S-C-O-R-E: Croton man headed to national SCRABBLE Championship

When was the last time you sat down and played a word game? Maybe it was the Jumble puzzle in today’s newspaper, Boggle with a stranger via a phone app or SCRABBLE on family game night.

Will Anderson of Croton-on-Hudson played all three games every morning this week. It's part of his final preparations before he heads to the North American SCRABBLE Championship this weekend in Reno, Nevada.

After finishing third at the National Championship in 2013 and fifth last year, Anderson has his eyes on the $10,000 grand prize at this year’s tournament. He’ll play 21 games along with 300 other top players, then hopes to advance to the eight-player bracket-style tournament to play 10 more games.

Anderson, 30, has a way with words.

While he started playing SCRABBLE competitively just six years ago, Anderson has quickly played his way to the top. A collegiate textbook publisher, he is currently ranked No. 6 in the U.S. and Canada by the North American SCRABBLE Players Association.

The Hasbro game was founded by Alfred Mosher Butts, of Poughkeepsie, during the Great Depression. These days, the company says, you can find a SCRABBLE set in three out of five American households -- and that's not even counting the electronic versions on people's iPads and phones.

Anderson himself didn't pick up the game until after college. After studying philosophy and classics (Greek and Latin) at Union College in Schenectady, he began playing SCRABBLE as a hobby. And, after dominating local tournaments, he worked his way into the national circuit.

NASPA Co-president Chris Cree, whose organization will host this weekend's tournament, said the annual contest offers a different atmosphere.

"SCRABBLE is certainly more popular now than it ever was, especially with the online and phone applications that people play, but coming to a tournament and playing face-to-face is a whole different ballgame," he said, noting that Anderson has been a formidable competitor.

So what's the key to Anderson's success?

“I play a lot, obviously, but I also spend a lot of time anagramming and studying the game dictionary,” he said.

Anagramming, or rearranging the letters in a word to make a new word, is a skill he works on for hours each day. Finding the best arrangement in each seven-letter set in front of him is crucial to scoring maximum points on the board.

“It’s unique because it’s a game of strategy and a game of chance at the same time,” Anderson said.

For example, he explained, drawing two “V’s” and a “Q” might seem like bad luck, but experts know how to utilize those tiles on the board to their advantage.

He uses apps such as Boggle and Words with Friends as ways to practice his word skills. To demonstrate, he pulled up a game of Boggle on his phone and his fingers flew around the 12-letter board. After two minutes, he took over first place on the online game's worldwide leaderboard.

Anderson also plays in online SCRABBLE tournaments to stay sharp and help pay the bills, sometimes earning thousands of dollars from one contest.

What’s the biggest score Anderson has ever gotten out of one word?  “Switched” covered two triple word scores and got him 260 points, a rare feat in the game.

Anderson — who will face contestants ranging in age from 11 to 85 this weekend — expects to lose some of the games, but is keeping an open mind about his chances.

“It’s difficult to stay zen, but all the best players are very even-keeled, don’t get rattled and don’t get upset when they lose,” he said.

Anderson's tips for becoming a SCRABBLE expert:

1. Knowing all two-letter words — there are 101 of them in the SCRABBLE dictionary — is important for every player, beginner or expert. Words such as “za” (slang for pizza) and “qi” (the Chinese belief of natural life forces) can score big points when played correctly.
2. Be observant of the world around you. Take words from places like street signs and food packaging and try finding new word arrangements from their letters.
3. Play word games. The only way to improve is to practice anagramming and working on game skills.

Follow live coverage of Anderson from August 1-5 at the North American SCRABBLE Championship here.

Find more info about the championship here.