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Starting
Play | Forming Words | Playing
Blanks | Challenges | Scoring
Words
Scrabble©
tile values, blanks have no score value.
All players are
randomly allocated 7 tiles each at the start of all new games.
All words
labelled as a part of
speech (including those listed of foreign origin, and as archaic,
obsolete, colloquial, slang, etc.) are permitted with the exception of
the following: words always capitalized, (proper nouns), abbreviations, prefixes and
suffixes standing alone, words requiring a hyphen or an apostrophe.
The
first player combines two or more of his or her letters to form a word
and places it on the board to read either across or down with at least
one letter on the CENTRE SQUARE. Diagonal words are not
allowed.
Complete
your turn by counting and announcing your score for that turn. Then
draw as many new letters as you played; always keeping seven letters on
your rack, as long as there are enough tiles left in the letter bag. (The
game does all of the above paragraph for you automatically).
Play
passes to the "left". The second player, and then each in
turn, adds one or more letters to those already played to form new
words. All letters played on a turn must be placed in one row across
or down the board, to form at least one complete word. If, at the same
time, they touch others letters in adjacent rows, those must also form
complete words, crossword fashion, with all such letters. The player
gets full credit for all words formed or modified on his or her turn.
New
words may be formed by:
-
There
are five different ways that new words can be formed:
1. Adding one or more tiles to the beginning or end of a word
already on the board, or to both the beginning and end of that
word.
i.e. Trainer can become Strainers if you have two
tiles with the letter S.
2. Placing a word at right angles to a word already on the board.
The new word must use one of the letters of the word already on
the board. Note, a right angle can be └
or ┘
3. Placing a complete word parallel to a word already played so
that adjoining tiles also form complete words.
4. A new word added at right angles can also add a letter to an
existing word.
5. The last variation is to bridge two or more letters. (This can
only be done after the fourth move or later in the game).
No
tile may be shifted or replaced after it has been played and scored.
You can only play onto, across or adjacent to existing words on
the game board. See example below. You cannot play a word in one direction, then play
another word off that same word, save for 4 above. Where only one
tile is added, either at the front, or at the end of an existing
word. There is no rule to suggest, the same word may not be played,
more than once on the board.
|
 |
 |
|
This
play is perfectly valid, since the word GERM already exists
on the game board.
|
This play is invalid, since DRYER does not yet exist on the
game board.
|
| You can only
play onto, across, or adjacent to
existing words on the board. |
Words
cannot be spelt nor read backwards, like GRAY as YARG, unless they are
palindromic of course!
Blanks:
The two blank tiles, four in the Super Scrabble game, may be used as any letters. They look like this 
in your letter tray on the game page. To play a blank, you just type
in the required field, the letter you want your blank to represent.
Its score value is zero. Say you played PLAYS onto HOUR, and used your
blank as an S, it will now appear like this 
on your game board.
The
official rules of SCRABBLE do not allow a player, later in the game,
to change the letter that the blank represents. Likewise, a player
may not replace the blank with the letter it represents and use the
blank in another word. At the National Scrabble Association's clubs
and tournaments, this rule is strictly enforced.
Advanced
Tip: If you are playing a blank that coincides with a letter you
already have (you have one S, one blank but need to spell a word with
two S's), then it might be best to use "-", the minus sign,
to play the blank explicitly so the program knows WHERE the blank
should go. For more details please click here.
You
may use a turn to exchange all, some, or none of your letters. To do
this, click on Swap Tiles or Skip Turn, and follow the instructions
on that page.
There
is no restriction on the number of times a player may exchange tiles
during a game. However, there must be at least seven tiles remaining
in the bag, regardless of the number of tiles being exchanged.
Any
play may be challenged before the next player starts a turn. If the
play challenged is unacceptable, the challenged player takes back his
or her tiles and loses that turn. If the play challenged is
acceptable, the challenger loses their turn, and points
scored. Abbreviations
and Proper Nouns are not allowed. Please consult the Official
Scrabble Dictionaries if you are
in doubt.
A
player can
only challenge the previous players play. If a word is
challenged, and with the consent of the player who played the
"invalid" word, then that word can be removed, and its points
deducted. This effectively makes the player who played the
"invalid" word lose their turn.
It
is important to realise, that if a play is not challenged, i.e. gone unnoticed, yet seen later, it cannot be
challenged two or more moves after the foul. So the player whose turn it is next,
must make sure that the previous players word is either
"valid" or "invalid". A challenge can be performed at any
stage of the game, so long as it fits the criteria above, and must
only be done once. Performing a challenge twice, i.e. straight after
the first challenge, effectively puts that play and
its points scored back.
The
game ends when all letters have been drawn and one player uses his or
her last letter; or when all possible plays have been made.
Passing, or Skip Turn, is
permitted at any time during the game. If each player
passes thrice in succession however, the game is deemed as ended.
1)
All scoring is automatic, the game does this for you, and shows your
score(s) after playing your turn. Your opponent(s) receive an update
e-mail with current score and total scores. The score value of each
letter is indicated by a number at the bottom of the tile. The
score value of a blank is zero.
2)
The score for each turn is the sum of the letter values in each word(s)
formed or modified on that turn, plus the additional points obtained
from placing letters on Premium Squares.
3)
Premium Letter Squares:
A light blue square doubles the score of a letter placed on it; a dark
blue square triples the letter score.
    
4)
Premium Word Squares:
The score for an entire word is doubled when one of its letters is
placed on a pink square: it is tripled when one of its letters is
placed on a red square. Include premiums for double or triple letter
values, if any, before doubling or tripling the word score.
5)
If a word is formed that covers two double word premium squares, the
score is doubled and then re-doubled (4 times the letter count), or
tripled and then re-tripled (9 times the letter count), if a word covers
two triple word premium
squares. In the Super Scrabble©
game, if a word covers a double and triple premium word squares, the
score is
doubled, and then tripled, (6 times the letter count). Or if a word covers a
triple, and quadruple premium word squares, the score is
tripled, and then quadrupled (12 times the letter count). NOTE: the centre
square is a pink square, which doubles the score for the first word.
If player 1 passes on their opening play, the double word premium centre
square score value, passes to player 2.
6)
Letter and word premiums count only on the turn in which they are
played. On later turns, letters already played on premium squares
count at face value.
7)
When a blank tile is played on a pink or red square, the value of the
word is doubled or tripled, even though the blank itself has no score
value.
8)
When two or more words are formed in the same play, each is scored.
The common letter is counted (with full premium value, if any) for
each word.
9)
BINGO! (50 extra points). If you play all seven tiles in a
single play it's called a Bingo. Bingos score you a premium of 50
points on top of your score for the turn.
10)
Remaining Letters: When the game ends, each players' score is reduced
by the sum of their remaining letters. In addition, if a player has
used all of their letters, the sum of the other players' remaining letters is added to that players' score.
11)
The player with the highest final score wins the game. In case of a
tie, the player with the highest score before adding or deducting
remaining letters wins.
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