Beyonce on a triple-word score? Scrabble to upset purists with 'dumbing down' rule change



Any Scrabble fan will tell you that knowing how to spell Beyonce, Timbuktu, or Quorn would never help you win the game.

But now, to the horror of the purists, the game's makers are throwing out the old rule book and allowing proper nouns.

Worse still, not only will the names of places, trademarks and people be permissible, but even words spelled backwards or placed unconnected to other pieces.

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The decision, by games giant Mattel, will allow the celebrity, geographic and sports worlds to invade the most popular word game, leaving many a Scrabble fan bemused, or as the regular player may prefer, bumbazed. For why memorise some of the 30,000 eight letter words in our rich and quirky English language when the names of pop stars such as Jay-Z or sportsmen like Zico may get you many more points. Anyone with a keen knowledge of football has a distinct advantage.

For example Zhirkov, as in the Chelsea footballer Yuri Zhirkov, scores a standard 26 points.

If your Zhirkov falls on a triple word score and you use all seven of your tiles it will net you a massive 131 points. It would even beat the highest ever score granted in the opening play of a championship match which was 126 point 'muzjiks'. A muzjik is a Russian peasant, as utilised by Jesse Inman at the U.S. National Scrabble Championship in 2008. Mattel defends its decision to make the game easier by saying it will level the playing field between experienced players and novices.

But the announcement has caused outrage among regular players with accusations that the company is 'dumbing down' the game. Richard Lyon, chairman of the Cambridge Scrabble club, will not be playing by the new rules, even though his college Fitzwilliam becomes the highest scoring Cambridge college with a minimum 28 points.



SCRABBLE? GAME ON!

Some 53 per cent of all homes in Great Britain have a Scrabble set.

Versions of Scrabble have been sold in 29 different languages. The latest addition is the Welsh language Scrabble introduced in 2006.

There are around 4,000 Scrabble clubs around the world, organising hundreds of competitions - including three separate World Championships for elite players in English, French and Spanish.

UK players have their own organisation, the Association of British Scrabble Players which was taken to court in 1995 by a player for allowing too little time for him to go to the toilet between games.

There are over 260,000 legal words allowed under British Scrabble rules, including 124 permissible two-letter words containing every letter in the alphabet except V. The highest number of points that can be scored on the first go is 128 - with 'muzjiks' (Russian peasants). The highest score for one game is 1049 by Philip Appleby from Lymington in 1989.



He said: 'These changes go against the core tenets of the game. Avoiding names is a discipline. And floating words make it even easier. Why play a game that doesn't challenge you?'



Keith Churcher, chairman of the Reading Scrabble Club, was dismayed.

He said: 'Players like myself have spent decades memorising words in the dictionary.



'To be trumped by someone with knowledge of the current top ten pop chart is not a welcome prospect.



'They're dumbing down a classic.'



When U.S. architect Alfred Butts invented the game in 1948 he banned the use of proper nouns.



Players have adhered to his rules ever since.



They govern world championship tournaments as well as club games played across the world.

A spokesman for Mattel admitted the new rules would not be popular but added: 'The new quirks will level the playing field.



'Experienced players with a vast vocabulary could be equally pitted against players with a love of celebrity or football.

'Obviously some people will want to continue playing the old rules so we will still be selling a board with the original rules.'

Scrabble inventor Alfred Butts in the factory making tiles for his game, which has so far sold 150million sets world-wide



