Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 1, 1991 TAG: 9104010321
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Los Angles Daily News/ and Landmark News Service reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Do you cash in your letters for seven new ones and forfeit your turn? A Scrabble novice might. But Scrabble experts know their P's and Q's.
Spotting that open E in the far-flung corner of the board, you spill all of your tiles and assemble them vertically to spell "eulogiae" stretching across two double-letter premium squares as well as a double-word premium.
The move earns you 22 points plus an additional 50 for recording a bingo - official Scrabble lingo for unloading all of your tiles in one turn. Your opponent is speechless.
Who cares or even knows that eulogiae (plural of eulogia) is defined as "holy bread" in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary? Experts of the game certainly don't.
But you can bet that they have the word memorized as one of five eight-letter words that contain six vowels.
"A lot of Scrabble experts do not know the meaning of some words at all," said John Williams, president of the National Scrabble Association in Greenport, N.Y. ". . . Great Scrabble players just need to know that something is a word and how to spell it."
One word they won't find in the Scrabble dictionary is "sexagenarian," a 60-year-old. But it does describe Scrabble, which was invented in 1931.
As part of the anniversary celebration, 75 Scrabble tournaments sanctioned by the National Scrabble Association are being held in North America, culminating in Cincinnati in August with the 1991 NSA Masters tournament, which will attract about 300 of the nation's top wordsmiths.
In September, the first-ever Scrabble world championship invitational tournament, with an estimated top prize of $10,000, will take place in London with 48 players from 20 countries.
Upcoming NSA-sanctioned tournaments are in Memphis (April 27-28) and New Hartford, N.Y. (May 4-5).
New varieties of the game are also due out. Milton Bradley, which acquired the rights to Scrabble in 1989 from longtime manufacturer Selchow and Righter New York, will release a Scrabble edition for children ages 5 to 8 this year that includes visual clues on the board, while video-game giant Nintendo will release a Scrabble cartridge for its popular hand-held Game Boy unit.
Virginia enthusiasts
No tournaments are scheduled in or near Virginia. There isn't even an official Scrabble club in the Old Dominion. But that doesn't mean there aren't enthusiasts galore in the state.
Dr. Robert Rubin, a Norfolk orthodontist, has five Scrabble sets in his house, including a couple of "travel" Scrabble sets that he takes with him on vacation, just in case he runs into another Scrabble freak.
It doesn't matter much what set he's playing on, the outcome is usually the same. Rubin has racked up 500 points and left his opponent wondering where all those triple-word scores came from.
He once demoralized the guy across from him by opening a game with three consecutive seven-letter words. If Rubin draws a blank and doesn't turn it into at least 50 points, he "gets depressed."
"It's just a terrific, terrific game," says the 59-year-old Rubin, who has been playing since he was a college student.
To Rubin and most Scrabble lovers, the game is more than just stringing letters together to make words. Or "pushing tiles," as he calls it.
"It's a very sophisticated game with offensive and defensive strategies. Just knowing a lot of words isn't enough to be an exceptional player," he said. "Take my brother. He's a real bright guy. Does The New York Times' crossword puzzle on a typewriter. But he's not into the strategy.
"I've finally gotten my daughter who lives in Boston hooked on the game," he said. "When I go up to visit, we play five or six straight games without getting up. It's a lot like chess. No two games are the same. She's getting so good she can beat me . . . occasionally."
Computerized foe
When Ella Burris of Chesapeake doesn't have anyone to play with, it doesn't stop her. The 32-year-old bookkeeper whips out her board and goes one-on-one against herself.
She started playing about 10 years ago when she lived in New Jersey and a bunch of her co-workers played at lunch time.
"In the beginning, I'd make two-and three-letter words and that's about it," she said. "I'd get beat pretty bad. But I got serious about the game and bought a Scrabble dictionary and got a lot better."
While she dreams about making an eight-letter word in two directions, Burris loves those little esoteric two-letter words that produce big points.
"Like `xi,' that's a monetary unit. And `xu' and `zoa.' Drop those in a triple-word space and you're off."
Like Rubin and Burris, Scrabble players come in all ages, genders and careers, says Joe Edley, a former national champion and current editor of Scrabble News.
"Housewives, cabdrivers and secretaries are among the echelon of top players, along with lawyers, computer programmers and doctors."
And retired folks. There are a number of Scrabble lovers in Westminster Canterbury, a retirement community in Virginia Beach, but probably none as dedicated as Annie and Joe Fell. Annie, 79, and Joe, 85, play Monty almost every day.
Monty?
"He's our computer opponent," Annie said. "They've got the game out in computer, and you play against Monty. There's five levels of difficulty. . . . I can beat Monty at [the fourth level], but he's tough at [the highest level]. But not as tough as playing Joe. He used to beat me so often, that's why we got the computer version of Scrabble."
The Fells have been playing long before you could play Scrabble on a screen.
"I'd say we've been playing for about 40 years," said Annie, a retired employment service analyst. "I think it keeps you sharp. Don't call it an old person's game, because it isn't."
Annie still plays like a youngster. She regularly scores 400-plus against Monty. And once this year, she racked up 500 against him.
"I just love playing," she said. "Some people can't sleep at night and they pick up a book. When I wake up in the middle of the night, I go get Monty and we have a game."
Scrabble tidbits
Scrabble was invented in 1931 by Alfred M. Butts, an out-of-work architect.
The game, originally called "Crisscross Words," was renamed in 1948.
The 10 best players in the last National Scrabble Open averaged 405 points per game.
The most points scored in an official game in the United States was 719. The world record is 725, held by an Australian.
The highest score in one turn in sanctioned U.S. club play was made using the word "ANTIQUES" for 293 points.
The top-ranked U.S. Scrabble players include a book editor, graduate student in English literature and a prison security supervisor.
Scrabble is played in seven languages and Braille.
An estimated 27 percent of U.S. households contain at least one Scrabble set.
Source: National Scrabble Association
by CNB