TLW January 2013 - The Last Word

W O R D G A M E N E W S
The Last Word
The Independent Tournament SCRABBLE® Newsletter
A Monthly Newsletter Issue 35 - January 2013
2012: The Year in Review
The Last Word is an independent publication for tournament SCRABBLE® players. It is not
affiliated with Hasbro, Mattel, the North American SCRABBLE® Players Association (NASPA),
the Word Game Players’ Organization (WGPO), or the National SCRABBLE® Association (NSA).
Our mission is to provide content of interest to all SCRABBLE® players, so please let us know if
there are topics you would like us to add. We welcome contributions: stories, artwork, etc.
For the time being, we are hoping to provide this Newsletter at no charge; however, since it is a
100% volunteer effort, we would appreciate any donations. Advertisers are encouraged, too. If
you would like to have The Last Word emailed to you, please send a request with your email
address to CorneliaSGuest@gmail.com and we will add you to our mailing list.
Editor-in-Chief: Cornelia Guest
Columnists: Joe Bihlmeyer, Jan Cardia, Timothy Cataldo, Judy Cole, Joe
Edley, Stu Goldman, Jeff Kastner, Daiva Markelis, Joan Mocine, Tony Rasch,
Lester Schonbrun, Larry Sherman, Chris Sinacola, Siri Tillekeratne, Linda
Wancel
Editors-at-large: Robin Pollock Daniel, Joe Edley, Stefan Fatsis, Ted Gest
Photographer-at-large: Betsey Wood
Albany Results Prague Mind Sports Festival
Contributors: Craig Beevers, Connie Breitbell, Tim Bryant, Vince Castellano,
Conor Chandler, Roger Cullman, Curran Eggertson, Keith Hagel, Patricia A.
Hocker, Stewart Holden, Dan Horowitz, Adam Kalai, Mina Le, Roy Leban,
Jerry Lerman, Joshua Lewis, Joel Lipman, Living It Loving It Ltd, Kenji
Matsumoto, Jeremiah Mead, Jessica Meller, Mack Meller, National
SCRABBLE® Association, Mauro Pratesi, Karen Richards, Mary Rhoades,
Ann Sanfedele, Mike Wolfberg
World Youth SCRABBLE®
Championship
The Last Word is a volunteer
effort. We appreciate your
donations.
(PayPal or snail mail--contact
CorneliaSGuest@gmail.com)
For advertising rates,
please email
CorneliaSGuest@gmail.com
Copyright © 2013 GuessWhat! Some data copyright ©1999-2012 NSA; copyright © 2010-2013 NASPA; and copyright © 2005-2013 Seth Lipkin and Keith Smith.
SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc.in the USA and Canada. Elsewhere it is the trademark of J.W. Spear & Sons, Ltd.

Table of Contents
2
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
From the Editor 4
Emails to the Editor 3
Advertising Section: Equipment, Tournaments, Organizations, Books 6
2012: The Year in Review 12
2012 Top Active North American Players by State & Province 25
2012 Top Active NASPA Collins Players 29
2012 Top North American Youth Players 30
2012: WGPO by Keith Hagel 36
Friends Who Have Left Us 38
Tournament News 39
2012 World Youth SCRABBLE® Championship with photos by Mauro Pratesi 39
An American at the WYSC by Tim Bryant 43
Prague Mind Sports International Festival by Craig Beevers 45
Festivus 3.0 by Dan Horowitz 51
Festivus 3.0 Most Beautiful SCRABBLE® Board Contest 55
Albany New Year’s Tournament 57
Tournament Results 59
New Faces: Conor Chandler 61
Rethinking the value of SCRABBLE® Tiles by Joshua Lewis 62
Book Review: The SCRABBLE® Player’s Handbook reviewed by Cornelia Guest 66
Interview with Stewart Holden, Editor of The SCRABBLE® Player’s Handbook 68
A Petition to the Presidents of NASPA by Kenji Matsumoto 69
Word Star by Jeff Kastner 71
The Nervous Rack: My Life in SCRABBLE® by Daiva Markelis 74
Word Trivia Quiz by Siri Tillekeratne 77
But I Just Grew Out My Bangs!: A Cancer Tale (by Katya Lezin) 79
Words with Real Friends: A SCRABBLE® Tournament Play-by-Play by Mina Le 80
Know the Rules by Jan Cardia 83
Fill in the Blanks by Jeff Kastner 84
Linda’s Library by Linda Wancel 86
SCRABBLE® Strategy Video Guide: Defense by Curran Eggertson 88
Scrab-doku by Jeff Kastner 89
Book Review: ACEIL in addelnnorW reviewed by Cornelia Guest 92
The Wordsmith: Mommy, what’s a woodscolt? by Chris Sinacola 93
Historic Moments: SCRABBLE® Through the Years by Stu Goldman 96
One Up! Cup for January by Timothy Cataldo 97
Online SCRABBLE® Talk 98
Animal Anagrams Quiz by Mike Wolfberg 99
SCRABBLE® and Scrabblers in the News edited by Judy Cole 100
A Year of Puzzles Contest by Roy Leban 106
Five-Letter Biggies by Tony J. Rasch 107

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
SCRABBLE®: Thoreau & Thoreau by Frank Lee 108
Passages edited by Larry Sherman 109
SCRABBLE® Resources 111
Tournament Calendar 114
Archives 123
3

From the Editor
4
F R O M T H E E D I T O R
For many of us New Year’s Day signifies a time to make resolutions, to try something new, to make
changes. This January we’re seeing much change and proposed change in the SCRABBLE® world.
Kenji Matsumoto, last year’s NASPA Player of the Year, is circling a petition asking NASPA to take an active
role in growing tournament SCRABBLE®. The petition, reprinted in this issue, suggests that NASPA, now
on firm financial footing, use some of the thousands of dollars in its “war chest” to encourage tournament
participation by advertising and promoting the game.
In the meantime, for the first time since NASPA was founded in 2009, co-president Chris Cree has published
a State of NASPA report on the NASPAwiki, complete with a mission statement and his long-term goal:
bringing Hasbro support back.
Computer expert Joshua Lewis, a doctoral scholar at the UC San Diego Cognitive Science Department, has
proposed an even greater change: adjusting the point values of SCRABBLE® tiles to reflect current usage.
Using his program Valett, Josh determined new point values he feels would improve the game, and posted
the results on his blog. The blog went viral, and Josh has been fielding media calls from all over the world.
We include Josh’s suggestions here, as well as links to responses from NASPA co-president John Chew and
Word Freak author Stephan Fatsis--and Josh’s reply.
Computer experts also unveiled the prototype for a new SCRABBLE® board. At the Prague Mind Sports
International Festival in December, a “smart board” costing over $30,000 to develop was used for the first
time in a tournament. This board, which automatically senses plays and scores, opens the way to bring
tournament SCRABBLE® to a larger audience.
School SCRABBLE® is changing, too. At last year’s School SCRABBLE® Nationals the game time was
stretched from 22 minutes a side to the standard 25 minutes per side used in NASPA games, and kids from
adjoining states were allowed on a team--a godsend to coaches in areas like mine, where Connecticut and
New York students play side by side at SCRABBLE® Club. And one player was allowed to play with a
partner from a state quite far away when he could not find a local partner. That precedent set in motion a
major change for this year’s Nationals: Kids from different states may play together as teammates. The
event is no longer state vs. state--it’s a pairs event. My hope is that this may open the door to one-on-one
competitive Youth SCRABBLE®, as is played in the rest of the world.
The rest of the world saw top Youth Players compete as individuals at the World Youth SCRABBLE®
Championship in Birmingham, England. This year two Americans competed, finishing well. Tim Bryant, who
came in seventh, shares his impressions in this issue, with hopes that more North American Youth Players
will consider attending this exciting event.
Another Youth Player made his mark on New Year’s Day. Mack Meller, 12, won Division 1 at the Albany New
Year’s Tournament, Gibsonized three games out. His new rating, 1997, is a new Youth Player record.
This issue of The Last Word includes “2012: The Year in Review,” which covers some of the year’s highlights
and lists the year’s leading players. For The Last Word, 2012 was a year of growth, both with readership
and with participation. I’m receiving many more submissions than every before, which is exciting. The Last
Word has truly become the “newsletter of record” for tournament SCRABBLE®.
The Last Word also welcomes a new columnist: Daiva Markelis, who shares her humorous look at
SCRABBLE® in “The Nervous Rack: My Life in SCRABBLE®.”
Cornelia Guest

E M A I L S T O T H E E D I T O R
Emails to the Editor
Should you wish to comment on any of the Newsletter articles—or make suggestions or corrections
—please email Cornelia Guest at CorneliaSGuest@gmail.com. Snail mail is also welcome at 135
Codfish Hill Road, Bethel, CT 06801. Emails chosen for publication may be edited at the editor’s
discretion.
_______________________________________________________________________________
“But I believe the most bizarre ridiculous challenge of all time was printed in a SCRABBLE®
Newsletter about 35 years ago. XI was challenged, and when it was allowed, the challenger's next
play was successfully challenged. This luckless person then exclaimed, ‘If she can play eleven,
why can't I play twelve?’" --from “Historic Moments” by Stu Goldman (The Last Word 12/12)
The story above about the use of the word XI happened to my wife, Gila, in a tournament in
Baltimore. Always glad to see it retold.
Joel Lipman
5

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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Format: Main Event: 16 games, Round Robin & KOH, Gibson rule in effect.
Newcomers Tournament: 3 games, pairings by results.
Schedule: Friday, 3/15: 7 pm Main Event registration; 8 pm Main Event games 1-3
Saturday, 3/16: 9:00 Newcomers Event registration; 9:30 Main Event games 4-6 and !
! Newcomers Event games 1-3; 12-1 pm light lunch and Newcomers awards ceremony;
! 1-6 pm Main Event games 7-11.
! Sunday, 3/17: 9:30 Main Event games 12-14; 12-1 pm light lunch; 1-4 pm Main Event
! games 15-16 and awards ceremony
Lodging: Courtyard Marriott (845-485-6336): Walking distance from venue. Ask for group rate of
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Dining: Light lunch included with entry on Saturday and Sunday for Main Event players !
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There are many hotels and restaurants on South Rd. and the surrounding area.
10 Nullam arcu leo, facilisis ut

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12
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
2012: The Year in Review
2012 was an exciting year in the SCRABBLE® world, with some great
new tournaments added to the schedule and a number of new and
imaginative directors joining the mix. Among the notable additions were
Sam Kantimathi’s Las Vegas tournament, Lila Crotty and Kate Fukawa-
Connelly’s New Orleans Crescent Cup tournament, and Paul Avrin and
Cornelia Guest’s New York City Tournament. Sadly, there has also been
a lot of controversy, particularly about scheduling tournaments.
In a year where international players were crushed to see Michael Tang
and the Causeway Challenge leave the tournament scene, Mind Sports
International stepped in with high-payout tournaments and their
remarkable $30,000 electronic SCRABBLE board--designed for instant
transmission of scores to a viewing audience. Though the board needs
some refinements, it is an ambitious step toward making SCRABBLE a
spectator sport--essential for true growth of the game.
With larger payouts overseas, a number of North America’s top players switched to
Collins, and Collins divisions are being offered at an increasing number of
tournaments. While these divisions are still smaller than the TWL divisions, Sam
Kantimathi was able to attract 23 players to the Collins division at his inaugural Las
Vegas Tournament, and 37 Collins players competed at the National SCRABBLE®
Championship in Orlando, which offered a Collins division for the
first time in its history. The winner, Sam Kantimathi, beat many top players to be
named the first NSC Collins champion.
The “other” NSC champion was Nigel Richards, who bested David Gibson in an
exciting final game that required a win by at least 170 points. Nigel won by 177
points, narrowly snatching the crown from David, and in the process became the
first 4-time NSC winner in history. Nigel also won the WGPO Word Cup and the
Prague Mind Sports Festival. His rating is now at an all-time peak (2168 TWL/
2155 CSW), and he is #1 in North America--and the world.
2011 ended with Joel Sherman setting a world record: 803. But in the first month of
2012 that record was broken at the Northern Ireland SCRABBLE® Championship by
Toh Weibin of Singapore, who scored 850 points in a game against Rik Kennedy.
Toh also set a record for highest spread in a game: 591. Joel’s 803 still stands as the
North American record score.
Another record breaker in 2011 was Mack Meller, who became the youngest
player to reach expert status--at 11--and the youngest to reach 1800. As we
greeted the New Year, Mack, 12, won Division 1 at Albany, taking his rating to
1997. Although this is officially a 2013 record, with the majority of his 21 wins in
2012, it seemed appropriate to record this historic achievement here.
Looking forward to a great year of SCRABBLE® in 2013!

JANUARY
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
Will Anderson wins Albany
Stewart Holden and Sarah-Jane Jamison
marry in Northern Ireland on Jan. 19
Jesse Day wins inaugural New Orleans
Crescent Cup
Kenji Matsumoto wins Reno
Toh Weibin plays recordsetting
850 game at Northern
Ireland Championship
Erickson Smith wins 2nd
Annual Triangle SCRABBLE
Club Charity Tournament in
Durham, NC
Jan Cardia wins Atlantic City
Joe Gaspard wins 7th Annual Twin Cities Redeye
13

FEBRUARY
14
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
Robin Pollock Daniel wins inaugural
Las Vegas Tournament
Happy Birthday, Robin!
Hasbro announces global partnership
with Zynga, creator of Words With
Friends and other social-network games
Ian Weinstein wins Eastern Championship (Charlotte, NC) over
David Gibson and Joel Sherman
Chris Cree wins State of
Texas Championship
John Karris wins Phoenix
Larry Sherman wins Saratoga

MARCH
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
Mack Meller & DeeAnn Guo win New England
School SCRABBLE Championship
Suhas Rao & Kenny Hoang win North Carolina
School SCRABBLE Championship
Winter wins Dallas Open
Nigel Peltier wins Vancouver
Lou Cornelis wins
Rochester
Evan Berofsky wins
Cambridge ON
Justin Borromeo & Maria Athanassoulias win Toronto School
SCRABBLE Championship (photo by Roger Cullman
Photography http://www.rogercullman.com; for more photos
from the event see http://rogercullman.com/tssc2012)
Wordlist Pro 2.0
released for
Android phones
Jacob Sass & Jack
Titzman win Texas
School SCRABBLE
Championship
Ian Weinstein wins inaugural “Beach Blanket
Bingo” tournament in Indiatlantic, FL
15

APRIL
16
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
Kenny Hoang & Erik Salgado win National School
SCRABBLE Championship--the first team to repeat
(photo credit: Patricia A. Hocker, National SCRABBLE®
Association)
NSSC Champions face Jimmy Kimmel and Julia Louis-Dreyfus on
Jimmy Kimmel Live! John Williams is official word judge.
Happy 60th to Mark Berg! Rafi Stern wins
San Diego Open
Stefan Rau wins BAT; David Koenig wins BAT Collins
“QWERTY” world premiere
Lisa Odom wins Twin Cities
Spring Tourney

MAY
David Gibson wins
College Park GA
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
Huguette Settle wins
Saskatoon
Jesse Day wins
Portland, OR
Cecilia Le wins
Cote St. Luc, QC
Lisa Odom wins ArdenCup “100 Tiles” video released
4th graders Chloe Fatsis and Zara Hall win
D.C. Public School SCRABBLE® Tournament
Noah Walton wins Silicon Valley Showdown
Bob’s British Bible released
Steve Hartsman scores
708 at Milwaukee
Scrabble Club #363
Joel Sherman
wins Tarrytown
Geoff Thevenot wins
Austin Chronicle
Spelling Bee
17

JUNE
18
Jason Keller wins 5th
annual Three Rivers
Revival (Pittsburgh)
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
Helen Gipson wins King’s Cup
David Gibson wins
Knoxville
Jason Idalski wins
Michigan Madness
New record set for low
combined score (-25 to -12)
Jason Bednarz wins
Washington, DC
Chris Cree wins SWLLLINS
Ian Weinstein wins West
Coast Championship (Reno)
David Klionsky wins $11,250 on “Who Wants
to be a Millionaire?”

JULY
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
Robin Pollock Daniel wins Albany
Inaugural Detroit Princess Riverboat
SCRABBLE® Tournament & Cruise
Will Anderson (TWL) & Sam
Rosin (CSW) win Old Greenwich
Jesse Day and California win CalPac 2012
Mack Meller wins Bedford Free Library
School SCRABBLE® Tournament
19

AUGUST
20
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
National SCRABBLE® Championship in Orlando
Nigel Richards becomes first 4-time
winner of NSC (photo credit: Patricia A.
Hocker, National SCRABBLE®
Association)
Cheryl Tyler wins Rose Award (photo
credit: Patricia A. Hocker, National
SCRABBLE® Association)
Sam Kantimathi becomes first Collins National
Champion (photo credit: Patricia A. Hocker,
National SCRABBLE® Association)
Nigel Richards wins WGPO Word Cup
WGPO Word Cup in Bloomington, MN
Michael Thelen named
NASPA “Person of the Year”
Cheating scandal at NSC gets
worldwide media attention

SEPTEMBER
Jason Randolph named
official winner of 2011
National SCRABBLE®
Championship Division 3
Chris Cree wins Mid-
Cities Labor Day
Weekend SCRABBLE®
Advanture (Irving, TX)
Noah Walton wins
Portland (OR) Labor Day
Tournament
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
Amit Chakrabarti wins inaugural New York City
Labor Day Weekend Tournament
Matthew Tunnicliffe wins
Toronto
Ryan Fischer wins
Charleston, WV
Betsey Wood wins SCRABBLE®
by the SEA! Tournament (Asbury
Park, NJ)
Timothy Bottorff wins 4th
Annual Alpharetta (GA)
Labor Day Tournament
Angela Dancho wins GRITS III (Savannah, GA)
21

OCTOBER
22
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
Canada wins CanAm 2012
Eric Tran wins 17th
Annual Western
Canadian
Championship
(Calgary, AB)
David Gibson wins
Asheville (NC)
Jim Kramer wins 29th
Annual Dell Spells
Tournament
(Wisconsin Dells, WI)
Mike Frentz wins
California Open (San
Francisco, CA)
Joel Horn wins Cape Cod
(Falmouth, MA)
Mark Przbyszewski wins
Lake George (NY)
Los Angeles Club 195 Players in national commercial
Jan Cardia wins
Cambridge (MD)
Andrew Solomon wins
SCRABBLE® for
Literacy (Chicago, IL)

NOVEMBER
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
Joel Sherman wins Tarrytown (NY)
Sri Lankans Lakshan Wanniarachchi & Yeshan Jayasuriya set
new Guinness World Record for most number of SCRABBLE®
points scored in 24 hours
“Man of Letters,” based on a true story by Adam Ruben,
wins Speakeasy Shorts contest
Joe Gaspard has 760 game
against Megan O’Connell
Anagrammar by Joe Edley
released
Quinn Barry & Noah Kalus win
“Terror of the Tiles” School SCRABBLE
Tournament (Ridgefield, CT)
Jason Ubeika wins
Oshawa (ON)
Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom
wins Kingston (ON)
23

DECEMBER
24
2 0 1 2 : T H E Y E A R I N R E V I E W
World’s most expensive and advanced SCRABBLE® board
debuts at Prague Mind Sports Festival
Nigel Richards wins inaugural Prague Mind
Sports Festival
Tim Bryant & Brad Robbins represent US at World
Youth SCRABBLE® Championship
Michael McKenna (Australia) wins World Youth
SCRABBLE® Championship in Birmingham, UK
Chris Cree wins Austin (TX)
Paul Avrin celebrates 70th birthday!
Mack Meller wins Albany

2 0 1 2 T O P A C T I V E P L A Y E R S
2012 Top Active North American Players by State & Province
#1 USA #1 CANADA #2 CANADA--by just 1 point!
DAVID GIBSON ADAM LOGAN ROBIN POLLOCK DANIEL
! ALABAMA! ! ! ALASKA! ! ! ALBERTA! ! ARIZONA!
NEIL DEWITTE ELIZABETH DIAMENT! ERIC TRAN! NATHAN BENEDICT
! ARKANSAS! BRITISH COLUMBIA! ! CALIFORNIA! COLORADO
JOSEPHINE FLOWERS JAMES LEONG KENJI MATSUMOTO JON SHREVE
CONNECTICUT DELAWARE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FLORIDA
ROBERT QUIGLEY RICHARD POPPER STEFAN FATSIS IAN WEINSTEIN
25

26
2 0 1 2 T O P A C T I V E P L A Y E R S
GEORGIA! ! ! HAWAII! ! IDAHO! ! ! ILLINOIS
JOHN LUEBKEMANN GREG HEIDLER KEN KASNEY BRIAN CAPPELLETTO
INDIANA IOWA KANSAS KENTUCKY
MIKE PAXSON MATTHEW RIDOUT AVERY MOJICA BRIAN BOWMAN
LOUISIANA MAINE MANITOBA MARYLAND
JEFF REEVES JOEY MALLICK CURTIS KOWALSKI JASON BEDNARZ
MASSACHUSETTS MICHIGAN MINNESOTA MISSISSIPPI
EVANS CLINCHY PAUL EPSTEIN JIM KRAMER MARLENE MILKENT

2 0 1 2 T O P A C T I V E P L A Y E R S
MISSOURI MONTANA NEBRASKA NEVADA
DAVID GREMAUD DAVID WEISS GEORGE ASAKA LOUISE SHAFRITZ
NEW BRUNSWICK NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR NEW HAMPSHIRE
CHUCK ABBATE JEFF PARSONS AMIT CHAKRABARTI
NEW JERSEY NEW MEXICO NEW YORK NORTH CAROLINA
SAM ROSIN MIKE BARON JOEL SHERMAN MATTHEW BERNARDINA
OHIO OKLAHOMA ONTARIO OREGON
DANIEL STOCK MATTHEW HODGE ADAM LOGAN DAVE WIEGAND
27

28
2 0 1 2 T O P A C T I V E P L A Y E R S
PENNSYLVANIA QUEBEC RHODE ISLAND
SCOTT APPEL GABRIEL GAUTHIER-SHALOM SHAE MCWILLIAMS
SASKATCHEWAN SOUTH CAROLINA SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE
GEORGE MACAULAY DAVID GIBSON AARON DALEY SCOTT GARNER
TEXAS UTAH VERMONT VIRGINIA
CHRIS CREE MICHAEL THELEN KEVIN COLOSA CLAY DANIEL
WASHINGTON WEST VIRGINIA WISCONSIN
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
RAFI STERN JEFF COOK CHARLES REINKE
INACTIVE LEADERS: In certain states the top player did not play 28 TWL games in the past two years, so these inactive players
are not listed as the state leaders. They are: Eric Harshbarger (Alabama), Wes Morrison (Alaska), Laurie Cohen (Arizona), Jere
Guin (Arkansas), Steve Needler (Colorado), Mark Pistolese (Hawaii), Jerry Miller (Indiana), Jeff Lee (Kansas), Brian Williams
(Manitoba), Peter Morris (Michigan), Sheri Justice (Missouri), Michael Orford (Montana), Patrick Caulfield (Nebraska), Joe
Dackman (Nevada), Weera Saengsit (New Jersey), June Land (North Dakota), Jim Masluk (Nova Scotia), Brian Sheppard (Ohio),
Richard Lupo (Rhode Island), Jason Hlady (Saskatchewan), Mark Oppenheimer (South Dakota), Greg Lewis (Utah), John Van
Pelt (Virginia), Mark Kenas (Wisconsin), Martha Stearn (Wyoming), Micah Quinn (Yukon Territory).

2 0 1 2 T O P A C T I V E C O L L I N S P L A Y E R S
2012 Top Active NASPA Collins Players
2012 saw more North American tournaments offering Collins divisions--and more top players
electing to compete in these divisions. With a number of players playing primarily in Collins
divisions, we wanted to acknowledge the 2012 active leaders in NASPA Collins events.
______________________________________________________________________________
CRAIG BEEVERS
ADAM LOGAN
NATHAN BENEDICT
SAM KANTIMATHI
DAVE WIEGAND
Craig Beevers, from Stockton-on-Tees in England, is one of Europe’s best-known
and most successful SCRABBLE® players. In 2012 he competed at Sam
Kantimathi’s Las Vegas Tournament, finishing second of 28 players, just 5 spread
points behind winner Nathan Benedict. His 17.5-5.5 +1634 record brought his
NASPA Collins rating to 2364, his peak to date.
Adam Logan, from Ottawa, Ontario, was Canada’s top-rated player for 2012. The
former World Champion played in five Collins tournaments in 2012, winning the
Albany New Year’s Main Event, the Cornwall ON Tournament, the Cote St. Luc QC
Tournament, and the Toronto ON Main Event to finish the year with a 2122 Collins
rating.
Nathan Benedict, from Tucson, Arizona, competed in four Collins tournametns in
2012, winning two and finishing second in two. His wins at the Las Vegas Main
Event (over Craig Beevers) and the Tucson 12/8 tournament brought his 2012
Collins rating to 2056. He started the year off well, with another Tucson win on 1/5
to bring his Collins rating up to its current 2058.
Sam Kantimathi, from Sacramento, California, had the honor of being the first
National SCRABBLE® Championship Collins Champion in 2012, besting 36 other
players with a 24-7 +481 record to finish the year with a 2054 Collins rating. Sam
played in six Collins tournaments in 2012, also winning the Toronto ON Early Bird
on 7/20 and finishing second in the Main Events at Toronto and Old Greenwich.
Dave Wiegand, a two-time National Champion from Portland, OR, played in 9
Collins tournament in 2012, winning the main events at New Orleans LA and
Portland OR, plus the Portlnd OR Late Bird, and tournaments in San Francisco CA
and Malibu CA. He finished the year with a 2018 Collins rating. Dave has started
2013 with a bang, winning the CSW division at the 1/6 Portland OR tournament.
29

30
2 0 1 2 T O P Y O U T H P L A Y E R S
2012 Top North American Youth Players
One of the fastest growing segments of the tournament SCRABBLE® population is Youth Players:
players under 18 as of the first of the year. In 2012, Youth Players not only were more visible at
tournaments, they often took home the top prizes. Adult players have come to realize that a young
opponent no longer means an easy win. Here are some of the top active Youth Players from 2012.
______________________________________________________________________________
MACK MELLER
ADAM GINZBERG
JOEY KRAFCHICK
Mack,12, from Westchester, NY, finished the year rated
1887, his 2012 peak, after winning Division 1 at the New
York, NY tournament on 10/28/12. Mack played in 7
tournaments, also winning Division 1 at the Norwalk CT
tournament on 3/10/12. Showing how far he’s come in a
year, Mack greeted 2013 with a phenomenal Division 1
win at the New Year’s Albany, NY tournament
(Gibsonized with 3 games left!) to raise his rating to 1997
(final record: 21-5 +1088). Mack and his partner, DeeAnn
Guo, were also the 2012 New England School
SCRABBLE® Champions, and Mack was the winner of
the Bedford Free Library School SCRABBLE Tournament
Mack’s overall 2012 win percentage was 66.9%, and he
is currently the 16th highest rated player in North
America. He is also the youngest player to have ever
reached a 1900+ rating!
Adam, a college freshman at Stanford from Swarthmore, PA, finished the year
rated 1811--a new peak. He played in 4 tournaments in 2012, winning 3 of
them. Most notable was his Division 2 win at the 2012 National SCRABBLE
Championship with a 23-8 +1747 record; he was Gibsonized to win the 85player
division. His other wins were Division 2 at Atlantic City, NJ (1/21/12), with
a 16-3 +1524 record, and Division 1 at the Wilmington, DE Early Bird (12/22/12).
Adam has won 7 of his last 10 tournaments!
Joey, 17, from Roswell, GA, finished the year rated 1764--a new peak rating.
He played in 10 tournaments in 2012, winning Division 1 at Wilmington, DE on
7/6/12 (17-4 +1174) and Alpharetta, GA on 11/17/12.

JACKSON SMYLIE
2 0 1 2 T O P Y O U T H P L A Y E R S
Jackson, a high school
sophomore from Ontario,
finished the year rated 1744.
a new peak. Jackson
played in 9 tournaments,
winning the Toronto
tournament on 5/30/12 and
finishing 2nd in 4 others. He
finished 8th of 85 players in
Division 2 of the National SCRABBLE®
Championship.
STEPHEN SNEED
TED BARRETT
Stephen, from Fort Worth, TX,
finished the year rated 1660.
He played in just one
tournament, the Dallas Open on
3/16/12, where he finished 29th
of 70 players.
Ted, a University of Chicago
freshman from New Jersey,
finished the year rated 1658,
with a peak of 1671. Ted
played in 11 tournaments,
winning Division 2 at
Wilmington, DE (5/20/12) and
Division 1 at Mt. Laurel, NJ.
He finished 2nd in two other
tournaments and 3rd in Division 2 at Old
Greenwich, CT (7/27/12).
RICHARD SPENCE
Richard, 18, from Tucson,
AZ, finished the year rated
1632. He played in just 3
tournaments this past year.
This fall he entered MIT as a
freshman.
ALEC SJOHOLM
MATTHEW O’CONNOR
Alec, 14, from Lynnwood,
WA, finished the year rated
1630, his peak, after
winning his first tournament,
Chehalis, WA (9/29/12),
with a 7-0 +654 record.
Matthew, a 9th grader from
DeWitt, NY, finished the
year rated 1584, with his
peak for the year at 1645
after finishing 2nd in
Division 2 at the Lake
George, NY tournament
(10/19/12). Matt played in
16 tournaments, finishing
2nd in 3. Matt and his partner, Seth Tilliss, placed
3rd in the 2012 National School SCRABBLE®
Championship.
CHRISTIAN SEIFERT
Christian, 14, lives in New York, NY. He is rated
1560, his peak, after playing in one tournament,
Bayside, NY on 11/17/12, where he won Division
2 with a 7-1 +341 record.
MORRIS GREENBERG
Morris, from Brookline, MA,
finished the year rated 1529--a
new peak. He played in 7
tournaments in 2012, winning
Division 1 at the La Grange
Park, IL tournament on
6/30/12. He finished 26th of
85 players in Division 2 of the
2012 National SCRABBLE®
Championship.
31

BRADLEY ROBBINS
JOSHUA CASTELLANO
32
2 0 1 2 T O P Y O U T H P L A Y E R S
Bradley, 15, from Windham,
NH, finished the year rated
1463 in TWL and 1442 in
Collins. Bradley played in 5
tournaments, including the
World Youth SCRABBLE®
Championship, where he
finished 20th.
Josh, a high school sophomore
from Vienna, VA, finished the
year rated 1453, with a peak of
1512. Josh played in 19
tournaments,, winning his
division at 2: Div. 3 at
Wilmington, DE (5/20/12) and Div. 2 of the
Cambridge, MD Main Event (11/2-4/12).
THOMAS ENSEY
Thomas, a high school junior from Hanover,
MD, played in 2 tournaments this year, winning
one: the Baltimore (Catonsville), MD tourney on
2/4/12. His rating is 1368, a new peak.
NICHOLAS VASQUEZ
Nicholas, a 9th grader from
Livingston, NJ, finished the
year with a 1380 rating, a new
peak. He competed in 4
NASPA tournaments, placing
well at all. With his partner,
Thomas Draper, Nicholas
placed 2nd in the 2012 National School
SCRABBLE® Championship.
SAM HEINRICH
Sam, a 9th grader from Carlisle,
MA, finished the year rated
1343, a new peak. He played
in 5 tournaments and won
Division 3 at the Norwalk, CT
tournament (4/21/12). He also
finished 4th of 30 players in Division 3 at the
Albany 4th of July Tournament (6/29/12).
THOMAS DRAPER
Thomas, a 7th grader from
Skillman, NJ, finished the
year rated 1331 (peak: 1372).
He played in 4 tournaments,
winning Division 2 at the
Bayside, NY tournament on
5/19/12 and placing 2nd in
Division 2 at the Millburn, NJ
tournament 9/15/12. With his
partner, Nicholas Vasquez, he placed 2nd in
the 2012 National School SCRABBLE
Championship.
AVERY MOJICA
Avery, a 9th grader
from Overland Park,
Kansas, finished the
year rated 1301, a new
peak. This earned him
the honor of being the
top player in Kansas for
the year. Avery played
in 8 NASPA
tournaments, finishing first in 4 of them: the
Danville, IL Main Event on 3/31/12 (Div. 2);
Michigan Madness in Romulus, MI on 6/23/12
(Div. 3); Elk Horn, IA on 10/14/12 (Div. 1); and
Saint Louis, MO on 12/8/12 (Div. 2).
TIM BRYANT
Tim, a high school
sophomore from
Brightwaters, NY, placed 7th
in the 2012 World Youth
SCRABBLE Championship.
[Read Tim’s account of his
WYSC experience in this
issue.]

2 0 1 2 T O P Y O U T H P L A Y E R S
OTHER TOP YOUTH PLAYERS
Nathaniel Jones, 14, from Northampton, MA:
1274.
Noah Lieberman, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill freshman from Charlotte, NC: 1267. 17
tournaments, won Division 2 at Albany, NY Early
Bird 6/28/12 and Division 3 at Wilmington, De Early
Bird 12/23/12, was 2nd at the Wilmington, DE Main
Event (12/23/12) and the Charlotte NC 11/24/12
tournament.
Andy Hoang, 9th grader from Cary, NC: 1257 (new
peak). 5 NASPA tournaments, won Division 2 at
Cary, NC tournament 9/15/12. Winner 2012
National School SCRABBLE® Championship with
partner, Erik Salgado.
Suhas Rau, 9th grader from Apex, NC: 1249.
Suhas played in 5 NASPA tournaments but was
disqualified from one. With his partner, Kenny
Hoang, won the 2012 North Carolina School
SCRABBLE® Championship.
Erik Salgado, 9th grader from Cary, NC: 1171
(new peak). 4 NASPA tournaments, won Division 3
Eastern Championship, Charlotte, NC (18-6 +1725)
and Charlotte, NC 6/9/12 tournametn. Winner 2011
National School SCRABBLE® Championship with
partner, Andy Hoang.
Kyle Imperato, 8th grader from Bay Shore, NY:
1169 (new peak). 4 tournaments, won Division 3 at
Norwalk CT (5/12/12) and Division 3 of the Old
Greenwich CT Early Bird (7/27/12. With his
partner, John Schuman, was 4th in the 2012
National School SCRABBLE® Championship.
Hannah Lieberman, 16-year-old high school junior
from Charlotte, NC: 1065. 13 tournaments, won
Division 3 at Asheville, NC 8/5/12; Division 4 at the
Wilmington, DE Early Bird (12/23/12); and Division
3 at the Wilmington DE Main Event 12/23/12.
Matthew Nelson,17, from Poulsbo, WA: 1161
(peak: 1218). Won Division 2 at the Portland, OR
tournament (5/4/12) with an 11-4 +1041 record.
Amalan Iyengar, 9th grader from Chapel Hill, NC:
1131 (new peak). Winner Division 4 at 2012
National SCRABBLE® Championship (22-9 +1434)
and Division 4 at Cary, NC 6/23/12 tournament.
Sam Masling, 8th grader from Washington, DC:
1055 (new peak). Sam played in 4 tournaments,
finishing 2nd of 60 players in Division 4 at the 2012
National SCRABBLE® Championship with a 21-10
+1466 record.
DeeAnn Guo, 8th grader from Westchester, NY:
1027 (1098 peak). With partner, Mack Meller, won
2012 New England School SCRABBLE®
Championship.
Tara Smylie, from Ontario: 945 (new peak).
Edward Zhuang, 9th grader from Chapel Hill, NC:
935 (peak: 944).
Chris Imperato, high school junior from Bay
Shore, NY: 924 (peak: 965).
Kenny Hoang, 8th grader from Cary, NC: 919. 4
NASPA tournaments, placed 2nd at Asheville NC
10/20/12 tournament. With his partner, Suhas Rao,
won the 2012 North Carolina School SCRABBLE®
Championship.
Jeffrey He, 9th grader from Chapel Hill, NC: 881
(new peak).
Liam Hopfensperger, 9th grader from Chapel Hill,
NC: 878.
Seth Tilliss, 8th grader from Bedford, NY: 870
(new peak). With his partner, Matthew O’Connor,
finished 3rd in the National School SCRABBLE®
Championship. Won Division 4 of Old Greenwich,
CT Early Bird (7/27/12).
John Schuman, 9th grader from Cold Spring
Harbor, NY. 802 (peak 985). With his partner, Kyle
Imperato, placed 4th at 2012 National School
SCRABBLE® Championship
Emma Baughman, 6th grader from Ridgefield, CT:
800 (new peak). With her partner, John Paul
Baughman, won Division 3 at the 2012 New
England School SCRABBLE® Championship.
Cooper Komatsu, 5th grader from Los Angeles,
CA: 782.
Lily Gasperetti, high school sophomore from
Washington, D.C.: 748 (new peak).
33

34
2 0 1 2 T O P Y O U T H P L A Y E R S
Quinn Barry, 8th grader from Southport, CT: 714
(peak 728). With his partner, Noah Kalus, won
Division 1 of the “Terror of the Tiles” School
SCRABBLE® Tournament.
Jacob Radack, 8th grader from Washington, D.C.:
676 (peak: 768). Winner of Division 1 of
Washington, DC Late Bird 6/23/12.
Jack Titzman, 9th grader from Magnolia, TX: 660
(new peak). With his partner, Jacob Sass, won the
2012 Texas School SCRABBLE® Championship.
Drew Gregory, 8th grader from Bedford, NY: 643.
Won Norwalk CT Youth Tournament.
Nicholas Miklaucic, 12, from North Carolina: 597
(peak: 620). Won Eastern Championship
Newcomers Tournament 2/15/12.
Jared Tilliss, 5th grader from Bedford, NY: 584.
With his partner, Sheng Guo, won Division B of
2012 New England School SCRABBLE®
Championship.
Chloe Fatsis, 5th grader from Washington, DC:
574 (new peak). With her partner, Zara Hall, won
Division A of the D.C. Public Schools SCRABBLE®
Championship.
Ava Turner, 5th grader from Ridgefield, CT: 563.
With her partner, Ellie Carter, won Division 2 of the
“Terror of the Tiles” School SCRABBLE®
Tournament.
Sheng Guo, 6th grader from Westchester, NY: 526
(peak 531). With his partner, Jared Tilliss, won
Division B of the 2012 New England School
SCRABBLE Championship. Won Norwalk CT
Youth Tournament on 1/14/12.
Ian Sjoholm, from Lynnwood, WA: 507.
Jesse Federbush, 5th grader from Bedford, NY:
505. With his partner, Jack Kochansky, won
Division B of the Bedford Free Library School
SCRABBLE Tournament.
Justin Borromeo, 9th grader from Toronto, ON:
500. With his partner, Maria Athanassoulias, won
the 2012 Toronto School SCRABBLE®
Championship.
Jack Kochansky, 6th grader from Bronxville, NY:
500. With his partner, Jesse Federbush, won
Division B of the Bedford Free Library School
SCRABBLE Tournament.
John Paul Baughman, 8th grader from Ridgefield:
483. With his partner, Emma Baughman, won
Division 3 of the 2012 New England School
SCRABBLE® Championship.
Maria Athanassoulias, 9th grader from Toronto,
ON. With her partner, Justin Borromeo, won the
2012 Toronto School SCRABBLE® Championship.
Souleiman Benhida, 9th grader from
Massachusetts. With his partner, Adil Sageer, won
the Woburn and Burlington Public Library School
SCRABBLE® Tournament.
Ellie Carter, 4th grader from Ridgefield, CT. With
her partner, Ava Turner, won Division 2 of the
“Terror of the Tiles” School SCRABBLE®
Tournament.
Zara Hall, 5th grader from Washington, DC. With
her partner, Chloe Fatsis, won Division A of the
D.C. Public Schools SCRABBLE® Championship.
Noah Kalus, 6th grader from New Paltz, NY.
With his partner, Quinn Barry, won Division 1 of the
“Terror of the Tiles” School SCRABBLE®
Tournament. Also won an unrated Norwalk Youth
Tournament.
Nick Krasnow, 8th grader from Bedford, NY. Won
Norwalk CT Youth Tournament.
Lucy Levenson, 5th grader from Washington, DC.
With her partner, Madelyn Shapiro, won Division B
of the D.C. Public Schools SCRABBLE®
Championship.
Adil Sageer, 9th grader from Massachusetts. With
his partner, Souleiman Benhida, won the Burlington
Public Library School SCRABBLE® Tournament.
Jacob Sass, 7th grader from Magnolia, TX. With
his partner, Jack Titzman, won the 2012 Texas
School SCRABBLE® Championship.
Madelyn Shapiro, 5th grader from Washington,
DC. With her partner, Lucy Levenson, won
Division B of the D.C. Public Schools SCRABBLE®
Championship.

2 0 1 2 T O P Y O U T H P L A Y E R S
Sky Stanton, 9th grader from Massachusetts. With
his partner, Robbie Wilson, won the Woburn and
Burlington Public Library School SCRABBLE®
Tournament.
Robbie Wilson, from Massachusetts. With his
partner, Sky Stanton, won the Woburn and Burlington
Public Library School SCRABBLE® Tournament.
INACTIVE LEADERS:
Kevin E. Rosenberg, high school sophomore from
California: 1542.
Paolo Federico-Omurchu, high school sophomore
from Montclair, NJ: 1082.
Tristan Vanech, high school junior from California:
1056.
35

2012: WGPO
By Keith Hagel
36
2 0 1 2 : W G P O
As the Word Game Players' Association (WGPO) nears its third anniversary on Janurary 26, its
members and the SCRABBLE® community in general can look back on another excellent year for
the organization in 2012 and expectations of even better in 2013.
Our membership now stands at slightly more than 900 players, a healthy growth from the nearly 800
on the rolls a year earlier. We'll be working hard in 2013 to reach and surpass the 1,000 mark.
In 2012, WGPO members had the opportunity to play often
and have fun in the 59 tournaments (a slight increase from the
year before) sanctioned by the organization. They took place in
13 states, 1 Canadian province and on the high-seas cruise
tournaments directed by Larry Rand and Barbara Van Alen.
Successful events took place in Phoenix, Minneapolis,
California and many other venues, and in 2013, we look to
reach out to more players in some other states, particularly on
the East Coast.
Indicative of the enthusiasm of WGPO members was the fact
that 249 of them played in two or more 2012 tournaments, with
170 competing in at least three. Ruth Hamilton, a former
recipient, with her husband, of the National Scrabble
Association Director of the Year award, topped the field, playing
in 19 events.
Speaking of directors, the lifeblood of tournament SCRABBLE,
27 different members directed events in 2012, up nicely from
21 the year before.
2012 saw WGPO's second national Word Cup, superbly
directed in Minnesota by Steve Pellinen and Sue Hoehn. And
we're moving full steam ahead toward a great 3rd Word Cup
this year in Denver from August 2 to August 7, with Angela
Dancho and Rick Wong directing. It will be another event to
remember.
WGPO is, at its very core, a players' organization, and 2012
saw another membership election, with Larry Rand and
Bennett Jacobstein winning two-year terms on the Board of
Player Representatives, and Sue Hoehn being appointed by
the BPR to fill the remainder of another slot. We thank Peggy
Grant and Laurie Cohen for their many contributions during
their terms on the BPR.
The Word Game Players' Organization is proud to be an allvolunteer
organization. We don't charge for membership, and
we don't dun directors with a ratings/participation fee, so they
Golden Waterfall cascade, Iceland
Jeff Martin & Keith Hagel at the Bobbie
Sagesar Memorial tournament, Durango, CO
Phoenix winners (L-R) John Karris, Lisa
Odom, and Rick Wong

2 0 1 2 : W G P O
have more money to pay out in prizes and/or keep entry
charges reasonable. And, of course, no one gets a dime
for serving on a WGPO board. It is, deliberately, not a
corporate structure, but it works!
One of the big reasons it works is because of the
contributions, not only of the elected leaders, but also of
other dedicated members who rarely get anywhere near
the applause they should. I'll undoubtedly leave out a few,
but some of these members who immediately come to
mind are Brian Galebach, our ratings maven; Melissa
Brown, our membership liaison; Henry Yeung, who handles
tech aspects of communications to members; Dave Wood,
who handles tournament sanctioning; and Janice Kaye,
who does anything that needs to be done and does it
seamlessly and with a smile.
WGPO will is proud to display a new logo created this year;
after an open competition, the boards approved a design
submitted by member Lawren Freebody. The new eyecatching
logo can be viewed at the WGPO website,
www.wordgameplayers.org
Our organization stands by the tenets of its mission: to play
often, play fair and have fun (plus Steve Pellinen's dictum
to "Be quiet”). We did all of those in 2012, and look forward
to more and better in 2013. We thank all of those who have
enjoyed our events and welcome all other players to give us a try.
Keith Hagel, on behalf of the WGPO Executive Committee
GRITS III
2012 WGPO Word Cup in Minnesota
37

38
F R I E N D S W H O H A V E L E F T U S
Friends Who Have Left Us
AUSTIN STALNAKER
JIM WAIT
ANITA SCHWARTZ
GEEKE LOSSING
LORRAINE CIRINA
FRANK LEE MOODY
Photo copyright ©Ann Sanfedele
TOM HART
MARY ELLEN
RALEIGH
MIKE MULLER
MARY LEE COUEY
MARY JANE CONLON
ROBERT MULET
NORA EPHRON
CHELSEA GABLE
ALLAN SHOEBRIDGE
SAMMYE BICHEL

2 0 1 2 W Y S C
2012 World Youth SCRABBLE® Championship
Photos by Mauro Pratesi
On December 7-9, 60 Youth Players (under 18 as of 1/1/2012) from 11 different countries gathered
at the Brittania Hotel in Birmingham, England, to compete in 24 games for the title of 2012 World
Youth SCRABBLE® Champion. At the end of three days of play, 17-year-old Michael McKenna of
Australia claimed the championship with an 18.5-5.5 +1090 record. Second and third were two
players from Malaysia: Cheong Yi Wei (17-7 +1308) and William Kang (17-7 +919). Americans Tim
Bryant and Brad Robbins placed 7th and 20th.
2013 Champion Michael McKenna (Australia)
with Tournament Director Amy Byrne
Navya Zaveri of the UAE, who placed fourth, won the prize for
Best Player under 16; and thirteenth-finishing Migara
Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka won the prize for Best Player under
14. Prizes were also given to Shrinidhi Prakash of the UK
(Best Player under 12); Pese Alo of Nigeria (Best Player under
10); and Ronnie Bennett of the UK (Best Player under 8).
The Encouragement Award for Youngest Player in the Top 25
went to 12-year-old Sanchit Kapoor of the UAE, who finished
eighteenth. US player Tim Bryant won the prize for Best
Novice (first-time WYSC competitor), and Kiran Pal of the UK
won the Mike O’Rourke Award for sportsmanship.
The High Game prize went to Sinatarn Pattanasuwanna from
Thailand (640), and the High Word prize went to Javeria Mirza
of Pakistan, who played SHUNTERS for 158 points in a game
against Michael McKenna.
In round 24, two Thai players, Sinatarn Pattanasuwanna and Tawan Paepolsiri, tied with 532 points
each, setting a new world record for the highest-scoring tied game.
39

40
2 0 1 2 W Y S C
The average team position after eliminating the NQ players is as follows:
08.0 Malaysia
13.5 USA
18.0 Australia
22.0 Pakistan
22.0 Singapore
22.43 Sri Lanka
25.11 Thailand
27.0 UAE
29.71 UK
37.8 T&T
53.17 Nigeria
12-year-old Sanchit Kapoor
(UAE) was the youngest player
finishing in the top 25. He
finished 18th with a 13-11
+617 record.
2nd place went to Cheong Yi
Wei (Malaysia): 17-7 +1308
US player Tim Bryant finished 7th
and won the Best Novice Prize
as a first-time WYSC competitor.
Michael McKenna’s rack moments after Javeria of
Pakistan played the triple-triple SHUNTERS for 158 points.
3rd place finisher William Kang (Malaysia), who finished
17-7 +919, in a game against Michael McKenna
Sinatarn Pattanasuwanna (Thailand)
had the tournament’s High Game: 640.
Javeria Arshad Mirza (PK) won the
prize for High Word for SHUNTERS
(158 points.)

6-year-old Ronnie Bennett (UK), the
youngest-ever WYSC player, won the prize
for best player under 8. Ronnie won 10
games and finished 48th.
Best player under 10: Pese Alo (Nigeria),
who had 10 wins, finishing 47th
2 0 1 2 W Y S C
Best player under 12:
Shrinidi Prakash (UK)
Best player under 14:
Migara Jayasinghe (LK)
Sportsmanship prize winner Kiran Pal (UK) praying for a bingo.
Kiran finished with 9 wins.
The tournament featured live coverage via Scrabblecam.
41

42
The Australian Team
The Nigerian Team
The US Team: Tim Bryant & Brad Robbins
2 0 1 2 W Y S C
The Pakistan Team
The UK Team (including 6-year-old Ronnie Bennett)
Five of the seven team members from Sri Lanka

A N A M E R I C A N A T T H E W Y S C
An American at the WYSC
By Tim Bryant
Tim Bryant, a high school junior from Bay Shore, NY, and Brad Robbins, a high school junior from
Windham, NH, traveled to Birmingham, U.K to compete in the World Youth SCRABBLE®
Championship. After being the leader after Day 1, Tim eventually finished 7th with a 15-9 +716
record, the best-ever WYSC finish of a U.S. player. Brad, just two games back, finished 20th.
The World Youth SCRABBLE® Championship was like nothing I have experienced throughout my
SCRABBLE career. Getting a chance to compete against kids my own age from different countries,
cultures, religions, and governments was both a privilege and an honor. It was an experience I hope
many American youths will get to have in the future.
The level of competition I encountered blew me away. Since each player was chosen to represent
his of her country, they were all among the best in their respective countries. Most knew the fourletter
words, thousands of seven- and eight-letter words, and a huge chunk of the fives. Not only
were there many experts, but also some even rated in 1800s by WESPA. After putting in a lot of
time and work, it was amazing to get a chance to play the best.
43

44
A N A M E R I C A N A T T H E W Y S C
The inclusion of the Collins words definitely made the games a lot more
interesting. Bingos and big parallel plays were much more common. As
a result, it was harder to be defensive, and huge comebacks were
always a possibility. In my 4 th game, I was down 317-198 near the end
of the game and ended up winning three moves later 412-392. In my
10 th game, I was up 237-101 and lost 363-416. Desperate hope and
insecurity were characteristic of almost every game, which added both
stress and excitement to the tournament.
Perhaps the most memorable part of the tournament was the people I
met and the friends I made. I talked to science-bound kids whom I am
The U.S. team: Tim and Brad
convinced are going to change the world and well-spoken intellects
whom I know will be future world leaders. During my downtime, when
we sat around tables and got to know each other, SCRABBLE dominated the conversations. No one
once asked me about American life, and I never once inquired about other cultures. For that one
weekend, there weren’t Pakistani or Australians, only SCRABBLE players. We were connected
through our love of the game far more than our nationalities made us different.
What I found fascinating were the slight differences in which each country played and were trained.
The Thai, who spoke the least amount of English, ironically had the biggest vocabularies. They were
clearly the best-studied and always immediately and confidently challenged phonies. They also
played fast. The Pakistani had perfect board vision. Their word knowledge was adequate, but not
stunning, yet they never failed to miss a bingo they knew or a high-scoring opportunity. The
Singaporeans were strategic experts. They did postmortems after every single game, recorded all
their racks, and thought through every end game. I wonder what other countries thought about
Bradley and me.
After the tournament, the director Karen Richards presented me with a mission. She told me that I
needed to bring more people with me next year. As a veteran of School SCRABBLE, I know that
America has the talent and the fantastic youth program required to compete at the international
level. I hope that more people get interested this year so that next year we can dominate.
WYSC prize ceremony with Tim at lower left. Tim won the
“Best Novice” prize as the top finishing first-time WYSC player

P R A G U E M S I F E S T I V A L
Prague Mind Sports International Festival
By Craig Beevers; photos courtesy of Living it Loving it Ltd and Craig Beevers
The idea of MSI Prague started back in May 2012, when I received an email from David
Blinov – a marketing executive at Living it Loving it, a large company which had made its
fortune creating, covering and marketing poker tournaments around the world. Hundreds of
emails and phone calls later and we were nearing the inaugural MSI SCRABBLE® event.
Developments running up to the tournament
were just as exciting to me as they were to
everyone else. I knew some elements in
advance – such as Rachel Riley's involvement
(Rachel is a relatively new glamorous star on
the UK TV institution “Countdown”). The smart
board I knew only a little bit about. Seeing
everything in action was something else.
So it was on Friday 30th November that I arrived
in Prague, just before midnight to survey the
playing room before the Early Bird the next
morning. John Chew had already been there for
many an hour helping to set things up.
Everything was soon ready, except for the
£20,000 smart board, which was being worked
on feverishly.
Countdown star Rachel Riley reported live from the
Prague Mind Sports Festival
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P R A G U E M S I F E S T I V A L
After a late night it was a 9am start for the
Early Bird. I was surprised by the turnout,
with ultimately 26 players taking part –
including myself to even up the numbers.
This four-game warm-up had originally been
intended to be split into divisions; however,
it ended up being one big group, with the
prizes separated according to rating band.
Alastair Richards was the overall winner and
top of the A band; Michael McKenna was
also unbeaten and was the B band winner;
and George Newman won the C band.
Meanwhile the smart board was still being
poked and prodded but to no avail. In the
hotel there was quite a high premium on
space, so our playing room was also home
to backgammon and bridge. Backgammon
contributed some interesting background
noise with their dice rattling equivalent to
our tile shaking. It seemed to be a lot louder
if there was a lone perpetrator, but
otherwised merged into the ambient noise.
Soon the 10,000 euros Main Event was
upon us. Due to the low turnout for the
Intermediate Division I had decided to
merge it with Open Division and increase
the rating prizes proportionally. John Chew
came up with a nice distribution, which we
will retain for the next event in Vienna. There
was one further disruption: Living it Loving
put on an early evening party. This pushed
the day's finishing time to a gruelling 11pm.
So with a half a dozen games completed we
all went off for free drinks and food, along
with some entertainment. There was a
ceremony for the six prize winners from the
morning, which seemed quite a long time
ago. The welcome respite and refuelling was interrupted by a further two games of
SCRABBLE. Nigel Richards had gotten his customary flying start – unbeaten after eight,
followed not too far behind by his namesake Alastair Richards. Graham Haigh rounded out
the top three.

P R A G U E M S I F E S T I V A L
The competitors pay homage to the smart board
Not quite the end of the day though, as John Chew and myself were enlisted to play out a
game on the smart board. Ray Tate later took John's place to ensure the RFID technology
could cope with beards, an important aspect given Nigel's residence at the table the next
day. We each gave some feedback--and more importantly I won.
Onto day two, and despite some weary
heads we pushed on. Round 10 saw
the long-awaited debut of the smart
board. John Chew took up commentary
alongside MSI Web TV Producer
Siobhan Robbie and history was made.
Nigel Richards played David Webb at
10am local time, Sunday 2nd
December. Nigel started off with
THRANG and got the first bonus down
with his next move – SIENITE. He
perpetuated his unbeaten run with a
500-412 victory.
Lunch followed with a 888.com director taking on his friend on the smart board, John Chew
again burdened with the unenviable task of emceeing and commentating at the same time.
Nigel eventually lost his first game to Kevin McMahon in Round 14, with the rest of the
players bunched together still 3 games or more back. Although there were a relatively
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P R A G U E M S I F E S T I V A L
modest number of players at the event
(41), it was one of the toughest fields
assembled anywhere. A number of
countries were represented. Players from
the USA, Canada, Germany, the UK,
Ireland, Poland, New Zealand, Australia,
Singapore, India, Romania, Israel and
Austria took part.
At the end of day two Nigel's grip on the
title had tightened even further, with
Adam Logan in second place 3.5 games
back and three more 4 games back. The
top five finishers would win prize money
at Prague, with six ratings bands playing
for two ratings prizes each and another
separate prize for the player who finished
the most places above initial ranking
(also known as 'overseed' in tsh terminology). So a total of 18 prizewinners.
Rachel Riley arrived on day three and provided commentary with John Chew. With lots of
Countdown fans and eighteen prizes in the presentation the players kept her busy.
Nigel wrapped things up with four games to
spare and was given a bye for the rest of the
tournament. Alastair Richards closed out
second with a game to spare. The rest of the
standings, however, were incredibly tight.
Helen Gipson and Adam Logan played each
other for 3rd place, with the loser finishing
6th and out of the prizes. It was a game
worth 1,000 euros. Helen triumphed live on
MSI TV to take third. Kevin McMahon was
fourth and Sam Kantimathi fifth.
After a tough 24 rounds of SCRABBLE, there was all the fanfare of
the prizegiving – with audible surprises from players suddenly
realising they'd won something. While many then retired for the
night, a large group came back for the workshop that evening run
brilliantly by Karen Richards and her son Alastair. One of Mattel's
large velcro SCRABBLE sets had been procured for the occasion,
so after some general tutoring on Zyzzyva and memory techniques
we moved onto playing a game against Alastair. Everyone
replicated a given position on a SCRABBLE set in front of them,

P R A G U E M S I F E S T I V A L
then put down what they would play. Then the
relative merits of each move were discussed, after
which Alastair showed us the best move. A cross
between duplicate SCRABBLE and a consensus
game. Novices and experts alike all enjoyed it.
The next day finished off the SCRABBLE with an
elimination tourney in which only a handful of people
played. It was an interesting format and one I think
has merit; however, it needs more incentive for
lower-rated players. Tony Sim won the tourney, with
everyone dispersing soon after. I finally got to see
some of Prague, which was beautiful, especially near
to Christmas. There is likely to be another MSI
SCRABBLE Prague at roughly the same time in
2013 – early December or late November. I can't wait
to go back.
As with any tournament, particularly one involving
new technology and innovation, there were a few
issues. The smart board didn't always pick up the
tiles and the table was a less than practical shape for
playing SCRABBLE. The hotel wouldn't provide
water and also decided to randomly allow possibly
illegal smoking on the second day. These problems
should be resolved in Vienna [2/16-19, 2013], and I'm
particularly looking forward to see the next iteration of
the smart board. I was informed that the SCRABBLE
at the event had over 40,000 hits – which was more
than the poker.
One of the big focuses with future MSI SCRABBLE
events is to improve attendance. But not just that; I
want to dispel any myths that a MSI tournament is not
meant for a particular group of players. There is so
much choice in where you stay, where you eat and
what section you play in. In Vienna you can play 20
games for 20 euros. Or you can play for a guaranteed
10,000 euros prize fund against all the top names
across 24 rounds – with over 3,000 euros in ratings
prizes. Stay in the almost obscene luxury of the
Imperial Riding School hotel, share a room with a
partner – or stay somewhere else. It is up to you.
Like, I'm sure, most of the Scrabblers reading this, I
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P R A G U E M S I F E S T I V A L
always thought our wonderful game had a potential to be so much bigger than it is. A pursuit
which has so much to offer. Fundamentally SCRABBLE has more dimensions than any other
game, whilst still remaining accessible to tens of millions all over the world. It has many
merits as a developmental game, through language and mathematics. Then there are
character-building and socialising aspects. Studies have shown the skill element has to be
larger than chess and virtually every other board game. One of my biggest frustrations is the
way the game has been mishandled by its owners.
For these reasons I'm really proud and excited to have been involved with MSI Prague 2012.
The next MSI Scrabble tournament is in Vienna, with the Main Event taking place on
16th-18th February 2013; another is likely in Marbella (south coast of Spain) in April. Full
details and entry forms are online at:
http://www.viennamindsportsfestival.com/schedule/?event=scrabble
All updates will be posted on the MSI forums. Don't forget that if you can't make it you can
follow it all on MSI TV, where you can also find highlights from Prague.
MSI Scrabbles goes far beyond just a few dozen players enjoying the game and settings.
The aim is to create events that are as iconic as a World Championship or Causeway, but
more importantly a watershed moment – the start of a new beginning. One that I want
everyone to be a part of.
http://www.poslarchive.com/msf/2012-prague/ (John Chew's coverage, results, photos, prize
details etc.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnpm4rs17Sc My YouTube video of Prague.
https://picasaweb.google.com/111672083847936473079/MSIPrague2012 My photos of
Prague.

Festivus 3.0
By Dan Horowitz
F E S T I V U S 3 . 0
Between December 22 nd and 25 th , a total of 50 players
participated in at least one of the four tournaments that
comprised the 2012 Delaware SCRABBLE® Festivus.
This year’s event began with the “Delaware Double
Header,” which featured many participants who weren’t
able to join us for the main event. One of my favorite
things about the one-day events is that they enable the
local players who regularly attend tournaments in this
area to mix things up a bit and compete against players
that travelled from places like Illinois and North Carolina.
Part one featured 40 players playing in five divisions of
eight. Division 5 was won by Swen Nippy, Sr., a first-time tournament player who amassed
an impressive 7-1 (+593) record, which earned him an initial rating of 1280. Division 4
featured our only clean sweep of the tournament – that feat of strength was pulled off by
Jacob Cohen, whose 8-0 (+346) record caused his rating to jump 93 points. Jacob wasn’t the
only North Carolinian to win a division at this event – Flora Taylor was the Division 3
champion, after eking out a 350-349 win against Marty Fialkow in King of the Hill round to
finish the event with a 6-2 record. Joanne Cohen finished 7-1 (+532) to win Division 2, with
her only loss in the final round after she had already been Gibsonized to clinch first place.
Adam Ginzberg also finished with a 7-1 (+782) record to capture Division 1, but his day was
the mirror image of Joanne’s, as he got his only loss of the day out of the way in Round 1
and then went on a seven-game winning streak. That loss came at the hands of Liz Gottlin,
the bottom seed in the division, who managed to capture second place with an impressive
6-2 (+448) record. This was Adam’s first Division 1 win and marks the first time Adam’s rating
has exceeded 1800; however, it comes on the heels of five straight Division 2 wins: a
Philadelphia one-day tournament; both the Old Greenwich Early Bird and Main Event in July,
2011; Atlantic City in January, 2012; and most impressively, the National SCRABBLE®
Championship in August, 2012. During that 18-month period, Adam’s rating has skyrocketed
from 1387 to 1811. Adam was also the winner of Division 2 at the inaugural Delaware
SCRABBLE® Festivus Main Event in 2010.
Sunday morning featured a quick five-game round-robin event. In a familial trend that would
continue into the Main Event, first place in Divisions 3 and 4 was captured by Noah and
Hannah Lieberman respectively, each of whom finished with records of 4-1 and won on
spread points. Hannah (+451) had a comfortable lead on runner-up Pete Filandro (+32),
while Noah (+297) edged out Nancy Hanley (+131) by a much narrower margin. David
Dlugosz captured Division 2 with the rare combination of a 4-1 record and a negative
cumulative spread (-97). The negative spread can be attributed to a 302-493 loss in the
second round to Dustin Dean, who finished second with a record of 3 wins, 1 loss and 1 tie
(398-398 vs. Jim Clark), and the second highest cumulative spread in the tournament
51

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F E S T I V U S 3 . 0
(+353). Vince Castellano was the only division winner at this event to finish a full game
ahead of the runner up, as he captured first place in Division 1 with a record of 4-1 (+229).
I would be remiss if I didn’t pause to pass along a strategy tip
that Harry Chan unfortunately had to learn the hard way. In our
Round 1 match Sunday morning, I attempted a 212 point tripletriple
bingo against Harry. It was one of those plays where I
thought it was more likely than not that the word wouldn’t be
good, but for that many potential points, I had to give it a shot.
So I plopped Qu(E)ASING* down onto the board, fully expecting
it to be challenged. I was shocked when Harry declined to
challenge. Of course, the first thing we did at the end of the
game was look up the word and discovered that it wasn’t good. I
asked why he didn’t challenge, and he said he was still working
on his strategy with respect to when to challenge words he
wasn’t sure about. In case any of you out in cyberspace are
wrestling with the same dilemma, I’ll pass along the same piece
of advice I gave Harry: If your opponent makes a 212-point play, if you think there’s a .001%
chance it could be a phony, go ahead and CHALLENGE IT!
Two players that were slated to play in this year’s Main Event had to withdraw due to illness
– one of them less than 30 minutes before Round 1 was scheduled to begin. Fortunately,
David Lieberman provided this year’s Festivus Miracle by agreeing to play in his first
tournament since 2007. David’s sacrifice provided good karma for his family, as all five
members of the Lieberman/Lezin clan (including David) walked away with at least one prize,
with the family taking home $1,310 in cash, a Flip Timer, and a set of orange SmoothTiles
(more on how they snagged those items later).
Divisions 1 and 2 each had eight players, and played a “clustered double round-robin” (with
each player playing each opponent twice in a row), followed by four Swiss rounds, and
culminating in two King-of-the-Hill rounds. Because Division 3 only had six players,
everyone played each opponent four times (but mercifully only twice in a row against each
opponent).
Although Division 3 didn’t feature any King-of-the-Hill rounds, the conclusion was far from
anticlimactic, as I squared off against Hannah Lieberman in the final two rounds, needing to
win both games to take first place from Her. Unfortunately for me, I lost the first game,
allowing Hannah to clinch first (15-5, +1455). Although I won the second game, I finished out
of the money as Zach Dang and I had identical records (14-6), but he edged me out on
spread points (+1113 vs. +926).
Following her daughter’s lead, Katya Lezin also clinched first place in Round 19, although
she had to beat her own son in order to do it. Katya’s her victory over Noah meant that she
amassed a perfect 4-0 record against her first-born child during the main event. Game 19
was the closest of the four that they played, with Katya defeating Noah by a score of
336-329. Noah recovered nicely though, as he went on to win his final game and finish

F E S T I V U S 3 . 0
second in Division 2 (luckily for Noah, his mom was Gibsonized, so he got to face off against
Teresa Schaeffer instead).
Sam Sussman came in first in Division 1, with 12 wins, 7 losses and 1 tie (+491). Although
Sam has been playing in SCRABBLE® tournaments since 2004, this was actually his first
multi-day event. That’s because Sam observes the Jewish Sabbath and is unable to play in
tournaments on Saturdays. Because the Main Event was Sunday-Tuesday, Sam and fellow
Sabbath observers (and Division 1 opponents) Michael Turniansky and Judy Rosenthal were
able to participate. (Sam’s tie game was against Vince Castellano (351-351 in Round 9), and
that tie proved to be pivotal, as one more point in Vince’s favor would have given Vince and
Sam identical records and Vince would have won on spread. However, because of the tie,
Vince finished in second place with a record of 11-8-1 (+542).
In addition to the place prizes, I also awarded several bonus prizes, which I decided to have
a little fun with. Inspired by Howie Mandel's recent game show "Take It All," I decided to give
the bonus prize winners the option of taking something from the prize table, or stealing a
prize that had already been claimed by someone else. I'm sure most of you have participated
in something like this (perhaps at your office’s holiday party). We limited prizes to one prize
per person, so the bonus prizes went to players that didn’t win a place prize. Prizes were
awarded for high win, high loss, best upset win and tuff luck, with one prize for each of those
categories going to players rated above 1200 and a second prize for players rated below
1200. Prizes included various sets of tiles, a rack, $5 cash, a Flip Timer, and a “regifted”
prize (something I’d won at another tournament). Although they finished at the bottom of their
division, David Lieberman won the Tuff Luck prize (a total spread of -56 for 5 losses) and
Eliza Lieberman won for best upset win (a 394-319 victory over Harry Chan). As a result of
some strategic advice from Katya Lezin, Eliza and David conspired to walk away with the
best prize available - a Flip Timer. I hadn't planned for collusion among two relatives, and to
avoid an endless loop of takebacks, I ultimately decided to make Eliza and David's prizes offlimits
for stealing. Next time I do this I'll have to come up with a few rules, including a proviso
that an item may only be stolen once per round! I may also try to come up with a few
additional twists such as including a few "mystery prizes" that won't get revealed until the
end of the swap. To see how all the drama unfolded, check out the video of the prize
ceremony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbpq8dlY3uU
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F E S T I V U S 3 . 0
There were also a few special bonus prizes that were not included in the
swap. One of them was a tribute to Marianne Clark, the late wife of Jim
Clark, who succumbed to her battle with cancer a few weeks before the
tournament. The prize was awarded to the player who played the highestscoring
word using the letters “M” and “C” (in that order). The winner was
Gwen Stewart, for her play of MYC for 37 points against Jim Clark in round 7
of the 12/22 Early Bird. A donation will be made in Gwen’s name and in
Marianne Clark’s memory to the American Cancer Society. Gwen also
received a signed copy of Katya Lezin’s new book But I Just Grew Out My
Bangs!: A Cancer Tale. Two $100 gift cards to the tournament hotel were awarded for the
best Festivus words. The winners were Jacob Cohen for QUARRELS (102 points), and
Teresa Schaeffer for BAGELS (24 points).
For the first time at any Festivus tournament Vince Castellano sponsored a special contest
called “The Most Beautiful Board” contest to reward players for an incredible game. Vince
photographed interesting games played in all of any of the tournaments during Festivus, and
Cornelia Guest selected the winning board. The winners were Mitchell Brook and Mike
Turniansky, whose “beautiful board” is featured in a separate story on the contest in this
issue.
Six players from the main event were joined by two
others for a four-game late bird. There were two
divisions of four players each, and the winners were
Marty Fialkow (3-1 +203) in Division 2 and Michael
Turniansky (3-1 +359) in Division 1. Mitch Brook and
Vince and Josh Castellano get the ironman title for
this year’s Festivus tournament as the only players
who played in all four events.
MIKE TURNIANSKY REACHES NEW
PEAK RATING
Mike Turniansky came in
third at the Festivus Main
Event and first in the Late
Bird to reach a new peak
rating of 1511. Out of 29
games, he scored 6
games over 500,
including one 601 game.
A great time was had by all, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of my fantastic data
entry assistant Linda Cohen, as well as the other players who helped me throughout the
tournament. By popular demand, I’ll be altering the schedule for next year’s tournament: The
event will begin with the Delaware Triple Header, which will consist of three separate oneday
tournaments on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, December 21-23, 2013, and will be
followed by a slightly shorter 18-game main event beginning the evening of Monday,
December 23, and ending on Wednesday, December 25. The Hilton Wilmington/Christiana
is also the home of the annual Madness/Mildness tournament, which will take place over
Labor Day weekend this year (Saturday, August 31 through Monday, September 2).

M O S T B E A U T I F U L B O A R D C O N T E S T
Festivus 3.0 Most Beautiful SCRABBLE® Board Contest
This year’s Festivus 3.0 had an interesting contest for the “Most Beautiful Board,” sponsored by
Vince Castellano. As Vince said on the contest flyer, the contest was “in recognition of the joint
creative effort exerted by our players in building beautiful boards that would otherwise be lost to
history.” Boards played in any of the rated games at the 2012 SCRABBLE® Festivus were eligible
(though Vince, event director Dan Horowitz, and their immediate family were not eligible for prizes).
I was invited to judge the contest, selecting boards for the words played and their arrangement, the
color combinations of boards and tiles, and the image quality.
On Christmas Day Vince Castellano sent me his photographs of 51 boards from the various
Festivus tournaments from December 22-25. From those I selected the three winners. Although
there were many strong entries, the three I selected stood out for their multiple high-scoring plays.
While I don’t know which players made the various moves, I know these are all games that must
have been a pleasure to play for the elegance and skill demonstrated by the final boards. (NOTE:
Vince’s boards were not eligible for the first prize.)
The top three boards were all excellent examples of “beautiful boards.” The board I selected as the
winner was created by Mitchell Brook and Mike Turiansky. It had four bingos--INCLOSE, rEVEALS,
OUTDREW, and uNSHORN--and included four impressive high-scoring non-bingos: QINDA(R),
WAIF, EXILE(R) and JO.
The “Most Beautiful Board” at the 2012 SCRABBLE® Festivus (above) was created by Mitchell
Brook (top right) and Mike Turiansky (bottom right).
55

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M O S T B E A U T I F U L B O A R D C O N T E S T
The runner-up board (above) was created by Mitchell Brook and
Vince Castellano
The third-place board (above) was created by Adam Ginzberg
and Vince Castellano
The runner-up board was also played by
Mitchell Brook, this time against Vince
Castellano (who was not eligible for a prize
as the contest organizer). This board
featured seven bingos--CENTNER,
POINTIER, SILIcAtE, AT(E)LIERS,
GEMINATES, INVITER, and FOLDOUTS-as
well as high-scoring ZOOM and
WAXIER plays and good scores with
ODAH, DAY, BUD and HOSE.
Third place went to a board played by
Adam Ginzberg and Vince Castellano
(who was not eligible for a prize). Seven
bingos were on the board: (U)LTIMATE,
(E)NACTIVE, ANGULAT(E), SOPRANI,
PuGAREE, oFFENSE, and V(o)MITERS.
There were also strong ZA and QI plays,
and good scores with JOW, HO(E)D, BOO,
and KI.
Mike and Mitchell won $20 each for first
place and Mitchell and Adam each get the
second prize of $5 Amazon gift certificates
since Vince was ineligible. (The rules didn't
say anything about only winning once, so
Mitchell was a double winner.)

A L B A N Y N E W Y E A R ’ S
Albany New Year’s Tournament
Annette Tedesco, NASPA’s 2011 “Person of the Year,” has run the Albany New Year’s Tournament
since 2005. This year she changed the venue to the Desmond, a most unusual hotel in Colonie, a
short drive from downtown Albany. The Desmond interior is designed to look like New England
village squares from the Revolutionary War era, and the scenes change with the season. Players
were greeted by an interior forest, sparkling with Christmas lights, and rooms with old-fashioned
furnishings and canopy beds. A great new venue!
Inside the Desmond (l-r): the registration table; nighttime forest; Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom showing some of the Youth Players
and friends how to juggle. Easier than juggling difficult racks?
This year’s event featured 7 tournaments: 2 TWL and Collins Early Birds on Thursday and Friday, a
26-game Main Event from Saturday through Tuesday (January 1), and a TWL Late Bird on Tuesday.
Players also enjoyed a trivia contest Sunday and a New Year’s Eve dinner Monday night followed
by an unrated “blankless” tournament. Numbers were off slightly from previous Albany New Year’s
Tournaments, possibly because New Year’s Day fell on a Tuesday or because of the general decline
in tournament attendance. Annette is surveying players for ways to improve attendance next year.
Vince Castellano and Evans Clinchy dominated the Early Birds, with Vince winning Division 1 at
both TWL events and Evans taking both Collins tournaments. Only the Friday TWL Early Bird had
two divisions, with Glen Aery winning Division 2.
Div. 1 winners (l-r): Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom (3rd); Will
Anderson (4th); Joey Mallick (2nd); and Mack Meller, 12,
the winner.
The Main Event changed SCRABBLE® history.
Twelve-year-old Mack Meller won Division 1 with a
21-5 +1088 record, Gibsonized before the final
three games. He finished the tournament with a
1997 rating, the youngest player to ever reach a
rating over 1900 (at one point during the
tournament his rating was over 2000). Mack is
now the 15th highest-rated NASPA player in North
America! Finishing behind Mack, all with 16 wins,
were Joey Mallick, Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom, Will
Anderson, and Jason Keller.
In Division 2 Diane Firstman repeated her win
from last year’s event, finishing with an 18-8
+1151 record over Wayne Barclay, who had 17
57

Albany winners (top to bottom): Diane
Firstman (Div. 2); Jeanmarie Youngblood
(Div. 3); Brian Bowman (Collins).
Albany Youth Players: (l-r): Josh Castellano,
Sam Heinrich, Matt O’Connor, and Mack Meller
A L B A N Y N E W Y E A R ’ S
wins, and Terry Kang Rau, Kurt Davies, and 14-year-old
Matthew O’Connor, all of whom had 16 wins. Another Youth
Player, 9th grader Sam Heinrich, finished 7th in the 28-player
field.
Division 3 had only 8 players, with Jeanmarie Youngblood
Gibsonized to win with a 20-6 +1550 record. Second and third
were Don Drumm and Kevin Gauthier, each with 17 wins.
Only 7 players entered the Collins division for the Main Event,
which meant there were multiple byes. To adjust for that, 4
games were added to make a total of 30 games in the division.
Brian Bowman made his trip from Kentucky worthwhile,
winning the division with a 24-6 +2191 record over Chris Lipe,
who had 23 wins (both players had 4 byes). Brian’s rating rose
to 2005, making him the 15th highest-rated CSW NASPA
player in North America.
Festivities ended with a 5-game TWL Late Bird, which
attracted 8 players. Jason Ubeika swept the division with a
5-0 +598 record, with Daniel Blake second and Terry Kang
Rau third.
Thanks to Annette, who always makes this tourament so
special. Every player left with a Christmas stocking filled with
candy and memories of a remarkable, history-making
tournament.
Albany directors Andy Saunders and Kieran O’Connor with
organizer Annette Tedesco.
58 \

Tournament
Results
DECEMBER 1-
JANUARY 1
CALGARY AB CAN 12/1-2
1. Eric Tran
2. Conor Chandler
LEBANON NJ 12/1
1. Erica Norris Bodrazic
2. Frances Shaw
MALIBU CA (COLLINS)
12/1-2
1. Dave Wiegand
WATERTOWN MA 12/1
1. Cecilia Le
2. Nathaniel Sandalow-Ash
WATERTOWN MA
(COLLINS) 12/1
1. Chris Lipe
AUSTIN TX 12/1-2
1. Chris Cree
2. John Dalton
3. Craig Sjostrom
4. Joe Gatz
AUSTIN TX (COLLINS)
12/1-2
1. Becky Dyer
FORT LAUDERDALE FL
12/1-2
1. Ian Weinstein
2. Bob Blyler
3. Michael Krafchick
T O U R N A M E N T R E S U L T S
BERKELEY CA 12/2
1. Peter Armstrong
2. John Karris
3. Mary Aline Stephens
4. Phil Seitzer
MALAGA TO RIO CRUISE
(WGPO) 12/2-12/18
1. Larry Rand
2. Linda Wancel
AKRON OH (LCT) 12/5
1. Pete Zeigler
SAINT LOUIS MO 12/8
1. Chris Cree
2. Avery Mojica
TUCSON AZ 12/8
1. Lewis Saul
2. Robert Readle
TUCSON AZ (COLLINS)
12/8
1. Nathan Benedict
GUELPH OH CAN 12/9
1. Gabriel Gauthier-Shalom
2. Dave Krook
MADISON WI (WGPO) 12/9
1. Thomas Reinke
2. Mike Johnson
3. Bryan Benwitz
PHILADELPHIA PA 12/9
1. Vince Castellano
2. Judy Cole
3. Sam Towne
STRONGSVILLE OH 12/9
1. Josh Kopczak
COLLEGE PARK GA
12/15-16
1. David Gibson
2. Curtis Lee
3. Andrew Gardner
DADE CITY FL 12/15
1. Steve Glass
DALLAS TX 12/15
1. Paul Holser
2. Paul Hagelstein
3. Patricia Oppenlander
HUDSON NY 12/15
1. Stefan Rau
HUDSON NY (COLLINS)
12/15
1. Chris Lipe
GLENDALE CA 12/16
1. Cesar Del Solar
2. Alan Kait
3. Bruno Aghedoh
4. Jem Burch
MOUNTAIN VIEW CA
(WGPO) 12/16
1. Lester Schonbrun
2. Alan Whitman
3. Phil Kabour
PORTLAND OR 12/16
1. Noah Walton
2. Alan Meyer
3. Christopher Simpson
TUCSON AZ (WGPO) 12/22
1. Richard Spence
2. Janis Clem
\ 59

WILMINGTON DE 12/22
1. Adam Ginzberg
2. Joanne Cohen
3. Flora Taylor
4. Jacob Cohen
5. Sven Nippy, Sr.
WILMINGTON DE 12/23
1. Vince Castellano
2. David Dlugosz
3. Noah Lieberman
4. Hannah Lieberman
WILMINGTON DE
12/23-25
1. Samuel Sussman
2. Katya Lezin
3. Hannah Llieberman
WILMINGTON DE 12/25
1. Michael Turniansky
2. Marty Fialkow
ALBANY (COLONIE) NY
12/27
1. Vince Castellano
ALBANY (COLONIE) NY
(COLLINS) 12/27
1. Evans Clinchy
ALBANY (COLONIE) NY
12/28
1. Vince Castellano
2. Glen Aery
ALBANY (COLONIE) NY
(COLLINS) 12/28
1. Evans Clinchy
ALBANY (COLONIE) NY
12/29-1/1
1. Mack Meller
2. Diane Firstman
3. Jeanmarie Youngblood
60
T O U R N A M E N T R E S U L T S
ALBANY (COLONIE) NY
(COLLINS) 12/29-1/1
1. Brian Bowman
ALBANY (COLONIE) NY
1/1
1. Jason Ubeika
COVINA CA 12/30
1. Cesar Del Solar
COVINA CA 12/31
1. Cesar Del Solar
COVINA CA 1/1
1. David Whitley

New Faces
N E W F A C E S
Since our last issue, 10 new faces have competed at NASPA and WGPO tournaments. Two players won
their divisions first time out: Sven Nippy, Sr., who won Division 5 at the Wilmington DE Early Bird tournament
on 12/22 with a 7-1 +593 record to earn an initial NASPA rating of 1280; and our featured “New Face,”
Conor Chandler, who won Division 2 at the Calgary, AB, CAN tournament on 12/1-2, finishing with an 11-1
+923 record to earn an initial NASPA rating of 1486.
_______________________________________________________________________
Conor Chandler
Conor Chandler, 34, lives in Calgary. He enjoys baseball, travel, reading a good book, and, of course,
SCRABBLE®. He played SCRABBLE as a child; however, he became more interested in the game when
he was in universeity, when he got a CD-ROM game. A few years ago he got an updated version of the
game and started playing with tournament settings. He now plays Thursdays at the Calgary SCRABBLE
Club, and he’s just started “venturing into the world of onllne SCRABBLE.”
Conor was not timid when he entered his first tornament--he dove headfirst into the Calgary Marathon, a 12game
tournament lasting 2 days. Intimidating for any player, much less a first-timer!
Conor didn’t prepare for the tournament in any special way. “I just kept playing on the computer as I usually
do.” Whatever he’s doing obviously worked. He finished the tournament with an 11-1 +923 record, earning
an initial NASPA rating of 1486.
“The tournament was generally a relaxed atmosphere. As most of the players were the same as those at
the club, it was an easy transition. There were a few more formalities in terms of recording details of the
games, but everyone was helpful.”
His closest game was his lone loss, by a margin of 16 points: “That close to a perfect day!” The best
moment of the day was when he learned he’d been “Gibsonized” and assured of finishing first.
Conor suggests that new players “Just relax and have fun. If you can play at the club that’s hosting the
tournament beforehand, that may ease the transition as the tournament will be full of familiar faces.” He
also recommends playing at the introductory level. “Don’t feel any pressure to play at a higher level than
you feel comfortable.”
Conor expects to keep playing at future Calgary tournaments, with the next one scheduled for January
26-27. There he’ll be playing in Division 1--quite a leap in a month! We wish him the best of luck.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Welcome to Conor Chandler, Sven Nippy, Sr., and the following other new
faces:
AUSTIN TX 12/1: Nathan Brown
AUSTIN TX (CSW) 12/1: Liz Blanch
PHILADELPHIA PA 12/9: Eoin Callan
STRONGSVILLE OH 12/9: Kelli Basilone
DADE CITY FL 12/15-16: Olivia Gibbs, Kembria Johnson
MOUNTAIN VIEW CA 12/16: Lucy Hsu, Kristen Trojel
61

62
R E T H I N K I N G T H E V A L U E O F T I L E S
Rethinking the value of SCRABBLE® tiles
By Joshua Lewis
Editor’s note: Originally published on his blog on December 30,
Josh Lewis’s suggestion that SCRABBLE® tile values be changed
to reflect current word usage has gone viral, prompting media
commentary all over the world. Here we reprint Josh’s original
piece; links to responses from NASPA co-president John Chew
(published on the NASPAwiki) and Word Freak author Stefan
Fatsis (published by Slate); and Josh’s response to John Chew’s
remarks. Stay tuned--the debate is ongoing!
When Alfred Butts invented Scrabble in 1938, he based the values and distribution of letters
on the frequency of their appearance on the front page of the New York Times. Today, Butts'
distribution is still the standard for English play.
What has changed in the intervening years is the set of acceptable words, the corpus, for
competitive play. As an enthusiastic amateur player I've annoyed several relatives with words
like QI and ZA, and I think the annoyance is justified: the values for Scrabble tiles were set
when such words weren't acceptable, and they make challenging letters much easier to play.
So what would a modern distribution look like? To find out, I've developed an open source
package called Valett for determining letter valuations in word games based on statistical
analyses of corpora. In addition to calculating the frequency of each letter in a corpus, Valett
calculates the frequency by word length and the incoming and outgoing entropy for each
letter's transition probabilities. One can then weight these properties of the corpus based on
the structure of the game and arrive at a suggested value for each letter.
For Scrabble, Valett provides three advantages over Butts' original methodology. First, it
bases letter frequency on the exact frequency in the corpus, rather than on an estimate.
Second, it allows one to selectively weight frequency based on word length. This is desirable
because in a game like Scrabble, the presence of a letter in two- or three-letter words is
valuable for playability (one can more easily play alongside tiles on the board), and the
presence of a letter in seven- or eight-letter words is valuable for bingos. Finally, by
calculating the transition probabilities into and out of letters it quantifies the likelihood of a
letter fitting well with other tiles in a rack. So, for example, the probability distribution out of Q
is steeply peaked at U, and thus the entropy of Q's outgoing distribution is quite low.
Intuitively, I've long felt that letters like Z and X were overvalued in Scrabble, especially X
since it is prevalent in the two-letter word list: XI XU AX EX OX. In contrast, V and C seem
undervalued, with no two-letter words. Using Valett with an even weighting of letter
frequency, frequency by length, and transition entropy I've generated a new value distribution
that roughly matches my intuition:
A: 1 B: 3 C: 2 D: 2 E: 1 F: 3 G: 3 H: 2 I: 1 J: 6 K: 4 L: 2 M: 2
N: 1 O: 1 P: 2 Q: 10 R: 1 S: 1 T: 1 U: 2 V: 5 W: 4 X: 5 Y: 3 Z: 6
Note: This distribution is calculated with TWL06. G drops from 3 to 2 using SOWPODS.

R E T H I N K I N G T H E V A L U E O F T I L E S
For the weighting of frequency by length, I most heavily favor two-letter words, three- and
seven-letter words, and eight-letter words, in that order. Incoming and outgoing entropy are
weighted evenly.
There are several things I like about this new distribution. Looking at the statistics, Q is
clearly an outlier both in frequency and entropy, and in this distribution it is also an outlier in
value. V bumps up to five points to match X, and close to J and Z, which have dropped to
six. U, as the most challenging vowel, jumps up to two points. Overall there is downward
pressure on the valuations to keep the justified separation from Q at ten points.
Most mysteriously to me, C drops to two points despite its absence on the two-letter word
list. G jumping to three points is also surprising, though it stays at two using the SOWPODS
corpus instead of TWL06. (As a side note, it's nice that the distribution changes are minor
from TWL06 to SOWPODS, as they should be for word lists based on the same language.)
While this distribution is interesting, I'm not suggesting that it's the most justified one. I'm an
amateur player and my perspective on the relative importance of frequency vs. transition
entropy and frequency at various word lengths is informed by my imperfect knowledge of the
game. By publishing the code, which easily allows one to set all the weights, I hope to enable
a data-driven discussion around letter valuation in Scrabble.
More broadly, I think Valett can provide the foundation for answering other interesting
questions in word games, such as how to quantify the difficulty of Boggle boards (perhaps
useful in a tournament setting as a means of normalization). To that end I would welcome
any pull requests on GitHub that add to the statistics generated from corpora, or add gamespecific
analyses like the included Scrabble analysis. If you'd rather not write code but have
ideas regarding Valett, just drop me a line!
To read NASPA co-president John Chew’s response, “Catastrophic Outrage: A Reply to
Joshua Lewis’ ‘Rethinking the value of Scrabble tiles,’ and additional comments, click here.
To read Word Freak author Stefan Fatsis’s response, published in Slate as “What is a Z
Really Worth?: Why efforts to assign Scrabble tiles their ‘real value’ miss the point of the
game,’ click here.
The following is Joshua Lewis’s response to John Chew’s comments:
A response to Chew's "Catastrophic Outrage"
John Chew, copresident of the North American Scrabble Players Association, recently replied to my
post on Valett, which suggested altering the point values of some Scrabble tiles based on a
statistical analysis of tournament-legal Scrabble words. Chew's post highlights how an intelligent
and skilled Scrabble player might misunderstand what Valett does and its intent. I'd like to clarify
these issues, if possible, and show how Valett's results suggest changes to Scrabble that are very
much in line with its rich tradition and dynamic play.
63

64
R E T H I N K I N G T H E V A L U E O F T I L E S
Fundamentally there are two related but separate aspects of Scrabble: the structure of the game (its
rules, board, tile distribution, word list, etc.) and the play of the game (rack composition, board
position, remaining tiles in the bag, strategy, etc.). Because essentially all of the formal analysis of
Scrabble (mainly via the excellent software package Quackle) is on the play of the game, John
mistakenly conflates the goals of Valett and Quackle, and tile value and equity value, when they in
fact deal with two separate domains of analysis: structure vs play.
Valett puts two specific aspects of the structure of the game in harmony: the word list and tile
values. One could also revisit tile distribution, as John suggests, but that relationship is a bit less
formal since you need to artificially limit the number of S tiles.
We could run Quackle on a version of Scrabble where its structure (tile point values) have been
changed as per Valett's suggestions, and you'd end up with different equity values. So the concept
of equity value and tile value are closely related (tile value partially determines equity value), but
they're absolutely not interchangeable. Tile value is a basic component of the structure of the game,
and equity value is a calculated value based on extensive simulation of game play taking into
account rack composition, board position, and so forth. John ignores the distinction between these
values in his reply, "Given that the 'I' currently has a face value of 1, if you wanted to create a 'fair'
SCRABBLE game that didn't penalize players for drawing an 'I', you'd want to increase the face
value by 2 points to 3." Changing some tile values in Scrabble wouldn't alter equity values in the
direct manner Chew suggests.
Later on, Chew mischaracterizes Valett's tile frequency by word length analysis, "Valett's
requirement that you specify the rates at which words of each length are played is also
problematic..." When weighting frequency by length, Valett is not making any assumptions about
how frequently words of those lengths are played, but rather how important words of different
lengths are given the rules of Scrabble. Two- and three-letter words are important in Scrabble
because it is a crossword game, and the presence of a letter in a two- or three-letter word makes
that letter easier to hook off of existing letters on the board. Similarly, because there is a substantial
bonus for playing all the tiles in one's rack (which has seven tiles), seven- and eight-letter words are
particularly powerful. Without saying anything about how they might be played, Valett allows one to
weight the frequency of letters in these word lengths more highly than at less notable lengths like
five or twelve.
Chew is also a bit disingenuous here, "If you did this, you'd reduce a little bit of the luck of the draw,
but at the same time you'd be reducing the skill involved in recognizing which tiles are good or bad
and playing accordingly. You'd end up with a game that was a little closer to just rolling a die to
determine the winner." In fact, reducing the luck of the draw by aligning tile values more closely with
the word list (and causing the related changes in equity value and game strategy) would make the
game less about luck and more about skill, and therefore further from just rolling a die to determine
the winner.
Tournament players benefit from a system with a little less luck because it makes tournaments more
accurate. While something like Elo is reliable in a game with a lot of luck when it draws from a very
large sample of games, in tournaments only a certain number of games can be played due to time
and stamina constraints. So the more luck in the game, the less accurate tournaments are in
determining who's the best.
Now, one might object that if I want to reduce the luck in the game, why aren't I suggesting to
remove the blanks, or have a computer distribute tiles to player's racks fairly. Well, I like Scrabble,

R E T H I N K I N G T H E V A L U E O F T I L E S
and a game without blanks isn't Scrabble. Alfred Butts clearly went to a lot of trouble to get the
structure of the game to reflect English use in the 30s, but he wanted the game to have entertaining
aspects like blank tiles and the luck of the draw. Slightly modifying tile values to track changes in the
set of legal Scrabble plays respects this tradition and maintains the lucky elements of the game,
such as drawing a blank, and the unlucky, such as drawing all vowels.
Valett is an attempt to keep the intentional luck in the game, and remove the unintentional luck that
has crept in over time as the use of English has changed. I hope Chew and I might see eye to eye
on that goal, and I look forward to further spirited discussion.
Joshua Lewis is a postdoctoral scholar at the UC San Diego Cognitive Science Department, where
he received his Ph.D. in 2011. His research investigates the role of human perception and insight in
the data analysis process. Joshua is also a cofounder of Ost with Galen Wolfe-Pauly. Ost connects
to your online services, such as Dropbox and Twitter, and puts them into spaces where you control
what you see and share.
OST CONTACT @USEOST
65

66
B O O K R E V I E W
The SCRABBLE® Player’s Handbook
Reviewed by Cornelia Guest
THE SCRABBLE
H A N D B O O K
® PLAYER’S
Evan Berofsky, Andrew Fisher,
Paul Gallen, Dave Koenig,
Chris Lipe, Ed Martin,
Kevin McMahon, Edward Okulicz,
Allan Simmons, Brett Smitheram,
Geoff Thevenot & Toh Weibin
E D I T E D B Y
STEWART HOLDEN
A year ago Stewart Holden, a top tournament SCRABBLE
player living in Belfast, Ireland, came up with a great idea: to
assemble the definitive book on how to play expert-level
SCRABBLE--and share it free with SCRABBLE enthusiasts
everywhere. He recruited twelve of the world’s best
tournament players to contribute chapters, then bounced the
edited chapters off less-advanced players to see if the
content was clear. The result, released this New Year’s Eve,
is an astonishing book that is a must-read for anyone playing
competitive SCRABBLE.
What is remarkable about this book is that it covers the most
advanced concepts of play, yet is accessible to players of all
levels (a glossary is included to help players unfamiliar with
any SCRABBLE terminology). The book also includes links to
useful SCRABBLE resources such as books, computer apps,
and world associations. At the back is an appendix with rules
governing word inclusion in CSW and a complete list of all
the 2- and 3-letter words acceptible in Collins, with
definitions.
As a player new to the Collins (CSW) lexicon, I found this book extremely useful. Its expert advice
translates to play in any dictionary. My only concern for TWL players is that many of the examples
and the word lists in the back include Collins-only words such as DZO# and EXO#. While these
words are used in tournament play in most countries and at the World SCRABBLE Championship,
the majority of North Americans still play using the Official Word List for Club and Tournament Play
(TWL), which has many fewer words. When I played TWL games exclusively, I avoided lists of CSW
words so I wouldn’t be confused. I hope North American players can see past this and embrace the
wisdom shared in this book. (I have also written to the author hoping he might be able to offer a
TWL-adapted version in the future.)
What impressed me most in reading this important book is the amount of thought that goes behind
every play an expert makes in a game of SCRABBLE. With experts, the game goes far beyond
looking for the best score. Reading this book you will come to understand the importance of rack
management, board volatility, time management, and strategy from the first move through the
endgame. You will also learn how the experts practice and study words to build up a strong
vocabulary arsenal. Examples and quizzes are included to help illustrate each point.
A list of the contributors and chapters shows the extraordinary breadth of coverage by an
exceptional group of players:
Stewart Holden (Northern Ireland): Editor
Evan Berofsky (Canada): “The Game Behind the Game”

Andrew Fisher (Australia): “Word
Learning,” “Playing Style”
Paul Gallen (Northern Ireland): “The
Endgame”
Dave Koenig (U.S.A.): “Time Management”
Chris Lipe (U.S.A.): “Zyzzyva”
Edward Martin (England): “Phoneys,” “The
Luck Element”
Kevin McMahon (Ireland): “Exchanging”
Edward Okulicz (Australia): “Open and
Closed Boards,” “Glossary”
Allan Simmons (Scotland): “The Words,”
“Set-Ups,” “What Is SCRABBLE?” and
“Scoring Well.”
Brett Smitheram (England): “The First
Move,” “Tile Tracking” and “SCRABBLE
Variants”
Geoff Thevenot (U.S.A.): “The Endgame”
Toh Weibin (Singapore): “Quackle”
This book is an excellent resource for all
players wishing to improve their game.
Kudos and thanks to Stewart Holden and
the twelve other contributors for making the
book available online at no charge. With
expert advice just a link-click away, there is
no reason not to read this definitive guide.
As Holden recommends: “Download it, read
it, email it to people you know, print it,
photocopy it, SHARE IT.”
The Scrabble Player's Handbook is
available to download for FREE at
www.scrabbleplayershandbook.com
B O O K R E V I E W
Understanding Rack Leaves
It is no exaggeration to describe successful rack leave
evaluation as the Holy Grail of competitive Scrabble. If
asked to identify the main difference between casual 'at
home' Scrabble players and those who play
competitively, most experts will say this is the defining
factor. Beginners will simply try to form any word from
their seven tiles and take the maximum score they can
see, ignoring the letters they are forcing themselves to
have on the following turn. Effective rack management
in the first half of a game of Scrabble is geared strongly
towards manipulating the rack towards high-probability
bonus plays using mainly the 1pt and 2pt tiles which
constitute 75 of the 100 tiles in the bag.
Take the example of a rack of ABEFORT somewhere
near the start of a game. An expert player's thought
process could be as follows:
1) What are the most difficult and non-bonus-friendly
tiles on the rack? Answer: B and F.
2) Do I want to simply dump them both and leave
AEORT? Answer: No, this rack leave would be too
vowel-heavy. I need to link them somehow with a vowel.
3) The most obvious options are FAB or FOB. Which
one is best? Answer: AERT is a better rack leave than
EORT, because A is a better tile to keep than O.
Conclusion: play FOB keeping AERT.
This is perhaps an oversimplified example but it
demonstrates the general idea of playing away the midvalue
tiles to manipulate the rack towards highprobability
bonus material (there being more than 1000
seven-letter words containing AERT plus three other
tiles). If you can apply this type of process to the
majority of racks in the first half of every game then you
are already playing better Scrabble than 90% of
domestic players.
An excerpt from The SCRABBLE® Player’s Handbook
www.scrabbleplayershandbook.com
67

68
I N T E R V I E W W I T H S T E W A R T H O L D E N
Interview with Stewart Holden, editor of The SCRABBLE® Player’s
Handbook
Congratulations on the release of this massive free resource for SCRABBLE
enthusiasts. It's an amazing achievement. How did the idea for the project
come about?
Thanks! I'd always wanted to write a SCRABBLE book but didn't want to go
down the official route of having it published for commercial purposes, since
my aim would always be to give the information freely to anyone who would
benefit from it. I realised that writing the definitive book on how to play at
expert level was too much work for one person and that a book would have
more authority if a team of world-class players created the content together.
So I went from being author to editor and started to get together the best
players I could find. Fortunately the experts' enthusiasm for sharing their
knowledge with others made it easy to bring the material together.
The book seems to pitched at a slightly higher level than the absolute beginner. What is the target
audience?
You're right that we don't cover the fundamental game rules of SCRABBLE, but I think there's a lot
of stuff in there that beginners will understand and benefit from. There are enormous numbers of
regular casual players on Facebook, the Internet SCRABBLE Club and other SCRABBLE sites who
know how to play the game but would benefit from easy-to-read advice on progressing to the next
level. SCRABBLE is definitely a game that becomes more enjoyable when played at a higher skill
level - the boards become more open and scoring improves as people learn about rack
management and strategies such as knowing when to exchange. We know there are thousands of
SCRABBLE fans out there who would enjoy playing competitive face-to-face games and we're
hoping this book will persuade them to take that step.
How long did the Handbook take to create?
I started recruiting authors in January 2012 with Andrew Fisher and Brett Smitheram being the first
to sign up, so it has taken one full calendar year. That's a few hours every week to edit what was
coming in from the authors and making use of a group of mainly non-tournament players for regular
feedback on whether everything was understandable. I also got married, had a new baby arrive and
moved house during 2012 as well so it's been a busy year!
What happens now?
This is our gift to the SCRABBLE community but it will only be a success if people make it so. We
positively encourage everyone to give details of the book to anyone who would benefit from it.
Forward the PDF file to friends, relatives, keen-sounding players you meet online, people who have
just arrived at your club for the first time...everyone!

A P E T I T I O N T O N A S P A
A Petition to the Presidents of NASPA
By Kenji Matsumoto
As mentioned in “From the Editor,” Kenji Matsumoto and some other top SCRABBLE® players are
circulating a petition to the presidents of NASPA, asking them to invest in the growth of tournament
SCRABBLE. The petition, followed by Kenji’s comments, is included below.
The Petition
To the presidents of NASPA:
We, the Scrabble community write this letter not as enemy combatants, but as concerned members
of the NASPA organization. We appreciate the time and effort that you have put into tournament
Scrabble. We want NASPA to succeed. While we may have different ideas, we share a common
desire for our community to grow both in number and in significance.
Unfortunately, we are concerned about our current direction. Many have become discouraged and
stopped playing tournaments or heavily decreased their involvement, including many elite players,
directors, or others essential to our past success. Participation and prestige in major tournaments
has plummeted. Active membership has dropped significantly. Participation has dropped by 1/3 from
2007 to 2011 (86,300 games were played in 2008, whereas only 57,852 were played in 2011).
Prize money in all tournaments is greatly reduced. We are deeply concerned that these unpleasant
trends are our future. Staying on the current course simply isn't good enough. We need to grow the
size and scope of our game.
NASPA has put itself into a secure financial position. According to your financial reports, you should
currently be at or near your target 250k, completing the "war chest". Now that you have developed
a firm foundation, it's time that you impart your vision and use your future income to create a vibrant,
prosperous community. We want you to invest both time and money to help our community
blossom.
We understand that growing our community is a monumental task, and there is no silver bullet. We
are asking not for a single policy change, but a change in direction. We ask that NASPA develop a
grand plan to grow our game (represented by a mission statement) implemented through multiple
policy adjustments and a serious investment of time, effort, and money to increase participation and
advertise the organization to potential members. The mission statement would serve as a way to
inspire our community and increase our morale. With strong, inspirational leadership implementing
new ideas (from members and committees alike) we believe that we can reverse these trends. We
believe that a plan must be presented by NASPA to move forward so we can aspire to become a
bigger and better organization in the future. We urge you to share your vision in the form of a
mission statement, signifying a plan to reach far beyond our current membership and to employ
your resources to grow the game in size and scope. Once this plan is developed, we would like you
to share this plan with the community so we can help you to achieve our common goal of helping
tournament Scrabble flourish.
To sign this petition go to http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/naspa/
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A P E T I T I O N T O N A S P A
Our petition addresses the steady decline in membership and tournament participation and asks
NASPA to invest its time and resources to improving our community.
Over the next few weeks, this petition will slowly make its way out to the community through emails,
mailing lists, and social media. Please read our petition, and if you agree with its message, provide
us with your signature. We hope to do whatever we can to create a better NASPA for tomorrow.
Thank you,
Kenji
Kenji comments that he understands that this petition won’t solve all the problems all the problems
of the current tournament SCRABBLE® scene; however, he believes it is a step in the right
direction. He also appreciates Chris Cree’s recent publication of the State of NASPA, feeling it is a
step forward--and that communication and openness to ideas should be encouraged. However,
Kenji adds the following comments:
1. I believe NASPA’s published membership numbers are misleading. I wrote a post http://crosstables.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&p=4048&sid=1df9bb0d414982020b099811f512ffcb#p4048
explaining what the numbers really are. We are not gaining 20% as Chris Cree claims: we're losing
about 20%, although we don't know exactly how many people we are losing. Active members are
not the same as total members.
2. Our petition addresses growth, and would like a mission statement that addresses growth. In
other words, we want growth to be a priority, either in the short or long term. Chris mentioned an
awful lot of things that are NASPA priorities, but nearly every item is not related to growth. The best
way to describe it is like an airplane in a holding pattern that's slowly but surely running out of fuel,
hoping that Hasbro gives it permission to land. Many close to the situation don't believe this will ever
happen.
3. If the long-term goal is to get Hasbro back or to attain sponsorship, then a priority should be
placed on community morale, media coverage, publicity, increasing membership numbers, etc. over
profit margins and finances. Solvency of NASPA is no longer a problem. Hasbro (or any company
like Hasbro) is more interested in a thriving community that can excite new players, keep its
membership happy, get its brand in a newspaper or on TV, and provide good publicity than a
community that is simply remaining profitable. By neglecting these factors, you're neglecting that
long-term goal.

Word Star
By Jeff Kastner
W O R D S T A R
Play Word Star, a word game with similarities to Boggle, created and presented each month by Phoenix, AZ
expert Jeff Kastner.
The puzzle grid is in the shape of a hexagram…also known as the “Star of David.”
Your object is to find and list as many words as possible, using only the 7 letters contained in the Word Star
puzzle. All words must be OWL2 or Long List acceptable.
There are 3 basic rules to finding words within a Word Star puzzle:
1. Words must be at least 3 or more letters long (with no limit on how long the word can be).
2. Words are formed by using letters that adjoin each other. For example, the words SAP and
OVER are acceptable, but not PROVE, because the “P” and the “R” are not neighboring letters.
3. Letters within a word may repeat as many times as possible, as long as such letters are
repeated twice (or thrice) in a row, or as long as Rule 2 is followed. So, for example, EVE and
PASS are acceptable. But SEVERE would not be acceptable because the “S” and the “E” are not
adjoining.
• Note that the Center Star, located in the white middle portion of the puzzle, is the most important
letter. It is the only letter that adjoins each of the 6 others in the puzzle. In addition, there are bonus
points awarded for using the Center Star as often as possible. The Center Star in this month’s puzzle
is the letter “V.”
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W O R D S T A R
Multiple forms of the same word are acceptable (for example, RATE, RATED, RATER, RATERS, and
RATES would all be fine, if they were in the puzzle). No points are awarded (and no penalty points are
assessed) for any entries on your word list that are not in the OWL2 or the Long List, or that do not adhere
to the above rules.
Points are scored as follows:
• 2 Points for each WORD found.
• 5 Bonus Points for each BINGO (7 or more letters) found.
• 1 Point for each LETTER of every word found.
• 1 Bonus Point for each CENTER STAR of every word found.
Example of Points Scored:
Let’s say a Word Star puzzle has an “S” as the Center Star letter, and your list consists of the following
words:
ATTIRE
ATTIRES
SAT
SATE
SATIRE
SATIRES
TIRE
TIRES
Your score would be:
• 16 Points for the 8 WORDS found.
• 10 Bonus Points for the 2 BINGOS (ATTIRES and SATIRES) found.
• 42 Points for each of the 42 LETTERS used in the 8 words.
• 7 Bonus Points for each CENTER STAR used (the letter “S” is used 7 times).
TOTAL SCORE in this imaginary example = 75 Points.
Par Scores for this month’s Word Star:
225 points (Novice); 340 points (Intermediate); 430 points (Advanced)
Once you’ve compiled your list, check out my SOLUTION on the next page.
See you next month with another Word Star puzzle! …Jeff Kastner
Jeff Kastner, originally from New York City, has been living in Phoenix, AZ since 1985. Jeff is one of a
handful of players who has ever been ranked in the USA-top-50 in both SCRABBLE® and chess. He is the
2010-2011 Phoenix SCRABBLE® Club champion, the 2011-12 Phoenix “Floating” Club champion, as well
as the 2011 Scottsdale SCRABBLE® Club champ.

W O R D S T A R
Word Star Solution for: The Last Word January 2012
AAS
APE
APER
APP
ASS
AVA
AVE
AVER
AVO
AVOS
EPEE
ERE
EROS
ERR
ERROR
EVE
EVER
ORE
OSSA
OVA
OVER
PAP
PAPA
PAPAS
PAPER
PAPERER
PAS
PASS
PASSOVER
PAVE
PAVER
PEE
PAR SCORES: 225 points (Novice); 340 points (Intermediate); 430 points (Advanced)
BEST SCORE:
2 Points for each WORD found:
77 Words = 154 points.
5 Bonus Points for each BINGO found:
8 Bingos = 40 points.
1 Point for each LETTER of every word found:
336 Letters = 336 points.
1 Bonus Point for each CENTER STAR of every word found:
43 V’s = 43 points.
TOTAL = 573 Points
PEEP
PEEPER
PEER
PEEVE
PEP
PEPPER
PEPPERER
PER
PERE
PERV
PERVS
REE
REEVE
REP
REPAPER
REPASS
REPAVE
REPP
REV
REVERE
REVERER
REVS
ROVE
ROVER
SAP
SAPPER
SASS
SAVE
SAVER
SAVOR
SAVORER
SORE
SORER
SOS
VAS
VASA
VAV
VAVASOR
VAVASSOR
VAVS
VEE
VEEP
VEEPEE
VEER
VERVE
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T H E N E R V O U S R A C K
The Nervous Rack: My Life in SCRABBLE®
Why I Will Never be a Top Ranked SCRABBLE Player
By Daiva Markelis
Daiva Markelis is a professor of English at Eastern Illinois University and
the author of White Field, Black Sheep: A Lithuanian-American Life. She
and her husband, expert Marty Gabriel, both play tournament SCRABBLE.
_________________________________________________________________________
Friends who don’t know much about SCRABBLE think I’m an expert player. I compete in
tournaments and help my husband run our SCRABBLE Club. Plus, I’m a word person, a writer and
a professor of English. I’ve picked up an eclectic vocabulary through voluminous reading.
“You know a lot of fancy words,” my friends tell me.
While it’s true writers are often drawn to the game—Vladimir Nabokov’s SCRABBLE board is
prominently displayed at the Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg, and Graham Greene’s
SCRABBLE score sheets have been found between the pages of a volume of Kierkegaard—the
ranks of expert SCRABBLE players, those with ratings over 1600, are filled with mathematicians
and computer programmers and proof-readers, men (mostly) with razor-sharp powers of
concentration, aptitudes for quickly calculating probabilities, and excellent memories for words.
Extraordinary focus is essential for finding the best move, in part because tournament SCRABBLE,
like tournament chess, is timed. You have twenty-five minutes to make all your moves. Spend too
much time on any given play and you run the risk of incurring a ten-point penalty for every extra
minute over the clock. While minding time, you also have to be aware of what letters have been
played in order to calculate what tiles might be in the bag and on the opponent’s rack. An expert
player will run through countless word combinations before deciding whether to block a certain spot
or open another, whether to play off three tiles or four, whether to keep an X or an E or an R.
I do not have extraordinary focus, in either life or SCRABBLE. I will wander parking lots for hours,
searching for my ancient forest green Geo-Prizm, weaving between vehicles, gazing out into the
distance at rows of alien autos. On days when the meds are doing their job, when I’ve had enough
sleep and a proper breakfast, I can keep track of all of the tiles until the very end of the game. Such
days are rare. Most of the time, my opponent will have seven tiles on his or her rack, there will be
two or three tiles left in the bag, and I will have fifteen unaccounted-for letters.
Since offense in SCRABBLE is largely built upon the concept of the bingo—using all seven letters to
score an additional fifty points—and since there are over a hundred thousand seven- and eightletter
words in the English language, having an excellent memory is a huge advantage. I am not
talking about the recall of faces or names or lines from famous poems, but of knowing that ISOLINE
and INOSINE and ISOTONE and INOSITE are acceptable words, but ISOTINE is not. Top
SCRABBLE players can look at words once or twice and they become entrenched in memory,
nestled in the folds of the cerebral cortex between the section regulating foreign profanities and the
sector responsible for retaining World Series statistics.

T H E N E R V O U S R A C K
My memory leans towards what psychologists term the episodic. I remember a classmate named
Linda mispronouncing divorce as die-vorce in eight-grade reading class; Arvydas Zygas laughed out
loud but then went on to mispronounce Ole Miss as Olay Miss. (I don’t, however, remember what
reading selection included both divorce and Ole Miss.) And I’ve retained an image of a self-assured
and very blond young man I had a hopeless crush on slipping on a patch of ice in front of University
Hall. I can see him doing an awkward little Irish step dance before crumbling to the ground, an act
that effectively ended my infatuation. The name of the boy, however, remains a mystery.
Of course, memory will only take you so far in competitive SCRABBLE. Top players get where they
are through obsessive study. Activities such as reading and writing just get in the way of serious rote
memorization, as do family, friends, and careers. “SCRABBLE is my life. Everything else is just a
game,” reads one popular T-shirt. A woman once wrote to the SCRABBLE News describing how
she’d wallpapered her house with pages of the Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary so she
could study them. My husband, voted nicest patrol boy in grade school, occasionally mentions that
spending time in jail would give him lots of time to study words.
Most players memorize stems—highly synchronous six- and seven-letter combinations to which
letters are added to form words. For example, almost every letter of the alphabet goes with
SATINE: SATINE plus an A makes ENTASIA and TAENIAS; SATINE plus a B equals BANTIES and
BASINET, and so on. A beginning tournament player might know up to ten stems; an intermediate
player, a hundred or so; most experts not only know all of the stems (there are hundreds) but also
quickly move beyond them to study low probability bingos, words such as LOCOFOCO and
DIVAGATE and OSMUNDA.
In order to remember which letters go with specific stems, players turn to mnemonics. The King of
SCRABBLE Mnemonics is Mike Baron, whose SCRABBLE® Wordbook includes not only high
probability word stems, but also useful phrases that help players remember the letters that make
words when added to the stems. For example, Baron’s mnemonic for the stem NEROLI is PART
ROSE, a fitting memory aid, since neroli oil smells sweet. The words formed by adding the letters P-
A-R-T-O-S-E are PROLINE, ALIENOR, AILERON, LORINER, RETINOL, LOONIER, NEROLIS, and
ELOINER.
Most of the mnemonic phrases in the SCRABBLE® Wordbook read like headlines or
advertisements in some absurd alternative newspaper: WIMP KVETCHING ABOUT WIFE for
SNIDER; SPOCKS FOXY VW BUG HOLDS TO FORM for ALIENS; TUMOR? PAGE SKILLFUL
DOCTOR for LESION.
Sometimes I make up my own mnemonics. I came up with SOLID, OBLIVIOUS, PITIFUL DITZ for
SOLUTE after my friend Roxane Gay played SOLUTES at the Champaign Scrabble club and I
challenged it and felt like a solid oblivious pitiful ditz.
Some of the mnemonics are X-rated and have to do with my husband. They cannot be reproduced
here.
In addition to countless stems, I’ve memorized all of the seven-letter “out” words, the seven- and
eight-letter “over” words, all words beginning with mis and anti. And I’ve finally got it into my head
which of the following take s’s: OURIE, OORIE, OORALI, HOURI, AALII, NAOI, OURARI, LOUIE,
and LOOIE.
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T H E N E R V O U S R A C K
My willingness to study has kept me out of the beginner group of SCRABBLE players, some of
whom have been beginners for decades.
Perhaps if I studied all the time I could become an expert SCRABBLE player.
Probably not. And the truth is, the idea of studying all of the time, of even studying a lot, depresses
me. I’d have to give up watching the White Sox and shopping online. My teaching would suffer; I’d
skimp on student paper comments, resorting to one sentence clichés: “Nice job!” and “Thesis
undeveloped” and “Ending needs work.” My list of Important Books to Read would drop from 73 to
0. The enjoyment I take in music would be diminished. Listening to Mozart’s Requiem or Brian Eno’s
Music for Airports or even The Pogues or The Cowboy Junkies while recalling the mnemonic for
INSEAM—CARE FOR A GOOD JOKE? HOW TALL HE SEAMS!—results in a less than satisfying
musical experience.
Perhaps most importantly, I couldn’t justify the two or three hours I spend every morning in the
activity that gives me the deepest pleasure of all—arranging words on a page so that they say
something meaningful. I wouldn’t be able to write about what childhood traumas have made me
such a bad competitor, why competition in a marriage can be so destructive (but not always), why
games so often serve as a barometer of culture.
I wouldn’t be able to write about SCRABBLE.

Word Trivia Quiz
By Siri Tillekeratne
W O R D T R I V I A Q U I Z
The following words whose unique meanings are given were added to the OSPD in 2006. What are
those words?
1. A string on which foodstuffs are tied for storage
2. A system of transliterating Japanese into the Latin alphabet
3. A tablet of a powerful sedative
4. The loose mass of cells that covers the tip of some roots
5. To dig in the ground with the snout
6. A beetle whose larvae feed on the root of crop plants
7. A chronic inflammation of the parts of the face
8. The aggregate fruit of the rose plant
9. The spiritual leader of a group of Zen Buddhists
10. A small fish having rough scales
ANSWERS on next page.
Siri Tillekeratne is a director of the Calgary NASPA SCRABBLE® Club #374 and a former Director
of the Year.
77

ANSWERS
78
W O R D T R I V I A Q U I Z
1. A string on which foodstuffs are tied for storage RISTRA/S
2. A system of transliterating Japanese into the Latin alphabet ROMAJI/S
3. A tablet of a powerful sedative ROOFIE/S
4. The loose mass of cells that covers the tip of some roots ROOTCAP/S
5. To dig in the ground with the snout ROOTLE/S/D/LING
6. A beetle whose larvae feed on the root of crop plants ROOTWORM/S
7. A chronic inflammation of the parts of the face ROSACEA/S
8. The aggregate fruit of the rose plant ROSEHIP/S
9. The spiritual leader of a group of Zen Buddhists ROSHI/S
10. A small fish having rough scales ROUGHY/GHIES

B U T I J U S T G R E W O U T M Y B A N G S !
But I Just Grew Out My Bangs!: A Cancer Tale
North Carolina Scrabbler Katya Lezin, a former columnist for The Last Word and winner of the Rose
Award at the 2011 National SCRABBLE® Championship, has written an inspirational memoir of her
year fighting cancer. As the title indicates, this is a book filled with humor (not surprising to anyone
who knows Katya), but also one that explores the physical and emotional challenges she faced.
At the Albany New Year’s Tournament Katya--now healthy--announced the release of her book,
reminding players that she had been bald player at last year’s event. For anyone who watched
Katya gamely attending tournaments last year between chemo and surgery appointments, this book
reinforces what we’ve seen of her courage, strength, and determination. For readers who do not
know Katya, look forward to meeting a unique personality who is also an exceptional writer.
Katya is doing a series of book readings and signings. She will be in the Boston area at the end of
this month to give a talk at UMass as part of their Humanities in Medicine series. There will also be
a book talk/signing for the public on Thursday, January 31st at the JCC in Newton, MA.
“I laughed, I cried, and that was
just after reading the first page.
Katya Lezin has outdone herself,
writing a funny, touching, and
inspiring memoir of her year
battling ovarian cancer and
undergoing surgery to prevent
breast cancer. Would that we all
had half her energy and mental
strength. Her account would be
perfect for anyone who works in
health care, as it has a lot to say
about how the patient's
experience could be improved.
But it is equally appropriate for a
general audience, as it reads as a
wonderful story of a family
triumphing over adversity. I
enjoyed it so much I am buying
four more for my family and
friends.” -- Galileo (Amazon
reviewer)
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W O R D S W I T H R E A L F R I E N D S
Words with Real Friends: A SCRABBLE® Tournament Play-by-Play
By Mina Le
Photo by the author
A week before anyone was following the NFL playoffs, SCRABBLE® fans were following the NASPA
tournament in Albany, New York: a three-and-a-half-day gathering of word nerds from across the United
States and Canada. As the snow softly blew outside our hotel, we hoisted our tile bags high, plucked out
what letters fate might give us, and clicked them onto round rotating boards before slapping the clock.
Below, a fly-on-the-wall view of Game 13. I'm seeded nineteenth in the intermediate division, up against a
math tutor from Connecticut and struggling to shrug off a losing record. Four turns apiece, a couple of lucky
draws, and I'm up 172-58. What play should I make next?
All graphics created with Quackle software
That Triple Letter Score in front of LINT catches my eye, as it becomes a sextuple when combined with the
nearby Double Word square. GAMER, making GLINT, scores 34 points and leaves the promising E-R duo
on my rack for the next turn.

W O R D S W I T H R E A L F R I E N D S
Crisscross word games are more popular than ever. Chances are, you have a few matches going on your
phone; maybe you played with your folks over the holidays. My own addiction began with Scrabulous, that
elegantly simple app yanked from Facebook after a trademark infringement lawsuit in 2008. Words With
Friends has done the most to fill its shoes, but c'mon: it allows trial and error and harbors way too many H
tiles. If you too are a purist, point your pals to the Internet Scrabble Club, where you will have the additional
pleasure of playing in real time.
My opponent responds to GAMER with LIER, putting me up 206-76. Now what?
I consider FAY on the upper right Triple Word Score for 35 points, making FER and AR, but I keep looking.
DEFRAY, down from the D in COD, scores a cool 51.
If you want to take your word showdowns outside of the pixelated screen, I'd suggest checking out a club or
tournament near you. It's even more fun with live people, many of whom will become lasting friends. Please
don't be intimidated by the best-selling book Word Freak or the delightful documentary Word Wars: we're a
diverse crowd and you don't have to memorize the dictionary to feel at home here. The thousands of
Americans on the organized SCRABBLE scene range from factory workers to professors, from middleschoolers
to retirees. Their common denominator is a lexical zest.
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W O R D S W I T H R E A L F R I E N D S
Five turns later. My opponent has rallied with two bingos, but I get away with the phony word
"NUKERS" (yes, bluffing is part of the game), so I'm still ninety points ahead.
Looking for a place to dump ZILL, I spot ZILLAH on the upper left for 36. Although I've never studied the sixletter
Z words, I'm fortunate to have seen this one somewhere before. No, I don't know what a zillah is.
That's like asking a writer what his story "is about."
Speaking of middle-schoolers, the most spectacular thing about this year's tournament was the fact that the
expert division was won by a 12-year-old, Mack Meller, who triumphed by a five-game margin over several
former national champions many decades his senior. It made me wonder if SCRABBLE, not football, could
be the quintessential American sport. Over a 15 x 15 board and a hundred tiles, you don't need to be a
physically gifted anomaly in order to succeed. You can achieve glory based on your effort, your creativity,
your passion, and a few lucky letter combos. Now if only they could put it back on ESPN...
Originally published at http://blackballoonpublishing.com. Reprinted here with permission.

K N O W T H E R U L E S
Know the Rules
By Jan Cardia, NASPA Rules Committee Chair
Jan Cardia, a longtime expert player and chair of the NASPA Rules Committee,
writes this monthly column on rules for The Last Word. We are thrilled to have
Jan sharing her rules expertise with our readers, and we encourage you to
email any questions you may have about tournament and club rules to
CorneliaSGuest@gmail.com. (Photo credit: Jill Jarrell)
________________________________________________________________________
Question: Two players who were vying for prize monies tied in their last game. The result of
the game being played for first was unknown. Their decision not to recount was a
mathematical one...after some discussion, they both agreed that they had more to gain than
to lose by not recounting. Is discussion as to whether to recount under these circumstances
paramount to collusion?
Answer: The question here is not if they conspired but if they cheated by colluding. It is not
cheating to decide not to recount.
Is it cheating to discuss the game-theoretical aspects of this decision before turning in a tally
slip? No. The game is over. It would only be collusion if the players planned to tie either
before or during the game.
The decision was not "let's tie" -- the decision was "let's not recount."
83

Fill in the Blanks
By Jeff Kastner
84
F I L L I N T H E B L A N K S
Here’s a fun game that will put your bingo-finding and anagramming skills to the test.
Every one of these seven racks contains six letters and a blank (represented by the “?” symbol). There is
one (and only one) bingo in each. What letter do you make the blank in each case and what is the bingo?
(All words must be OWL2 acceptable.)
Secret Word: Once you’ve filled in all the blanks correctly, unscramble those seven letters to form another
unique bingo (the “Secret Word”). Even if you have only a few of the letters, you may still be able to uncover
the Secret Word with the following clue:
“It’s the magical power of turning scrap (crappy tiles on your rack, for instance) into gold (e.g., a high-scoring
play, or perhaps even a bingo)!”
FUTZES ? =
DUNNED ? =
TWILIT ? =
IDIOTS ? =
MODULI ? =
BORONS ? =
SNEEZY ? =
ANSWERS on the next page
Jeff Kastner, originally from New York City, has been living in Phoenix, AZ since 1985. Jeff is one of
a handful of players who has ever been ranked in the USA-top-50 in both SCRABBLE® and chess.
He is the 2010-2011 Phoenix SCRABBLE® Club champion, the 2011-12 Phoenix “Floating” Club
champion, as well as the 2011 Scottsdale SCRABBLE® Club champ.

ANSWERS
FUTZES? = ZESTFUL
DUNNED ? = UNENDED
TWILIT ? = WITTILY
IDIOTS ? = HISTOID
MODULI ? = ALODIUM
BORONS ? = BRONCOS
SNEEZY ? = ENZYMES
Secret Word: LEYHACM = ALCHEMY
F I L L I N T H E B L A N K S
(P.S.… Had a game once with the bingo ALCHEMY on my rack; couldn’t play it, but did manage to find
LECHAYIM, thru an I.)
85

Linda’s Library
By Linda Wancel
As an avid reader and book lover, I have found
that many other Scrabblers also share my
passion for books and for reading. So I am
happy to have this opportunity to share some of
my favorite books with you. These reviews, for
the most part, were written for Amazon.com,
where I have been writing reviews under a
pseudonym for over ten years. I hope that the
book lovers among you may find your interest
piqued by some of these books.
_____________________________________
Fiction:
A Town Like Alice
By Nevil Shute
86
L I N D A ’ S L I B R A R Y
A Town Like Alice is a
wonderful story that shows
that it is possible to rise like
a phoenix from the ashes.
Uplifting and moving, it is a
beautifully written narrative
about a man and a woman
who briefly meet under the
most appalling of
circumstances, yet manage
to touch each other deeply.
The book tells the story of an ordinary young
British woman, Jean Paget, who is made
extraordinary by her travails as a Japanese
prisoner of war in Malaysia during World War II.
It is also the story of Joe Harman, a young
Australian soldier from the outback, who meets
her while he, too, is a Japanese prisoner of war
and she is part of a contingent of British women
and children on a forced "death march” through
Malaysia. Their meeting is a defining moment
in their lives and determines their future paths
in life. Moved by the women's plight, Joe tries
to help them, at great risk to himself. Little did
Joe and Jean know the cost that would be
involved or the rewards that would await them.
First published over sixty years ago, time has
not diminished the capacity of this wonderful
and exciting story to capture the heart and
imagination of the reader. The book is loosely
based upon the true story of a death march that
involved a group of Dutch women and children
in Sumatra during World War II. Replete with
period detail and flavor, this is a first-rate, topnotch
book that should be a must read for
those who are fond of historical fiction or who
simply love a well-told story.
A Town Like Alice is available at Amazon.com.
Nonfiction:
Killer Show: The Station Nightclub Fire,
America’s Deadliest Rock Concert
By John Barylick
I recall reading about this
catastrophic roadhouse fire,
in which one hundred
people died and two
hundred others were
injured, many of them
grievously, when it first
occurred. I wondered then
how it possibly could have
happened. Well, now I
know. This is one amazingly
well-researched and compellingly written book
that I simply could not put down!
The author, who is one of the attorneys who
worked on the civil lawsuits that emerged out of
this enormous tragedy, puts together a
spellbinding and coherent account of what
happened on February 20, 2003 in West
Warwick, Rhode Island at a local roadhouse
that featured rock bands. On that fateful night,
the 1980s heavy-metal band, Great White, was
the headlining act. When they set off
pyrotechnics as part of their show, the foam
insulation on the walls of the roadhouse caught
fire and all hell broke loose.

L I N D A ’ S L I B R A R Y
In exploring the myriad of reasons and underlying greed that were the catalyst for such a tragedy to
take place, the author creates an enormously gripping work of nonfiction. The book, with its
relentlessly engrossing narrative, simply rivets the reader to its pages. The scope of what the author
covers in the book and the heartbreaking stories of many of those involved are comprehensive. The
book also provides a birds-eye view of the greed and stupidity that caused this conflagration and of
what it ultimately took to secure some vestige of justice for all involved.
Those who enjoy true crime, as well as those who enjoy superlative nonfiction, will most definitely
enjoy reading this top-notch book.
Killer Show is available at Amazon.com.
Linda Wancel loves reading, writing, watching films, traveling, and Scrabbling. She is the mother of
28-year-old twins and has recently retired after having been a criminal prosecutor for nearly 25
years.
87

88
S C R A B B L E S T R A T E G Y V I D E O G U I D E
SCRABBLE® Strategy Video Guide
Defense
By Curran Eggertson
This is the eighth video in my series of SCRABBLE strategy tutorials. Remembering the 4 attributes
of a scrabble play, this video covers the elusive topic of DEFENSE. A link to the next video, on
BOARD MANAGEMENT, is at the end of this video.
Click photo below to watch the video.
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Scrab-doku
By Jeff Kastner
S C R A B - D O K U
In a standard Sudoku, your object is to fill in every square of the grid so that all nine rows across, all nine
columns down, and all nine 3-by-3 boxes contain the numbers 1 through 9, with no repeats.
Same rules apply to this Scrab-doku, but I’ve added a few twists to help you solve it. First of all, I use letters
to replace the numbers. These letters are part of a “Keyword,” which I’ve scrambled below. I’ve also
provided a clue to help you find the correct anagram. Once you’ve unscrambled the Keyword, one of the
rows or columns will contain all of its 9 letters in the proper order.
This week’s “Scrambled” Keyword: MUCH LEGIT
Clue:
This Yiddish adjective is acceptable in SCRABBLE®. It aptly describes the type of people we enjoy playing
at Club: “warm; congenial; pleasant; friendly.”
SOLUTION on the page after next.
89

Word-Finder Challenge:
90
S C R A B - D O K U
Here’s an additional test of your anagramming ability. Your object is to find as many 5-letter or 6-letter
words as possible, using only the 9 letters of this month’s (Scrambled) Keyword: MUCH LEGIT.
Words can be either 5 or 6 letters long, and must be OWL2 acceptable. Each letter of the Keyword may be
used only once within any word you find. So, for instance, LIGHT is acceptable, but not THIGH.
Par Scores for this month’s Word-Finder Challenge:
14 Words (Novice); 22 Words (Intermediate); 30 Words (Advanced)
Once you’ve compiled your list, check out my SOLUTION on the next page.
See you next month with another Scrab-doku puzzle and Word-Finder Challenge! …Jeff Kastner
Jeff Kastner, originally from New York City, has been living in Phoenix, AZ since 1985. Jeff is one of
a handful of players who has ever been ranked in the USA-top-50 in both SCRABBLE® and chess.
He is the 2010-2011 Phoenix SCRABBLE® Club champion, the 2011-12 Phoenix “Floating” Club
champion, as well as the 2011 Scottsdale SCRABBLE® Club champ.

SOLUTION
S C R A B - D O K U S O L U T I O N
Keyword (Unscrambled): GEMUTLICH (44 Words Total)
CHIEL
CHILE
CHIME
CHUTE
CLIME
CULET
CULTI
CUTIE
EIGHT
ETHIC
GIMEL
GIMLET
GLIME
GLITCH
GLUME
GLUTE
GLUTEI
GUILE
GUILT
GULCH
HELIUM
HEMIC
HILUM
HUMIC
ILEUM
LEGIT
LETCH
LICHT
LIGHT
LITHE
LUCITE
LUETIC
MELIC
MICHE
MIGHT
MILCH
MULCH
MULCT
MUTCH
TELIC
TELIUM
TEUCH
TEUGH
UTILE
91

92
B O O K R E V I E W
Aceil in addelnnorW: A Bkoo
Reviewed by Cornelia Guest
Aceil in addelnnorW is available at Amazon.com.
This is a fantastic gift book for any SCRABBLE® player. Cory
Abbott (the pen name of Scrabbler Adam Kalai) has taken the
text of the Lewis Carroll classic Alice In Wonderland and
alphabetized each word. The premise is that reading this
“translation” into alphagrams will help you anagram more
quickly, giving you an edge in SCRABBLE and other word
games. As a helpful aid, the author includes the unscrambled
text on a facing page, making it easy to check words that
stump you. Illustrated with John Tenniel’s drawings from the
original “Alice,” this book is beautiful as well as clever.
The author proposes that “Alphagram” is a language, and that
being able to read Alphagram enables you to spot anagrams
instantly. This “bkoo” has 2,576 distinct words, which the
author notes would take the typical SCRABBLE player 35
years to unscramble, playing one game a week. Seeing the
alphagrammed words in the context of a familiar text makes
learning their anagrams easier, too, as does the repetition of
common words such as “ghhottu” (you figure it out!)
And it’s a great story, too, read on either page!
About the Author
Cory Abbott is the pen name of
Adam Kalai, a Scrabbler and
computer programmer with an
A.B. from Harvard and an M.A.
and Ph.D in computer science
from Carnegie Mellon
University. He has coauthored
over 50 scientific articles on
Game Theory, Natural
Language Processing,
Algorithms, Mathematic
Psychology, and Machine
Learning. Readers interested in
alphagramming their own words
can do so at his website:
www.bkoo.org

The Wordsmith
Mommy, what’s a woodscolt?
By Chris Sinacola
T H E W O R D S M I T H
Open H.L. Mencken’s The American Language to nearly any page, and you will soon learn
something that you did not know about how we Colonials have adapted the King’s English.
Today, let’s drop in on Chapter 6, “American and English,” and specifically on section 7, “Forbidden
Words.”
Every SCRABBLE® player understands that when it comes to the adult, tournament version of the
game, many an offensive word can be played, and players who are squeamish about doing so, or
reluctant to offend, may find themselves at a serious disadvantage.
“Today,” Mencken writes, and bear in mind that the first edition of The American Language came out
in March 1919 and the one I am quoting from in 1937, “words and phrases are encountered
everywhere – on the screen, in the theatres, in the comic papers, in the newspapers, on the floor of
Congress, and even at the domestic hearth – that were reserved for use in saloon and bagnios a
generation ago.”
By bagnios, Mencken does not mean baths, and not even Turkish baths, although some will
immediately recognize the word as identical in meaning with the Italian bagno. As used by Mencken,
it carries the third definition offered by the Oxford English Dictionary – a brothel or house of ill repute
– which is what many a well-intentioned bath house became.
But Mencken’s basic point – even in the late 1930s – was to reflect upon the shocking words
making their way into circulation. He leads off with one familiar to us.
“A good example is nerts, in its sense of denial or disparagement. When it came in, in 1925, its
etymology must have been apparent to everyone old enough to vote, yet it seems to have met with
no opposition from guardians of the national morals, and in a little while it rivalled wham and wow for
popularity in the comic strips.”
Let’s pause for a moment to ask whether the etymology of this word is apparent to any reader of
these words in 2013. I would be surprised if that is the case.
Mencken explains that many shocking words made their way into the movies, but “presently the
grand dames of Hollywood society prohibited them as a shade too raw, and they were succeeded
by euphemistic forms, made by changing the vowel of each to e and inserting r after it. Nuts was not
one of these venerable words, but it had connotations that made it seem somewhat raw too, so it
was changed to nerts, and in that form swept the country.”
And in that form, as well as in the form NERTZ, it has put in many an appearance over the
SCRABBLE board.
As for NUTS, I think most folks today think nothing of using that word, and usually are referring to
peanuts, cashews and so forth, if only because of the almost ubiquituous rise of nut allergies. Some
teenaged boys may still use the word to refer to a certain tender part of their anatomy, but I think
most of us can just say testicles without squirming or blushing.
93

94
T H E W O R D S M I T H
“At the same time,” Mencken continues, “the college boys and girls launched bushwah, hospice,
horse’s caboose, and a number of other thinly disguised shockers…”
I love BUSHWAH and its h-free variant BUSHWA, but besides the delightful coincidence that I
learned the word when George W. Bush was up to some occasional nonsense in Washington, D.C.
(a trend ably continued by the Democrats, lest anyone accuse me of partisanship), I had no
suspicion that it was a kinder, gentler way to say BS.
As for hospice, I presume that in Mencken’s day this was a clever way to say “horse piss.” Note that
today, we use hospice to refer to compassionate end-of-life care. In half a century on the planet, I
have never once heard anyone use it for horse urine.
“Horse’s caboose” is fairly clear in referring to the back end of the horse, and no doubt was applied
to folks who insisted upon acting in ways that would earn them that appellation.
Much of the rest of Mencken’s section on forbidden words explores the ridiculous lenths to which
Americans once upon a time would go to avoid saying words such as cock and bull.
“Bull” was so offensive that some would say “cow-creature” or “gentleman-cow.” In polite society,
one did not refer to “legs,” but “limbs,” even to the extreme of the lady who at dinner asked an
English traveler “to furnish here with the first and second joint.”
Joint of meat, you understand. Such a request made today might result in someone handing you a
marijuana cigarette.
A few pages further on, Mencken notes that the Hollywood of the 1930s maintained its own index of
forbidden words, including BROAD, CHIPPY, COCOTTE, COURTESAN, EUNUCH, FAIRY,
FLOOZY, HARLOT, HUZZY, NANCE, SLUT, TART, WENCH, SEX, JEW, KIKE, YID, DAGO,
NIGGER, GAWD, CHRIST, GUTS, HELLCAT, GEEZ, LOUSE, AND PUNK.
For SCRABBLE purposes, HUZZY# and GAWD# are Collins-only, although GAWD# is defined as “a
large, ornamental rosary bead.” Only CHRIST* is unacceptable in that list.
Most players today, if they give it any thought at all, might just smile or chuckle when an “offensive”
word is played. As we have seen from Mencken, the origins of some words and phrases are so
obscure that we would not even know enough to be offended. And many players, of course, do not
bother with meanings in any case.
Finally, it bears noting that, SCRABBLE aside, we ought not be too quick to congratulate ourselves
upon being less prudish or more open-minded than our grandparents were in their heyday.
We Americans may drop f-bombs on every street corner and fill our airwaves with language that
would have induced millions of heart attacks once upon a time, but for all that “openness,” we
remain remarkably adept at devising euphemisms and using language to obscure, rather than
illuminate, many aspects of our lives.
If the lifting of taboos in SCRABBLE has a wider application, perhaps it should be to remind us that
in law, medicine, politics, and daily life, clear communication, saying what we mean, and meaning
what we say, is a surer path to understanding than hiding behind language.

T H E W O R D S M I T H
(By the way, the answer to the question posed in this column’s title can be found on page 308 of
Mencken’s book. Or, I suppose, you could look it up on the I------t. (I hate to swear in print.)
Chris Sinacola is director of the Worcester, Massachusetts NASPA SCRABBLE® Club #600.
95

96
H I S T O R I C M O M E N T S
Historic Moments: SCRABBLE® Through the Years
Inducing an Opponent Error
By Stu Goldman
The canny player can, in certain situations, give the opponent a chance to make a serious error. I
won a game on ISC recently when, with all the tiles drawn and both of us with an S on the final rack,
I made a play that saved my S but allowed S to be added to a word that I knew didn't take S:
ECHINATE. Sure enough, the S was added by my opponent to make a 3-letter word, and I
challenged it off the board to win the game.
Another ploy is to play a phony to which S--or D or R--could be added. so it can be safely
challenged. Compound words, such as those ending in ROOT, WEED, WOOD or WORT, for
example, are suitable for this. In one tournament, when my opponent added an S, he greeted my
challenge with the exclamation, "Stu, you don't play phonies!"
My most satisfying error-inducing play occurred in 1985 in a private game against the late Gordon
Shapiro. Although an excellent player, Gordon was occasionally hamstrung by spelling. He had
played ENER?IA and called the blank a G. This is how I wrote about it in Confessions of a
Compulsive Tile Pusher:
"[After challenging] I tried to figure out what Gordon would play with AEEINR?. . . . Spotting a V on
the board in position for starting a word, I felt certain that he would try VENERIAl. Knowing there is
no I in VENERAL, I left the V alone on my turn . . . .
"After a moment of study he played his tiles exactly as I had imagined he wouod. As he put them
down, slowly and emphatically, I experienced the greatest feeling of power I have ever had while
playing my favorite game." And over 26 years later I still feel that way. If you look for the
opportunities, you can, too.
Stu Goldman lives in California and has been playing tournament SCRABBLE® for 38 years.

One Up! Cup for January
By Timothy Cataldo
O N E U P ! C U P
Calling all vocabularians! Just like last year, we'll post a One Up!® “game situation” every month so
all you doubledomes out there can show everyone how brilliant and quick you are.
Here's all you need to know now to play: Take one or more letters from the center and add them to
an existing word to make a new word. Send your entry to johnnymustard@oneupmanship.com.
Since there won't be a 'right' answer, we'll be looking for originality, wit and wow! The winner will
receive a One Up!® and have his or her name put in the drawing for the Grand Prize at the end of
the year.
DECEMBER WINNER
(The Uppity tile above is an “N”)
December's contest was a close call, but we've decided to
pick one sister over another — let's call it Shaina's Choice:
Happy Holidays Mr. Write,
After a two-month hiatus, it's the Lesniewicz sisters, Shaina
and Nicole, with our entries to your December contest.
By sheer coincidence, we both started with the same word,
TANDEM. My sister Nicole added the letters BA to form
BANDMATE. Quite fitting, since she plays in a band.
As for me (Shaina), I'm a science geek so I came up with an obscure one. Adding the three vowels
AEI to TANDEM produces the word DEAMINATE. It means to remove the amines from a molecule.
Not too shabby, eh? Nicole thinks her entry is pretty clever, but I think I "one-upped" her by adding
an extra letter and making a weirder word.
What do you think?
Shaina and Nicole Lesniewicz
(The Uppity) tile here is a “U”
Thanks to all who made the One Up! Cup such a success this year. We'll announce the grand prix
winner soon. Meantime, keep 'em coming!
97

Online SCRABBLE® Talk
98
O N L I N E S C R A B B L E T A L K
This column features online games and news about online SCRABBLE® play. If you have an
online game you’d like to share--or news related to online SCRABBLE, please send it to Cornelia
Guest at CorneliaSGuest@gmail.com.
______________________________________________________________________________
From Jerry Lerman:
Jerry Lerman scored 302 points with BLI(T)ZeRS in an online game against Chris Patrick Morgan
on 12/30/12. This was Jerry’s highest-scoring play in 34+ years of playing SCRABBLE.
The big play seems like a bit of a coincidence. Earlier in the day, on my walk, it had struck me that it
would be useful if there were computer software that recorded your activities on a screen. (I hadn't
any idea such stuff existed.) With that software, it would be possible to record - and edit - online
games to create SCRABBLE educational videos. Well, I decided to crack open an empty journal
that my daughter had given me at least a year ago, and make that my first entry. Later that day I
found such software by looking on the Internet, and I downloaded a free sample. (The software only
costs about $50.) I then began running the software to record various moves I was making in my
10+ games, thinking that I might overdub them with commentary and then post them to YouTube.
The big play versus Chris Morgan was ALMOST one such play. I was so excited by the opening,
that I didn't pause to bring up the software before playing the word. I DID record it immediately after.
(All the while, I had the 49ers-Cardinals game on TV in the background; someone noted that the last
day of the regular season made it an opportune time to play BLITZERS!)

Animal Anagrams Quiz
By Mike Wolfberg
A N I M A L A N A G R A M S Q U I Z
Here is a quiz that includes both easy, medium, and hard anagrams.
The answers are singular or plural animals. I have been making a comprehensive list, which
is too much to use for this purpose.
easy: BOLSTER, BRAZE, CALM, EVICT, FLOW (2), GIP, GUN, HARKS, HEAR (2),
HONER, KANES, KAY, LASE, LATE, LEAF, LEE, LOOPED, LOW, MANY, MESCAL,
MOUES, MUSE, NACRE, NAILS, NOIL, NOLO, OPINES, ORGIC, OUSEL, PAROLED,
PAS, POINT, RAPTOR, ROILS, ROUGES, SCOTIA, SEASHORE, SHADDOCK, SHAKE,
SHORE, SNORTED, SOBBING, STICK, STOREY, SUMLESS, SWAP, TAB, TANG, TECTAL,
THRONE, TIME, TOGA, TOREROS, TUTOR, TYPHON, VOWELS, WENT, YOBBO
medium: ALONE, AMASSING, ASKEW, AWELESS, BALANCER, CHAINED, DUSKIER,
EMITTER, EOBIONTS, EPHEBOS, EPIGON, HOEDOWN, HORMONE, FISHBOWL,
FLUSHING, FROSTIER, GREET, GUNDOG, LARGO, MAGIANS, MANIAC, MARTIAN,
MISPAGE, OCELLI, OCTAVE, OOCYTE, ORANGE, ORGANA, PANICLE (2), PELTRIES,
PLEIAD (2), RATH (2), ROOTIEST, RUSHES, SAMBHAR, SENATORS, SERPIGO,
SMARTEN, SOMEDAY, STRAYING, SUBCOOL, SWORDMAN, TAILSPIN, TIDIES,
TRAILED, TREAT, TRICHOSES, UNFOLDER, VESICA
hard: ALIGHTED, ANARCHIC, ANGOSTURA, ASKING, BARONIES, BESHADOW,
BETOKENS, CARDIGAN, DONORSHIP, HANKERED, LARBOARD, LIGNANS,
OUTSTARE, LOBSCOUSE, PLAINSONG, RAGINGLY, REDENIES, SACCHARIN,
SHEARLINGS, SHELLIER, WARSLE, WASHUP, WEAKISH, WELCHES, WREATHEN
99

100
S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S
SCRABBLE® and Scrabblers in the News
Edited by Judy Cole
See something about SCRABBLE® or a SCRABBLE® player in the news? Let us know! Send your
stories to Judy Cole (judithcole@msn.com).
_______________________________________________________________________________
Tourney Talk
SCRABBLE® clubs and tournaments are in the
news:
• New Orleans (LA) – The Crescent City Cup
– scheduled for January 19 to 21, 2013 –
expects to draw almost 100 players from
throughout North America.
DECEMBER MILESTONES
MACK MELLER reached 1900 for the first time at
the Albany (NY) tournament.
ADAM GINZBERG reached 1800 for the first time
at the Newark (DE) tournament.
NICK FRAHER reached 1500 for the first time at
the Covina (CA) tournament.
JOSHUA CASTELLANO reached 1500 for the
first time at the Newark (DE) tournament.
MORRIS GREENBERG reached 1500 for the first
time at the Hudson (NY) tournament.
Tournament co-organizer Lila Crotty invited other
New Orleans residents to join the fun with the 5 other
local players currently expected to play.
The Times-Picayune (12/24/2012) http://www.nola.com/festivals/index.ssf/2012/12/
new_orleans_to_host_major_scra.html
• World Youth SCRABBLE® Championship - At the championship held in Birmingham (UK) from
November 30 through December 2, 2012, Tim Bryant placed 7 th overall and 1 st of the 2 Americans
participating in the tournament.
Tim studied nearly six hours a day during the
summer in preparation for the competition.
Newsday (12/15/2012) http://www.newsday.com/
long-island/towns/long-island-now-1.1732330/bayshore-high-school-junior-seventh-at-world-youthscrabble-championship-1.4333892
• Iowa City (IA) – Santa stopped by the regular monthly meeting of the Iowa City SCRABBLE®
Club on December 25, 2012.

S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S
KWWL (12/25/2012) http://www.kwwl.com/story/20422923/2012/12/25/scrabbl
Just the Facts
I
Electronic Arts polled online SCRABBLE®
players and analyzed games to come up
with these fun facts:
Way to go, Alberta!
http://www.ea.com/news/scrabble-how-doyou-play
101

SCRABBLE® A DAY
102
S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S
Renee Gibbons was on a ship headed to Europe 37 years ago
when she met her husband, Lew Gibbons. The couple played
their first game of SCRABBLE® on the ship, and now the San
Francisco (CA) residents play the word game almost daily to
keep their minds sharp.
They bought the hand-crafted board they use today on a trip to
Madagascar in 1992, and Gibbons said the first thing they do
when they travel is to ask the hotel if it has a SCRABBLE®
board.
San Francisco Chronicle (12/25/2012) http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Mind-gets-a-workoutwith-Scrabble-4145480.php
Happy New Year
NASPA copresident and mathematician John Chew collaborated with Jonathan Kay to salute the
new year from a mathematical perspective.
The number 2013 has 3 prime factors - 3 x 11 x 61 – as are 2014 and 2015. You’ll have to wait until
2665 to find 3 more consecutive years composed of prime factors.
National Post (12/31/2012) http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/12/31/john-chew-jonathankay-how-is-2013-interesting-let-us-count-the-ways/
On Screen
SCRABBLE® appears on film and TV:
•In the current movie This Is 40, Paul Rudd
plays a married father who escapes his
daily routine by eating chocolate cupcakes
and by retreating to the bathroom to play
online SCRABBLE®.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/21/showbiz/
movies/this-is-40-review-ew/index.html

Puzzle Safari
S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S
•In the 2012 movie Big Miracle, Drew Barrymore and John
Kraskinski take a break from saving the whales to play
SCRABBLE®.
In the scene, which appears about at about 2/3 of the way through
the movie, John plays ZIPPER for 38 points.
Auburn (AL) SCRABBLE® player and puzzle designer Eric
Harshbarger appears in a video to promote a puzzle hunt
fundraising campaign on Kickstarter. A puzzle hunt is a set of
interconnected puzzles that combine to form a larger puzzle.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/royleban/unique-puzzles-fora-yankee-echo-alfa-romeo
For even more puzzling fun, you can sponsor Puzzle Extravaganza II by West
Hollywood (CA) SCRABBLE® player and puzzler Trip Payne.
http://www.tripleplaypuzzles.com/2013extravaganza.html
Join in the puzzling fun!
On December 16, 2012, the Museum of Mathematics celebrated its
opening in New York (NY) with a puzzle hunt. Over 30 teams took up
the challenge – including New York SCRABBLE® players Mina Le
and Fred Schneider.
Their team – The Hardy Boys and Girls – placed 2 nd in the hunt and
were only one of four teams to finish at all. The winning team
received a set of Mobius strips created by Eric Harshbarger.
You can read Mina’s account of the hunt at http://blackballoonpublishing.com/blog/momath-moproblems-on-the-scene-at-a-new-york-puzzle-hunt.
103

104
S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S
What’s the Frequency?
A self-described enthusiastic amateur SCRABBLE® player Joshua Lewis developed a software
package, Valett, to determine letter values based on statistical analysis. In addition to calculating
letter frequency, Valett also factors in word length and the ability to play the letter.
Valett rethinks the SCRABBLE® letter values as follows:
http://blog.useost.com/2012/12/30/valett/
Hats Off
SCRABBLE® Celebrities
Celebrities share our love of the game.
The annual Art of the Bicycle Show at Marty’s Reliable Cycle in Morristown
(NJ) on December 6, 2012, provided a showcase for the stylish bike helmets
created by New Jersey SCRABBLE® player Cheryl Allen-Munley of
Bandbox LLC.
Morristown Green (11/19/2012) http://morristowngreen.com/2012/11/19/
bicycles-as-art-see-for-yourself-at-martys-in-morristown-dec-6/
•During her annual White House interview,
Barbara Walters gets President Obama to
admit that SCRABBLE® is his favorite iPad app.
The First Lady, Michelle Obama, concedes that
the President is good, yet irritating, at the game;
at times, she wants to yank the iPad out of his
hands.
http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/
Modern-Parenthood/2012/1214/Obamaparenting-Michelle-and-Barack-talk-Scrabbleand-kids-video
• Appearing on Good Morning America (12/18/2012), John Travolta revealed that he is really good at
SCRABBLE®. His Grease costar, Olivia Newton-John, also loves the game and challenged him to a
match. It looks like Sandy and Danny are hopelessly devoted to the board!

S C R A B B L E I N T H E N E W S
• Country singer Taylor Swift tweeted on December 26, 2012:
Welcome to the ranks of the blue hairs, Taylor!
The interview appears about 40 minutes into the
broadcast at http://abcnews.go.com/watch/good-morningamerica/SH5587637/VD55258895/gma-1218-newtownvictims-laid-to-rest.
105

106
A Y E A R O F P U Z Z L E S C O N T E S T
A Year of Puzzles Contest
By Roy Leban
Like puzzles? I run a puzzle technology company called Puzzazz and
we're in the midst of a cool Kickstarter campaign for a Year of
Puzzles. The campaign itself contains a free mini puzzlehunt, and
we just released a Scrabble-themed puzzle using seven different
colors of Protiles.
Here's a link to the puzzle:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/royleban/unique-puzzles-for-ayankee-echo-alfa-romeo/posts/382763
We also have a special bonus puzzle just for The Last Word using the puzzle at the link above:
Given the order of play of Tangerine Tango, Black, Taxicab Yellow, White, Agave Blue, Sublime
Geen, Plum Crazy, and the unseen Laser Red, what alternate plays could the players have made
with the same tiles (blanks can change what they represent) to get the highest total score? Assume
a squareless board as shown -- no double or triple squares.
Send your answers to puzzazz@puzzazz.com by January 31 to win a free subscription to the Year
of Puzzles!
To read a nice WIRED interview with Puzzazz Founder Roy Leban Click here.

Five-Letter Biggies
By Tony J. Rasch
F I V E - L E T T E R B I G G I E S
Editor’s Note: Because of difficulty tranferring files, only the introduction to Tony Rasch’s tutorial on
The Five-Letter Biggies is printed here. To read the complete section, please click here.
The Official Word List (OWL) recognizes 697 Five-Letter Words that contain a “J”, “Q”, “X”, or “Z”. I
call these words “Biggies”. 139 can be made by adding an “S” to a Four-Letter Word; 36 by adding
“ES” to a Three-Letter Word; and at least 163 are words found in most people’s normal vocabulary.
That leaves 360 Biggies that would be well worth learning for SCRABBLE® purposes. These are
words you can often play for 40, 50, or even 60 points, if you can find them on your rack. I call these
Biggies Brow-Raisers. 219 of the 360 are objective Brow-Raisers as they can not be found in at
least one of the four desk dictionaries used to compile The Official Word List. I subjectively call 141
additional words Brow-Raisers. Many words are on the cusp between “Common” and “Brow-
Raiser”. I try to err on the side of putting too many words in the “Brow-Raiser” category rather than
too few.
In the following pages, I present the Biggies in several different ways:
1) Grouped by the position of the Big-Letter.
2) Grouped by the first consonant. By the first 3-5 point consonant, if there is one, otherwise by the
1st 1-2pt consonant. This grouping puts the Biggies in bite-size chunks that may be useful for
memorization and retention purposes.
3) Hooks. It is very useful to know which Biggies can be made by hooking a Four or which Biggies
can be extended by hooking a Five. Such words are listed in this section.
4) Anagrams. Many of the Five-Letter Biggies can be anagrammed to form another Biggie.
5) Similar Words. Most of the Biggies can be made into another word by changing just one letter
(e.g., BETON JETON SETON). Brow-Raising Biggies are grouped in this section.
Many folks find it easy to memorize and retain strange words grouped into pairs or triplets than just
by themselves.
Click here for the rest of the tutorial on The Five-Letter Biggies.
107

108
T H O R E A U & T H O R E A U
SCRABBLE®: Thoreau & Thoreau
By Frank Lee Moody
Excerpts from “Wanda’s Whirlwind Wordplay in Washington,” 1994, by Thoreau Maskin:
“He won’t relent; bring in the Mighty M.” Two hours later Captain Scrabble had slashed two
hundred points off his rating and was begging the Mighty M to take more. “Now I’m
legitimate,” he said. “No one can stop me now. No one.”
______________
“What’s yer rating, sir?” demanded Captain Scrabble. “1776, I believe,” came the soft reply.
“Goodness, they endangered my rating,” Captain Scrabble lamented. “What’s that pillow
behind your back, sir?” “A pillow, sir, to lesson my discomfort.” “And give you an edge? That’ll
be the day. DIRECTOR!” The room was thick with bonhomie.
______________
“Yes, I will thee wed,” she sighed. “There is just one thing I must needs know first, my
darling; what is your rating?” “1700,” he breathed in her ear, his heart and hers pounding in
unison with desire. “What?” she screamed. “How dare you think I would mix my genes with
mediocrity. Thank god, I’ve found out in time! Out!”
______________
“Each year a promising candidate from the masses volunteered for King E. Lee Tiist’s
games. If that contestant won the world games over the King’s best women and/or men,
s/he lived the life of a premium player for a full year. And then was sacrificed to appease the
gods for transgressions against mediocrity.”
______________
“Never allow those whose manifest destiny is mediocrity to rise above their natural station.
To do so would be to unleash chaos in a world defined by a perfectly natural hierarchy of
access, freedom and privilege.” She sighed deeply as she removed the weighty tiara from
the nest of her hair.
______________
Captain Scrabble was cured. No longer was he under the absolute control of King E. Lee
Tiist. “The downside,” said the psychiatrist, “is that when he lost his obsession he simply
disappeared. Into thin air. Poof! We didn’t know there was nothing else.”
______________
Excerpts copyright ©1994, 1997 by Frank Lee. Reprinted here courtesy of Connie Breitbeil.
Players interested in free copies of SCRABBLE®: Thoreau & Thoreau should contact Connie
at Conniebrietbeil@yahoo.com

Passages
Edited by Larry Sherman
P A S S A G E S
Each month we will be including information about SCRABBLE® players (births, deaths, marriages,
etc.) Please send your news to Cornelia Guest at CorneliaSGuest@gmail.com.
______________________________________________________________________________
DEATHS
MARY LEE COUEY
Mary Lee Couey, a longtime Scrabbler from Texas, was a cat lover and retired
accountant who enjoyed SCRABBLE, bowling, and bridge. She passed away on
March 19, 2011 at the age of 93 at a nursing home in Richardson, Texas.
According to cross-tables.com, she competed in at least 124 tourneys from 1977
to 2005, achieving a peak rating of 1716.
Mary Rhoades writes: "She loved her cats, even when her vision failed and she
sometimes stumbled over them. If a strange cat appeared on her doorstep and
seemed to want to stay, Mary Lee would take it in."
"As a young married woman, one day she went to El Paso to visit with her best friend from high
school. On one visit, the friend brought out a SCRABBLE game. Mary Lee had never heard of it,
but was soon addicted to playing. The only chance to play was on those El Paso visits, until she met
fellow Texas SCRABBLE Hall of Famer, Hildagard Powell. Hildy had been to a tournament in Dallas,
and there was mention of it in the newspaper. Mary Lee called her and the long friendship and years
of playing and attending SCRABBLE events began. They formed the first sanctioned SCRABBLE
club in Texas, #71, and hosted several tournaments in their heyday. Mary Lee even arranged for the
Mid-Cities club novices and Lubbock club novices to meet in Abilene for a novice-only tournament."
"She had no children, and her husband passed away many years ago."
From Chris Cree: "I met Mary Lee in 1980 when I first started playing tournament and club
SCRABBLE. She and Hildagard Powell (from Buffalo Gap, Texas) and Morine Green (from Dallas)
were the first top competitors I faced. Morine missed by 2 points qualifying for the 32-person
invitational 1980 National SCRABBLE Championship. I will never forget Mary Lee teaching me
midgame challenges of CIGARETYONI (“you can’t spell it that way!!” “It appears you can.”)
EMANATOR (“e-MAN-uh-tor,” I said, emphasizing the wrong syllable) and UNHASTYBAROQUES
(“you think you are playing with kids” “Yes, dear, I do.”).
"She, along with the women mentioned and others -- Mary Rhoades, Vy Johnson, Rosemary
Seltzer, Bettye Williams, and Ruth Lax -- were among the first wonderful people I met playing this
game in my first tournament in February 1980 and the Dallas NSA SCRABBLE club thereafter.
Mary Lee is in the Texas State SCRABBLE Hall of Fame and will always be remembered for her
contribution to the game."
From Sam Kantimathi: "Mary Lee Couey was a regular in the tournaments I used to conduct in
Kansas, along with Hildagard Powell and 'Mean Mo' Morine Green, none of whom are with us now.
On the day before one of my tournaments, I was running in and out of the La Quinta Hotel, getting
109

110
P A S S A G E S
things set up and organized. I went and said hello to those three along with a player from
Albuquerque playing SCRABBLE in the pool area early in the morning. I noticed them still
scrabbling during lunchtime, and late into the evening..."
TOM HART
Jere Mead reports: "Tom Hart, sometime member of the Lexington Club and
occasional BAT participant, passed away on December 29, 2012 at the age
of 68. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in the fall of 2008, and after
difficult treatment for a few months recovered well enough to resume many
of his favorite activities, including our game. Late this past fall he was struck
again -- I'm not sure just how -- and went into a rapid decline."
"Tom taught English and coached girls' cross-country at Concord-Carlisle
High School. He and I had many overlapping interests, academic and
extracurricular, in the years we worked together. He also was an old
acquaintance of Merrill Kaitz from (I believe) Cambridge days in the writing/publishing/bookselling
world."
According to cross-tables.com, Hart competed in at least 6 tourneys from 2004 to 2012, achieving a
peak rating of 1024. He won the Newcomers Tournament at BAT in 2009. This year’s BAT was his
last tournament.
Tom is survived by his loving wife Christopher Jane Corkery of Concord; his daughter and son-inlaw
Rebecca Hart Olander and Jon Olander of Florence, MA; his sons Patrick Hart of New York City
and Eamonn Hart of Washington, DC; his grandchildren Monica Hunter-Hart and Max Olander of
Florence, MA; his sister Hilary Hart of Valatie, NY; and his brother Rick Hart and brother-in-law
David Chura of Leeds, MA.
Contributions in his memory may be made to the Concord Carlisle Scholarship Fund, CCSF,
www.ccscholarshipfund.org, 34 Walden Street, Unit 217, Concord, MA 01742. For obituary and
guestbook, visit www.deefuneralhome.com.

SCRABBLE®
Resources
There are many study tools to
help SCRABBLE® players
hone their skills, including a
number of programs that can
be downloaded for free. This
section will offer suggestions
and links for both players and
directors.
Play Online
SCRABBLE®
POGO SCRABBLE®
The official SCRABBLE®
online game. Created under
agreement with Hasbro in
2008.
SCRABBLE® ON
FACEBOOK
Select the SCRABBLE®
application on the Facebook
home page to play the official
SCRABBLE® game. Various
groups hold tournaments at
this site, including a group
called “Mad Scrabblers”.
INTERNET SCRABBLE®
CLUB
A Romanian-based site and
application for interactive
games. A favorite site for
many of the top players.
Play Live SCRABBLE®
CROSS-TABLES
Lists all upcoming
tournaments, as well as
results of past tournaments.
Has SCRABBLE®
tournament aides.
NASPA CLUB LISTINGS
S C R A B B L E R E S O U R C E S
Lists competitive clubs
throughout North America
with their meeting times and
locations.
NSA CLUB LISTINGS
Lists casual clubs throughout
North America with their
meeting times and locations.
WGPO CLUB LISTINGS
Lists clubs throughout North
America with their meeting
times and locations.
Apps for Scrabblers
ZARF
A free multipurpose iPhone/
iPad utility for SCRABBLE®
players in any language. It
provides word list lookup,
pattern matching,
tournament-style adjudication
and a timer customized for
tournament SCRABBLE®
play.
ZYZZYVA/ZYZZYVA LITE
iPhone app for practicing
anagramming skills and
learning words. Zyzzyva
includes Quiz, Search, and
Judge functions; Cardbox
Managment; Dropbox Sync;
Custom Lexicon Support; and
Lexicon Symbols. Zyzzva
Lite (free) includes Search
and Judge functions; Custom
Lexicon Import; and Lexicon
Symbols. You can sync quiz
data between the iPhone app
and the desktop program.
WORDLIST PRO 2.0
Android 2.2+ app for
practicing anagramming skills
and learning words. Also
functions as Word Judge.
Lightning fast word searches.
Supports TWL06, OSPD4,
CSW12, and CSW12 unique
words.
CROSSWORD GAME
SCORESHEET
This app keeps track of
scoring in crossword games
such as SCRABBLE®.
SCRABBLE®
Play SCRABBLE® on your
iPhone/iPad. Teacher feature
allows you to see what your
best word could have been
after every turn. Now also
available for Android devices:
click here.
SCRABBLE® TILE RACK
Turns your iPhone or iPad
Touch into a SCRABBLE® tile
rack. For use with an iPad.
WORDS WITH FRIENDS
The popular SCRABBLE®
variant for your iPhone/iPad.
Anagramming/Practice
Tools
JUMBLETIME
A free web site for practicing
anagramming skills.
MAC USERS: After you do a
Jumbletime quiz on a Mac,
the scroll bar to view the
results is missing. To make it
appear, go to the lower right
corner and grab the striped
triangle and shrink the
window all the way to the top
left corner. When you pull it
back, the scroll bar to the
111

ight of the answers to the quiz
appears.
AEROLITH
A free application for practicing
anagramming skills and
learning words.
QUACKLE
A free application for playing,
simulating, and analyzing
games.
WHAT
Mike Wolfberg’s computer
program for anagramming, word
judging, and word study.
Includes lexicons for TWL,
CSW, OSPD4, Spanish, and
French. Available to buy at
http://wolfberg.net/what/
ZYZZYVA
A free application for practicing
anagramming skills and
learning words. Also has Word
Judge capabilities.
SCRABBLE® DICTIONARY
Type a word to check for
acceptability. OSPD4 words.
LEXIFIND SCRABBLE®
HELPER AND WORD GAME
WIZARD WORDFINDER
FOR GOOGLE CHROME
A full-board SCRABBLE® wordfinder
program that shows you
every word that can possibly be
made on an entire
SCRABBLE® board. Full
version available at http://bit.ly/
ecwHPt
FRANKLIN SCRABBLE®
PLAYERS DICTIONARY
An electronic handheld
dictionary and anagrammer,
112
S C R A B B L E R E S O U R C E S
with many helpful options and
games. Includes the latest
word lists, and can be adjusted
from OSPD4 to OWL2 lists with
a code.
CLICK HERE TO HELP END
WORD HUNGER AS YOU
LEARN WORDS
A free vocabulary testing site.
For every correct word, grains
of rice are donated through the
United Nations World Food
Program. Feed hungry people
as you expand your vocabulary!
Online SCRABBLE®
Discussion Groups
CGP (crossword-gamespro@yahoogroups.com)
This group, for NASPA
tournament players and
directors only, has the largest
membership of any online
tournament SCRABBLE®
discussion group. Most
important events and changes
in the SCRABBLE® world are
discussed on cgp. Admission is
by approval only. Details can be
found at http://sasj.com/cgp/
join.html.
OSPD (ospdscrabble@yahoogroups.co
m)
This group, dedicated to players
using The Official SCRABBLE®
Players’ Dictionary, offers light-
hearted humor, daily word lists,
and more. Admission is to all
SCRABBLE® lovers.
WGPO Listserv
(WGPO@yahoogroups.com
)
This group, open to all
members of the tournament
community, is a forum for issues
of interest to SCRABBLE®
players. No approval of any
kind is needed to join, and
readers need not be members
of the Word Game Player’s
Organization (WGPO).
SCRABBLE® Blogs
THE BADQOPH
DIRECTORY
This is a database of blogs by
known SCRABBLE® bloggers,
primarily tournament players.
As of March 29th there were
196 blogs in the directory.
Cheat Sheets
MIKE BARON’S CHEAT
SHEET
A great cheat sheet with 2s, 3s,
vowel dumps, short high-pointtile
words, and good bingo
stems. Includes useful front
and back hook letters to make
3s from 2s. Adapted from Mike
Barron’s SCRABBLE®
Wordbook and the Official
Tournament and Club Word
List, 2nd Edition.
MIKE BARON’S CHEAT
SHEET (for School
SCRABBLE® and home
play)
A great cheat sheet with 2s, 3s,
vowel dumps, short high-pointtile
words, and good bingo

SCRABBLE® and home play.
Gives useful information on how
to find bingos, plus the 2s, 3s,
vowel dumps, and short highpoint-tile
plays.
ERICA MOORE’S COLLINS
CHEAT SHEET
A great cheat sheet, particularly
for players new to Collins.
Includes 2s, 3s, vowel dumps,
Q without U words, short JQXZ
words, and the top 250 7s and
8s by playability.
COLLINS WORD LISTS
Useful links to Collins word lists
can be found at the following
websites: http://
www.absp.org.uk/words/
words.html; http://
www.math.utoronto.ca/jjchew/
scrabble/lists/; http://
www.scrabble.org.au/words/
index.htm; http://
members.ozemail.com.au/
~rjackman/.
Tournament Management
Software
DIRECTOR!
Marc Levesque’s software for
managing tournaments. Also
has a Yahoo user group you
can join as a support option.
TOURNEYMAN
Jeff Widergren’s software for
managing tournaments.
TSH
John Chew’s software for
managing tournaments.
Books
ANAGRAMMAR
Joe Edley’s new book with over
6,000 puzzles to help you
S C R A B B L E R E S O U R C E S
become a better anagrammar
for SCRABBLE® or Words with
Friends. (Reviewed in the
November 2012 issue.)
BOB’S BIBLE
A terrific book to build word
power for tournaments.
BOB’S BIBLE, SCHOOL
EDITION
For School SCRABBLE® and
home play.
BOB’S BRITISH BIBLE
The ideal book for learning
CWL12 (Collins) words. (See
review in the June issue of The
Last Word.)
BOB’S COLOR-CODED
BRITISH BIBLE
The ideal book for learning
CWL12 (Collins) words, with
color-coded entries for easy
identification. (See review in the
June issue of The Last Word.)
BROW-RAISERS II
A brilliantly organized study
guide geared towards the
success of beginning and
intermediate players.
HOW TO PLAY
SCRABBLE® LIKE A
CHAMPION
A new guide to winning
SCRABBLE® from World
SCRABBLE® Champion Joel
Wapnick. Fantastic insights into
expert playing techniques. (See
review in the October, 2011,
issue of The Last Word.)
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
WORD BUILDER
Bob Jackman’s guide to
building a strong Collins
vocabulary, organized by word
length, familiarity, and part of
speech.
EVERYTHING
SCRABBLE®, THIRD
EDITION
The ultimate guide to winning at
SCRABBLE@ by 3-time
National Champion Joe Edley
and John D. Williams, Jr.
Completely updated to include
all new words. (See review in
the January issue of The Last
word.)
THE OFFICIAL
SCRABBLE® PLAYERS
DICTIONARY, FOURTH
EDITION
The official word source for
School SCRABBLE® and
casual play.
THE OFFICIAL
TOURNAMENT AND CLUB
WORD LIST, 2ND EDITION
The official word source for
NASPA tournament and club
play.
SCRABBLE®
TOURNAMENT & CLUB
WORD LIST (COLLINS)
The official word list for
international tournament play.
(Available at SamTimer.com.)
SCRABBLE® WORDBOOK
A great word book for
SCRABBLE® players by Mike
Baron. OSPD4 words. (POO
Lists available with words
excluded from the OWL2.)
113

Tournament Calendar
114
T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
Our calendar format addresses two concerns: 1) Readers want as complete a list as possible of
tournament dates; and 2) Readers want to know easily whether a tournament is sanctioned by
NASPA, WGPO, or the NSA (or is unrated).
However, because new tournaments are constantly being added to the schedule, it is difficult to be
all-inclusive. Please be sure to refer to the Websites of the organization sanctioning the tournament
for a complete list. Click NASPA, WGPO, or NSA for the most up-to-date calendars. Links to
NASPA and some NSA tournaments are also posted at cross-tables.com.
Thanks to Henry Leong, who permitted The Last Word to adapt his calendar from the WGPO
Website.
Dates Organization Tournament/Location
JANUARY
1/4-6 NASPA LINDEN ME
1/5 NASPA LEVITTOWN PA
1/5 NASPA TUCSON AZ (TWL & COLLINS)
1/6 NASPA BERKELEY CA
1/12 NASPA BAYSIDE NY
1/12 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL
1/12 NASPA ORLANDO FL
1/12 NASPA WINNIPEG MB CAN
1/13 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN
1/16-28 WGPO AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND CRUISE
1/18-21 NASPA DURHAM NC
1/18-21 WGPO RENO NV
1/18-20 WGPO TWIN CITIES REDEYE (BLOOMINGTON MN)
1/19 WGPO ASU@ASU, TEMPE AZ
1/19 NASPA DALLAS TX
1/19 NASPA HUDSON OH
1/19-21 NASPA NEW ORLEANS LA (TWL & COLLINS)

T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
1/19 NASPA NEW YORK NY
1/19 NASPA SEATTLE WA
1/26-28 NASPA ATLANTIC CITY NJ
1/26 NASPA AUSTIN TX
1/26 NASPA BERKELEY CA
1/26 NASPA CORNWALL ON CAN
1/26-27 NASPA CALGARY AB CAN
1/26-27 NASPA KNOXVILLE TN
1/26 WGPO LOVELAND CO
1/26 WGPO LAKE OSWEGO OR
1/27 WGPO ,MOUNTAIN VIEW CA
1/27 NASPA BRATTLEBORO VT (TWL & COLLINS)
FEBRUARY
2/2 NASPA BRAMPTON ON CAN (TWL & COLLINS)
2/2 NASPA OLIVE HILL KY
2/2 NASPA UTICA NY
2/3 NASPA BERKELEY CA
2/3 NASPA MISSISSAUGA ON CAN
2/7 NASPA LCT - AKRON OH
2/9-10 NASPA NACOGDOCHES TX
2/9 NASPA KATONAH NY (TWL, COLLINS & YOUTH
DIVISIONS)
2/9-10 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL
2/9-10 NASPA DES MOINES IA
2/9-10 NASPA NACOGDOCHES TX
2/10 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN
2/10 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS)
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T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
2/14-19 NASPA LAS VEGAS NV (TWL & COLLINS)
2/15-18 NASPA EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIP, CHARLOTTE NC
(TWL & COLLINS)
2/15 WGPO PHOENIX AZ EARLY BIRD
2/16 NASPA DALLAS TX
2/16 NASPA NEW YORK NY
2/16-18 WGPO PHOENIX AZ (TWL & COLLINS)
2/16-18 NASPA PORT CLINTON OH
2/22-24 NASPA SARATOGA SPRINGS NY (TWL & COLLINS)
2/23 NASPA AUSTIN TX
2/23 NASPA DADE CITY FL
2/23 NASPA PORTLAND OR
2/24 WGPO MOUNTAIN VIEW CA
MARCH
3/2 NASPA LA GRANGE PARK IL
3/2 NASPA NEW YORK NY
3/3 NASPA ARCATA CA
3/3 NASPA BERKELEY CA
3/8-10 NASPA VANCOUVER (RICHMOND) BC CAN
3/8-10 WGPO INDIALANTIC FL
3/9 NASPA BAYSIDE NY
3/9 NASPA SYRACUSE NY
3/10 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN
3/10 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS)
3/12 NASPA LCT - INDEPENDENCE OH
3/15-17 NASPA HOUSTON TX
3/15-17 NASPA POUGHKEEPSIE NY (TWL & COLLINS)

T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
3/16-17 NASPA ELYRIA OH
3/16 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL
3/17 WGPO MOUNTAIN VIEW CA
3/17 WGPO LAKE OSWEGO OR
3/17 NASPA GLENDALE CA
3/22-24 NASPA MYRTLE BEACH SC
3/22-24 NASPA PRINCETON NJ (TWL & COLLINS)
3/22-24 NASPA ST. AUGUSTINE FL
3/23 NASPA CAMBRIDGE ON CAN
3/30 NASPA AUSTIN TX
3/30-31 NASPA CALGARY AB CAN
3/30 NASPA CHARLESTON WV
3/30 NASPA DADE CITY FL
APRIL
4/4 NASPA LCT - AKRON OH
4/5-7 GATLINBURG TN (TWL & COLLINS)
4/6-7 NAPSA DANVILLE IL (TWL & COLLINS)
4/6 NASPA NEW YORK NY
4/7 NASPA BERKELEY CA
4/7 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN
4/12-14 NASPA BOSTON AREA TOURNAMENT
(WESTFORD) MA
4/13-14 NASPA EDMONTON AB CAN
4/13 NASPA PITTSBURGH PA
4/20 NASPA TCC -- COEUR D’ALENE ID
4/20 NASPA DALLAS TX
4/27 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL
117

118
T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
4/20 NSA NEW ENGLAND SCHOOL SCRABBLE
CHAMPIONSHIP, CT
4/20-21 NASPA OTTAWA ON CAN
4/20 NASPA SOUTH LYON MI
4/21 WGPO MOUNTAIN VIEW CA
4/21 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS)
4/27 NASPA AUSTIN TX
4/27 NAPSA FORT LAUDERDALE FL
4/27 NASPA NORWALK CT (TWL, COLLINS & YOUTH
DIVISIONS)
4/27 NASPA SEATTLE WA
4/27-28 NASPA SIOUX FALLS SD
4/27-28 NASPA WEBSTER NY
4/28 NASPA ATCO NJ
MAY
5/2-11 NSA NATIONAL SCHOOL SCRABBLE
CHAMPIONSHIP, WASHINGTON DC
5/2-11 NASPA BERMUDA & CARIBBEAN TREASURES
CRUISE
5/4-5 WGPO MINNESOTA VS. WISCONSIN BORDER
BATTLE, DECORAH IA
5/4 NASPA CUYAHOGA FALLS OH
5/4 NASPA ROME NY
5/4 NASPA NEW YORK NY
5/5 NASPA BERKELEY CA
5/14 NASPA LCT -INDEPENDENCE OH
5/18 NASPA BAYSIDE NY
5/18 NASPA DALLAS TX

T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
5/18-19 NASPA SASKATOON SK CAN
5/19 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN
5/19 WGPO MOUNTAIN VIEW CA
5/19 NASPA PHILADELPHIA PA (TWL & COLLINS)
5/23-27 NASPA SACRAMENTO CA
5/23-27 NASPA TARRYTOWN NY
5/25 NASPA AUSTIN TX
5/25-27 NASPA COLLEGE PARK GA
5/25-27 NASPA IRVING TX
JUNE
6/1-2 NASPA CALGARY AB CAN
6/2 NASPA BERKELEY CA
6/6 NASPA LCT - AKRON OH
6/8 NASPA FORT LAUDERDALE FL
6/8 NASPA` KANSAS CITY MO
6/8 NASPA MISSISSAUGA ON CAN
6/8 NASPA NORWALK CT (TWL, COLLINS & YOUTH
DIVISIONS)
6/9 NASPA BETHEL CT (TWL & COLLINS)
6/9 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN
6/9 NASPA KANSAS CITY MO
6/15 NASPA BAYSIDE NY
6/15 NASPA DALLAS TX
6/15-16 NASPA KNOXVILLE TN
6/15-26 WGPO ITALY - CROATIA CRUISE (TWL & COLLINS)
6/15-16 NASPA PITTSBURGH PA
6/15 NASPA SEATTLE WA
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T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
6/15-16 NASPA SWILLLNS NM
6/16 WGPO MOUNTAIN VIEW CA
6/21-24 NASPA TORONTO ON CAN
6/22 NASPA EDMONTON AB CAN
6/22-23 NASPA GREATER DETROIT MI
6/29 NASPA AUSTIN TX
6/29 NASPA CHARLESTON WV
JULY
7/1-7 NASPA ALBANY NY (TWL & COLLINS)
7/5-7 NASPA OMAHA NE
7/13 NASPA BAYSIDE NY
7/13 NASPA WHITESBORO NY
7/14 NASPA DETROIT MI
7/19-24 NASPA NATIONAL SCRABBLE CHAMPIONSHIP -
LAS VEGAS NV (TWL & COLLINS)
7/27 NASPA AUSTIN TX
7/28 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN
AUGUST
8/2-7 WGPO WGPO WORD CUP
8/11 NASPA NEWARK DE
8/16-18 NASPA OLD GREENWICH CT
8/17 NASPA DALLAS TX
8/18 NASPA GUELPH ON CAN
8/31 NASPA AUSTIN TX
8/31-9/2 NASPA PORTLAND ME
8/31-9/2 NASPA WILMINGTON DE
SEPTEMBER
9/21 NASPA DALLAS TX

T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
9/21 NAPSA NORWALK CT (TWL, COLLINS & YOUTH
DIVISIONS)
9/28 NASPA AUSTIN TX
9/28 NASPA BAYSIDE NY
9/28 WGPO PHOENIX AZ
OCTOBER
10/2-6 NASPA CALGARY AB CAN
10/4-12 NASPA PERU TOUR AND SCRABBLE
TOURNAMENT (TWL & COLLINS)
10/17-20 NASPA LAKE GEORGE NY
10/19 NASPA DALLAS TX
10/26 NASPA AUSTIN TX
10/26 NASPA NORWALK CT (TWL, COLLINS & YOUTH
DIVISIONS)
NOVEMBER
11/1-3 NASPA CAMBRIDGE MD
11/9 NASPA PITTSBURGH PA
11/16-30 WGPO SOUTH CARIBBEAN ISLANDS CRUISE
11/16 NASPA DALLAS TX
11/16 NAPSA NORWALK CT (TWL, COLLINS & YOUTH
DIVISIONS)
11/23 NASPA BAYSIDE NY
11/29-12/1 NASPA TARRYTOWN NY
DECEMBER
12/7 NASPA CALGARY AB CA
12/8-13 WGPO CABO SAN LUCAS MEXICO
12/8 NASPA STRONGSVILLE OH
12/21 NASPA DALLAS TX
121

122
T O U R N A M E N T C A L E N D A R
12/21-25 NASPA WILMINGTON DE
12/28-1/1 NASPA ALBANY NY
FEBRUARY ’14
2/8 NASPA SAINT LOUIS MO
MARCH ’14
3/21-23 NASPA POUGHKEEPSIE NY
MAY ’14
5/22-26
NASPA SACRAMENTO CA
5/23-26 NASPA TARRYTOWN NY
JUNE ’14
6/27-7/7 NASPA LAS VEGAS NV (TWL & COLLINS)
JULY ’14
7/18-20 NASPA OLD GREENWICH CT (TWL & COLLINS)
AUGUST ’14
8/9-13 NASPA NATIONAL SCRABBLE CHAMPIONSHIP,
BUFFALO NY (TWL & COLLINS)
8/15-17 NASPA WILMINGTON DE MADNESS/MILDNESS
(TWL & COLLINS)
8/30-9/1 NASPA NEW YORK NY (TWL & COLLINS)
NOVEMBER ’14
11/28-30 NASPA TARRYTOWN NY
DECEMBER ’14
12/23-28
NASPA WILMINGTON DE

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