Back to index of games pages by Donald Sauter.
Visit Donald Sauter's Scrabble II for word lovers! page.
In late 2008, the Columbia Scabble Club (Maryland) graciously and bravely took up the invitation of the Dover Scrabble Club (Delaware) to pit its finished Scrabble boards against ours.
The Columbia Scrabble Club is sanctioned by the National Scrabble Association, and consequently plays by American tournament rules.
The Dover Scrabble Club (Delaware), on the other hand, plays Scrabble II, which is pure Scrabble with a few very small, very natural, long overdue fixes which steal the game back from the tiny, high-powered words which have flooded Scrabble's official word lists in the decades since the game was invented. Scrabble II busts things wide open to the longest Scrabble words ever played, anywhere. In a nutshell, Scrabble II is . . .
In addition to those little fixes, we abide by the original, pre-1976, challenge rule which only permits valid words to remain on the board. I call this the Good Words Only rule, and it's actually part and parcel of the Scrabble II rules.
Moreover, we use a conventional dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary Fourth Edition to get further away from the silly character strings found on those lists that tournament players live by.
The Columbia club submitted finished boards for three games, presumably among their best of the evening. Hence, I selected three games from a Dover Scrabble Club session from the same week.
Rather than look at the boards first, here are the results of a comparison of their three Scrabble boards vs. our three Scrabble boards.
Columbia: (none)
Dover: (3) DISQUIETS TOLERATED TWIDDLERS
Columbia: (none)
Dover: (3) HAIRPINS REAGENTS RELEGATE
Columbia: (4) BEARING GROUSES LEERING SHOWIER
Dover: (13) ANOTHER ASPIRED AVIATES BISCUIT BRACKEN CANNILY CONDOMS EXHUMED FEELING HILLING ORDEALS REPEATS SEEMING
Columbia: (7) COCOAS DREAMS INTUIT NATION NOVELS REMARK VISAGE
Dover: (11) BROWED FRIGHT MOSQUE PIGLET SQUABS TOMBOY TWEEDS VIOLET WAGONS WHEELS WOOFED
Columbia: (18) AMAZE ANODE ATRIA DUNCE ERODE FRITZ GOOFS GUILE KITED LIVID LURED MOVES QUITE TOONS URBAN VILER WAGES WEEKS
Dover: (15) BLOWN COWER DIRTY EPOXY EVADE FINER LAZED OVERT RANDY RUINS TANGO TELLY WADER WIPER WOVEN
Columbia: (28) ANIL BRAT CLEF DAHS DART DINT DIRT DONE DORK EYES FIBS FRET HEED LACY LIEU LOAN NICE NOON PALE PEON PURR QATS RENT REVS TAUS TINE TSAR WAFT
Dover: (16) BURP COGS DARK DIES DOZE GAIT GRUB GYRO HORN JOGS NAME OVEN PARD VEER WIDE WILY
Columbia: (32) ADO AGO AYE DEL DIP ELF FEW HEX HEY HUE JIF JIG LAT LOG LOO MOB NAY NOB PAD PIE POI POX QIS RYE SUN TAT TEA TIC VOW YAM YEH ZAS
Dover: (13) AXE CAY END FEW FOB GNU HUT LAX POI ROW SOY TOY ZED
Columbia: (49) AA AB AG AH AI AL AR AS AY BE BO DO DO EH EL EX ID ID IF JO JO MI MO MU NE NE OI OM OM OR OW OX OY PA QI QI QI RE TI TI UN UN UN UT UT WO XI XU ZA
Dover: (13) AS AS AW BY EX GO HI ID ME OF SO TA YE
Columbia: (28) AA AL BO DEL JIF JO JO LAT MO NE NE OI OM OM OY QATS QI QI QI QIS UN UN UN WO XU YEH ZA ZAS
Dover: (none)
Columbia: QUITE QATS QIS QI QI QI
Dover: DISQUIETS MOSQUE SQUABS
Columbia: 49 Twos + 32 Threes → 81 Shorties/138 words = 58.7% Shorties
Dover: 13 Twos + 13 Threes → 26 Shorties/87 words = 29.9% Shorties
Columbia: 461 letters/138 words = 3.34 letters/word
Dover: 413 letters/87 words = 4.75 letters/word
Note the seeming paradox: although our bag contains about 10 tiles more than the standard 100, and there were exactly 27 more tiles on our finished boards than on the Columbia boards over the 3 games, there were 48 fewer letters making up the words on our final boards. That's what happens when you get off the baby stuff and let the long words rip . . .
Now you be the judge and jury. Which style gives rise to the most varied and interesting words? Looks to be the most fun, exciting, and challenging? Most likely to attract newcomers to the Scrabble board? Has the most qi? (That's a joke, son.)
If you cling stubbornly and faithfully to the tournament style of Scrabble play, heavy on tiny, obscure words taken from study lists, I invite you to submit your best games to me and I will create a similar page for your club. You'll be famous!
I think the stats given above are the easiest and most striking way to digest the point being made here, but feel free to compare the Columbia and Dover boards side by side. (Each board is shown twice, the second time with all the tiles flipped across the diagonal so you can easily see every word played by reading horizontally. The * represents an unused triple word score.)
Columbia - game 1 Dover - game 1
H
I R
L U
* DUNCE * * XU INTUIT AH OVEN * WIDE O * L I
F PEoN R FRITZ O FIBS E A I VEER O I N
R VOW AGO R E ME C PARD E REAGENTS
XI ID SUN LAT R EX O O T NAME D R G
UT PALE I QATS H CANNILY EXHUMED U
ZAS AY NE J P AL TIC AB U O D A BISCUIT
I GUILE DORK OW E YEH Y rE M G O R L O
NOON HEED A Do E A *ORDEALs MOSQUe * COGs E WIPER
T LEERING UN P DEL R E D AS L A ASpIRED
U T E N ANODE I A S G E CONDOMS O R
IF QI MOVES C VILER E MO N GRUB EpOXY G N O X
TI LACY OM ERODE K R OM G E I I R A W POI S GYRO
BRAT W I V HILLING S R O T I A L Q
AS TSAr JO N E T COWER E DIRTY U
H BEARING * * WAGES * RUINS U ID * E D ReLEGATE*
I P
T E
R
Columbia - game 2 Dover - game 2
R
O F
* * * * JIG * * G AW * O TANGO
G UT DO N V TOMBOY O
R LOAN I L N HUT B I V FEELING
E L OY REMARK I o I WILY A E E
MOB U FEW O TINE V T E O TA R RANDY
A O REVS ADO BO TAUS E OVERT E WOVEN T J F A I
DIRT HEX F HEY H N L M D D N SO HI DOZE t E
JO KITED TEA * LURED COCOAS FOB JOGS T GNU G WhEELS
I NAY P T EX w B OF Z H TWEEDS D A
G LIEU C QI AR L V QI YE FEW EVADE I X
SHOwIER MI GOOFS PIE E h I R BLOWN E
C E AA AYE RENT TOLERAtED O Y O VIOLET
NOB N Z UN WAFT A I A E LAZED V A A E
A T E T D E AMAZE N N N LAX E AVIATES D Z L
* NoVELS * * O ATRIA * G G DIES TELLY ROW ANOTHER E L
O Y D Y
Columbia - game 3 Dover - game 3
H
A
I
* * PA * * * * BRACKEN W * DARK T
B LOG C QIS U A P GO
EH OX BE L U FRIGHT G F I S CAY
U WO V HUE POI G P WADER O BURP N Q I
CLEF J E I FRET DART r I N R I DiSQUIETs
R I DREAMS LIVID E O ZED AS A G Z A N E
ELF K A JIF N U D D D F X C H E B D E
* TI TOONS G * TAT EYES A i L PIGLET K TWIDDLERS M
V AI A RYE OI E HAIRPINS E N E A E I
DINT T A D O DAHs K Q REPEATS N D P P N
PAD I MU R NATION SQUABS R O E FINER G
OR E DONE R WEEKS NICE I BY R G A
QUITE Y ANIL B LOO A R EL C END R L T BROWED
I E H C ZA POX M YAM Z GAIT O H AXE SOY O
*S GrOUSEs E N AG VISAGE URBAN TOY sEEMING WOOFED WAGONS T HORN
E R F
D N E
D
Keep those cards and letters coming, Scrabblers!
If it seems unfair beating up on Columbia, which was created on a drafting board and isn't even a state capital or anything, and you're hollering, "Pick on somebody your own size!", here's a look at Scrabble II boards side-by-side with "Table 1" games from the 2009 National Scrabble Championship. Still a rout, what can I do?
Please visit my main page discussing Scrabble II for Word Lovers.
For more Scrabble II boards created by the Dover Scrabble Club:
Here's a good poke at the embarrassing use of the Q in Scrabble.
If, after all of that, you still maintain that the funny little OSPD words are where it's at, man, I've invented the perfect Scrabble game for you: Goo-Goo Scrabble!
Contact Donald Sauter: send an email; view guestbook; sign guestbook.
Back to Donald Sauter's main page.
Rather shop than think? Please visit My Little Shop of Rare and Precious Commodities.
Helpful keywords not in the main text: ospd = official scrabble players dictionary. Ultimate Scrabble (former name for Scrabble II).
Parents, if you're considering tutoring or supplemental education for your child, you may be interested in my observations on Kumon.