Hobbies And Interests
To Begin
Before play begins, competitors draw letters. The person who has the letter closest to the letter A gets to go first. If a person draws a blank tile, that is better than drawing the letter A and the player who picked the blank goes first. Each player picks seven tiles from the bag. To begin the game, the person who won the right to go first places at least a two-letter word on the star square found in the center of the board. A word placed on the star serves as a double word score only for the first person; additional words that use the star do not receive a double word score. Play then moves clockwise.
The Board
On the Scrabble board, there are certain squares that indicate a value of a bonus score. According to the official rules of Scrabble, a light blue square indicates a double-letter score. When a tile is put on this square, its value is doubled. A dark blue square represents a triple-letter score. Any tile put on this square has its value tripled. Double word squares run diagonally toward the four corners of the playing surface and are indicated by light red squares. When a player places a word that uses a double-word square, the value of the whole word is doubled. Throughout the board there are also triple-word score spaces, indicated by a dark red square. Any word that is placed using this square has its value tripled.
Tile Values
A Scrabble game comes with 100 tiles that can be used on the board. Each letter of the alphabet is assigned a value. There are also two blank tiles that can represent any letter of the alphabet. Blanks have no assigned value and once designated as a letter on the board, that assigned letter cannot change during play. However, blank tiles can be used to receive the values for double or triple word scores.
One-point tiles include: A, E, I, L, N, O, R, S, T, and U; two-point tiles include D, and G; three-point tiles include B, C, M, and P; four-point letters include F, H, V, W and Y; K is worth five points; J and X are worth eight points; and Q and Z are worth 10 points. Strategy includes placing words that use the optimal amount of points.
Player's Turn
A player has three options when his turn arrives. The most common play is for a player to place a word on the board and receive points for the word played. Another option is for the player to pass--that is, to not play a word. A third option is for the player to exchange any or all of his tiles for new tiles. If a person exchanges letters, that constitutes his turn and he cannot place a word on the board.
Bonus
During the game, a player has seven letters on her tile rack. If a player is able to use all seven letters simultaneously, the player receives not only the points for the word spelled, but also earns a 50-point bonus.
Challenging
After a word has been placed on the board, an opponent has the right to challenge the word, meaning a player doubts the validity of the word. An opponent must challenge a word before the score is totaled and the next player places a word. A dictionary is then referred to and the word in question is looked up. If the word is not found in the dictionary, the player who put the word down must remove the letters and then loses his turn.
Allowed Words
Not all words found in the dictionary are allowed on the board. According to the official Scrabble rules, words spelled with a capital letter (like proper nouns) cannot be used. Unacceptable words also include abbreviations, prefixes, suffixes, and words that use a hyphen or apostrophe. Foreign words that appear in a standard dictionary are allowed, as they are considered part of the mainstream English language.