Scrabble

Overview

Two to four players build interlocking words on a 15×15 board, scoring by letter value and premium squares. Highest total at the end wins.

Sources. The home game is checked against Hasbro's Scrabble instructions (F4204, ©2021), the North American edition. Tournament rules are checked against the NASPA Official Tournament Rules, the edition in force since 4 January 2017, used in the US and Canada. Editions sold elsewhere may word things differently, and other countries' associations have their own tournament rules.

1. Setup

The set has 100 tiles, including 2 blanks. The board shows each letter's value and how many of it the set contains.

1. Choose a scorekeeper.
2. Everyone draws one tile. The letter closest to A goes first, and a blank beats any letter. Play goes clockwise.
3. Put the tiles back, then each player draws seven, in playing order, and keeps them hidden on a rack.

Hasbro recommends The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (Merriam-Webster) for challenges.

2. The first word

The first word must be at least two letters and cover the centre square, which is a double word square, so the first word scores double.

3. A turn

Play a word, add up your score, and refill your rack to seven. Otherwise:

• Exchange some or all of your tiles: put them face down, draw the same number, then return the old ones to the bag. That's your turn, and it scores nothing.
• Pass, keeping your tiles and scoring nothing. You may pass even when you could play.

In NASPA tournaments you can only exchange while the bag holds seven or more tiles (IV.E.2.a). Hasbro's home rules don't set that limit.

4. Placing tiles

• All the tiles you play go in one line, across or down. Never diagonally.
• After the first turn, you may play a single tile.
• Every new word must connect to a tile already on the board.
• Every line of touching tiles must be a complete word, across and down.
• You can extend a word at both ends in one turn: TEA to STEAL.
• Once a tile is played, it can't be moved or replaced.

5. Scoring

Your score for the turn is the total of every word you form or change.

• A premium square counts only on the turn a tile is placed on it.
• If a word covers a letter premium and a word premium, score the letter first, then double or triple the word.
• When one tile forms two words, its premium square counts in both.
• Cover two double word squares and the word is doubled, then doubled again. Two triples: tripled, then tripled again.
• A blank is worth nothing, even on a letter premium, but it still doubles or triples a word.

Bingo: use all seven tiles in one turn and score 50 extra points.

6. Blanks

A blank can be any letter. Say which letter when you play it. It stays that letter for the rest of the game.

7. Challenges

Any player can challenge a word before the next player starts.

• Home game (Hasbro): look it up. If it's not there, the player takes the tiles back and the turn ends. If it is, the word scores and the challenger loses their next turn.
• NASPA, international lexicon (Collins): a successful challenge takes the play off and the player loses the turn. An unsuccessful challenge gives the challenged player 5 or 10 points per word, as the director decides (VI.B).

Not allowed in the home game, per Hasbro's list: proper nouns, foreign words, abbreviations, acronyms, prefixes and suffixes on their own, words needing a hyphen or apostrophe, and offensive words. The same word may be played any number of times in a game.

8. Ending the game

Home game: the game ends when the bag is empty and one player uses their last tile, or when every player passes twice in a row.

NASPA tournaments: the game can also end after six successive zero-scoring plays, whether passes, exchanges, challenges or illegal plays (V.B).

Each player then subtracts the value of their unplayed tiles. A player who used all their tiles adds everyone else's unplayed total.

Tie: the player with the higher score before those adjustments wins.

Too many tiles? If you have more than seven on your rack, another player takes the extras at random, unseen, and returns them to the bag.

Commonly argued

• Words read across or down, never diagonally or backwards.
• Score every word you form, including the short ones made alongside.
• Premium squares count once, on the turn they're covered.
• A blank scores zero but still doubles or triples the word.
• The bingo bonus is 50.
• A failed challenge costs the challenger a turn in the home game.
• The seven-tiles-in-the-bag rule for exchanges is a tournament rule, not in Hasbro's home rules.
• Proper nouns aren't allowed.