players
5.1.3.2. Matchups
5.1.3.3. Medleys
5.1.3.4. Rack Your Brain
5.1.3.5. JG Newsletter
5.1.3.6. Tourney News
5.2. Books and CD-ROMs
5.3. Word lists
5.3.1. Lexicons
5.3.2. Internet anagram finders and word listers
5.3.3. Printed lists
5.4. Word study/lookup software
6. Basic tactics and methods
7. Typical games
7.1. Typical scores
7.2. Frequency of bingos
8. Scrabble records
8.1. Actual
8.2. Theoretical
8.3. Blocked games
9. Scrabble variants
10. Play-by-mail games
11. Scrabble paraphernalia
11.1. Tiles
11.2. Clocks
11.3. Playing equipment
11.4. Miscellaneous
12. Computer versions of Scrabble
12.1. CrossWise (IBM PC, Windows)
12.2. Gameboy Super Scrabble (hand-held)
12.3. Maven (Macintosh, Windows)
12.4. Monty Plays Scrabble (hand-held)
12.5. Scramble/Literati (IBM PC/Windows)
12.6. Tyler (IBM PC, Macintosh)
12.7. The Scrabble Player (IBM PC, Amiga, Atari ST, Psion)
12.8. Vic Rice's Game (IBM PC)
12.9. Virgin Mastertronic (IBM PC, Macintosh)
12.10. WordsWorth (IBM PC, Windows)
12.11. STrabbler (Atari)
12.12. Unix Scrabble (Unix)
12.13. CRAB (Unix, Sun, Vax and Macintosh)
12.14. Scrabble Door (IBM PC BBS)
12.15. ScrabOut and Networdz (Windows 3.1 and 95)
12.16. X-Words (Macintosh)
12.17. Amiga Scrabble (Amiga)
12.18. Hasbro Scrabble/E-mail Scrabble (Windows, Win CE, Macintosh)
12.19. XScrabble (X Windows)
12.20. Gary's Computer Scrabble (Unix)
12.21. Ortograf (Macintosh)
12.22. dupliKta (Windows)
12.23. Vocabble (IBM PC)
12.24. PC Scrabble (Windows 95, DOS)
12.25. Psion/Sinclair Scrabble (Spectrum, Sinclair Z80)
12.26. Sanaset (Windows)
12.27. WinScra (Windows)
12.28. Niggle (Palm Pilot)
12.29. Scrabble by Strobe (Windows)
12.30. Cardwords (Linux with X Windows)
12.31. Crosswords (Palm Pilot)
13. Glossary
14. Litigation
Appendices
A0. Copyright
A1. FAQ policy
A2. Credits
[In the supplement:]
A3. Roster of clubs in the US and Canada
A4. Upcoming North American tournaments
A5. Contacts for major Scrabble organizations worldwide
1. What this FAQ covers
This article is about competitive English language Scrabble, or more properly, Scrabble Brand Crossword Game. It is North
American-centric (and to a lesser extent covers the UK), but
information regarding English language Scrabble played anywhere is
welcome. It is not concerned with old Scrabble sets as collectors'
items or anything else outside the competitive aspects of the game.
Even the inclusion of Scrabble-related foofaraw stretches its
intended coverage.
Although this is about Scrabble, it is not provided or authorized by
the owners of the various rights to that game.
2. The trademark Scrabble
Scrabble is a registered trademark owned in the United States and
Canada by Milton Bradley Company, a division of Hasbro, Inc., and in
Great Britain and everywhere else in the world, by J.W. Spear & Sons
PLC., a subsidiary of Mattel.
Selchow & Righter, listed as the US owner on many of your boards, was
bought -- in good health -- in 1986 by Coleco, which shortly went
into bankruptcy due to the collapse of the market for their Cabbage
Patch dolls. Coleco also led itself to bankruptcy in 1987 by losing
a fortune on the Adam home computer flop, and the unexpected (to
them) slowdown in Trivial Pursuit sales. (Trivial Pursuit was
marketed in the US by Selchow & Righter). Scrabble was sold off to
Milton Bradley, which was in turn gobbled up by Hasbro.
In North America, technically, the term Scrabble refers to any game
or related product Milton Bradley cares to label that way, while the
popular board game is "Scrabble Crossword Game". Most people --
including Milton Bradley's own publication -- use the term Scrabble
to refer to that game, and so will this FAQ.
The magazine Financial World (July 8, 1996, p. 65) estimated the
value of the Scrabble brand to Hasbro as $76 million, and 1995 sales
under that brand at $39 million.
3. Organized Scrabble activity
3.1. National Scrabble Association and Association of British
Scrabble Players
The National Scrabble Association ("NSA") is the only organization
running Scrabble activity in North America. It is a subsidiary of
Milton Bradley. NSA licenses tournament and club directors. Club
and tournament play, except for the national and world championships,
is sanctioned but not run by NSA. Non-members are required to join
before playing in their second tournament.
As noted, NSA is an arm of the manufacturer, not a true membership organization. An advisory board and a rules committee are chosen by
NSA and Milton Bradley. Ad hoc committees concerning changes in the dictionary and the ratings system also have been created.
Membership is $18 per year in the US, $20 (USD) in Canada, and $25
elsewhere, by postal money order outside the US.
National Scrabble Association
c/o Williams & Company
120 Front St Garden
Box 700
Greenport, NY 11944
(631) 477-0033
(631) 477-0294 fax
<mailto:info@scrabble-assoc.com>
<http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/>
In the UK, the Association of British Scrabble Players ("ABSP"),
while not owned by the UK copyright and trademark holder, is bound
to it by a licensing agreement. The ABSP organizes many tournaments.
It may be reached at
ABSP
c/o Gareth Williams
15 Melbourne Road
Llanishen
Cardiff
CF4 5NH
United Kingdom
+44 1222 758249
Membership in ABSP costs #10 per year. Members receive a newsletter
six times per year. Its chairman, Graeme Thomas, may be reached by
e-mail at <mailto:graeme@graemet.demon.co.uk>.
3.2. Clubs
Clubs normally play Scrabble according to tournament rules, although sometimes accommodation for newcomers includes allowing them to refer
to lists of two- and three-letter words for their first couple of
visits.
The current roster of active North American clubs is an Appendix to
this FAQ. Some of the listings are more up to date than the most
recent listing from the National Scrabble Association, but some are
out of date, so call the person listed before trying to attend.
A list of clubs in the UK is available at <http://www.math.utoronto.ca/~jjchew/scrabble/clubs-uk.html>. For
further information on them, contact
Philip Nelkon
Mattel (UK) Ltd
Mattel House
Vanwall Business Park
Vanwall Road
Maidenhead
Berks.
SL6 4UB
+44 1628 500283
+44 1628 500288 fax
<mailto:nelkonph@mattel.com>
Steve Oliger has written an IBM PC program, Focus (currently in
version 2.10), to maintain club statistics. It comes highly
recommended by others who have used it. $20 plus shipping ($3 in
US).
Steve Oliger
P.O. Box 7003
Lancaster, PA 17604-7003
(717) 284-2274
<mailto:soliger@epix.net>
3.3. Tournaments
3.3.1. North American, UK and world championships
"National Scrabble Championship", really for North America, is held
by the National Scrabble Association in even years. In 2000 it will
be held in Providence, RI. North American players are eligible for
entry if they had played in at least one rated tournament. Players
from elsewhere may enter without condition.
In odd years, an invitational "World [English language] Championship"
is held. The 1999 World Championship was held in November in
Melbourne, Australia. Words allowable in North American or British
play are allowed.
In the UK, Spear runs the National Scrabble Championship. Several
regional events (apparently open only to UK residents) are used as
qualifiers for the national final.
Also in the UK, the ABSP organizes a 17-game British Matchplay
Scrabble Championship held each August. It is open to all.
3.3.1.1. Winners of the North American championships
1978, May 19-21, New York City: invitational, 64 contestants
David Prinz
1980, November 14-16, Santa Monica: invitational, 32 contestants
Joe Edley
1983, August 10-12, Chicago: qualifiers, 32 contestants
Joel Wapnick
1985, July 28-31, Boston: open, 302 contestants
Ron Tiekert
1987, July 5-7, Las Vegas: open, 300+ contestants
Rita Norr
1988, July 31-August 5, Reno: open, 323 contestants
Robert Watson
1989, July 29-August 3, New York City: open, 221 contestants
Peter Morris
1990, August 5-9: Washington, 300+ contestants
Robert Felt
1992, August 9-13, Atlanta: open, 320 contestants
Joe Edley
1994, August 14-18, Los Angeles: open, 294 contestants
David Gibson
1996, July, Dallas: open, 400 contestants (OSPD2+)
Adam Logan
1998, August 8-13, Chicago: open, 535 contestants (TWL98)
Brian Cappelletto
3.3.1.2. Winners of the Canadian (English language) championships
1996, Oct 18-21, Toronto: invitational, 40 contestants (OSPD2+)
Adam Logan
1998, Oct 16-19, Toronto: invitational, 50 contestants (TWL98)
Joel Wapnick
3.3.1.3. Winners of the World (English language) championships
1991, September 27-30, London: invitational, 48 contestants
Peter Morris (USA)
1993, August 27-30, New York City: invitational, 64 contestants
Mark Nyman (UK)
1995, November 2-5, London: invitational, 64 contestants
David Boys (Canada)
1997, November 20-24, Washington: invitational, 80 contestants
Joel Sherman (USA)
3.3.2. How club and tournament Scrabble differs from the rules in
the box
NSA, ABSP and ASPA rules for competitive play are available at <http://www.math.utoronto.ca/~jjchew/scrabble/rules/nsa.html>, <http://www.math.utoronto.ca/~jjchew/scrabble/rules/apsp.html> and <http://www.ozemail.aust.com/~aspa/rules.htm>, respectively, and the
rules that come in the box at
<http://www.hasbroscrabble.com/rules.html>.
Club and tournament Scrabble games are always two-player games.
Both players must keep score. A bag is used for tiles (not the box
lid). Chess clocks are used to time the game and each player is
allowed a total of 25 minutes to make all of his or her moves in the
game. If a player's time limit is exceeded, the game continues but
the player is penalized 10 points for each minute over the time
limit.
The validity of words is determined, in North America (and Israel,
which uses NSA rules) by the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary,
and in the UK by Official Scrabble Words. Most other places use
both. (These references are described in section 3.3.3.)
When a player challenges one or more words in his or her opponent's
move, the clock is stopped while a third party (usually a club or
tournament director) looks up the challenged words (which the
challenger must specify) to determine whether the move is valid. If
a challenged word is unacceptable, the play is removed and the player
loses that turn. In North American play, the maker of an erroneous
challenge loses a turn; in the UK, and most of Australia, they do
not.
There are no "house rules" that many social players use, such as free exchange of four of a kind, or claiming blanks off the board by
substituting for them.
Once there are fewer than seven tiles left in the bag, no exchanging
of tiles is allowed. Passing is allowed at any time.
At the end of a North American game, when one player uses all his or
her tiles with none remaining in the bag, he or she receives double
the value of the opponent's remaining tiles. In the UK, as specified
in the box, that value is added to and subtracted from the players' respective scores. Both methods result in the same spread.
Ties are not broken. (The North American box rules give the win to
the player with the higher score before leftover tiles are
considered; UK box rules don't mention this possibility.)
If the two players take six consecutive turns without successfully
placing any tiles on the board -- due to any combination of
challenges, passes and exchanges -- the game ends, and both players
lose the value of the tiles on their racks. A game in which neither
player can make a play ends this way, although the players may simply
agree that the game is over without going through all six turns. In
the UK, exchanges do not count toward the six turns.
The box rules do not mention whether one may make written notes
during the game. In tournaments and clubs, players are allowed to
write anything they wish on their score sheet. One use of written
notes is to keep track of which tiles have been played, allowing one
to know which tiles remain to be played. This is known as tile-
tracking, and players may use preprinted score sheets that show the
tile distribution as an aid to tile-tracking.
3.3.3. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary and Official
Scrabble Words
The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary ("OSPD"), published by Merriam-Webster, has been the basis of the official lexicon (word
list) used for all North American tournament and club play since its
first edition was published in 1978. It includes all words of eight
or fewer letters, and simplifies the settling of Scrabble word
arguments by specifically showing those words' inflections (plurals
of nouns, conjugations of verbs, comparatives and superlatives of adjectives). For root words longer than eight letters,
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth edition, is used.
(The Tenth came out in May 1993 and replaced the Ninth on May 1,
1994.) The OSPD does include inflected forms of up to eight letters
whose root words are longer.
In 1990, a second edition of the OSPD came out in hardcover. A
paperback of the OSPD2 came out in June 1993. Matchups ($1 + $1
shipping, see section 12.6) and Cygnus Cybernetics (see section 12.1)
each publish a complete list of the words added (and the handful
removed) in OSPD2.
A third edition of the OSPD came out in October 1995. See section
3.3.3.5 below for a discussion of its contents. The new words in it
are allowable in competitive play as of February 1, 1996. Only
SPAZES and HERPESES were removed. A list of the additions is
available by ftp at <ftp://ftp.cygcyb.com/Cygnus/ospd3.add>. OSPD2
plus the new words in OSPD3 commonly is called OSPD2+. (OSPD3 is
available in a large print edition.)
Effective March 1998, TWL98 (see section 3.3.3.7), published by Merriam-Webster, although largely based upon OSPD, supplanted it.
The OSPD was created because in the 1950s Selchow & Righter sold the
right to put out Scrabble word lists to Jacob Orleans and Edmund
Jacobson, authors of Scrabble Word Guide, a 1953 book based on the
Funk and Wagnalls Dictionary. The official publication, Scrabble
News, is still circumspect about publishing word lists, tending to
print them in small chunks to conform to some idea of their remaining
rights.
Parallel to the OSPD for North America, the UK has Official Scrabble
Words ("OSW"), which lists all rules-acceptable words in the Chambers Dictionary ("Chambers") whose uninflected roots have nine or fewer
letters, and words of nine or fewer letters which are inflections of
longer words. The third edition of OSW, including words from the
1993 edition of Chambers, came out in 1994. Chambers' 1998 edition
was followed by OSW4 in September 1999. Challenges of longer words
are looked up in Chambers.
OSW is available outside the UK from
James Thin Ltd
53-59 South Bridge
Edinburgh, EH1 1YS
Scotland
+44 131 556 6743
+44 131 557 8149 fax
<mailto:james.thin.ltd@almac.co.uk>
<http://www.jthin.co.uk/ordering.htm>
or
Margaret & Sarah Browne
Premier Books and Prints
65 High Town Road
Luton, LU2 0BW
+44 1582 611991
+44 1582 611911 fax
<mailto:premier@interdart.co.uk>
<http://books.interdart.co.uk/books/premier>
who is authorized to sell Chambers titles to Scrabble players at some discount.
For trademark reasons, the OSPD is not legally sold outside North
America, and OSW is not sold in North America.
Here are the relative sizes of the lexicons of TWL and OSW, showing
that OSW is a richer lexicon at all lengths. "SOWPODS" is a common abbreviation for the union of the two, combining the letters of OSPD
and OSW.
length TWL OSW TWL+OSW
2 96 109 121
3 972 1126 1227
4 3903 4769 5140
5 8636 10697 11776
6 15232 18435 20901
7 23109 26539 31144
8 28419 30732 37916
9 24556 30456 36669
total 2-8: 80367 92407 108225
3.3.3.1. Why are all those stupid/non-English/indecent words
allowed?
The OSPD was formed according to the rules of Scrabble, allowing all non-capitalized words without apostrophes or hyphens which are not
designated as foreign. In a compromise between the number of words
in a standard college dictionary (such as Funk & Wagnalls, in use
before the OSPD) and an unabridged dictionary, the OSPD includes all
words found in at least one of five major US college dictionaries,
including a total of ten editions, which in the judgment of Merriam- Webster's lexicographers (contracted by the trademark holder to do
this) meet the rules.
The dictionaries used for OSPD2 are: Funk & Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary (1973 printing), American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language (First and Second College Editions), Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam-Webster; Eighth thru Tenth Editions), Webster's New World Dictionary (Second and Third College Editions),
Random House College Dictionary (Original Edition and Revised
Edition).
To some extent, this succeeds at capturing the language, not as some
set of Scrabble players would have it, but as it is -- according to professional lexicographers.
3.3.3.2. Words removed from OSPD 1st ed. in 2nd ed.
AINE
AINEE
ALIYAHS
AUTARKIK
BABBOOL BABBOOLS
BORAZON BORAZONS
DIALOGGED DIALOGGING
DUC DUCS
ECOLE ECOLES
ENFIN
INVAR INVARS
IODOL IODOLS
MISENROLL MISENROLLS
NEGRO NEGROES
NOIR
ONCES
PAPULAN
PERE PERES
PHYTIN PHYTINS
SITI
SLIVOVICS
STETSON STETSONS
SULFONAL SULFONALS
SURVEILED SURVEILING
THERMIT THERMITS
UIT
WAEFU
WITEN
WOSTTETH WOTTETH
XANTHATE XANTHATES
3.3.3.3. Current corrections to the OSPD 2nd ed.
The cumulative corrections to the OSPD2, all (except for DIDDLEYS)
corrected in the final printing, are:
p16 ALIYAH: -YAHS (not -YAS)
108 CLAUGHT: -ING (not -INT)
109 CLEEK: CLAUCHT (not CLAUGHT)
155 DIDDLEY: DIDDLEYS, DIDDLIES
213 FLANKEN: pl. FLANKEN
272 HONDLE: -DLED, -DLING, -DLES (not -DLIED or -DLIES)
273 insert HOOTY adj HOOTIER, HOOTIEST
321 LEAP: add LEPT as third past
359 insert MISENROLL v -ED, -ING, -S
364 MOJO: add MOJOES
424 PECORINO: -NOS, -NI
436 PINYIN: delete PINYINS
451 delete PREFROZE; insert PREFREEZE v -FROZE,
-FROZEN, -FREEZING, -FREEZES to freeze beforehand
481 delete REARMICE; insert REARMOUSE n pl. -MICE
reremouse
477 REFALL: add REFALLS
488 delete REREMICE; insert REREMOUSE n pl. -MICE a bat
(a flying mammal)
537 SJAMBOK: definition should be "to flog"
635 UNMESH: -ES (not -S)
638 UPFRONT adj
639 URB: pl. URBS
643 delete VANIR
675 insert XANTHATE n pl. -S a chemical salt
Some of these "corrections" muddy the rule that all uninflected words
in the OSPD have eight or fewer letters.
3.3.3.4. 9-letter root words in OSPD
Despite the plan for OSPD, that the only uninflected words it
contains should be those of eight or fewer letters, a few 9-letter
words have been inserted. These are:
GRUELLING
KIDNAPPER
MISENROLL
PREFREEZE
RAVELLING
REARMOUSE
REREMOUSE
3.3.3.5. Current corrections to the Franklin Electronic OSPD
additions deletions
--------- ---------
AMNIA AMNIONIA
BRITISH
CAUDILLOS CAUDILLLOS
CHEERLEADED
CHINESE
CHRISTMAS
CLUBBERS
CRACKLES CRACKLEES
CRIOLLOS CRIOLLLOS
DIDDLEYS
EXPIATING
GONIONIA
GRAMS
HALAZONES
HIGGLED
HONDLES HONDLIES
HORNBEAMS
IRISH
ITALIAN
MACHES
MISEATE
OPALESCING OPALESCESCING
OUTDRAGGING
OUTEATE
OVEREATE
OVERLIT
PECORINI
PINYINS
REFALLS
S
SISSIES SIES
UNCLOGGING
UNDEREATE
3.3.3.6. Expurgation of OSPD and OSPD 3rd ed.
In October 1995, NSA issued an Expurgated Scrabble Players Dictionary ("ESPD"), calling it OSPD3, omitting approximately 167 words labeled
as offensive to specific ethnic, racial, sexual and other groups,
such as the words "dago", "jew" and "fatso". Hasbro, the NSA's
parent, gave as major reasons for the change its desire to promote
Scrabble in elementary schools using the OSPD and complaints by
offended ethnic groups.
Facing much opposition by competitive players who did not want their
playing vocabulary restricted to those words considered safe for
children, NSA has made the ESPD *not* the official reference for club
and tournament play. (It says on the dust jacket, "for recreational
and school play.") Instead, starting February 1, 1996, competitions
used OSPD2 plus the words added in ESPD. (A few words which reappear
in ESPD because of its sloppy basing on early printings of OSPD2 --
before some corrections -- will not be added back, though.)
It's anomalous to have the "Official Scrabble Players Dictionary" not
be official.
3.3.3.7. Successor to OSPD - TWL98
As of March 1998, club and tournament play in North America use an unexpurgated lexicon, including all two- to nine-letter words and inflections, titled "Official Tournament and Club Word List" (but
generally known as "TWL" or "TWL98"), sold only to members of NSA.
Send $9.95 plus sales tax for AR, CA, MA, OH or WA, specifying
membership number, to
Merriam-Webster Inc.
P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA 01102
(800) 201-5029 x100
(413) 734-3134 x100
or $13.95 CAD in Canada, to
Thomas Allen & Son, Ltd
390 Steelcase Rd E
Markham, ON L3R 1G2
(905) 475-9126
There were 12 deletions in the two- to eight-letter range, DA DEI DES
HANGULS KEV LEZES LICENTI SKIWEARS STRID VIN VINS VON, and 38
additions, BACKSTAB BASSETT BASSETTS BEDSIT BEDSITS CHEMO CHEMOS
DECLAW DECLAWED DECLAWS FINALISE IGNORAMI ILLER ILLEST LATTE LATTES
LEZZES LOUVRED MAGLEVS PETRALE PETRALES PINEALS PREMIXT PYROLIZE
REDTAIL REDTAILS RHYTONS SEVRUGA SEVRUGAS SILKIES SMOOTHES TENIASES
TRAPEZII UNSELL UNSELLS VOGUER VOGUERS WHINGING.
See the Dictionary Committee page for explanations. <http:// www.math.utoronto.ca/~jjchew/scrabble/nsadc/twl98-changes.html>
3.3.4. Tournament pairings
Most North American tournaments are ranked according to win-loss
record first, followed by the total of point margin in each game. A
few tournaments score according to a predetermined number of credits
for winning and for each ten points of margin. UK tournaments
sometimes use sum-of-scores (the sum of the number of wins by one's opponents), and Australian tournaments use total game score, as the
secondary factor.
In small tournaments or ones in where the field is sufficiently
divided, each player plays every other once. This is called a round
robin.
In all the other tournament designs, whom one plays depends on where
one stands in the tournament so far. In the first round, generally
the players' pre-tournament ratings temporarily stand in for the
tournament rank.
The modified form of Swiss pairing used at North American Scrabble tournaments is best described by example. Suppose 64 players are at
the tournament. In round one, the first player plays the 33rd, the
second plays the 34th, etc., and the 32nd plays the 64th. In round
two, the same top plays middle is used for the top and bottom halves
of the tournament separately: 1 plays 17, 2 plays 18, down to 16
plays 32, and 33 plays 49, down to 48 plays 64. This continues with
groups shrinking by a factor of two at each round.
Because determining the pairings between rounds can take so long in
this method (computers are fast, but data entry can be slow), often
the field is divided into four groups, instead of two. So with 64
players, 1 17 33 49 would be grouped together, as would 2 18 34 50,
and 16 32 48 64. These groups of four then each play a round robin.
Note that this "speed-pairing" method provides the better players an advantage. Denote the four quartiles in order as A, B, C, D. Then
the A player plays a B, C and D, while the D plays an A, B and C;
this tends to reinforce the pre-tournament estimate of the players' strengths, and thus detracts from the aim of a tournament -- to
recognize performance, not rank. A simple improvement has rarely
been tried, to have each A player also matched against an A from
another group, etc. This models the round robin in small, and seems inherently fairer. (If anyone has references to scholarly treatments
of the fairness of tournament designs, I would be grateful to be
supplied with them.)
In the UK, most tournaments use a version of the Swiss method in
which at each round players are paired within groups consisting of
those with the same win-loss record.
3.3.5. Tournament ratings
Using a system based on the Elo system used in chess, North American tournament players get a rating in the range 0 to ~2150 which
indirectly represents the probability of winning against other rated
players. This probability depends only on the difference between the
two players' ratings as follows:
rating probability
difference of winning
400 .919
300 .853
200 .758
100 .637
50 .569
0 .500
-50 .431
-100 .363
-200 .242
-300 .147
-400 .081
This represents the area under the standard bell-shaped curve where 200*sqrt(2) points are taken as one standard deviation. (The table
shows some sample points on this curve, adequate for good
approximations of rating calculations by interpolation, although
actual calculations use the exact curve.)
To keep current on a player's actual quality of play, the rating is
updated after every tournament played. First, the number of games
one is expected to win is calculated. Let's use as an example a two
game tournament, in which player P begins with an 1800 rating, and
plays opponents rated 1900 and 1725. P's rating is 100 below the
1900 player's, so P is expected to win .363 fraction of a game; P's
rating is 75 above the other player's, so P is expected to win .603
of a game (halfway between .637 and .569).
So in the two games, P is expected to win a total of .966 games.
Let's say P won one game. That's .034 more than expected. P's
rating goes up some constant multiple of this number. Well, actually
it's not a constant, but depends on how many tournament games P has
ever played and how high P's rating is.
games played
Rating < 50 >=50
below 1800 30 20
1800-1999 24 16
2000 & up 15 10
See also the explanation by John Chew. <http://www.math.utoronto.ca/~jjchew/scrabble/ratings/how.html>
[continued in next message]
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)