Scrabble II highlights: LOVABLE EXECUTORS...
Donald Sauter
night, Wednesday, December 9, 2009, at the Dover Scrabble Club
(Delaware).
We averaged 24.6 Points Per Turn as a group - the worst showing in
months. Maybe it was just the night of weird and bum racks. I traded
letters 5 times in the 3 games, and there were at least 4 other
trades. At the end of one threesome, the three players were stuck
with E E E I I I O U on their racks. One board had LOVABLE on it twice
(!) In one game I got burnt on WARBLINGS, which I figured was safe as
mother's milk. (As I write this, WARBLINGS scores 10 hits on Google
News, from "fractured", "tuneless", and "unmentionable" warblings to
"weird and wonderful".) I planned to downsize to WARBLING on the next
play around an open, unobtrusive L (and thereby hang onto a blank).
But Elsie wrapped BLOOPER around my L, and I had to blow both blanks
on WARNING and never got rolling again. Luckily, Scrabble is about as
fun to lose as to win.
Tile oddities: One game had 5B, 4C, 4V, 7U, 2Q and 2X. Another game
had 7S, 3Z, 2Q and 4 blanks. Every game is fresh and different!
Scrabble II is the purest form of Scrabble played anywhere. A few
small, natural rule fixes keep players gunning for l---o---n---g
words. It pulls the rug out from under those ridiculous, tired, old,
connect-the-dot, baby-word plays that have become identified with
Scrabble over the last few decades. It restores Scrabble as test of
anagram skills. (How novel!)
Scrabble II does not allow phony words. In our club, we use a
conventional dictionary, the American Heritage. Scrabble II is more
intelligent, challenging, and sophisticated than modern American
tournament-style Scrabble in every way. Heck, over 40% of the oddball
plays on championship boards wouldn't even be allowed in our club.
See:
www.donaldsauter.com/scrabble-ii.htm
ALL I'M ASKING FOR . . .
1. Give it a try!
2. Give it a try and report back!
3. A quality Scrabble II program placed prominently on the internet.
I'll pay reasonable programming costs!
4. A dear, old benefactor to bankroll a Scrabble II tournament with
the largest ever cash prizes for a Scrabble tournament, which would
still amount to chicken feed!
5. Too stuck in your ways to try it? Send me photos or screen shots
of a batch of your best tournament-style, baby-word Scrabble games and
I'll make you famous with a web page like the one above for the
National Scrabble Champions!
6. If nothing else, think of me hooting "Bravo!" over your shoulder
every time you plunk down another one of tournament Scrabble's tired,
old, baby-word plays.
Here's what we played last night in 3 games:
*** 9-letter Words ***
EXECUTORS
LOATHINGS
WRESTLERS
*** 8-letter Words ***
(none - weird!)
*** 7-letter Words ***
BANQUET (Note: not QI)
BLOOPER
CLEANED
HEELING
HONORED
INKIEST
LOVABLE
LOVABLE
PARTING
READIED
ROASTER
WARNING
*** 6-letter Words ***
BIONIC
CAUCUS
COTTON
DEVOUR
DIVINE
DRAWER
FANNED
GRAZER
HOOVES
URGERS
*** 5-letter Words ***
AUDIT
CELLO
CRAZE
DENSE
HAZEL
JUNKS
MISTS
PANEL
POESY
QUITE (Note: not QI)
SLAGS
SQUAD (Note: not QI)
UNITE
YODEL
*** Selected 4-letter Words ***
DELI
DUKE
DUNG
GAFF
GLIB
JAMB
JINX
MAGI
QUIZ (Note: not QI)
THEM
*** Just these 3-letter Words ***
ADO AGO AHA APE BOW CUB DIE EMU ERE FAX FEW FOP HOT HUM INK JET JOE
LET LOW MED ONE PAP TAJ TAX TOY TUT VAT VEX WAG WAG ZIP
*** Just these 2-letter Words ***
AR AS BI ED EF EH IF MI OW SH TA TI WE
You, too, can set your Scrabble board ablaze with REAL WORDS found in
a REAL DICTIONARY, and used by REAL PEOPLE:
http://www.geocities.com/donaldsauter/scrabble.htm
Donald Sauter