Club and Tournament Play

Tens of thousands play club and tournament Scrabble worldwide. The intensity of play, obscurity of words, and stratospheric scores in tournament games may come as a shock to many parlour players. There is an example Scrabble tournament game between two top players in which the combined score was over 1,000.

All tournament (and most club) games are played with a game clock and a set time control. Typically, each player has twenty-five minutes in which to make all of their plays. For each minute by which a player oversteps the time control, a penalty of ten points is assessed. The number of minutes is rounded up, so that if a player oversteps time control by two minutes and five seconds, the penalty is thirty points. In addition, the players use special tiles called Protiles which are not engraved, like wooden tiles are, thereby eliminating the potential for a cheating player to "braille" (feel for particular tiles, especially blanks, in the bag).

Players are allowed "tracking sheets", preprinted with the letters in the initial pool, from which tiles can be crossed off as they are played. "Tracking" tiles is an important aid to strategy, especially during the "endgame", when no tiles remain to be drawn and each player can determine exactly what is on the opponent's rack.

The most prestigious (regularly held) tournaments include:

1. The World Scrabble Championship: held in odd years. It was held in London in 2005.
2. The American National Championship: an open event attracting several hundred players, held in the summer in even years (usually) until 2004, and annually afterwards. The 2005 event was held in Reno, Nevada.
3. The Canadian National Championship: invitational to the top fifty players, held every two to three years.

Clubs in North America typically meet one day a week for three or four hours and charge a small admission fee to cover their expenses and prizes. Clubs also typically hold at least one open tournament per year. Tournaments are usually held on weekends, and between six and nine games are played each day. During off hours at tournaments, many players socialise by playing consultation (team) Scrabble, Clabbers, Anagrams, Boggle and other games.