ScrabbleCompetitive
Contents
Introduction To Competitive Scrabble®
The Clock
In tournament and club play, clocks are used to time games. Each player has 25 minutes total time for all his moves, incurring a penalty of 10 points for each minute or part thereof the player goes overtime.
Two major clock vendors are http://www.samtimer.com/ and http://www.adjudicator3000.com/ (these vendors also sell tournament boards and other equipment).
Start out by using the clock so you get used to it, without paying too much attention to the time until you're comfortable. Many beginning players find it challenging to complete a game within 25 minutes, especially when they are still learning how to integrate the many considerations that figure into each play, but with practice it becomes natural.
Club Play
Scrabble Clubs are the natural first stop for learning about competitive Scrabble®. Each club follows its own format but generally play is conducted in accordance with the official tournament rules.
The Washington DC Scrabble® Club meets every Tuesday night at the Chevy Chase Community Center. Games are started roughly at 5:30, 6:20, 7:10, 8:05, and 9 sharp (in order that the room can be vacated by closing time). There is a $1 fee per person per evening. Most nights the full range of abilities is represented by attending members, including school-age players.
NASPA
Tournament play in North America is sanctioned by NASPA, the North American Scrabble Players Association. You'll need to join the association in order to be eligible to compete in tournaments. Membership costs $30 per year. A $15 trial membership is available for 6 months.
TWL
Club and Tournament Play is adjudicated using the Official Tournament and Club Word List or the Collins Word List. This differs from the The Official Scrabble® Player's Dictionary in that it is "unexpurgated" and includes words not considered "appropriate" for school or family play.
Quackle
Quackle is a Scrabble®-playing computer program (Available for Windows, Mac and Linux) created by two expert players. Even at its "lowest" setting it plays an expert-level game. It can also be used to analyze games and suggest moves.
Most notably, it is the only readily available game program which uses TWL. It can also be configured for a number of other dictionaries, including "foreign" languages.
SOWPODS/Collins
International English language tournament play uses yet another wordlist, referred to alternately as "Collins" or "SOWPODS". The international list includes all the words in TWL and adds many thousands more words. This adds to the challenge of learning the word list, but a growing number of North American players study this list in order to be able to compete internationally.
