Killer Scrabble

Scrabble is a lot like life. You never know what tiles you are going to draw. And then, once you draw them, it's up to you to decide exactly what you are going to do with them. There are so many options, yet we all want to play our tiles to the best advantage. Like life, the more you learn about the game the better you will get at playing it well.

Scrabble has been around for some 50 years and continues to be the best selling board game. Over a million games are sold in North America each year with over three million games sold worldwide. It is sold in 29 different languages and played by 33 million people. One hundred million games have been sold worldwide.(Mattel Inc 2007)

It's popularity lies in the fact that Scrabble combines word skills, mathematical reasoning, and chance. Alfred Butts, the game's creator, studied the newspaper and the occurrence of each letter of the alphabet to determine how many of each letter to include in the game. He choose to include only four S's because to do otherwise the game would be too easy. (Hasbro) Surprisingly it is not the linguistically talented college professor who tends to become the greatest player. Indeed those with computer and engineering experience tend to fair much better.

It is a game that can be enjoyed by the young and old alike. For the young Scrabble develops vocabulary skills, mathematical reasoning and planning. For the elderly it just might head off dementia, as it exercises thinking and reasoning skills. But most of all it is just plain fun.

For many, Scrabble becomes a very competitive game of skill and cunning unmatched by any other. So how, you may ask, does one develop those skills to improve their game? Practice, of course, is a great teacher, but there are other ways.

I am assuming that you already know the basic rules of Scrabble, understand the tile distribution, and are familiar with the board layout. If you are unsure of any of these please consult the rules that came with the game or visit Hasbro online.