{"id":7919,"date":"2021-01-18T10:04:47","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T15:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=7919"},"modified":"2021-01-18T10:04:47","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T15:04:47","slug":"the-story-of-scrabble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/the-story-of-scrabble\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of Scrabble"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7920\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7920\" class=\"size-large wp-image-7920\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/Scrabble-1024x575.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/Scrabble-1024x575.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/Scrabble-350x197.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/Scrabble-768x431.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/Scrabble.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7920\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Chances are, you\u2019ve played <strong>Scrabble<\/strong>. You know the 15&#215;15 square board, with its 225 squares designed to accommodate 100 wooden tile pieces. 98 of the tiles are marked with a letter and the value of that letter in the lower-left corner. The remaining two wooden tiles are blank on both sides.<\/p>\n<p>The value of each tile was determined by the game\u2019s inventor, Alfred Butts, by tabulating the frequency the letters appear in English words. Letters like A, E, L, R, and S earn one point. The letter E appears in an estimated 11% of all English words.<sup id=\"mfn-content-00000000000030d50000000000000000_7919-1\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote \" data-mfn=\"1\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"00000000000030d50000000000000000_7919\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-00000000000030d50000000000000000_7919-1\">1<\/a><\/sup><span role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"1\">https:\/\/www.rd.com\/article\/common-letters-english-language\/<\/span> Butts knew that he needed to have that tile appear the most. However, in an effort to make the game more challenging, he limited the number of S tiles to only four.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 point &#8211; A, E, I, O, U, L, N, S, T, R<\/li>\n<li>2 points &#8211; D, G<\/li>\n<li>3 points &#8211; B, C, M, P<\/li>\n<li>4 points &#8211; F, H, V, W, Y<\/li>\n<li>5 points &#8211; K<\/li>\n<li>8 points &#8211; J, X<\/li>\n<li>10 points &#8211; Q, Z<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Among the 225 squares, 61 are marked with special value designations.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>24 double the value of the letter placed on it.<\/li>\n<li>12 triple the value of the letter placed there.<\/li>\n<li>16 double the value of the word made from the letter used on that space.<\/li>\n<li>8 triple the value of the word made from the letter used.<\/li>\n<li>The center square, always blank and the first space used, also doubles the value of the word made from that letter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Playing Scrabble<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The game also includes four wooden racks, or tile holders. At the beginning of the game, each player draws seven random and unseen tiles and places them on their rack, concealed from the other player(s).<\/p>\n<p>The first word made in the game must be at least two letters long and cover the center square. All subsequent moves are made by placing one or more tiles on the board, somehow connecting to the tiles that have already been played. Players may play at right angles to a word, or even parallel to a word as long as adjacent letters form words horizontally and vertically.<\/p>\n<p>Butts originally called his game Lexico, and it did not have a board, only the tiles. Later, Butts partnered with entrepreneur James Brunot to form the game board and to give it the name Scrabble, which is a real English word meaning to struggle to grasp or hold onto something. If you\u2019ve ever played the game, you\u2019ll know that this is a perfect description of what the game is like.<\/p>\n<p>People have been playing Scrabble for over 80 years. It\u2019s estimated that a version of the game can be found in about 1\/3 of all American homes and in about half the homes in Great Britain.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>The Unfortunate Confession of Seamus Heaney<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I have a story about Scrabble that I love to tell. Many years ago I was lucky enough to get to know <strong>Seamus Heaney <\/strong><sup id=\"mfn-content-00000000000030d50000000000000000_7919-2\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote \" data-mfn=\"2\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"00000000000030d50000000000000000_7919\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-00000000000030d50000000000000000_7919-2\">2<\/a><\/sup><span role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"2\">https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poets\/seamus-heaney<\/span>, the Nobel laureate and Irish poet. One very memorable Sunday, my wife and I were guests at a small dinner party with Seamus, his wife Mary, and two other couples. Much wine was consumed, and Seamus was, as always, the center of attention.<\/p>\n<p>He and my wife began talking about their shared mutual affection for playing Scrabble. Soon, Seamus proclaimed that he had a special trick for winning at Scrabble. He had the Oxford English Dictionary on his computer at home. If he got stuck, he would excuse himself to go to the bathroom. His computer was next to the bathroom. Seamus would enter the letters on the tiles in his rack into the computer and the Oxford Dictionary would list the words that you could make with those letters.<\/p>\n<p>Seamus Heaney cheated at Scrabble!<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Seamus, this was the first time Mary Heaney ever learned of this. She was none too pleased. Fortunately, we all had some more wine and the evening continued amicably.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe the next time you play a game of Scrabble, you\u2019ll think of the grandmaster of letters, Seamus Heaney. But, don\u2019t cheat. Or, if you do, don\u2019t let your wife find out.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"modern-footnotes-list modern-footnotes-list--show-only-for-print\"><li id=\"footnote-00000000000030d50000000000000000_7919-1\"><span>1<\/span><div>https:\/\/www.rd.com\/article\/common-letters-english-language\/ <a href=\"#mfn-content-00000000000030d50000000000000000_7919-1\" class=\"modern-footnotes-scroll-to-footnote\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 1 in text\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/div><\/li><li id=\"footnote-00000000000030d50000000000000000_7919-2\"><span>2<\/span><div>https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poets\/seamus-heaney <a href=\"#mfn-content-00000000000030d50000000000000000_7919-2\" class=\"modern-footnotes-scroll-to-footnote\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 2 in text\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/div><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"197\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/Scrabble-350x197.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/Scrabble-350x197.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/Scrabble-1024x575.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/Scrabble-768x431.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/Scrabble.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Chances are, you\u2019ve played Scrabble. You know the 15&#215;15 square board, with its 225 squares designed to accommodate 100 wooden tile pieces. 98 of the tiles are marked with a letter and the value of that letter in the lower-left corner. The remaining two wooden tiles are blank on both sides. The value of each&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/the-story-of-scrabble\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":7920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,135139],"tags":[298352,411087],"class_list":["post-7919","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-english-language","tag-seamus-heaney","tag-word-games"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.0.1 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay Chances are, you\u2019ve played Scrabble. You know the 15x15 square board, with its 225 squares designed to accommodate 100 wooden tile pieces. 98 of the tiles are marked with a letter and the value of that letter in the lower-left corner. The remaining two wooden tiles are blank on both\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gary Locke\"\/>\n\t<meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"scrabble,seamus heaney,word games\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/the-story-of-scrabble\/\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 5.0.0.1\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"English Language Blog | Language and Culture of the English-Speaking World\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Story of Scrabble |\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay Chances are, you\u2019ve played Scrabble. 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