Scrabble

From WPC unofficial wiki

Rules[edit]

Put at most one letter into each cell so that the given words can be read either across (left-to-right) or down (top-to-bottom) in consecutive cells in the grid. Every word must appear in the grid exactly once, and no other words may appear in the grid (that is, if two cells are filled and are adjacent, then there must be a word that uses both of them). Every word must have either a blank cell or the edge of the grid before and after it. All letters must be (orthogonally) connected in a single group.

(Rules from PGP IB, example from WPC 2017 IB)

Rule variations[edit]

There are a lot. For example,

  • Exactly one letter from each word is given.
  • All intersections are given.
  • All occurrences of some letters (like "U and K") are given.

Also, there are many optimisers based on this puzzle. For example,

  • Use as many words as possible.
  • Maximise the number of intersections.

History of the puzzle[edit]

Diagramless crossword was invented in 1924 by F. Gregory Hartswick (USA)[1]. Scrabble can be considered as Diagramless Crossword with words to be used given.

Variants[edit]

Gridless Crossword[edit]

As stated in the "History" section, this puzzle (as a crossword variant) was invented in 1924 by F. Gregory Hartswick (USA), hence predating the Scrabble puzzle.

This version with a list, which appeared on WPC 2017/Round 23, was presented as a part of a larger puzzle with a shared list, therefore including a lot of unused words for this puzzle.

Place the given list of words in the grid going across or down as per the crossword clues. The crossword grid is replaced by a blank grid of the same size. The clues are numbered from left to right and top to bottom and indicate the additional information available for each word in the given list along with the size of the word. The cells occupied by the crossword follow rotational symmetry with respect to the centre of the grid. Words that are not interconnected must be separated by black cells.

(Rules and example from WPC 2017 IB)

Pentomino Scrabble[edit]

First appeared on Tawan Sunathvanichkul's (Thailand) set from the 12th 24-Hour Puzzle Championship (2011).

Place the given set of pentominoes into the grid. The pentominoes may be rotated and reflected, but they cannot touch each other, not even diagonally. Afterwards, place all the words from the given list into all the remaining (white) cells of the grid so that each word can be read from left to right or from top to bottom in the grid exactly once. All words must be orthogonally connected. No words except the ones listed can appear anywhere in the grid (not even a two-letter word). Some letters are already given.

(Rules and example (3 Ys) from WPC 2016 IB)

Full Scrabble[edit]

First appeared on Scrabble Variations Contest, held on the Diogen society website in 2011[2] (not available online) under the name "Retro Scrabble" (an allusion to Retrograde Battleships. The author of the puzzle was Andrey Bogdanov (Russia).

Shade some cells to get a valid Scrabble solution:

Shade all the redundant letters in the grid so that all words from the given list appear into the grid exactly once, consisting of the remaining letters. Each word can be read from left to right or from top to bottom. All words must be orthogonally connected. Words that are not on the list cannot appear in the grid (not even two-letter words).

(Rules and example from WPC 2016 IB)

Kropki Scrabble[edit]

First appeared on WPC 2016/Round 3 (Kropki variant round). The author of the puzzle was Matúš Demiger (Slovakia).

Place all words from the given list into the grid so that each word can be read from left to right or from top to bottom exactly once. All words must be orthogonally connected. Words that are not on the list cannot appear in the grid (not even two-letter words).

The dots in the grid provide information about the lengths of word segments divided by the dot. If there is a white dot between a pair of word segments, then the difference of the lengths of these segments is exactly one. If there is a black dot between a pair of word segments, then the quotient of the lengths of these segments is exactly two. There can be either a black or white dot between word segments of lengths 1 and 2. There must be a word passing through each of the given dots. Not all possible dots have been given, but all the given dots must be part of the words.

(Rules and example from WPC 2016 IB)

Myopia Scrabble[edit]

First appeared on WPC 2016/Round 10, a Myopia-related variant round. The author of the puzzle was Matej Uher (Slovakia).

Place all words from the given list into the grid so that each word can be read from left to right or from top to bottom exactly once. All words must be orthogonally connected. Words that are not on the list cannot appear in the grid (not even two-letter words).

The arrows point at all of the closest cells with a letter in the corresponding direction. No letter can be placed in a cell already containing an arrow.

(Rules and Example from WPC 2016 IB)

Double Letter Scrabble[edit]

First appeared on WPC 2017/Round 23 as a part of a larger puzzle. The author of the puzzle was Amit Sowani (India). See also Letter Pairs.

Place all the listed words in the grid going across or down, i.e. left to right and top to bottom. Each word intersects with at least one other word and all words are interconnected. No words of two or more letters can appear anywhere in the grid, except the ones listed. All instances of a double letter are marked in the grid.

(Rules and example from WPC 2017 IB)

Appearances in the past WPCs[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/62421885.pdf
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20121102091324/http://www.diogen.h1.ru/cgi-bin/contest/start.pl
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