How does Scrabble work? What are the rules and guidelines?
If you wonder how to play scrabble, read the tips below. They will help you learn the rules and how to play. You begin each turn by playing a word. Next, you total the scores for that word. Finally, you replace the tiles you played with new tiles.
• The game begins with the first player playing his word on the spot with a star on it.
• All words should have at least two letters.
• Each word must be played either vertically or horizontally. Letters can be placed both ways on the same turn.
• No diagonal play is allowed.
• Play proceeds clockwise.
• Each player must play off the already present words on the board. In this case, you should change existing terms (for example, change the word ‘play’ to ‘player’) or add a letter to your word.
• Each letter must form a complete word. A valid, legal word must be formed whenever two or more letters touch. You would get full credit for both if, for example, you added an ‘s’ to an existing word to make it plural and then built a separate comment from that ‘s’ in the other direction.
• Once a tile is played, it cannot be moved or shifted.
• Whenever a word is played, other players can challenge it if they do not believe it is accurate or spelled incorrectly. Players should agree on the type of dictionary to use before playing Scrabble. Foreign, obsolete, and slang words are allowed.
• It is forbidden to use abbreviations, prefixes, or suffixes standing alone, words requiring a hyphen, apostrophe, or capitalization. For the same reason, many players who play Scrabble a lot purchase an Official Scrabble Player’s Dictionary. A free online Scrabble dictionary is also available.
• You must challenge your opponent’s word before the next player enters the field. If the challenged word is not legal, the tiles return to the player’s hand, and that player loses his turn. If the challenged word comes up as legal, the challenger loses his next turn. When a word is challenged, all words, in turn, are challenged. All tiles are returned to their owner’s hand if any terms are not legal, and that player loses a turn. It is appropriate to consult the dictionary only after a word has been challenged and not before it is played for verification.
Score Keeping Rules
All players must elect someone as the scorekeeper, and it is his job to double-check the words. Each of the letter tiles has the value of that letter, and they should not be counted unless they are part of a Premium Letter Square.
What are premium squares?
Light Blue Square: A Premium Letter Square doubles the letter’s score placed on it.
Dark Blue Square: A Premium Letter Square triples the letter’s score placed on it.
Pink square: It is a Premium Word Square. If any letter from any word is placed on this square, then the word’s value is doubled.
Red square: It is a Premium Word Square. By placing any letter from a word on this square, the value of the word is tripled.
What are the rules for calculating the value of a word on premium squares?
On their first turn, premium squares are only counted. The value of a tile on a premium square is only worth its face value if a subsequent turn uses an earlier letter.
The premium square becomes active if more than one word is created with a letter on a single turn. When calculating the point totals for each word made, only use premium squares underneath the used tiles. Players who can play all seven tiles in a single turn are awarded 50 points and the score for that word.
How to win the game?
According to scrabble rules, the game ends when the last player has no more tiles to draw; obviously, the player who achieves the highest score wins the game.
First, you draw tiles from the bag to select a starting player. You’ll need two to four players—a pen and paper. Without peeking at the tiles in the bag, players will take one tile; the player with the letter closest to “A” will begin the game. Put all the tiles back in the bag and shake it up.
Starting with the first player, each player takes seven tiles from the pack in clockwise order. The first person who puts a word down on the board must place at least two tiles in the center space of the board (and subsequent plays build off that word or words).
One hundred tiles are included in the game, and 98 of them contain letters and point values. Two blank tiles can be used as wild tiles to take the place of any letter. When a blank is played, it will remain in the game as the letter is substituted for but will have no point values. Keep score on each player with a pen and paper.
After making a play, the player declares the score for that play, and then, if the game is played with a clock, starts the opponent’s clock.
Players can change their play as long as the clock is running. The player then pulls tiles from the bag to refill their rack to 7 tiles. If there aren’t enough tiles in the bag, the player takes all the remaining tiles.
Based on North American tournament rules, the game ends when either one player has played every tile on their rack, no tiles remain in the bag, or at least six successive scoreless turns have happened, and either player decides to end the game. In the end, each player’s score is reduced by the sum of their unused letters.
It would be best to put all tiles in a letter pouch or face down beside the board. Mix the letters well so that the players do not know which letter is in what spot. To know who plays first, each player draws a letter. The player who is playing with the letter closer to A starts first. The blank tile goes first automatically. There are three main steps:
1. Play a word.
2. Total the score for that word.
3. Draw tiles to replace the tiles played.
Here are the rules:
1. Start by drawing tiles from the bag. The player with the most valuable tile is the one who starts. When done, shake it up.
2. Each player chooses seven tiles from the bag, beginning with the first player and proceeding clockwise.
3. The game begins with the first player and continues clockwise.
4. The first player to write a word on the board must place at least one tile in the board’s center spot (and subsequent plays build off that word or words that have branched off of it).
