Scrabble in France: Tiles of Twins

With Scrabble being the most popular board game in France, thousands of French families have flocked to their Scrabble boards this holiday season. But did you know that French Scrabble is different from the English version? His world champion does not know French?

A little history

Scrabble was invented by Alfred Mosher Bots in 1938 as a variation on an earlier word game called Lexico. The new game was originally called Gris Crosswords, before being renamed Scrabble, which is an actual word for “frenzied scratch”. The game didn’t sell well at first, but then (according to legend) the boss of Macy’s became a fan and started selling it in all his stores. The rest, as they say, is history.

less complete

Scrabble consists of 100 pieces, of which 98 pieces have a letter on them and two are empty. The number of squares marked with a letter and the point value depends on how often that letter is used. The more a letter is used in a language, the more squares that letter has and the lower the value of the squares. Conversely, the rarer the alphabet of a language, the fewer the squares and the higher their value.

This is where Scrabble in French and English begins to differ. Both languages share vowels, so they both have many vowel squares, each worth one point. But some letters are rarer in French than in English, and more valuable. For example, the letters W, Y, and K are only worth 4, 4, and 5 points respectively in English, while in French they get 10 points each. This is why whiskey is the most valued seven-letter word in French Scrabble.

Long live the difference!

More than 20,000 members of the Fédération Internationale de Scrabble Français come from all over the world, including France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada and Francophone Africa. Since there are two different versions popular in the francophone world, they play two types of Scrabble.

The first, called Classic Scrabble, is the one we all grew up with. Players draw seven squares and swap words on the board. This includes an element of luck, as the tiles you draw can have a huge impact on the words you can make.

Repeating scribble removes this opportunity. In this version, invented by the Belgian Hippolyte Wouters in 1970, each player uses identical tiles. The moderator draws the boxes and announces the candidates. Everyone uses these squares to create their best words, write them with their suggested location on the board, and enter them. The entry with the highest score is announced and added to the board, and then more squares are drawn. Each player gets a score for the word they submitted, even if the word is not the highest score.

Duplicate Scrabble is not very popular in the English speaking world, but it is very popular in French competitions. One advantage is that a lot of people can play at the same time – a big tournament sometimes has 1000 people!

During the annual French World Scrabble Championships, the classics and doubles are played. The classic form is most common in Africa, so the champion is usually African. Duplicate Scrabble is very popular in European tournaments, so the champion is usually European.
angry …

Talented Sir Richard

Which brings us to the wonderful Nigel Richards. Mr. Richards is a New Zealand Scrabble connoisseur and titled greatest player in history. After winning the English Championship several times – the only person to do so – he decided to switch to French.

The only problem: he doesn’t speak the language.

there is no problem! Richards obtained a copy of the Official French Scrabble Dictionary and began reading it. A few months later, Viola! He mastered the largest part of the more than 400,000 words, more than twice the number in the English dictionary. He doesn’t understand words but that’s fine, he knows how to use them.

Armed with this knowledge, Richards has won the classic Scrabble title (once) and the Scrabble doubles title (three and more times) in French competition, and is now the English and French World Scrabble Champion. , which is a remarkable achievement. .

This surprises you. How does Richards celebrate his victories? Maybe with a good glass of whiskey?