KATIE COURIC, co-host: Chances are you’re not bad at Scrabble; in fact, you may think you’re pretty good. But are you good enough to play at a tournament level when players memorize word lists and anagrams, and they compete at national championships? Well, journalist Stefan Fatsis takes a closer look at the inner workings of the competitive Scrabble world in his new book, “Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players.”
Hi, Stefan. How are you?
Mr. STEFAN FATSIS (“Word Freak”): Hi, Katie. I’m great.
COURIC: Nice to meet you. Now what made you write a book about Scrabble?
Mr. FATSIS: The obsession. I started playing for fun like everybody else, and then I met some of these competitive players. I was sort of looking for a good story to write about, and I got to know a lot of the top players who devote 20, 30, 40 hours a week or more to playing and studying Scrabble, and I found myself quickly becoming one of them.
COURIC: I mean, they take it incredibly seriously. I mean, what–tell me what lengths they go to to really be at the top of their game, so to speak.
Mr. FATSIS: Well, basically learning the bulk of the 110,000 words or so that are found in the official Scrabble word list, which is a big book. It doesn’t even have any definitions in it. But it’s far more than that, too. It’s learning a lot of obscure words, and it’s also understanding strategy and competition and–and how to win at–at–at a competitive board game.
COURIC: You know, I–I love Scrabble, but I play occasionally, you know, at the beach or in my living room with friends. Are there any real keys about really kicking butt at Scrabble so that I can win the next time? Is part of it about making more than one word? In other words…
Mr. FATSIS: At a time.
COURIC: …making several words, or…
Mr. FATSIS: It is. It is. One of the key things to do is learn there are 96 two-letter words that are acceptable in the game, and those are really the building blocks, and that’s the first step that people take toward–toward learning them. But for us competitive players, that I describe in the book, it’s way more than that.
COURIC: Is it also important to be defensive? In other words, you don’t want to set up a situation where your opponent has access to that red square with those three dreaded or celebrated words, depending on who you are–triple word score, right?
Mr. FATSIS: Well, no. That’s the thing not to be afraid of, actually. People are always scared to open it up to their opponent, but as often as not–as often as not, you get to use it because your opponent can’t.
COURIC: Really?
Mr. FATSIS: So fear is something to be avoided.
COURIC: But if you’re with a good opponent and a triple word score is available, no matter how lame the word, they’re usually going to take advantage of it, aren’t they?
Mr. FATSIS: Yeah, but Scrabble’s a game of probability. It’s really a math game, not a word game, so you’re always calculating what’s left in the bag. And chances are that you may have the good stuff, and your opponent will have garbage and not be able to use it.
COURIC: And that was a lesson you learned early on, isn’t it, Stefan? Don’t whine about your tiles. Don’t say, `Oh, my gosh, I have all vowels,’ right?
Mr. FATSIS: That’s what everybody does at the beginning, but I was told sort of to be very Zen about the game, and I studied with all these top players, who I write about in the book, who understand that Scrabble is a lot about luck. Skill is there but you have to deal with what’s in front of you. So it’s really a mind game.
COURIC: Now, you compare–you say it’s a math game, but you compare it to chess and backgammon, right?
Mr. FATSIS: Indeed. The guy that invented Scrabble was an unemployed architect back in the Depression and he–he realized that he could create a game that combined the great things about chess and backgammon strategy with this other factor, luck, that people love to have in their games.
COURIC: Now is another key, also, Stefan, to freak out your–psych out your opponent by coming up with a word that isn’t really a word and then they challenge you or maybe they’re intimidated and they don’t want to challenge you? I mean, is that a strategy that sometimes you employ?
Mr. FATSIS: Oh, it’s part of the game, and I learned early on that it’s not a successful part of the game.
COURIC: It’s not?
Mr. FATSIS: The phonier words you make against opponents that know the words, the more likely you are to lose the challenge and lose a turn. And the best players, that I profile and spent years with playing and studying and learning from, only do it when they know that they can get away with it or feel very confident that they can.
COURIC: Yeah, and you always consult the Official Scrabble Dictionary…
Mr. FATSIS: Right.
COURIC: …which your brother stayed up all night, I understand, reading when the new edition came out?
Mr. FATSIS: He did, many, many years ago. I remember that when I was a teen-ager. And years later when I found myself doing the same thing and learning from these other people who’d done the same thing, it was a little–it was a little scary.
COURIC: Now how many people are in this world of competitive Scrabble players?
Mr. FATSIS: Well, there are–the broader world, the living room players, there are about 30 million sets of Scrabble in homes in North America.
COURIC: Right.
Mr. FATSIS: The competitive world is a lot smaller, probably around 10,000 people who are part of the National Scrabble Association, and another two–2500 who play in tournaments regularly.
COURIC: And you score in the top 10 percent of all tournament players, isn’t that right?
Mr. FATSIS: I started all the way at the bottom.
COURIC: Or you rank, I guess.
Mr. FATSIS: I’m ranked, yeah. You get a ranking in tournaments, and I started out all the way at the bottom playing game like–like this one over here that you guys set up, which is really very consistent with what people do at home.
COURIC: Right.
Mr. FATSIS: Very common words that sort of test the vocabulary.
COURIC: And here’s a Q word without the U.
Mr. FATSIS: One of 10.
COURIC: Wow. What does this word mean?
Mr. FATSIS: Q-A-T. It’s a kind of herb.
COURIC: Herb? And how do you pronounce that?
Mr. FATSIS: Qat.
COURIC: Qat.
Mr. FATSIS: You can also spell it K-A-T or K-H-A-T.
COURIC: Oh, yeah, but much higher scoring with a Q, right?
Mr. FATSIS: With Q, and you want to get rid of that Q.
COURIC: Oh, well this is great. You’re going to have to give me some tips so I can beat my friends in my next game of Scrabble.
Mr. FATSIS: I will.
COURIC: And of course, you profile some of the colorful characters, like G.I. Joel and G.I. stands for gastro-intestinal. He’s got a lot of problems, and he’s known to belch throughout the game?
Mr. FATSIS: He does very often, but he’s one of the–he’s a great man and a great Scrabble player. And the book really is my own journey through this world and the people I meet and the ideas that I uncover. So it’s more than just about tips.
COURIC: Well, it’s a lot of fun. The word–the book is “Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players.” Stefan Fatsis, thanks so much for coming by.
Mr. FATSIS: Thank you, Katie.
COURIC: And we’ll be back in a moment. This is TODAY on NBC.
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