NASPAWiki - User contributions [en]

File:CSW countries.png

2018-01-22T01:23:06Z

Nball: Nball uploaded a new version of File:CSW countries.png

Map showing which countries use CSW

File:CSW countries.png

2018-01-22T01:19:11Z

Nball: Nball uploaded a new version of File:CSW countries.png

Map showing which countries use CSW

SOWPODS

2018-01-22T01:14:19Z

Nball: Update CSW countries map

The '''SOWPODS''' lexicon, more commonly now referred to as '''Collins''' or '''Collins Scrabble Words''' ('''CSW'''), is a word list first published in 2007 by Collins, and updated in 2012 and 2015. NASPA has sanctioned official games played in the CSW lexicon in a separate [[SOWPODS rating system|CSW rating system]] since January 2010. The 2012 edition was in effect until August 31, 2015; the 2015 edition took effect on September 1, 2015.

[[Image:CSW_countries.png|400px|center|alt Map of the CSW world]]

English-language Scrabble as a whole is played to two lexica, depending on country. This map shows countries [1] according to the lexicon(s) they use. Currently, 48 countries use CSW (green), and 3 use predominantly the Official Tournament and Club Word List 2016 edition ([[OTCWL|OTCWL16]], the North American lexicon), with some CSW play. These countries, shown in blue, are Canada, Thailand, and the United States.

== Statistics ==

* The 2015 edition of CSW has 276,663 words from 2-15 letters, up from 270,163 words in the 2012 edition, an increase of 6500 words
* The 2015 edition includes all of the words that are acceptable in the current North American OTCWL16 word list, with the exception of 59 2-8 letter words, and 1844 9-15 letter words
* In 2014, 8% of all games played were CSW-rated, the remainder being played in the [[OTCWL]] lexicon

== Coinage ==

The name “SOWPODS” was coined as an anagram of OSW+OSPD, the names of the two lexicons (the British Official Scrabble Words and the American Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary) that were originally merged to form SOWPODS. The SOWPODS word list is currently edited by the [[WESPA]] Dictionary Committee; comments concerning the list should be directed to the NASPA [[International Committee]]. The CSW word list contains almost all of the words found in [[OTCWL|OTCWL16]], as well as a large number of other English words from around the world.

== More information ==

The purpose of these webpages is to provide informative and, hopefully, interesting information to those North American tournament and club players who are curious about trying out the CSW game. They do not, therefore, aim to introduce Scrabble play as a whole, but those parts of it that change if one moves from playing OTCWL to playing CSW. Thus, we start with how the game differs from OTCWL, introduce the most useful extra words to know, address some commonly asked questions and concerns, then describe the current CSW scene as it is evolving in North America. Finally, we present links to further resources outside of this wiki.

The sections below follow on from each other in order, but each can be read on its own.

* [[How Collins differs]]
* [[Important Collins words]]
* [[Obscure Collins words]]
* [[Collins updates]]
* [[Downsides to Collins]]
* [[Collins tournaments and ratings]]
* [[Try it]]
* [[Collins links]]

<br>Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

[1] List of CSW countries derived from players with an active international rating at http://www.wespa.org/aardvark/cgi-bin/rating.cgi . We are happy to add any countries omitted by this method.

Collins links

2017-05-22T01:51:44Z

Nball: Added link to https://learningscrabblewords.blogspot.com/2017/05/on-switch-hitting.html

This page provides links related Collins, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

Since once can obviously find much material online by web-searching "Scrabble", "Collins", etc., we limit the selection to the most useful links for the player new to CSW.

These links are all up-to-date for CSW15 unless otherwise noted.

== General ==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.scrabble.com">Scrabble</a></td>
<td> General worldwide site for Scrabble </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org">NASPA</a></td>
<td> North American Scrabble Players Association </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA</a></td>
<td> World English-Language Scrabble Players Association </td>
</tr>
</table>

== Playing Guides & Books ==

Some of these are not up-to-date for CSW15, but the effect is minor

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.breakingthegame.net">Breaking the Game</a></td>
<td> Cutting-edge Scrabble strategy, puzzles, etc. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.breakingthegame.net/word">Word</a></td>
<td> Basic Scrabble strategy </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.breakingthegame.net/scrabblesolved">Scrabble Solved</a></td>
<td> Advanced strategy </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ways-Scrabble-Collins-Little-Books/dp/0007514565">101 Ways to Win at Scrabble</a></td>
<td> Recent British book </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Scrabble-Play-like-champion/dp/0007342276">Collins Scrabble: Play Like a Champion</a></td>
<td> A few years older </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/How-Win-At-Scrabble-Andrew-Fisher/0713488204">How to Win at Scrabble</a></td>
<td> From 2004, but comprehensive guide to high level play </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayershandbook.com">The Scrabble Player's Handbook</a></td>
<td> Free online PDF </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Word-Addict-secrets-SCRABBLE-champion/dp/0008146470">Word Addict: Secrets of a World SCRABBLE Champion</a></td>
<td> Recent world champion's story, with game insight </td>
</tr>
</table>

== Software ==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.quackle.org">Quackle</a></td>
<td> Widely used software that can be configured for Scrabble </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://zyzzyva.net">NASPA Zyzzyva</a></td>
<td> Widely used word study software; requires NASPA membership and license </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/scrabble/scrabble-tools">Collins Zyzzyva</a></td>
<td> Free version that does not contain TWL, but has more comprehensive definitions for CSW, spanning 2-15 letters </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.aerolith.org">Aerolith</a></td>
<td> Online game to practice anagramming, in TWL or CSW </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.poslarchive.com/math/software/tsh">Tournament Shell</a></td>
<td> Tournament directing software that can do TWL or CSW </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://director.victoriascrabble.org">Director</a></td>
<td> Another tournament directing software, more graphically based </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.codehappy.net/elise">Elise</a></td>
<td> Another word game playing software </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.wolfberg.net/what">WHAT</a></td>
<td> Another word finding software </td>
</tr>
</table>

== Word Lists ==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_1.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet Part 1]]</td>
<td> Useful CSW-only words for handy reference: 2s, 3s, high probability bingos, the 59 2-8 letter words only in TWL, etc. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_2.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet Part 2]]</td>
<td> More useful words: hooks of 2s, 4s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Official-Scrabble-Words-Dictionaries/dp/0007589085">Collins Official Scrabble Words</a></td>
<td> Official CSW15 book </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Scrabble-Dictionary-official-playable/dp/0007589131">Collins Scrabble Dictionary</a></td>
<td> 2-9 letter words, with short definitions </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Ultimate-Scrabble-Dictionary-Wordlist-x/dp/0007589093">Collins Ultimate Scrabble Dictionary and Wordlist</a></td>
<td> Similar, but with 10-15s also listed </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.absp.org.uk/words">ABSP words by category</a></td>
<td> Extensive sets of lists by many definition-based categories (languages, food, etc.) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/winningwords">Winning Words</a></td>
<td> Set of books with useful categories by part of speech, etc. </td>
</tr>
</table>

== Tournaments & Ratings ==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/tourneys/calendar.html">NASPA tournament calendar</a></td>
<td> Official calendar of rated NASPA tournaments, both TWL and CSW </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.cross-tables.com">Cross-Tables</a></td>
<td> Tournaments, ratings, results, etc. Front page has good visual list with obvious icons showing that a tournament is TWL or CSW </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS ratings</a></td>
<td> Description of the CSW ratings, with results </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.wespa.org/aardvark/cgi-bin/rating.cgi">WESPA ratings</a></td>
<td> World ratings </td>
</tr>
</table>

== Etc. ==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/217094718419713">Collins Scrabble Players</a></td>
<td> Online pro-CSW in North America community </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/TWLtoCollins">Transition from TWL to Collins</a></td>
<td> Second online community </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/zapateo99">Dweebovision</a></td>
<td> Videos of CSW games with clear and insightful commentary </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.word-buff.com">Word Buff</a></td>
<td> Lots of word-related material </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://learningscrabblewords.blogspot.com/2017/05/on-switch-hitting.html">Learning Scrabble Words</a></td>
<td> Blog entry on learning Collins words </td>
</tr>
</table>

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Downsides to Collins

2017-04-16T21:47:50Z

Nball:

This page discusses the downsides to playing using the Collins lexicon, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

While these downsides are certainly not intended to discourage anyone from playing CSW, it is useful to be aware of them before committing to learning and playing the CSW game.

== What Are the Downsides to Collins? ==

; '''It is difficult to play well in both lexica'''
: While one does not have to study many words to play CSW quite well, it could become difficult when playing TWL again to remember which words are only acceptable in CSW. This difficulty of remembering can inhibit the CSW-er's play in TWL because any word that is CSW-only is likely to be challenged off by a TWL player who is not familiar with it. Having a word challenged off is one of the worst things that can happen in a game with respect to optimal play. And while CSW contains more obscure words, simply using the maxim "if it's weird, it's Collins" will lead to many mistakes.

; '''Smaller North American community'''
: While the number of CSW players is growing, the North American community contains far more TWL players, and in many clubs there are no CSW players at all. In tournaments, the fields are often small, with uncertainty about whether an event will happen because a minimum quorum of 4 is needed for rating. If the event does happen, you will more likely encounter the same players frequently, or have to play them multiple times. The CSW field is also dominated by highly rated players who are often motivated to play Collins because of the opportunities for international play. And because the fields are small, usually all players are in a single division. While having many top players may be good or bad depending on your point of view, if you are not a top player, you will likely play and lose a lot of games in CSW.

; '''The challenge rule may be less challenging'''
: Some players like the double-challenge rule and feel that it is an essential part of the game. While there is still a penalty for an incorrect challenge, and there is no reason a CSW game cannot remain double-challenge given the rules, 5 or 10 points per word is a more common de facto standard. This is enough to make you at least pause before challenging, so the aspect of the game embodied by double challenge is not completely lost, but it is not the same decision making process.

; '''CSW is not North American English'''
: CSW reflects a more global usage of the language and as such is not just reflective of the language in the U.S. and Canada. However, this is also true for all of the countries that use CSW when it is considered in relation to their usage of English.

; '''There are [[Obscure Collins words|obscure words in Collins]]'''
: While TWL contains obsolete and archaic words, the CSW contains more of them.

; '''The existence of CSW play splits the U.S. SCRABBLE scene'''
: While the large majority of North American players are TWL, a significant number of top players either play only TWL or only CSW. This divides the top divisions of tournaments and lowers the prestige of winning any particular one. Because the Scrabble community is relatively small, fragmentation in general is bad. There are, however, many other ways in which the scene is fragmented. For example, we have School play with the OSPD5 lexicon; unsanctioned, recreational club, competitive club and tournament play; online and in-person play; and a long list of variant rules that people like to try. It is part of the strength of the basic game that its many variations appeal to different people. Officially sanctioned CSW play lets us keep players who prefer it to TWL play in the fold, and encourages immigrants and tourists to join our community. However, the use of a different lexicon from school play, which is sanctioned by the NSA rather than NASPA, would not be ideal for encouraging young players if NASPA were to switch and the NSA did not.

; '''There is no single official Collins dictionary with all the definitions'''
: The published Collins English dictionary does not contain all the words in CSW. This is because some words are only in the North American dictionaries, and some are in the Collins language corpus but not the printed dictionary. However, keep in mind that the U.S. lexicon is also spread over more than one dictionary (5, in fact), and that a companion volume to CSW, the Collins Official SCRABBLE Dictionary, contains short definitions for the 2-9 letter words, in a similar manner to OSPD. The [[Collins links|Collins edition]] of the Zyzzyva word study program likewise contains short definitions, for all word lengths up to 15 letters. Nevertheless, the lack of a coherent published dictionary-standard set of definitions is a notable downside to an official lexicon for a word game.

; '''Existing study may have to be redone'''
: A player who has spent a lot of time becoming expert in TWL is understandably reluctant to undertake the effort again merely to become proficient in a game at which they are already proficient. This is why it is important to note that a player expert in TWL can do well in CSW with a relatively much lower level of study. But there is still work for them to do, and, depending on the study method, it can add up. For example, using "stems" of 6 or 7 letters combined with mnemonics to know which combinations make a bingo will require significant revision because extra letters make bingos (see, e.g., [http://www.math.toronto.edu/jjchew/scrabble/anamonics-dd.html here]).

; '''A Collins player can take advantage of a TWL player'''
: Although as mentioned a TWL player can do well in CSW by learning relatively few words compared to what they learned for TWL, this does mean that an expert Collins player can use their knowledge of the lexicon to take advantage, by, for example, deliberately playing obscure words they know to be CSW only, or setting up and using CSW-only hooks. (For example, your author once played WHOW, then later hooked it to EWHOW for a lot of points, albeit in a rated tournament against another expert player.) This taking advantage is mitigated somewhat by the challenge rule, but penalties for challenging can still add up, and with hooks the opponent may not even know there is a possible play.

; '''Differing strategy'''
: The relative importance of different aspects of strategy, such as offense versus defense, may change, meaning that those players particularly skilled at one may be disadvantaged. However, these aspects are not publicly well quantified. For more details, see [[How Collins differs]].

<br>Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Downsides to Collins

2017-04-16T21:47:13Z

Nball:

This page discusses the downsides to playing using the Collins lexicon, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

While these downsides are certainly not intended to discourage anyone from playing CSW, it is useful to be aware of them before committing to learning and playing the CSW game.

== What Are the Downsides to Collins? ==

; '''It is difficult to play well in both lexica'''
: While one does not have to study many words to play CSW quite well, it could become difficult when playing TWL again to remember which words are only acceptable in CSW. This difficulty of remembering can inhibit the CSW-er's play in TWL because any word that is CSW-only is likely to be challenged off by a TWL player who is not familiar with it. Having a word challenged off is one of the worst things that can happen in a game with respect to optimal play. And while CSW contains more obscure words, simply using the maxim "if it's weird, it's Collins" will lead to many mistakes.

; '''Smaller North American community'''
: While the number of CSW players is growing, the North American community contains far more TWL players, and in many clubs there are no CSW players at all. In tournaments, the fields are often small, with uncertainty about whether an event will happen because a minimum quorum of 4 is needed for rating. If the event does happen, you will more likely encounter the same players frequently, or have to play them multiple times. The CSW field is also dominated by highly rated players who are often motivated to play Collins because of the opportunities for international play. And because the fields are small, usually all players are in a single division. While having many top players may be good or bad depending on your point of view, if you are not a top player, you will likely play and lose a lot of games in CSW.

; '''The challenge rule may be less challenging'''
: Some players like the double-challenge rule and feel that it is an essential part of the game. While there is still a penalty for an incorrect challenge, and there is no reason a CSW game cannot remain double-challenge given the rules, 5 or 10 points per word is a more common de facto standard. This is enough to make you at least pause before challenging, so the aspect of the game embodied by double challenge is not completely lost, but it is not the same decision making process.

; '''CSW is not North American English'''
: CSW reflects a more global usage of the language and as such is not just reflective of the language in the U.S. and Canada. However, this is also true for all of the countries that use CSW when it is considered in relation to their usage of English.

; '''There are [[Obscure Collins words|obscure words in Collins]]'''
: While TWL contains obsolete and archaic words, the CSW contains more of them.

; '''The existence of CSW play splits the U.S. SCRABBLE scene'''
: While the large majority of North American players are TWL, a significant number of top players either play only TWL or only CSW. This divides the top divisions of tournaments and lowers the prestige of winning any particular one. Because the Scrabble community is relatively small, fragmentation in general is bad. There are, however, many other ways in which the scene is fragmented. For example, we have School play with the OSPD5 lexicon; unsanctioned, recreational club, competitive club and tournament play; online and in-person play; and a long list of variant rules that people like to try. It is part of the strength of the basic game that its many variations appeal to different people. Officially sanctioned CSW play lets us keep players who prefer it to TWL play in the fold, and encourages immigrants and tourists to join our community. However, the use of a different lexicon from school play, which is sanctioned by the NSA rather than NASPA, would not be ideal for encouraging young players if NASPA were to switch and the NSA did not.

; '''There is no single official Collins dictionary with all the definitions'''
: The published Collins English dictionary does not contain all the words in CSW. This is because some words are only in the North American dictionaries, and some are in the Collins language corpus but not the printed dictionary. However, keep in mind that the U.S. lexicon is also spread over more than one dictionary (5, in fact), and that a companion volume to CSW, the Collins Official SCRABBLE Dictionary, contains short definitions for the 2-9 letter words, in a similar manner to OSPD. The [[Collins links|Collins edition]] of the Zyzzyva word study program likewise contains short definitions, for all word lengths up to 15 letters. Nevertheless, the lack of a coherent published dictionary-standard set of definitions is a notable downside to an official lexicon for a word game.

; '''Existing study may have to be redone'''
: A player who has spent a lot of time becoming expert in TWL is understandably reluctant to undertake the effort again merely to become proficient in a game at which they are already proficient. This is why it is important to note that a player expert in TWL can do well in CSW with a relatively much lower level of study. But there is still work for them to do, and, depending on the study method, it can add up. For example, using "stems" of 6 or 7 letters combined with mnemonics to know which combinations make a bingo will require significant revision because extra letters make bingos (see, e.g., [http://www.math.toronto.edu/jjchew/scrabble/anamonics-dd.html here]).

; '''A Collins player can take advantage of a TWL player'''
: Although as mentioned a TWL player can do well in CSW by learning relatively few words compared to what they learned for TWL, this does mean that an expert Collins player can use their knowledge of the lexicon to take advantage, by, for example, deliberately playing obscure words they know to be CSW only, or setting up and using CSW-only hooks. (For example, your author once played WHOW, then later hooked it to EWHOW for a lot of points, albeit in a rated tournament against another expert player.) This taking advantage is mitigated somewhat by the challenge rule, but penalties for challenging can still add up, and with hooks the opponent may not even know there is a possible play.

; '''Differing strategy'''
: The relative importance of different aspects of strategy, such as offense versus defense, may change, meaning that those players particularly skilled at one may be disadvantaged. However, these aspects are not publicly well quantified. For more details, see [[How Collins differs]].

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Nick Ball

2017-04-16T21:45:52Z

Nball: Prefer to list email without @ symbol

{{#naspa:bio|227}}

He can be reached by email at nmball79 at gmail.com .

[[Category:Committee members]]

Obscure Collins words

2017-04-16T21:44:19Z

Nball:

This page discusses how many of the words in the Collins lexicon seem obscure to [[OTCWL]] players, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

== Are All Collins Words Obscure, Obsolete, Foreign, etc.? ==

The short answer is mostly not, at least no more obscure than already makes up the majority of the TWL.

One must be careful to avoid a biased viewpoint, because when viewing the words that are CSW-only, one is not viewing the CSW itself, but just that part of it that contains the words not in the TWL. These are bound to be somewhat obscure, because if they were common everyday words widely used in English they would already be in the TWL.

Breaking down the list of CSW-only words into categories by meaning shows that a significant majority of the new words to be added are further examples of the kinds of words that already make up the TWL, such as animals, currency, minerals, and so on. Because the Scrabble lexica (both TWL and CSW) are based on single-volume abridged dictionaries, and not the full unabridged versions, such as Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, or the Oxford English Dictionary, they in fact really contain only a small fraction of the totality of English words. It is thus not surprising they that do not entirely overlap.

There are some differences: CSW has more obsolete and archaic words. They are not unique to CSW (TWL has perhaps 1,000 already), but there are certainly more. There are also more dialect words, particularly Scots, a result of the word source prior to Collins, The Chambers Dictionary, being based in Scotland, and its words being incorporated into the Collins Corpus. There are also significant numbers of words from countries where English is common, such as Australia, South Africa, and India. Ultimately, the ideal content of a word list is somewhat subjective.

The following list shows CSW-only words broken down into categories to show that a significant fraction are parts of categories that would not seem unreasonable to include in a word list, such as animals, food, and so on.

Note:

* Words do not appear in more than one category, so those not under ‘obsolete’, ‘archaic’, etc. are not obsolete or archaic
* The list was compiled manually, and so is not guaranteed complete
* The list was compiled from an older edition of CSW than CSW15, but the numbers will not have changed by large amounts so the list remains illustrative

{|
!Category|Number of Words
|-
|-
|Abbreviations
|86
|-
|Animals
|523
|-
|Archaic
|164
|-
|Australia
|112
|-
|Chemicals/minerals
|141
|-
|Clothing/fashion
|95
|-
|Computing
|32
|-
|Currency
|36
|-
|Dialect
|177
|-
|‘er’ nouns
|11
|-
|Food/Drink
|200
|-
|France
|112
|-
|Geography/geology
|87
|-
|Germany
|15
|-
|Heraldry
|44
|-
|India
|132
|-
|Interjections
|43
|-
|Irregular inflections
|345
|-
|Ireland
|36
|-
|Italy
|28
|-
|Japan
|21
|-
|Language
|51
|-
|Latin
|13
|-
|Law
|52
|-
|Mathematical
|22
|-
|Medical/anatomical
|153
|-
|Milton
|26
|-
|Music
|120
|-
|New Zealand
|122
|-
|Obsolete
|388
|-
|Other
|50
|-
|Other adjective
|383
|-
|Other -ier -iest adjective
|154
|-
|Other noun
|1269
|-
|Other verb
|573
|-
|Plants
|321
|-
|Religious/spiritual
|160
|-
|South Africa
|66
|-
|Scots
|573
|-
|Shakespeare
|207
|-
|Slang
|48
|-
|Spenser
|307
|-
|Sports/games
|77
|-
|Units
|41
|-
|USA
|12
|-
|Welsh
|7
|-
!Total
!635
|}

Aside from this list, an excellent resource for further lists of words by categories is at the [http://www.absp.org.uk Association of British Scrabble Players] website under their [http://www.absp.org.uk/words Words] section. These lists, compiled by David Sutton, cover the full range of CSW words from 2-15 letters, with useful one-line definitions throughout.

The lists mark words new to CSW15 versus the previous edition, CSW12, but there is no differentiation between CSW and TWL words.

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Important Collins words

2017-04-16T21:43:48Z

Nball:

This page describes which Collins-only words are important for an [[OTCWL|OTCWL]] player to learn, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

== How many more words are there, and what would I need to learn? ==

Technically, of course, you need to learn almost nothing, because there are just 59 2-8 letter words in TWL that are not in CSW, and almost all of those are obscure. In practice, of course, there are some useful basic words to start with.

Because CSW contains essentially all the TWL words, you can continue to play the same game, and anything that was good in TWL remains good. Because the fundamentals of the game have not changed, the kinds of words that are the most useful to study in TWL are also the best to study in CSW. Thus the player who has studied the 2s, 3s, JQXZ words, some 4s, high probability bingos, etc., can continue to use the same methods for CSW.

So how many words are there? In total, the TWL contains 188,738 words, and CSW contains 276,663. About half of these are 9–15 letters, and while some 9s can be useful, the vast majority (about 98%) of the gain is with the 2–8s. OWL contains 88,099 of these, while CSW has 118,999, which is 30,900 more. This is about 35%, which means that for approximately every 3 TWL words there is an extra CSW word.

However, it is likely that you did not start out playing TWL with the intention of learning all 188,738 words. Likewise, you can play a good CSW game without needing more than a small fraction of the extra 30,900 2–8s. In fact, you can play a decent game with just the 2s and 3s. The main thing to keep in mind is that essentially every word you know from TWL is still valid. So, as we have already seen that three quarters of the words are TWL, you are already three quarters of the way there. And in many cases, even more than this, because there will be a choice of moves, many of which will be TWL.

So, what should you actually study? In the following, we present various useful lists and suggestions. In some cases we have presented just the most useful words, but you can see the full list by following the link in the heading.

== Two-letter words ==

As in TWL, by far the most useful words are the 2s. There are 19 more of these in CSW:

CH DI EA EE FY GU IO JA KO KY
NY OB OO OU ST UG UR YU ZO

<br>While 19 is not a large number, you probably will not remember them all straightaway (your author has played in the World Championships, and did not remember the 2s in one sitting). They will become a natural part of the game over time.

== [[Three-letter words]] ==

Following the 2s, there are 260 3s. The most useful 3s are:

QIN EXO IDE OYE JAI ENE ITA AIA IWI AYU
JOR WEX URE WOX WOF DZO NYE AME AUA ZOL
GIO WAI TEX ONY OBO NEF NOX FAW YEX FAA ...

<br>Obviously, like in TWL, you do not need to know 100% of the 3s before continuing. While words such as ZIZ may come in handy some day, it is likely that various 4s and bingos will come up first.

The next most useful words are the same as in TWL: short words with many vowels, high-scorers with J, Q, X and Z, some of the most useful 4s and 5s (words which are likely to be much better than other moves if you have those tiles, such as VIFDA), high probability bingos, dump-words such as 4s with 2 Is, and words with Q but no U.

== [[Vowel dumps]] ==

2s: EA EE IO OO OU
3s: AIA AUA AUE
4s: EUOI HIOI EVOE HUIA VIAE IDEE OUPA UVAE ONIE ALOO ...
5s: AIDOI AINEE AULOI BOOAI OUIJA ZOAEA ZOOEA
6s: EUOUAE ZOAEAE ZOOEAE
7s: ETAERIO EATERIE AERADIO AIERIES OLEARIA EUGARIE DOULEIA EUOUAES MOINEAU DIANOIA ...
8s: ETAERIOS AEROTONE AEGIRINE NOTITIAE DOUANIER AEGIRITE INAURATE AERADIOS ETOURDIE OLEARIAS ...

== [[Short JQXZ words]] ==

J: JA
JAI JOR JOL JAP JIZ ...
JOBE BENJ JEDI JAGA JUVE ...
OUIJA JEWIE JIAOS JEUNE JOBED ...
Q: QIN
QINS WAQF FIQH QUOP QUEP ...
TALAQ QORMA QUOAD QUOIF QUAIR ...
X: EXO WEX WOX TEX NOX ...
WEXE GREX FAIX DIXI SAXE ...
VITEX VIBEX XOANA JAXIE WEXED ...
Z: ZO
DZO ZOL ZEX ZEA BEZ ...
LAZO TREZ ZITE ZOOT ZATI ...
ZOAEA ZOOEA ZANTE AVIZE EZINE ...

== [[High-probability bingos]] ==

7s: NOTAIRE OTARINE ETAERIO ALERION OARIEST OTARIES ROASTIE ORIGANE ENTRAIL RESIANT ...
8s: ANOESTRI ARSONITE NOTAIRES ROSINATE ETAERIOS DONARIES DOUANIER ALERIONS SOTERIAL INORNATE ...

== I and U dumps ==

I: IWI
DIVI DIXI FINI HIOI ISIT MIHI PIPI SIMI SIRI WILI
U: UMU UTU
HUHU KUKU KUTU KUZU PUKU PULU RURU SUSU UMUS UTUS WUDU ZULU

== Q-not-followed-by-U words ==

FIQH -s QALAMDAN -s QWERTIES
GUQIN -s QASIDA -s TALAQ -s
INQILAB -s QAWWAL -s TSADDIQ -s
MUQADDAM -s QAWWALI -s TSADDIQIM
QABALISM -s QIN -s TZADDIQ -s
QABALIST -s QINGHAOSU -s TZADDIQIM
QABALISTIC QINTARKA WAQF -s
QAIMAQAM -s QORMA -s YAQONA -s

== Going Further ==

The basics above are easily enough for a good CSW game. But you may decide that you wish to go further.

A significant downside to going further is that it can be difficult to keep the two lexica separate. Although remembering which of the words you now know are “new” (think back to the last dictionary update, if you have been playing that long) is not too bad, remembering a word and remembering which lexicon it is in are not the same thing, especially over a period of time. Those CSW words may come back to haunt you in a TWL game a few months down the line!

But nevertheless, some people have high ratings at both TWL and CSW, and one can get to quite a high standard quite quickly.

Chosen correctly, it can be shown that learning the top 1% of the words when ordered by playability is equivalent to learning 25% of all the words. So, for the 2-8s, learning the top 300 from CSW is effectively learning one quarter of all the words newly allowed by that lexicon. This top 25% (or any other fraction) can be accessed by playability in the Collins edition of the [[Collins links|Zyzzyva]] word study program.

== Collins Cheat Sheet ==

We have incorporated the above into a [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_1.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet]], that is designed to be used by new-to, or occasional players of, CSW. It resembles the original [http://www.cross-tables.com/cs Cheat Sheet] by Mike Baron, and the NSA’s “Important Words to Raise Your Score” sheet that was given to new members, except that it concentrates on CSW words.

There is also a [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_2.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet Part 2]], which contains a useful array of the hooks to CSW 2s, and the full set of CSW 4s.

== More Resources ==

For further resources regarding the CSW words, including word study software such as Zyzzyva, see the [[Collins links]] page.

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Important Collins words

2017-04-16T21:42:29Z

Nball:

This page describes which Collins-only words are important for an [[OTCWL|OTCWL]] player to learn, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

== How many more words are there, and what would I need to learn? ==

Technically, of course, you need to learn almost nothing, because there are just 59 2-8 letter words in TWL that are not in CSW, and almost all of those are obscure. In practice, of course, there are some useful basic words to start with.

Because CSW contains essentially all the TWL words, you can continue to play the same game, and anything that was good in TWL remains good. Because the fundamentals of the game have not changed, the kinds of words that are the most useful to study in TWL are also the best to study in CSW. Thus the player who has studied the 2s, 3s, JQXZ words, some 4s, high probability bingos, etc., can continue to use the same methods for CSW.

So how many words are there? In total, the TWL contains 188,738 words, and CSW contains 276,663. About half of these are 9–15 letters, and while some 9s can be useful, the vast majority (about 98%) of the gain is with the 2–8s. OWL contains 88,099 of these, while CSW has 118,999, which is 30,900 more. This is about 35%, which means that for approximately every 3 TWL words there is an extra CSW word.

However, it is likely that you did not start out playing TWL with the intention of learning all 188,738 words. Likewise, you can play a good CSW game without needing more than a small fraction of the extra 30,900 2–8s. In fact, you can play a decent game with just the 2s and 3s. The main thing to keep in mind is that essentially every word you know from TWL is still valid. So, as we have already seen that three quarters of the words are TWL, you are already three quarters of the way there. And in many cases, even more than this, because there will be a choice of moves, many of which will be TWL.

So, what should you actually study? In the following, we present various useful lists and suggestions. In some cases we have presented just the most useful words, but you can see the full list by following the link in the heading.

== Two-letter words ==

As in TWL, by far the most useful words are the 2s. There are 19 more of these in CSW:

CH DI EA EE FY GU IO JA KO KY
NY OB OO OU ST UG UR YU ZO

<br>While 19 is not a large number, you probably will not remember them all straightaway (your author has played in the World Championships, and did not remember the 2s in one sitting). They will become a natural part of the game over time.

== [[Three-letter words]] ==

Following the 2s, there are 260 3s. The most useful 3s are:

QIN EXO IDE OYE JAI ENE ITA AIA IWI AYU
JOR WEX URE WOX WOF DZO NYE AME AUA ZOL
GIO WAI TEX ONY OBO NEF NOX FAW YEX FAA ...

<br>Obviously, like in TWL, you do not need to know 100% of the 3s before continuing. While words such as ZIZ may come in handy some day, it is likely that various 4s and bingos will come up first.

The next most useful words are the same as in TWL: short words with many vowels, high-scorers with J, Q, X and Z, some of the most useful 4s and 5s (words which are likely to be much better than other moves if you have those tiles, such as VIFDA), high probability bingos, dump-words such as 4s with 2 Is, and words with Q but no U.

== [[Vowel dumps]] ==

2s: EA EE IO OO OU
3s: AIA AUA AUE
4s: EUOI HIOI EVOE HUIA VIAE IDEE OUPA UVAE ONIE ALOO ...
5s: AIDOI AINEE AULOI BOOAI OUIJA ZOAEA ZOOEA
6s: EUOUAE ZOAEAE ZOOEAE
7s: ETAERIO EATERIE AERADIO AIERIES OLEARIA EUGARIE DOULEIA EUOUAES MOINEAU DIANOIA ...
8s: ETAERIOS AEROTONE AEGIRINE NOTITIAE DOUANIER AEGIRITE INAURATE AERADIOS ETOURDIE OLEARIAS ...

== [[Short JQXZ words]] ==

J: JA
JAI JOR JOL JAP JIZ ...
JOBE BENJ JEDI JAGA JUVE ...
OUIJA JEWIE JIAOS JEUNE JOBED ...
Q: QIN
QINS WAQF FIQH QUOP QUEP ...
TALAQ QORMA QUOAD QUOIF QUAIR ...
X: EXO WEX WOX TEX NOX ...
WEXE GREX FAIX DIXI SAXE ...
VITEX VIBEX XOANA JAXIE WEXED ...
Z: ZO
DZO ZOL ZEX ZEA BEZ ...
LAZO TREZ ZITE ZOOT ZATI ...
ZOAEA ZOOEA ZANTE AVIZE EZINE ...

== [[High-probability bingos]] ==

7s: NOTAIRE OTARINE ETAERIO ALERION OARIEST OTARIES ROASTIE ORIGANE ENTRAIL RESIANT ...
8s: ANOESTRI ARSONITE NOTAIRES ROSINATE ETAERIOS DONARIES DOUANIER ALERIONS SOTERIAL INORNATE ...

== I and U dumps ==

I: IWI
DIVI DIXI FINI HIOI ISIT MIHI PIPI SIMI SIRI WILI
U: UMU UTU
HUHU KUKU KUTU KUZU PUKU PULU RURU SUSU UMUS UTUS WUDU ZULU

== Q-not-followed-by-U words ==

FIQH -s QALAMDAN -s QWERTIES
GUQIN -s QASIDA -s TALAQ -s
INQILAB -s QAWWAL -s TSADDIQ -s
MUQADDAM -s QAWWALI -s TSADDIQIM
QABALISM -s QIN -s TZADDIQ -s
QABALIST -s QINGHAOSU -s TZADDIQIM
QABALISTIC QINTARKA WAQF -s
QAIMAQAM -s QORMA -s YAQONA -s

== Going Further ==

The basics above are easily enough for a good CSW game. But you may decide that you wish to go further.

A significant downside to going further is that it can be difficult to keep the two lexica separate. Although remembering which of the words you now know are “new” (think back to the last dictionary update, if you have been playing that long) is not too bad, remembering a word and remembering which lexicon it is in are not the same thing, especially over a period of time. Those CSW words may come back to haunt you in a TWL game a few months down the line!

But nevertheless, some people have high ratings at both TWL and CSW, and one can get to quite a high standard quite quickly.

Chosen correctly, it can be shown that learning the top 1% of the words when ordered by playability is equivalent to learning 25% of all the words. So, for the 2-8s, learning the top 300 from CSW is effectively learning one quarter of all the words newly allowed by that lexicon. This top 25% (or any other fraction) can be accessed by playability in the Collins edition of the [[Collins links|Zyzzyva]] word study program.

== Collins Cheat Sheet ==

We have incorporated the above into a [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_1.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet]], that is designed to be used by new-to, or occasional players of, CSW. It resembles the original [http://www.cross-tables.com/cs Cheat Sheet] by Mike Baron, and the NSA’s “Important Words to Raise Your Score” sheet that was given to new members, except that it concentrates on CSW words.

There is also a [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_2.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet Part 2]], which contains a useful array of the hooks to CSW 2s, and the full set of CSW 4s.

== More Resources ==

For further resources regarding the CSW words, including word study software such as [[Zyzzyva]], see the [[Collins links]] page.

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

CSW links

2017-04-16T21:38:59Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page has been replaced. It was part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]], which remains active.

CSW12

2017-04-16T21:38:21Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page has been replaced. It was part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]], which remains active.

CSW ratings

2017-04-16T21:37:46Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page has been replaced. It was part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]], which remains active.

CSW Tournaments

2017-04-16T21:37:10Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page has been replaced. It was part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]], which remains active.

High-playability bingos

2017-04-16T21:36:32Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page has been replaced. It was part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]], which remains active.

File:Collins cheat sheet part 2.pdf

2017-04-16T21:32:42Z

Nball: Nball uploaded a new version of "File:Collins cheat sheet part 2.pdf"

File:Collins cheat sheet part 1.pdf

2017-04-16T21:32:02Z

Nball:

Collins links

2017-04-16T21:29:26Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page provides links related Collins, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

Since once can obviously find much material online by web-searching "Scrabble", "Collins", etc., we limit the selection to the most useful links for the player new to CSW.

These links are all up-to-date for CSW15 unless otherwise noted.

== General ==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.scrabble.com">Scrabble</a></td>
<td> General worldwide site for Scrabble </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org">NASPA</a></td>
<td> North American Scrabble Players Association </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA</a></td>
<td> World English-Language Scrabble Players Association </td>
</tr>
</table>

== Playing Guides & Books ==

Some of these are not up-to-date for CSW15, but the effect is minor

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.breakingthegame.net">Breaking the Game</a></td>
<td> Cutting-edge Scrabble strategy, puzzles, etc. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.breakingthegame.net/word">Word</a></td>
<td> Basic Scrabble strategy </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.breakingthegame.net/scrabblesolved">Scrabble Solved</a></td>
<td> Advanced strategy </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ways-Scrabble-Collins-Little-Books/dp/0007514565">101 Ways to Win at Scrabble</a></td>
<td> Recent British book </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Scrabble-Play-like-champion/dp/0007342276">Collins Scrabble: Play Like a Champion</a></td>
<td> A few years older </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/How-Win-At-Scrabble-Andrew-Fisher/0713488204">How to Win at Scrabble</a></td>
<td> From 2004, but comprehensive guide to high level play </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayershandbook.com">The Scrabble Player's Handbook</a></td>
<td> Free online PDF </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Word-Addict-secrets-SCRABBLE-champion/dp/0008146470">Word Addict: Secrets of a World SCRABBLE Champion</a></td>
<td> Recent world champion's story, with game insight </td>
</tr>
</table>

== Software ==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.quackle.org">Quackle</a></td>
<td> Widely used software that can be configured for Scrabble </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://zyzzyva.net">NASPA Zyzzyva</a></td>
<td> Widely used word study software; requires NASPA membership and license </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/scrabble/scrabble-tools">Collins Zyzzyva</a></td>
<td> Free version that does not contain TWL, but has more comprehensive definitions for CSW, spanning 2-15 letters </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.aerolith.org">Aerolith</a></td>
<td> Online game to practice anagramming, in TWL or CSW </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.poslarchive.com/math/software/tsh">Tournament Shell</a></td>
<td> Tournament directing software that can do TWL or CSW </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://director.victoriascrabble.org">Director</a></td>
<td> Another tournament directing software, more graphically based </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.codehappy.net/elise">Elise</a></td>
<td> Another word game playing software </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.wolfberg.net/what">WHAT</a></td>
<td> Another word finding software </td>
</tr>
</table>

== Word Lists ==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_1.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet Part 1]]</td>
<td> Useful CSW-only words for handy reference: 2s, 3s, high probability bingos, the 59 2-8 letter words only in TWL, etc. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_2.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet Part 2]]</td>
<td> More useful words: hooks of 2s, 4s </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Official-Scrabble-Words-Dictionaries/dp/0007589085">Collins Official Scrabble Words</a></td>
<td> Official CSW15 book </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Scrabble-Dictionary-official-playable/dp/0007589131">Collins Scrabble Dictionary</a></td>
<td> 2-9 letter words, with short definitions </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Ultimate-Scrabble-Dictionary-Wordlist-x/dp/0007589093">Collins Ultimate Scrabble Dictionary and Wordlist</a></td>
<td> Similar, but with 10-15s also listed </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.absp.org.uk/words">ABSP words by category</a></td>
<td> Extensive sets of lists by many definition-based categories (languages, food, etc.) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/winningwords">Winning Words</a></td>
<td> Set of books with useful categories by part of speech, etc. </td>
</tr>
</table>

== Tournaments & Ratings ==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/tourneys/calendar.html">NASPA tournament calendar</a></td>
<td> Official calendar of rated NASPA tournaments, both TWL and CSW </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.cross-tables.com">Cross-Tables</a></td>
<td> Tournaments, ratings, results, etc. Front page has good visual list with obvious icons showing that a tournament is TWL or CSW </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS ratings</a></td>
<td> Description of the CSW ratings, with results </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.wespa.org/aardvark/cgi-bin/rating.cgi">WESPA ratings</a></td>
<td> World ratings </td>
</tr>
</table>

== Etc. ==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/217094718419713">Collins Scrabble Players</a></td>
<td> Online pro-CSW in North America community </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/TWLtoCollins">Transition from TWL to Collins</a></td>
<td> Second online community </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/zapateo99">Dweebovision</a></td>
<td> Videos of CSW games with clear and insightful commentary </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="http://www.word-buff.com">Word Buff</a></td>
<td> Lots of word-related material </td>
</tr>
</table>

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Try it

2017-04-16T21:28:45Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page describes ways to try out Collins Scrabble, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

While these pages have attempted to provide information about the CSW game, like many things, the only way to really find out if you like it is to try it.

There are several possibilities:

== Quackle ==

[http://www.quackle.org Quackle] is computer software that will play the CSW lexicon. In the latest version (1.0.3), go to the '''Settings''' tab and set it to use the lexicon '''csw15'''. You can also highlight the CSW words as they are played and in the history/choices by going to the preferences settings under the main menu. The words when played will be colored, and when written on screen will be appended by the # (octothorp) sign. Quackle calls CSW the British words. NOTE: other 'csw' lexica listed and the 'sowpods' lexicon are older editions that are no longer used.

== Zyzzyva ==

Zyzzyva is a word study tool that allows many forms of CSW study. These include searching words by many criteria, setting up quizzes such as anagrams, and the card box study system to aid memory.

Two versions are widely used:

* [http://zyzzyva.net NASPA Zyzzyva] is available to NASPA members and requires a license. It allows lists to be constructed in either TWL or CSW, and one can select words that are CSW-only. This is how several of the lists in this wiki and the Collins Cheat sheet (see below) were, in part, constructed. Currently it does not have definitions for CSW words, only the TWL ones, and the playability values are not useful.

* [https://www.collinsdictionary.com/scrabble/scrabble-tools Collins Zyzzyva] is available worldwide for download. It includes the CSW lexicon but not the TWL lexicon, so it is less useful for a TWL player moving to CSW. However, it has a comprehensive and authoritative set of definitions for all words from 2-15 letters, coming largely from the same work that provided the [http://www.absp.org.uk/words word lists] at the Association of British Scrabble Players website mentioned earlier in this wiki.

== Online ==

The [http://www.isc.ro Internet Scrabble Club] has a large number of players who play the CSW lexicon, as well as TWL players. The CSW dictionary is available for the [http://www2.ea.com/scrabble Electronic Arts Scrabble game], e.g., on the iPhone. The popular [https://www.zynga.com/games/words-friends Words with Friends] does not use CSW or TWL.

== At a club ==

This could be as simple as two club members agreeing to play a game to CSW. However, many people before have found that allowing a 'cheat sheet' of, for example, the 2s and 3s, the [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_1.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet]] and [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_2.pdf|Part 2]] from this wiki (or other cheat sheets), and a more relaxed challenge rule, such as 5-10 points (or even no penalty) works well. Some clubs have held evenings where people play CSW, and others have regular CSW players. Unfortunately there is no comprehensive listing of which clubs have CSW players.

== At a tournament ==

North American tournaments that offer a CSW division are listed on the [http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/tourneys/calendar.html NASPA tournament calendar], and at [http://www.cross-tables.com cross-tables]. CSW divisions tend to be smaller than TWL ones and often have highly rated players, but the easier challenge rule mitigates the difference somewhat. A CSW division can be rated when it has 4 or more people, and 2 or more are NASPA rated.

If you are a director, it is possible to add a CSW division to an existing tournament, since tournament directing software can incorporate the NASPA CSW ratings.

== More ==

For links to more CSW resources, e.g., books, see the [[Collins links|links page]].

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Collins tournaments and ratings

2017-04-16T21:27:39Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page discusses North American tournaments and ratings using the Collins lexicon, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

== Collins Tournaments ==

While there have been occasional tournaments played to the international lexicon in the US since the 1990s (the ’93 World Championships in New York, for example, because the Worlds have always used the international lexicon), and occasional others such as Wisconsin Dells, Toronto, and Texas, it was in 2010 that the number of CSW tournaments started to increase significantly. This was in large part due to NASPA’s decision to allow CSW to be rated, which has given the impetus to several organizers to add CSW divisions, or create new tournaments to meet demand.

It remains to be seen how much these numbers will continue to increase, and what the long-term future of the CSW scene will be, but the possibility of being able to play CSW exclusively, if one would like to, is now workable.

Also of note is that there are a significant number of prominent international tournaments with quite substantial sponsorship and prizes, several of which are well into the $1000s, and some over $10,000. These are listed at the [http://www.wespa.org WESPA] website.

The most concise and visual overview of current CSW tournaments can be found at [http://www.cross-tables.com cross-tables], where upcoming tournaments are listed, and those offering CSW divisions have a yellow CSW icon next to them. This list is not guaranteed complete, for example, the monthly Berkeley tournaments do not normally post their entrants list, so the CSW icon does not show up. CSW divisions are usually conditional on 4 players entering the division, and there is not normally more than one division.

The NASPA website lists all upcoming rated tournaments on the [{{SERVER}}/tourneys/calendar.html calendar of future events]. Clicking any event brings up the expanded listing, and doing a find-in-page for "Collins" or "CSW" can locate tournaments that may not have been shown in cross-tables.

For information on directing a CSW tournament, or adding a CSW division to a tournament, see the page on [[Directing SOWPODS tournaments]].

== Collins Ratings ==

Tournaments played to CSW in North America and sanctioned by NASPA are rated under the <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS</a> rating system. Thus:

'''Playing a CSW tournament has no effect on your regular NASPA rating'''

As well as the national systems, CSW tournaments in North America are eligible to be rated by the <a href="http://www.wespa.org">World English Scrabble Players Association (WESPA)</a>, the governing body of the English game worldwide, under their international system. In other words, if you play a CSW tournament, you can get a world ranking. However, non-NASPA CSW tournaments in North America cannot be WESPA rated. The WESPA system uses a different formula to NASPA, but the resulting distribution of ratings is broadly similar.

The <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS</a> system is described further on this wiki, but is essentially identical to the regular rating. Existing tournament software such as [http://www.math.utoronto.ca/jjchew/software/tsh tsh] and [http://director.victoriascrabble.org Director!] can handle this. Hence, if you are already directing a tournament, adding a CSW division to it is straightforward.

Those with a regular NASPA rating from TWL start with that same rating under NASPA SOWPODS, but with zero games.

Several players are rated under two or more of the rating systems, and it is possible to compare their ratings in different systems.

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Downsides to Collins

2017-04-16T21:26:57Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page discusses the downsides to playing using the Collins lexicon, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

While these downsides are certainly not intended to discourage anyone from playing CSW, it is useful to be aware of them before committing to learning and playing the CSW game.

== What Are the Downsides to Collins? ==

; '''It is difficult to play well in both lexica'''
: While one does not have to study many words to play CSW quite well, it could become difficult when playing [[OTCWL|TWL]] again to remember which words are only acceptable in CSW. This difficulty of remembering can inhibit the CSW-er's play in TWL because any word that is CSW-only is likely to be challenged off by a TWL player who is not familiar with it. Having a word challenged off is one of the worst things that can happen in a game with respect to optimal play. And while CSW contains more obscure words, simply using the maxim "if it's weird, it's Collins" will lead to many mistakes.

; '''Smaller North American community'''
: While the number of CSW players is growing, the North American community contains far more TWL players, and in many clubs there are no CSW players at all. In tournaments, the fields are often small, with uncertainty about whether an event will happen because a minimum quorum of 4 is needed for rating. If the event does happen, you will more likely encounter the same players frequently, or have to play them multiple times. The CSW field is also dominated by highly rated players who are often motivated to play Collins because of the opportunities for international play. And because the fields are small, usually all players are in a single division. While having many top players may be good or bad depending on your point of view, if you are not a top player, you will likely play and lose a lot of games in CSW.

; '''The challenge rule may be less challenging'''
: Some players like the double-challenge rule and feel that it is an essential part of the game. While there is still a penalty for an incorrect challenge, and there is no reason a CSW game cannot remain double-challenge given the rules, 5 or 10 points per word is a more common de facto standard. This is enough to make you at least pause before challenging, so the aspect of the game embodied by double challenge is not completely lost, but it is not the same decision making process.

; '''CSW is not North American English'''
: CSW reflects a more global usage of the language and as such is not just reflective of the language in the U.S. and Canada. However, this is also true for all of the countries that use CSW when it is considered in relation to their usage of English.

; '''There are [[Obscure Collins words|obscure words in Collins]]'''
: While TWL contains obsolete and archaic words, the CSW contains more of them.

; '''The existence of CSW play splits the U.S. SCRABBLE scene'''
: While the large majority of North American players are TWL, a significant number of top players either play only TWL or only CSW. This divides the top divisions of tournaments and lowers the prestige of winning any particular one. Because the Scrabble community is relatively small, fragmentation in general is bad. There are, however, many other ways in which the scene is fragmented. For example, we have School play with the OSPD5 lexicon; unsanctioned, recreational club, competitive club and tournament play; online and in-person play; and a long list of variant rules that people like to try. It is part of the strength of the basic game that its many variations appeal to different people. Officially sanctioned CSW play lets us keep players who prefer it to TWL play in the fold, and encourages immigrants and tourists to join our community. However, the use of a different lexicon from school play, which is sanctioned by the NSA rather than NASPA, would not be ideal for encouraging young players if NASPA were to switch and the NSA did not.

; '''There is no single official Collins dictionary with all the definitions'''
: The published Collins English dictionary does not contain all the words in CSW. This is because some words are only in the North American dictionaries, and some are in the Collins language corpus but not the printed dictionary. However, keep in mind that the U.S. lexicon is also spread over more than one dictionary (5, in fact), and that a companion volume to CSW, the Collins Official SCRABBLE Dictionary, contains short definitions for the 2-9 letter words, in a similar manner to OSPD. The [[Collins links|Collins edition]] of the Zyzzyva word study program likewise contains short definitions, for all word lengths up to 15 letters. Nevertheless, the lack of a coherent published dictionary-standard set of definitions is a notable downside to an official lexicon for a word game.

; '''Existing study may have to be redone'''
: A player who has spent a lot of time becoming expert in TWL is understandably reluctant to undertake the effort again merely to become proficient in a game at which they are already proficient. This is why it is important to note that a player expert in TWL can do well in CSW with a relatively much lower level of study. But there is still work for them to do, and, depending on the study method, it can add up. For example, using "stems" of 6 or 7 letters combined with mnemonics to know which combinations make a bingo will require significant revision because extra letters make bingos (see, e.g., [http://www.math.toronto.edu/jjchew/scrabble/anamonics-dd.html here]).

; '''A Collins player can take advantage of a TWL player'''
: Although as mentioned a TWL player can do well in CSW by learning relatively few words compared to what they learned for TWL, this does mean that an expert Collins player can use their knowledge of the lexicon to take advantage, by, for example, deliberately playing obscure words they know to be CSW only, or setting up and using CSW-only hooks. (For example, your author once played WHOW, then later hooked it to EWHOW for a lot of points, albeit in a rated tournament against another expert player.) This taking advantage is mitigated somewhat by the challenge rule, but penalties for challenging can still add up, and with hooks the opponent may not even know there is a possible play.

; '''Differing strategy'''
: The relative importance of different aspects of strategy, such as offense versus defense, may change, meaning that those players particularly skilled at one may be disadvantaged. However, these aspects are not publicly well quantified. For more details, see [[How Collins differs]].

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Collins updates

2017-04-16T21:26:03Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page discusses how often are published to the Collins lexicon, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

== How Often is the Collins Word List Updated? ==

Both the TWL and CSW word lists are updated every few years. There has not been a fixed frequency of updates.

At first glance, this may seem unexpected. After all, if CSW includes lists from both the British and American dictionaries, shouldn’t it be updated twice as often? However, part of the motivation and criteria of publishing CSW is that it specifically includes the TWL. As in North America, the worldwide community wants the frequency of updates to result in a list that is reasonably up-to-date, without constant changes. Therefore, so far, the frequency of updates has been similar.

The current TWL was last updated in 2016. Recent previous editions were published in 2014, 2006, and 1998. CSW was updated in 2007, 2012, and 2015.

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Obscure Collins words

2017-04-16T21:25:25Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page discusses how many of the words in the Collins lexicon seem obscure to [[OTCWL|TWL]] players, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

== Are All Collins Words Obscure, Obsolete, Foreign, etc.? ==

The short answer is mostly not, at least no more obscure than already makes up the majority of the TWL.

One must be careful to avoid a biased viewpoint, because when viewing the words that are CSW-only, one is not viewing the CSW itself, but just that part of it that contains the words not in the TWL. These are bound to be somewhat obscure, because if they were common everyday words widely used in English they would already be in the TWL.

Breaking down the list of CSW-only words into categories by meaning shows that a significant majority of the new words to be added are further examples of the kinds of words that already make up the TWL, such as animals, currency, minerals, and so on. Because the Scrabble lexica (both TWL and CSW) are based on single-volume abridged dictionaries, and not the full unabridged versions, such as Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, or the Oxford English Dictionary, they in fact really contain only a small fraction of the totality of English words. It is thus not surprising they that do not entirely overlap.

There are some differences: CSW has more obsolete and archaic words. They are not unique to CSW (TWL has perhaps 1,000 already), but there are certainly more. There are also more dialect words, particularly Scots, a result of the word source prior to Collins, The Chambers Dictionary, being based in Scotland, and its words being incorporated into the Collins Corpus. There are also significant numbers of words from countries where English is common, such as Australia, South Africa, and India. Ultimately, the ideal content of a word list is somewhat subjective.

The following list shows CSW-only words broken down into categories to show that a significant fraction are parts of categories that would not seem unreasonable to include in a word list, such as animals, food, and so on.

Note:

* Words do not appear in more than one category, so those not under ‘obsolete’, ‘archaic’, etc. are not obsolete or archaic
* The list was compiled manually, and so is not guaranteed complete
* The list was compiled from an older edition of CSW than CSW15, but the numbers will not have changed by large amounts so the list remains illustrative

{|
!Category|Number of Words
|-
|-
|Abbreviations
|86
|-
|Animals
|523
|-
|Archaic
|164
|-
|Australia
|112
|-
|Chemicals/minerals
|141
|-
|Clothing/fashion
|95
|-
|Computing
|32
|-
|Currency
|36
|-
|Dialect
|177
|-
|‘er’ nouns
|11
|-
|Food/Drink
|200
|-
|France
|112
|-
|Geography/geology
|87
|-
|Germany
|15
|-
|Heraldry
|44
|-
|India
|132
|-
|Interjections
|43
|-
|Irregular inflections
|345
|-
|Ireland
|36
|-
|Italy
|28
|-
|Japan
|21
|-
|Language
|51
|-
|Latin
|13
|-
|Law
|52
|-
|Mathematical
|22
|-
|Medical/anatomical
|153
|-
|Milton
|26
|-
|Music
|120
|-
|New Zealand
|122
|-
|Obsolete
|388
|-
|Other
|50
|-
|Other adjective
|383
|-
|Other -ier -iest adjective
|154
|-
|Other noun
|1269
|-
|Other verb
|573
|-
|Plants
|321
|-
|Religious/spiritual
|160
|-
|South Africa
|66
|-
|Scots
|573
|-
|Shakespeare
|207
|-
|Slang
|48
|-
|Spenser
|307
|-
|Sports/games
|77
|-
|Units
|41
|-
|USA
|12
|-
|Welsh
|7
|-
!Total
!635
|}

Aside from this list, an excellent resource for further lists of words by categories is at the [http://www.absp.org.uk Association of British Scrabble Players] website under their [http://www.absp.org.uk/words Words] section. These lists, compiled by David Sutton, cover the full range of CSW words from 2-15 letters, with useful one-line definitions throughout.

The lists mark words new to CSW15 versus the previous edition, CSW12, but there is no differentiation between CSW and TWL words.

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

High-probability bingos

2017-04-16T21:23:56Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page lists high probability bingos that are in the International Collins Scrabble Words 2015 (CSW15) but not the North American OTCWL 2016 (TWL), and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

A plus sign indicates that the word is new in CSW15.

== 7 ==

NOTAIRE OTARINE ETAERIO ALERION OARIEST OTARIES ROASTIE+ ORIGANE ENTRAIL
RESIANT STARNIE ADONISE SODAINE SOREDIA TORNADE TERSION TRIONES REALTIE
OLEARIA ORDINEE TROELIE EROTISE ANOETIC GOATIES+ ASTERID STAIRED EASTLIN
STANIEL ANTLIAE IRISATE DEASOIL DOULEIA EATERIE ASTONED ONSTEAD DOATERS
TROADES ORLEANS OESTRAL ROTULAE DOILTER DONSIER OUNDIER+ DITONES STONIED
ROISTED ROSITED ETOURDI IODURET LIENORS+ LIONETS OURIEST TOURIES TOUSIER
TARTINE SEALINE EARLIES ALTERNE RATEENS NERITES TRENISE NEURITE ATEBRIN
CANTIER CRINATE NACRITE FENITAR MERANTI TENIOID NOILIER ETIOLIN RIOTISE
OSTIATE TOASTIE AIERIES AREDING DEARING EARDING LAERING LEARING ANGRIES
GRAINES GAINEST TANGIES TSIGANE AGISTER STRIGAE TIRAGES ORNATER NOINTER
OREADES LOERIES ESTOILE ERINITE ROATING BOATIES OCEANID CARIOSE SOCIATE
MINEOLA MOINEAU OSMIATE VENATOR RECTION PTERION NOWTIER TOWNIER ODORATE
TROOLIE OORIEST ROOTIES TOORIES BEATIER EBRIATE CINEREA REMANIE EVIRATE
SIDERAL SITULAE ENDARTS STARNED SLANTER AUNTERS SNIRTED+ UNTRIDE SLINTER
SNIRTLE AGENISE EUGARIE ASTROID SLIOTAR GENTIER TEERING ABORTEE CORNEAE
EROTEMA PERAEON ARAISED AURELIA IRIDEAL DIARISE LAIRISE ANESTRA NATURAE
TAUREAN GANOINE LOADENS SALTOED DOUANES DOLINES SONDELI OUTLIED LOURIES
AILANTO ENTROLD LENTORS DOGEATE EGOTISE GOETIES LARNIER RETIRAL NANITES
TANNIES SNARIER SERRATI TERTIAS DEISEAL EDENTAL REDEALT DEANERS UNEARED
STEANED ESTRADE REASTED STEARED TASERED ELANETS UREDINE STEINED REISTED

== 8 ==

TAILERON ANOESTRI ARSONITE NOTAIRES ROSINATE ETAERIOS DONARIES DOUANIER
ALERIONS SOTERIAL INORNATE REALTONE ERGATOID IGNAROES ORIGANES ERIONITE
DATURINE LARNIEST REINSTAL ENARGITE DENTARIA RAINDATE RESINATA INAURATE
NODALISE SOLIDARE SOREDIAL SOLIDATE AEROTONE TORNADES DRONIEST NITREOUS+
DENARIES DRAISENE SIDERATE LATERISE OLEARIAS ANOESTRA TRIOLEIN TONALITE
LITERATO ROARIEST TERAGLIN REASTING STEARING TASERING ORDINEES SIDENOTE
EROTISED ETOURDIE NOSELITE LITEROSE TROELIES SABOTIER CREOLIAN NEMATOID
FORELAIN OLEFIANT SOMNIATE STOVAINE NOTITIAE ATHERINE GALENOID ORANGEST
RAGSTONE STONERAG ROSETING OUTREIGN UNTAILED LUNARIES LITREAGE SAGENITE
SUTORIAN FOEDARIE PAEONIES TENEBRIO ETHERION TIMONEER AURELIAN DRAISINE
IRISATED SNAILIER LATINISE DOULEIAS AEGIRINE AEGIRITE URODELAN DISENROL
NEUROIDS+ OUNDIEST+ IODURETS SUITORED LOURIEST ERGOTISE RATTLINE TRANSIRE
TARTINES TAINTURE ALTERNES NEURITES ABORIGEN ARANEOUS ETIOLINS NOILIEST
ATEBRINS CRINATED CARNIEST NACRITES FENITARS HAURIENT MERANTIS PAINTURE
VAUNTIER DATOLITE OUTASITE+ ERINITES DEARLING SALERING SANGLIER EASTLING
REGALIST TETRONAL ORNATEST RITORNEL NOINTERS SNORTIER RITENUTO ESLOINED
ALLERION ASSIENTO ROASTIES+ RABATINE ARENITIC FAINTIER ERODENTS REARISEN
REASTIER BOREALIS OCEANIDS CALORISE ALOETICS FORELAID LIONHEAD NOMADIES
NOMADISE MINEOLAS POULAINE OVERSAIL VOLARIES ROYALISE MOINEAUS SARCONET
SORTANCE FLOREANT VENATORS STONERAW RIBSTONE RECTIONS TOPLINER TOWNLIER
TROOLIES AREADING REGALIAN SAGINATE EBRIATED CARELINE CINEREAL CINEREAS
RESIANCE FREDAINE DEATHIER REMEDIAT PINDAREE DIAPENTE EVIRATED TAIVERED
FRAILTEE ETHERIAL INHEARSE EREMITAL REALTIME ELVANITE VENTAILE REMANIES
SEMINATE REAMIEST PETARIES EVIRATES TAWERIES OILERIES GOLIASED GOADSTER
GOUSTIER TAENIATE UNSAILED SAXONITE ARETTING RETINOIC POITRINE

<br>Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Short JQXZ words

2017-04-16T21:23:11Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page lists short JQXZ words that are in the International Collins Scrabble Words 2015 (CSW15) but not the North American OTCWL 2016 (TWL), and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

A plus sign indicates that the word is new in CSW15.

== J ==

JA

<br> GJU JAI JAK JAP JIZ JOL JOR JUD

<br> BAJU BENJ GAJO GJUS JAAP JAFA JAGA JAKS
JANN JAPS JARK JARP JASP JASS JASY JAXY
JAZY JEAT JEDI JEEL JEFF JOBE JOCO JOLL
JOLS JOMO JONG JORS JOUR JUDS JURE JUVE
JYNX ROJI SIJO SJOE

<br> AFLAJ AJWAN BAJAN BAJRA BAJRI BAJUS BASIJ BUNJE BUNJY CAJUN EMOJI+
FALAJ GAJOS GAUJE HEJAB HEJRA HODJA JAAPS JAFAS JAFFA JAGAS JAGIR
JAKEY JAMBO JAMBU JAMES JAMON JANNS JARKS JARPS JARTA JARUL JASEY
JASPE JASPS JAVEL JAXIE JEATS JEDIS JEELS JEELY JEFFS JELAB JEMBE
JEONS+ JESUS JEUNE JEWIE JHALA JIAOS JIGOT JINNE JIRGA JIRRE JOBED
JOBES JOCOS+ JODEL JOKOL JOLED JOLLS JOMOS JONGS JONTY JOTUN JOUGS
JOURS JUMBY JURES+ JUVES KHOJA LAPJE OJIME OUIJA POLJE REJON ROJAK
ROJIS SIJOS SUJEE UPJET WILJA WOJUS+ YOJAN ZANJA

== Q ==

FIQH QINS QUAT QUEP QUIM QUOP WAQF

<br> FIQHS GUQIN QORMA QUAIR QUATS QUAYD QUEME QUENA QUEYN
QUICH QUIMS QUINA QUINE QUINO QUIPO QUIST QUOAD QUOIF
QUONK QUOPS QUYTE SQUIT SQUIZ TALAQ WAQFS

== X ==

DUX EXO HOX NOX TEX WEX WOX YEX ZEX

<br> COXY DIXI DIXY EXUL FAIX FLIX FLOX+ GREX JAXY JYNX
LANX MIXY MYXO OXER SAXE ULEX WEXE XRAY+ YUNX

<br> AXOID BOLIX BOXEN BOXTY CAPEX CAXON CHOUX COXIB DIXIE DRUXY
DUXES EMBOX ENFIX EXEAT EXEEM EXEME EXFIL+ EXIES EXODE EXULS
FLEXO FOXIE HOXED HOXES JAXIE LIMAX LINUX LUXED+ MALAX MIXEN
MIXTE MYXOS NIXER NOXAL NOXES ORIXA OXIES PANAX PODEX PYXED
RETOX+ SALIX SOREX TAXOR TEXES THANX+ UNTAX URBEX+ VIBEX VITEX
WEXED WEXES WOXEN WUXIA XOANA XRAYS XYLIC YEXED YEXES ZEXES

== Z ==

ZO

<br> BEZ CAZ DZO JIZ LUZ MIZ MOZ POZ RIZ SAZ
SOZ WAZ+ ZEA ZEL ZEX ZHO ZIZ ZOL ZOS

<br> AZYM CHIZ COZE DZHO DZOS GAZY GIZZ HIZZ JAZY KAZI KUZU
LAZO LEZZ LOLZ+ LULZ+ MEZZ MIZZ MOZE MOZZ MUZZ MZEE NAZE
PIZE POZZ RIZA RONZ SITZ SWIZ TOZE TREZ TUZZ VIZY WAZZ+
ZACK ZARI ZATI ZEAS ZELS ZEZE ZHOS ZIFF ZILA ZIMB ZITE
ZOBO ZOBU ZOLS ZOOT ZULU ZUPA ZURF ZYGA ZZZS

<br> AIZLE ASSEZ AVIZE AVYZE AZURN AZURY AZYGY AZYME AZYMS BEZES BEZZY+ BIZZO
BIZZY BONZA BRIZE BUAZE BWAZI CEAZE CEZVE CHIZZ COBZA COOZE COZED DARZI
DAZER DURZI DZHOS EZINE+ FORZA FORZE FRIZE GAZAL GAZON GRIZE HIZEN HUZZY
IZZAT KARZY KAZIS KHAZI KRANZ KUZUS LAZOS LAZZI LAZZO LEAZE LEEZE LEZES
LEZZA LOZEN MAZEY MAZUT MEZZE MILTZ MIZZY MOTZA MOZED MOZES MZEES NAZES
NAZIR NEEZE OZEKI OZZIE PEAZE PEIZE PIZED PIZES POZZY PUZEL RAZOO RIZAS
ROZET ROZIT SADZA SAZES SEAZE SENZA SIZEL SPAZA SQUIZ SWIZZ TEAZE TOAZE
TOUZE TOUZY TOWZE TOWZY TOZED TOZES TOZIE ULZIE VEZIR VOZHD WANZE WAZIR
WEIZE WOOTZ ZABRA ZACKS ZAMAN ZAMBO ZANJA ZANTE ZANZE ZARIS ZATIS ZEBUB
ZERDA ZEXES ZEZES ZHOMO ZIFFS ZIGAN ZILAS ZILLA ZIMBI ZIMBS ZINKE ZIZEL
ZOAEA ZOBOS ZOBUS ZOCCO ZOISM ZOIST ZONDA ZOOEA ZOPPA ZOPPO ZORRO ZULUS
ZUPAN ZUPAS ZURFS ZYGAL ZYGON ZYMIC

<br>Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Vowel dumps

2017-04-16T21:21:59Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page lists vowel-heavy words that are in the International Collins Scrabble Words 2015 (CSW15) but not the North American OTCWL 2016 (TWL), and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

A plus sign indicates that the word is new in CSW15.

== 2 ==

EA EE IO OO OU

== 3 ==

AIA AUA AUE

== 4 ==

AIAS AIDA AIGA AINE AITU ALOO ATUA AUAS AULA AUNE EALE
EAUS EINA EINE EOAN EUGE EUOI EVOE HIOI HUIA IDEE IURE
KAIE KUIA MOAI MOOI ONIE OOSE OUMA OUPA URAO UVAE VIAE

== 5 ==

AIDOI AINEE AULOI BOOAI OUIJA ZOAEA ZOOEA

== 6 ==

EUOUAE ZOAEAE ZOOEAE

== 7 ==

AGEUSIA AIERIES AURELIA AUTOCUE CAMAIEU DEQUEUE DIANOIA DOULEIA
EATERIE ENQUEUE EPUISEE EQUINIA ETAERIO EUGARIE EUOUAES EUTAXIA
EUTEXIA KOEKOEA MOINEAU OLEARIA OUAKARI QUEENIE RAOULIA SAOUARI

== 8 ==

ACHAENIA ACIERAGE ACOEMETI AEDICULE AEGIRINE AEGIRITE AEGLOGUE
AENEUSES+ AEROTONE AGACERIE AGEUSIAS ALOCASIA AMEIOSES AMEIOSIS
ANIRIDIA ANOUROUS APOGAEIC APOSITIA ARANEOUS ARIARIES+ ASEITIES
ASSEGAAI AULARIAN AUMAILED AURELIAN AURELIAS AURIFIED AURIFIES
AUTOCUES AUTOPSIA AUTOSAVE AUTOTUNE AUXILIAR AVIANISE AVOISION
AWEARIED BAHOOKIE+ BANLIEUE BEAUTIED BEAUXITE BOUDERIE CAMAIEUX
CARIACOU CAVIARIE COENOBIA DEQUEUED DEQUEUES DIANOIAS DOUANIER
DOULEIAS EBIONISE EBIONIZE EGOITIES EMERAUDE ENQUEUED ENQUEUES
EOLIENNE EPIGAEAL EPIGAEAN EQUINIAS ERIONITE ETAERIOS ETOURDIE
EUGARIES EUPHOBIA EUPHONIA EUPHUISE EUPHUIZE EURONOTE EUTAXIAS
EUTAXITE EUTEXIAS FAUNULAE FEATEOUS FEATUOUS FEIJOADA FILIOQUE
FOEDARIE FORHOOIE HAEREMAI HEMIOPIA HETAIRIA HUAQUERO INAURATE
INDUCIAE INDUVIAE INFERIAE IOPANOIC JEALOUSE KALOOKIE KAREAREA
KAUMATUA KOEKOEAS LACINIAE LIPAEMIA MAIREHAU MAUVAISE MAUVEINE
MEIONITE METAIRIE MOINEAUS MOVIEOKE NIRAMIAI NOTITIAE NOUVEAUX
OBSEQUIE ODALIQUE OILERIES OLEARIAS OLIGEMIA ONIONIER ORAGIOUS
OSIERIES OUAKARIS OUBAASES OUTASITE+ OUVRIERE OVARIOUS PAENULAE
PAEONIES PAHAUTEA PAROEMIA PAROUSIA PERIAGUA PIHOIHOI POULAINE
QUEENIES QUEENITE QUIETIVE RAOULIAS RENEAGUE+ SAOUARIS SAPUCAIA
SUBAUDIO TAENIATE TENUIOUS UNSEELIE VOUDOUED ZOIATRIA ZOONOMIA

<br>Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Three-letter words

2017-04-16T21:21:08Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page lists 3 letter words that are in the International Collins Scrabble Words 2015 (CSW15) but not the North American OTCWL 2016 (TWL), and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

A plus sign indicates that the word is new in CSW15.

ABB ACH AIA AKA AKE ALF ALU AME ANN ANS ARD ARY ATS
AUA AUE AUF AWK AYU BAC BEZ BOH BOI BOK BON BOR BRU
CAA CAG CAZ CHA CHE CID CIT CLY DAE DEG DEI DIV DOB
DOD DOF DOO DOP DOY DSO DUX DZO EAN EAS ECH EEN EHS
EIK ELT ENE ERF ERK ERM EUK EVO EWK EWT EXO FAA FAE
FAP FAW FEG FRA FUM GAK GAU GAW GEO GER GIO GJU GOE
GON GOV GUB GUE GUP GUR GUS HAN HOA HOC HOH HOI HOX
HUI HYE IDE ING IOS ISH ISO ITA IWI JAI JAK JAP JIZ
JOL JOR JUD KAI KAK KAM KAW KEB KED KET KON KOW KYU
LEP LEW LIG LOD LOS LOU LOY LUR LUZ LYM MAA MAK MAL
MEE MEU MIZ MNA MOE MOU MOY MOZ NAS NAT NED NEF NEK
NEP NID NIE NIS NON NOX NOY NUR NYE NYM+ NYS OBO OBS
OIS OLM ONY OOM OON OOP OOR OOS ORD ORF OUK OUP OUS
OYE OYS PAV PEL PIR PLU POA POZ PRE PUH PUY PWN+ QIN
RAV REH REN REO REW RHY RIT RIZ ROK RUC RUD SAI SAM
SAR SAV SAZ SED SEY SIF SIK SMA SNY SOG SOV SOZ SUD
SUG SUI SUR SWY SYE TAI TAK TAY TEF TEX TID TIG TIK
TOC TWP TYG UDS UEY UFO UGS ULE UMU URE UTU UVA VAE
VAG VLY VOL VOM+ VOR WAI WAZ+ WEM WEX WEY WOF WOX WUS
YAD YAE YEX YGO YUG YUS ZEA ZEL ZEX ZHO ZIZ ZOL ZOS

<br>Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Important Collins words

2017-04-16T21:20:07Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page describes which Collins-only words are important for an [[OTCWL|OTCWL]] player to learn, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

== How many more words are there, and what would I need to learn? ==

Technically, of course, you need to learn almost nothing, because there are just 59 2-8 letter words in TWL that are not in CSW, and almost all of those are obscure. In practice, of course, there are some useful basic words to start with.

Because CSW contains essentially all the TWL words, you can continue to play the same game, and anything that was good in TWL remains good. Because the fundamentals of the game have not changed, the kinds of words that are the most useful to study in TWL are also the best to study in CSW. Thus the player who has studied the 2s, 3s, JQXZ words, some 4s, high probability bingos, etc., can continue to use the same methods for CSW.

So how many words are there? In total, the TWL contains 188,738 words, and CSW contains 276,663. About half of these are 9–15 letters, and while some 9s can be useful, the vast majority (about 98%) of the gain is with the 2–8s. OWL contains 88,099 of these, while CSW has 118,999, which is 30,900 more. This is about 35%, which means that for approximately every 3 TWL words there is an extra CSW word.

However, it is likely that you did not start out playing TWL with the intention of learning all 188,738 words. Likewise, you can play a good CSW game without needing more than a small fraction of the extra 30,900 2–8s. In fact, you can play a decent game with just the 2s and 3s. The main thing to keep in mind is that essentially every word you know from TWL is still valid. So, as we have already seen that three quarters of the words are TWL, you are already three quarters of the way there. And in many cases, even more than this, because there will be a choice of moves, many of which will be TWL.

So, what should you actually study? In the following, we present various useful lists and suggestions. In some cases we have presented just the most useful words, but you can see the full list by following the link in the heading.

== Two-letter words ==

As in TWL, by far the most useful words are the 2s. There are 19 more of these in CSW:

CH DI EA EE FY GU IO JA KO KY
NY OB OO OU ST UG UR YU ZO

<br>While 19 is not a large number, you probably will not remember them all straightaway (your author has played in the World Championships, and did not remember the 2s in one sitting). They will become a natural part of the game over time.

== [[Three-letter words]] ==

Following the 2s, there are 260 3s. The most useful 3s are:

QIN EXO IDE OYE JAI ENE ITA AIA IWI AYU
JOR WEX URE WOX WOF DZO NYE AME AUA ZOL
GIO WAI TEX ONY OBO NEF NOX FAW YEX FAA ...

<br>Obviously, like in TWL, you do not need to know 100% of the 3s before continuing. While words such as ZIZ may come in handy some day, it is likely that various 4s and bingos will come up first.

The next most useful words are the same as in TWL: short words with many vowels, high-scorers with J, Q, X and Z, some of the most useful 4s and 5s (words which are likely to be much better than other moves if you have those tiles, such as VIFDA), high probability bingos, dump-words such as 4s with 2 Is, and words with Q but no U.

== [[Vowel dumps]] ==

2s: EA EE IO OO OU
3s: AIA AUA AUE
4s: EUOI HIOI EVOE HUIA VIAE IDEE OUPA UVAE ONIE ALOO ...
5s: AIDOI AINEE AULOI BOOAI OUIJA ZOAEA ZOOEA
6s: EUOUAE ZOAEAE ZOOEAE
7s: ETAERIO EATERIE AERADIO AIERIES OLEARIA EUGARIE DOULEIA EUOUAES MOINEAU DIANOIA ...
8s: ETAERIOS AEROTONE AEGIRINE NOTITIAE DOUANIER AEGIRITE INAURATE AERADIOS ETOURDIE OLEARIAS ...

== [[Short JQXZ words]] ==

J: JA
JAI JOR JOL JAP JIZ ...
JOBE BENJ JEDI JAGA JUVE ...
OUIJA JEWIE JIAOS JEUNE JOBED ...
Q: QIN
QINS WAQF FIQH QUOP QUEP ...
TALAQ QORMA QUOAD QUOIF QUAIR ...
X: EXO WEX WOX TEX NOX ...
WEXE GREX FAIX DIXI SAXE ...
VITEX VIBEX XOANA JAXIE WEXED ...
Z: ZO
DZO ZOL ZEX ZEA BEZ ...
LAZO TREZ ZITE ZOOT ZATI ...
ZOAEA ZOOEA ZANTE AVIZE EZINE ...

== [[High-probability bingos]] ==

7s: NOTAIRE OTARINE ETAERIO ALERION OARIEST OTARIES ROASTIE ORIGANE ENTRAIL RESIANT ...
8s: ANOESTRI ARSONITE NOTAIRES ROSINATE ETAERIOS DONARIES DOUANIER ALERIONS SOTERIAL INORNATE ...

== I and U dumps ==

I: IWI
DIVI DIXI FINI HIOI ISIT MIHI PIPI SIMI SIRI WILI
U: UMU UTU
HUHU KUKU KUTU KUZU PUKU PULU RURU SUSU UMUS UTUS WUDU ZULU

== Q-not-followed-by-U words ==

FIQH -s QALAMDAN -s QWERTIES
GUQIN -s QASIDA -s TALAQ -s
INQILAB -s QAWWAL -s TSADDIQ -s
MUQADDAM -s QAWWALI -s TSADDIQIM
QABALISM -s QIN -s TZADDIQ -s
QABALIST -s QINGHAOSU -s TZADDIQIM
QABALISTIC QINTARKA WAQF -s
QAIMAQAM -s QORMA -s YAQONA -s

== Going Further ==

The basics above are easily enough for a good CSW game. But you may decide that you wish to go further.

A significant downside to going further is that it can be difficult to keep the two lexica separate. Although remembering which of the words you now know are “new” (think back to the last dictionary update, if you have been playing that long) is not too bad, remembering a word and remembering which lexicon it is in are not the same thing, especially over a period of time. Those CSW words may come back to haunt you in a TWL game a few months down the line!

But nevertheless, some people have high [[CSW ratings|ratings]] at both TWL and CSW, and one can get to quite a high standard quite quickly.

Chosen correctly, it can be shown that learning the top 1% of the words when ordered by playability is equivalent to learning 25% of all the words. So, for the 2-8s, learning the top 300 from CSW is effectively learning one quarter of all the words newly allowed by that lexicon. This top 25% (or any other fraction) can be accessed by playability in the Collins edition of the [[Collins links|Zyzzyva]] word study program.

== Collins Cheat Sheet ==

We have incorporated the above into a [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_1.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet]], that is designed to be used by new-to, or occasional players of, CSW. It resembles the original [http://www.cross-tables.com/cs Cheat Sheet] by Mike Baron, and the NSA’s “Important Words to Raise Your Score” sheet that was given to new members, except that it concentrates on CSW words.

There is also a [[Media:Collins_cheat_sheet_part_2.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet Part 2]], which contains a useful array of the hooks to CSW 2s, and the full set of CSW 4s.

== More Resources ==

For further resources regarding the CSW words, including word study software such as [[Zyzzyva]], see the [[Collins links]] page.

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

How Collins differs

2017-04-16T21:18:49Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

This page describes '''how Collins differs''' from [[OTCWL]] as a playing lexicon, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]]. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica, OTCWL16 and CSW15, as TWL and CSW respectively.

== Fundamentals ==

Fundamentally, the game does not change. It is still the same Scrabble experience, as enjoyed by many worldwide. The overall game, and the basic strategy, such as finding a good score plus rack leave, are not changed by moving from TWL to CSW. In other words, it will still feel like the same game, just one with more words. If one were handing out a sheet of tips for new players, the same sheet could be handed out for CSW as it has been for TWL. There is a far greater difference between the kitchen table and the club than there is between the two lexica.

So the differences are not in the fundamentals, but in the details. The extra words are the most noticeable, and because there are so many of them, you will use them, particularly the short ones.

== Challenge rule ==

After the words, the next biggest difference is the challenge rule: CSW games are generally not played to double-challenge, but with a points penalty. This is not intrinsic to the lexicon (the international [[WESPA]] rules do in fact allow double challenge, if desired), but has emerged as the de facto standard between no penalty at all (as played in Britain), and loss of a turn. In looking at the differences in more detail, we thus start with the challenge rule. The words are described in [[Important Collins words]].

The altered challenge [[Rules|rule]] compared to the North American double-challenge rule is as follows:

* If your opponent makes a play, you challenge, and their play is good, instead of losing your turn, the opponent gains points
* Typically, this is 5 or 10 points per word challenged
* After you have made an unsuccessful challenge, it is still your turn
* If you challenge correctly, the rule is the same as North America: the opponent loses their turn and their incorrect play is removed from the board
* The determination of move acceptability is done in the usual way: the play is ruled either acceptable or not, regardless of the number of words challenged. Which individual words are good or bad is not revealed

<br>So if you, say, challenge two words, the play is ruled acceptable, and the penalty is 10 points per word, the opponent gets an extra 20 points, but it is still your turn.

Note, however, that there is a subtlety. Like North American double-challenge, the rule still applies on the final move. But, unlike double-challenge, the penalty still has an effect (you cannot lose a turn if the opponent has played out because there are no more turns). So the free challenge when the opponent plays out is lost. The opponent can, therefore, still gain the penalty of 5, 10, etc., points if you challenge incorrectly, which something to keep in mind if it is a close game.

It is not yet clear whether North American CSW games will ultimately end up as penalty rather than double challenge, but the current norm is a 5 or 10 point penalty.

== More choices of plays ==

Generally, there will be more choices for each play. The increased number of 2-3 letter words and hooks means there are often more possibilities to make overlapping plays, or play a bingo. While in some situations increased hooks can make it harder to block the board, in other situations increased overlaps can make it easier to play without creating openings: while a high scoring open game can thus be played, this style of play is not forced upon the player, as board areas with a dense covering of words with few openings can be created. A converse with the extra choice of moves is there may be less time to think about each individual play than in TWL.

Some of the most significant sources of extra word choices are:

;'''Two letter words'''
: There are 19 extra two letter words: CH, DI, EA, EE, FY, GU, IO, JA, KO, KY, NY, OB, OO, OU, ST, UG, UR, YU, and ZO. Note that the letter C therefore now has a two letter word, CH, but there are still no two letter words containing a V.
;'''High-scorers'''
: JA and ZO, and more threes, such as JAI, QIN, EXO, and ZEA, mean there is more potential for a 50- or 60-point J, Q, X or Z play. While sometimes your opponent might get these, it is more likely to even out because they occur more often: your opponent may get one, then you get one too.
;'''Vowel dumps'''
: Short words with numerous vowels have a greater variety, including such examples as EUOI, AIA, AUA, and AUE.
;'''Bingos'''
: There will be a playable bingo more often. Some high probability sets of letters that make no words in TWL now make a playable word, such as OTARINE, ETAERIO, ROASTIE, and ORIGANE. Of course, many combinations, such as ADEILNR or ADEILNT, still make no words.
;'''Plurals'''
: CSW contains both more words and more meanings, so some words in TWL that do not take an S now do, e.g., ATS, OIS, AVAS, FEWS.
;'''Comparatives and superlatives'''
: CSW is more generous in allowing -er -est or -ier -iest inflections, e.g., FAVE, FIE, FOU, GEY, OORIE, or QUARE make FAVER, OORIEST, etc. Some of these are now-allowed comparatives/superlatives, others are from added meanings.
;'''Gerunds'''
: A particularly large addition is that more -INGS words are good. Some of the perhaps surprising omissions from TWL, such as GRADINGS, are good in CSW.
;'''Other inflections'''
: Other extra inflections follow similarly, e.g., some TWL words that are adjectives or nouns in TWL become nouns or verbs in CSW.

<br>For more on the words, see [[Important Collins words]].

== Fewer exchanges ==

For the same reason that there are more choices, it is also usually more feasible to be able to make a play rather than be forced to exchange. The increased number of twos and short words such as the vowel dumps above often mean that there is something, even if only a score such as 10–20 points, that can be played that is better than exchanging. This is because the play uses the same or similar tiles to what would have been exchanged.

== Can catch up from behind ==

In a TWL game, if a player bingos a couple of times quickly early in the game, their strategy is often simply to close down the board and make it difficult for the opponent to catch up. While the same block-when-ahead principle applies to CSW, because there are more words, it is often possible to create more chances to catch up again, through the increased numbers of possibilities for creating hooks, and the extra 2-letter words making it more likely that a bingo lane is available. Thus, the game is rarely “won” after just a few moves.

A converse to this is that sometimes the opponent can run away to a big score with many bingos, and you are powerless to stop them. Those who have played CSW against a computer can attest to this!

== Higher game score ==

Game scores are higher, although not by as much as one might expect. A top-level player, or the computer, will average about 425 points a game in TWL against an equally matched opponent. In CSW, they will average about 450. This is approximately a 6% difference, or about 2 points more per move. Of course, in games with unequal opposition, scores can be lower or higher in either lexicon.

== Harder to play phoneys ==

The challenge rule, described at the start of this page, generally means that it is harder to play and get away with nonwords (phoneys). In particular, an expert player cannot just put down anything against a novice, because the novice can still challenge without risking the loss of their turn. Therefore, for a new CSW player facing an expert, this “bluffing” aspect is not as intimidating as under double challenge. However, experience shows that the non-double-challenge rule is by no means trivial: many phoneys can and do still get played, and point penalties from lost challenges can alter the game outcome. The purpose of the penalty is to retain the stop-and-think aspect of the double challenge, but to keep the onus on the player making the move to play valid words, because if you play a phoney and it is challenged, you do still lose your turn.

== Balance between defense and offense is shifted ==

There is a prevailing opinion that Collins encourages a more offensive rather than defensive playing style, favoring word finding rather than considering the strategic merits of different moves. This is because it generally seems easier to just keep scoring, with less regard for board position, or what the opponent does. However, it is not clear exactly to what extent this is really the case, compared to simply playing the same open style in TWL for the majority of the game. Given the prevailing opinion, it seems likely to be true, but little empirical or quantitative evidence has been presented. Both Collins and TWL provide rich strategical possibilities, far more than anyone can analyze completely during the course of a game.

== Overall ==

While playing CSW is not identical to playing TWL, the game as known and loved by thousands of tournament players across North America is not fundamentally changed by playing CSW.

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

SOWPODS

2017-04-16T21:17:54Z

Nball: Update of whole SOWPODS wiki to CSW15

The '''SOWPODS''' lexicon, more commonly now referred to as '''Collins''' or '''Collins Scrabble Words''' ('''CSW'''), is a word list first published in 2007 by Collins, and updated in 2012 and 2015. NASPA has sanctioned official games played in the CSW lexicon in a separate [[SOWPODS rating system|CSW rating system]] since January 2010. The 2012 edition was in effect until August 31, 2015; the 2015 edition took effect on September 1, 2015.

[[Image:CSW_countries.png|400px|center|alt Map of the CSW world]]

English-language Scrabble as a whole is played to two lexica, depending on country. This map shows countries according to the lexicon(s) they use. Currently, 47 countries use CSW (green), and 4 use predominantly the Official Tournament and Club Word List 2016 edition ([[OTCWL|OTCWL16]], the North American lexicon), with some CSW play. These countries, shown in blue, are Canada, Israel, Thailand, and the United States.

== Statistics ==

* The 2015 edition of CSW has 276,663 words from 2-15 letters, up from 270,163 words in the 2012 edition, an increase of 6500 words
* The 2015 edition includes all of the words that are acceptable in the current North American OTCWL16 word list, with the exception of 59 2-8 letter words, and 1844 9-15 letter words
* In 2014, 8% of all games played were CSW-rated, the remainder being played in the [[OTCWL]] lexicon

== Coinage ==

The name “SOWPODS” was coined as an anagram of OSW+OSPD, the names of the two lexicons (the British Official Scrabble Words and the American Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary) that were originally merged to form SOWPODS. The SOWPODS word list is currently edited by the [[WESPA]] Dictionary Committee; comments concerning the list should be directed to the NASPA [[International Committee]]. The CSW word list contains almost all of the words found in [[OTCWL|OTCWL16]], as well as a large number of other English words from around the world.

== More information ==

The purpose of these webpages is to provide informative and, hopefully, interesting information to those North American tournament and club players who are curious about trying out the CSW game. They do not, therefore, aim to introduce Scrabble play as a whole, but those parts of it that change if one moves from playing OTCWL to playing CSW. Thus, we start with how the game differs from OTCWL, introduce the most useful extra words to know, address some commonly asked questions and concerns, then describe the current CSW scene as it is evolving in North America. Finally, we present links to further resources outside of this wiki.

The sections below follow on from each other in order, but each can be read on its own.

* [[How Collins differs]]
* [[Important Collins words]]
* [[Obscure Collins words]]
* [[Collins updates]]
* [[Downsides to Collins]]
* [[Collins tournaments and ratings]]
* [[Try it]]
* [[Collins links]]

<br>Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

CSW Tournaments

2012-04-16T01:08:44Z

Nball:

This page lists '''[[tournaments]]'''
rated in the <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS</a> system,
and is part of our introduction to
[[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

==Collins (SOWPODS) in North America: Tournaments==

While there have been occasional tournaments played to the international lexicon in the US since the 1990s (the ’93 Worlds in New York, for example: the Worlds have always been SOWPODS), and occasional others such as Wisconsin Dells, Toronto, and Texas, it was in 2010 that the number of CSW tournaments really started to increase. This was in large part due to NASPA’s decision to allow CSW to be rated, which has given the impetus to several organizers to add CSW
divisions, or create new tournaments to meet demand.

It remains to be seen how much these numbers will continue to increase, and what the long-term future of the CSW scene will be, but the possibility of being able to play CSW exclusively, if one would like to, is now workable. Although, it is perhaps reasonable to say that this is still more the case for either the less prolific tournament player, or one with a large travel budget.

Also of note is that there are a significant number of prominent international tournaments with quite substantial sponsorship and prizes, several of which are well into the $1000s, and some over $10,000. These are listed at the <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA</a> site.

Since the NASPA SOWPODS rating system went into effect, the following tournaments in North America are either CSW, or have a CSW division. Some earlier tournaments were played in 2009.

Events are listed below in their usual order in the calendar year. Some events will only (or did only) include a Collins division if a quorum of four players registers (or registered) in time. Also, non-NASPA sanctioned CSW events are not listed.

Please note that this page is manually edited, based on the official page of [[tournament results]] and the [{{SERVER}}/tourneys/calendar.html calendar of future events]. Another good source for tournament information is [http://www.cross-tables.com cross-tables].

For information on directing a CSW tournament, or adding a CSW division to a tournament, see the page on [[Directing SOWPODS tournaments]].

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0
!Event
!2009
!2010
!2011
!2012
|-
!Total events listed
!2
!17
!60
!39 y.t.d.
|-
|New Orleans, LA
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 14–16, 20 games
|-
|Toronto vs. Montreal, Kingston, ON
| 
|Jan 16–17, 12 games
| 
| 
|-
|Boards on the Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 21–23, 19 games
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 21, 8 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jan 22, 6 games
|Jan 28, 6 games
|-
|Cornwall, ON (TCC)
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 28, 8 games
|-
|Utica, NY
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 28, 8 games
|-
|Boston, MA
| 
| 
|Feb 5–6, 12 games
| 
|-
|Las Vegas, NV
| 
| 
| 
|Feb 17–20, 28 games
|-
|Phoenix, AZ
| 
|Feb 13–15, 20 games
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
| 
|-
|Eastern Championship, Charlotte, NC
| 
| 
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
|Feb 17–20, 24 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Feb 26, 6 games
|Feb 25, 6 games
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Mar 19–20, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Mar 26, 6 games
|Mar 31, 6 games
|-
|West Coast World Championship Word list Challenge (WCWCWC), Ashland, OR
| 
|Mar 27–28, 16 games
|Mar 25–27, 20 games
| 
|-
|Scrabble for Literacy Fundraiser, Danville, IL
| 
| 
| 
|Mar 31–Apr 01, 14 games
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Apr 3, 7 games
| 
|-
|Hudson, NY
| 
| 
| 
|Apr 7, 8 games
|-
|Boston Area Tournament, Westford, MA
| 
| 
|Apr 10, 6 games (late bird)
|Apr 13–15, 5+15 games
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
|Apr 22–24, 20 games
| 
|-
|NEOSCRABBLE Spring Fling, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
| 
| 
| 
|Apr 21–22, 13 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Apr 30, 6 games
|Apr 28, 6 games
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
| 
|May 4–6, 20 games
|-
|Oregon Tile, Portland, OR
| 
| 
| 
|May 4–6, 5+15+4 games
|-
|Bermuda Treasures Scrabble Cruise
| 
| 
| 
|May 6–13
|-
|Portsmouth, NH
| 
| 
|May 14–15, 12 games
| 
|-
|May Mayhem, Romulus, MI
| 
| 
| 
|May 19–20, 15 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|May 21, 6 games
| 
|-
|Kelowna, BC
| 
| 
|May 21–23, 20 games
| 
|-
|Lake Arrowhead, NY
| 
| 
| 
|May 26–28, 20 games
|-
|Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|May 28–29, 14 games
|May 26–27, 14 games
|-
|Arden Cup, Elmhurst, IL
| 
| 
|May 28–30, 20 games
|May 26–28, 20 games
|-
|Where the ZO meets the ZA, Portland, OR
| 
|May 29, 6 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|May 29, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lucky Lab, Portland, OR
| 
|May 30, 8 games
| 
| 
|-
|NAST One Day, Revere, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 5, 6 games
| 
|-
|Scrabble Tournament at the Peak, Hancock, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 18–19, 16 games
|Jun 8–10, 16 games
|-
|Teeny Tiny Tournament, Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|May 21, 8 games
|Jun 9, 8 games
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
|Jun 12, 7 games
| 
|-
|Washington, DC
| 
| 
| 
|Jun 23–24, 14 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jun 25, 6 games
| 
|-
|Annual Nor’easter Main Event, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Jul 1–4, 6+21 games
|Jun 29–Jul 2, 21 games
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
| 
|Jul 6–8, 21/39 games
|-
|NASPA Club 171's 11th annual summer tournament, Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Jul 9, 8 games
| 
|-
|Rubber City Collins Classic/Classic II, Akron, OH
| 
|Jul 10–11, 15 games
|Jul 15–17, 16 games
| 
|-
|US World Championships Qualifying Tournament, Akron, OH
| 
| 
|Jul 15–17, 20 games
| 
|-
|Toronto, ON
| 
|Jul 16, 7 games
|Jul 15–17, 7+12 games
|Jul 20–22, 7+12 games
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Jul 17, 7 games
| 
|-
|Old Greenwich, CT
| 
| 
|Jul 22–24, 20 games
|Jul 27–29, 16 games
|-
|Victoria Early Bird
| 
| 
|Jul 22, 6 games
| 
|-
|Victoria, BC
| 
|Oct 2–3, 14 games
|Jul 23–24, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jul 30, 6 games
| 
|-
|Canadian WSC Qualifier, Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|Jul 30-31
| 
|-
|NSC Directors' Tournament, Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 5, 4 games
| 
|-
|National Scrabble Championship 'Lunch Bird', Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 6–10, 5 games
| 
|-
|World Players Championship, Dallas, TX
| 
|Aug 13–16, 32 games
| 
| 
|-
|National Scrabble Championships, Orlando, FL
| 
| 
| 
|Aug 11–15, 31 games
|-
|Utica, NY
| 
| 
|Aug 20–21, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 27, 6 games
| 
|-
|Dover, DE
| 
| 
|Aug 27–29, 19 games
| 
|-
|New York, NY
| 
| 
| 
|Sep 1–3, 21 games
|-
|Burlington, MA
| 
| 
|Sep 3–5, 18 games
| 
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Sep 11, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Leah Katz/Mike Wise Memorial, Toronto, ON
|Sep 11–13, 8+12 games
|Sep 24–26, 8+13 games
| 
| 
|-
|Toronto International Scrabble Open
| 
| 
|Sep 22–25, 26 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Sep 18
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Sep 24, 6 games
| 
|-
|Twin Cities, MN
| 
| 
| 
|Sep 28–30, 20 games
|-
|Wisconsin Dells, WI
| 
|Oct 1–3, 15 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Oct 2, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lake George, NY
| 
| 
|Oct 13–16, 15 games
|Oct 18–21, 15 games
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Oct 17, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Cambridge, MD
| 
| 
|Oct 28–30, 16 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Oct 29, 6 games
| 
|-
|Toronto vs. Montreal, Kingston, ON
| 
|Oct 30–31, 12 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Nov 6, 7 games
| 
|-
|Sacramento, CA
| 
|Nov 6–7, 20 games
| 
| 
|-
|Emerald City Scrabble, Seattle, WA
| 
|Nov 12–14, 20 games
|Nov 11–13, 20 games
| 
|-
|6th Annual Green Mountain Challenge, Essex, VT
| 
| 
|Nov 18–20, 15 games
| 
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|Nov 19, 8 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Dec 3–4, 13 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Dec 4, 7 games
| 
|-
|Stamford, CT
| 
| 
|Dec 9–11, 16 games
| 
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Dec 10, 8 games
| 
|-
|Delaware Scrabble Festivus, Newark, DE
| 
| 
|Dec 23–25, 20 games
| 
|-
|New Year’s Scrabble Tournament, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Dec 30–Jan 02, 22 games
|Dec 28–Jan 01, 8+26 games
|}

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

CSW Tournaments

2012-04-16T01:05:59Z

Nball: Updated, including introductory text

This page lists '''[[tournaments]]'''
rated in the <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS</a> system,
and is part of our introduction to
[[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

This page lists '''[[tournaments]]'''
rated in the <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS</a> system,
and is part of our introduction to
[[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

==Collins (SOWPODS) in North America: Tournaments==

While there have been occasional tournaments played to the international lexicon in the US since the 1990s (the ’93 Worlds in New York, for example: the Worlds have always been SOWPODS), and occasional others such as Wisconsin Dells, Toronto, and Texas, it was in 2010 that the number of CSW tournaments really started to increase. This was in large part due to NASPA’s decision to allow CSW to be rated, which has given the impetus to several organizers to add CSW
divisions, or create new tournaments to meet demand.

It remains to be seen how much these numbers will continue to increase, and what the long-term future of the CSW scene will be, but the possibility of being able to play CSW exclusively, if one would like to, is now workable. Although, it is perhaps reasonable to say that this is still more the case for either the less prolific tournament player, or one with a large travel budget.

Also of note is that there are a significant number of prominent international tournaments with quite substantial sponsorship and prizes, several of which are well into the $1000s, and some over $10,000. These are listed at the <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA</a> site.

Since the NASPA SOWPODS rating system went into effect, the following tournaments in North America are either CSW, or have a CSW division. Some earlier tournaments were played in 2009.

Events are listed below in their usual order in the calendar year. Some events will only (or did only) include a Collins division if a quorum of four players registers (or registered) in time. Also, non-NASPA sanctioned CSW events are not listed.

Please note that this page is manually edited, based on the official page of [[tournament results]] and the [{{SERVER}}/tourneys/calendar.html calendar of future events]. Another good source for tournament information is [http://www.cross-tables.com cross-tables].

For information on directing a CSW tournament, or adding a CSW division to a tournament, see the page on [[Directing SOWPODS tournaments]].

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0
!Event
!2009
!2010
!2011
!2012
|-
!Total events listed
!2
!17
!60
!39 y.t.d.
|-
|New Orleans, LA
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 14–16, 20 games
|-
|Toronto vs. Montreal, Kingston, ON
| 
|Jan 16–17, 12 games
| 
| 
|-
|Boards on the Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 21–23, 19 games
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 21, 8 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jan 22, 6 games
|Jan 28, 6 games
|-
|Cornwall, ON (TCC)
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 28, 8 games
|-
|Utica, NY
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 28, 8 games
|-
|Boston, MA
| 
| 
|Feb 5–6, 12 games
| 
|-
|Las Vegas, NV
| 
| 
| 
|Feb 17–20, 28 games
|-
|Phoenix, AZ
| 
|Feb 13–15, 20 games
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
| 
|-
|Eastern Championship, Charlotte, NC
| 
| 
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
|Feb 17–20, 24 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Feb 26, 6 games
|Feb 25, 6 games
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Mar 19–20, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Mar 26, 6 games
|Mar 31, 6 games
|-
|West Coast World Championship Word list Challenge (WCWCWC), Ashland, OR
| 
|Mar 27–28, 16 games
|Mar 25–27, 20 games
| 
|-
|Scrabble for Literacy Fundraiser, Danville, IL
| 
| 
| 
|Mar 31–Apr 01, 14 games
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Apr 3, 7 games
| 
|-
|Hudson, NY
| 
| 
| 
|Apr 7, 8 games
|-
|Boston Area Tournament, Westford, MA
| 
| 
|Apr 10, 6 games (late bird)
|Apr 13–15, 5+15 games
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
|Apr 22–24, 20 games
| 
|-
|NEOSCRABBLE Spring Fling, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
| 
| 
| 
|Apr 21–22, 13 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Apr 30, 6 games
|Apr 28, 6 games
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
| 
|May 4–6, 20 games
|-
|Oregon Tile, Portland, OR
| 
| 
| 
|May 4–6, 5+15+4 games
|-
|Bermuda Treasures Scrabble Cruise
| 
| 
| 
|May 6–13
|-
|Portsmouth, NH
| 
| 
|May 14–15, 12 games
| 
|-
|May Mayhem, Romulus, MI
| 
| 
| 
|May 19–20, 15 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|May 21, 6 games
| 
|-
|Kelowna, BC
| 
| 
|May 21–23, 20 games
| 
|-
|Lake Arrowhead, NY
| 
| 
| 
|May 26–28, 20 games
|-
|Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|May 28–29, 14 games
|May 26–27, 14 games
|-
|Arden Cup, Elmhurst, IL
| 
| 
|May 28–30, 20 games
|May 26–28, 20 games
|-
|Where the ZO meets the ZA, Portland, OR
| 
|May 29, 6 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|May 29, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lucky Lab, Portland, OR
| 
|May 30, 8 games
| 
| 
|-
|NAST One Day, Revere, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 5, 6 games
| 
|-
|Scrabble Tournament at the Peak, Hancock, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 18–19, 16 games
|Jun 8–10, 16 games
|-
|Teeny Tiny Tournament, Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|May 21, 8 games
|Jun 9, 8 games
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
|Jun 12, 7 games
| 
|-
|Washington, DC
| 
| 
| 
|Jun 23–24, 14 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jun 25, 6 games
| 
|-
|Annual Nor’easter Main Event, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Jul 1–4, 6+21 games
|Jun 29–Jul 2, 21 games
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
| 
|Jul 6–8, 21/39 games
|-
|NASPA Club 171's 11th annual summer tournament, Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Jul 9, 8 games
| 
|-
|Rubber City Collins Classic/Classic II, Akron, OH
| 
|Jul 10–11, 15 games
|Jul 15–17, 16 games
| 
|-
|US World Championships Qualifying Tournament, Akron, OH
| 
| 
|Jul 15–17, 20 games
| 
|-
|Toronto, ON
| 
|Jul 16, 7 games
|Jul 15–17, 7+12 games
|Jul 20–22, 7+12 games
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Jul 17, 7 games
| 
|-
|Old Greenwich, CT
| 
| 
|Jul 22–24, 20 games
|Jul 27–29, 16 games
|-
|Victoria Early Bird
| 
| 
|Jul 22, 6 games
| 
|-
|Victoria, BC
| 
|Oct 2–3, 14 games
|Jul 23–24, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jul 30, 6 games
| 
|-
|Canadian WSC Qualifier, Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|Jul 30-31
| 
|-
|NSC Directors' Tournament, Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 5, 4 games
| 
|-
|National Scrabble Championship 'Lunch Bird', Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 6–10, 5 games
| 
|-
|World Players Championship, Dallas, TX
| 
|Aug 13–16, 32 games
| 
| 
|-
|National Scrabble Championships, Orlando, FL
| 
| 
| 
|Aug 11–15, 31 games
|-
|Utica, NY
| 
| 
|Aug 20–21, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 27, 6 games
| 
|-
|Dover, DE
| 
| 
|Aug 27–29, 19 games
| 
|-
|New York, NY
| 
| 
| 
|Sep 1–3, 21 games
|-
|Burlington, MA
| 
| 
|Sep 3–5, 18 games
| 
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Sep 11, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Leah Katz/Mike Wise Memorial, Toronto, ON
|Sep 11–13, 8+12 games
|Sep 24–26, 8+13 games
| 
| 
|-
|Toronto International Scrabble Open
| 
| 
|Sep 22–25, 26 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Sep 18
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Sep 24, 6 games
| 
|-
|Twin Cities, MN
| 
| 
| 
|Sep 28–30, 20 games
|-
|Wisconsin Dells, WI
| 
|Oct 1–3, 15 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Oct 2, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lake George, NY
| 
| 
|Oct 13–16, 15 games
|Oct 18–21, 15 games
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Oct 17, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Cambridge, MD
| 
| 
|Oct 28–30, 16 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Oct 29, 6 games
| 
|-
|Toronto vs. Montreal, Kingston, ON
| 
|Oct 30–31, 12 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Nov 6, 7 games
| 
|-
|Sacramento, CA
| 
|Nov 6–7, 20 games
| 
| 
|-
|Emerald City Scrabble, Seattle, WA
| 
|Nov 12–14, 20 games
|Nov 11–13, 20 games
| 
|-
|6th Annual Green Mountain Challenge, Essex, VT
| 
| 
|Nov 18–20, 15 games
| 
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|Nov 19, 8 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Dec 3–4, 13 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Dec 4, 7 games
| 
|-
|Stamford, CT
| 
| 
|Dec 9–11, 16 games
| 
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Dec 10, 8 games
| 
|-
|Delaware Scrabble Festivus, Newark, DE
| 
| 
|Dec 23–25, 20 games
| 
|-
|New Year’s Scrabble Tournament, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Dec 30–Jan 02, 22 games
|Dec 28–Jan 01, 8+26 games
|}

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

CSW Tournaments

2012-04-16T00:26:23Z

Nball: /* Collins (SOWPODS) in North America: Tournaments */

This page lists '''[[tournaments]]'''
rated in the <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS</a> system,
and is part of our introduction to
[[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

==Collins (SOWPODS) in North America: Tournaments==

While there have been occasional tournaments played to the international lexicon in the US since the 1990s (the ’93 Worlds in New York, for example: the Worlds have always been SOWPODS), and occasional others such as Wisconsin Dells, Toronto, and Texas, it has been in 2010 that the number of CSW tournaments has really started to increase. This is in large part due to NASPA’s decision to allow CSW to be rated, which has given the impetus to several organizers to add CSW
divisions, or create new tournaments to meet demand.

It remains to be seen how much these numbers will continue to
increase, and whether we have reached a tipping point toward a
viable CSW scene, but the possibility of being able to play CSW
exclusively, particularly on the west coast of the US, if one would like to, is becoming much more workable. Although, perhaps right now, it would be reasonable to say that this is still more the case for either the less prolific tournament player, or one with a large travel budget.

Also of note is that there is an increasing number of prominent
international tournaments with quite substantial sponsorship and prizes, several of which are well into the $1000s, and some over $10,000. The Causeway tournament in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, in December 2011, will have a top prize of $50,000, and a prize fund of $180,000. These and other upcoming tournaments are listed on <a
href="http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/upcoming.html">Bob Jackman’s SOWPODS site</a>, and at the <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA</a> site.

Since the NASPA SOWPODS rating system went into effect, the following tournaments in North America are either CSW, or have a CSW division. Some earlier tournaments were played in 2009.

Events are listed below in their usual order in the calendar year. Some events will only (or did only) include a Collins division if a quorum of four players registers (or registered) in time. Also, non-NASPA sanctioned CSW events are not listed.

Please note that this page is manually edited, based on the official page of [[tournament results]] and the
[{{SERVER}}/tourneys/calendar.html calendar of future events].
Another good source for tournament information is [http://www.cross-tables.com cross-tables].

For information on directing a CSW tournament, or adding a CSW division to a tournament, see the page on [[Directing SOWPODS tournaments]].

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0
!Event
!2009
!2010
!2011
!2012
|-
!Total events listed
!2
!17
!60
!20
|-
|New Orleans, LA
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 14–16, 20 games
|-
|Boards on the Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 21–23, 19 games
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 21, 8 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jan 22, 6 games
|Jan 28, 6 games
|-
|Cornwall, ON (TCC)
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 28
|-
|Utica, NY
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 28, 8 games
|-
|Boston, MA
| 
| 
|Feb 5–6, 12 games
| 
|-
|Eastern Championship, NC
| 
| 
| 
|Feb 17–20, 24 games
|-
|Las Vegas, NV
| 
| 
| 
|Feb 17–20, 28 games
|-
|Phoenix, AZ
| 
|Feb 13–15, 20 games
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
| 
|-
|Eastern Championship, Charlotte, NC
| 
| 
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Feb 26, 6 games
|Feb 25, 6 games
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Mar 19–20, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Mar 26, 6 games
|Mar 31, 6 games
|-
|West Coast World Championship Word list Challenge (WCWCWC), Ashland, OR
| 
|Mar 27–28, 16 games
|Mar 25–27, 20 games
| 
|-
|Danville, IL
| 
| 
| 
|Mar 31–Apr 01, 14 games
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Apr 3, 7 games
| 
|-
|Hudson, NY
| 
| 
| 
|Apr 7, 8 games
|-
|Boston Area Tournament, Westford, MA
| 
| 
|Apr 10, 6 games (late bird)
|Apr 13&ndash15; 5,15 games
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
|Apr 22–24, 20 games
| 
|-
|NEOSCRABBLE Spring Fling, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
| 
| 
| 
|Apr 21–22, 13 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Apr 30, 6 games
|Apr 28, 6 games
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
| 
|May 4–6, 20 games
|-
|Oregon Tile, Portland, OR
| 
| 
| 
|May 4–6, 5, 15, 4 games
|-
|Bermuda Treasures Scrabble Cruise
| 
| 
| 
|May 6–13
|-
|Portsmouth, NH
| 
| 
|May 14–15, 12 games
| 
|-
|Romulus, MI
| 
| 
| 
|May 19–20, 15 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|May 21, 6 games
| 
|-
|Kelowna, BC
| 
| 
|May 21–23, 20 games
| 
|-
|Lake Arrowhead, NY
| 
| 
| 
|May 26–28, 20 games
|-
|Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|May 28–29, 14 games
|May 26–27, 14 games
|-
|Arden Cup, Elmhurst, IL
| 
| 
|May 28–30, 20 games
|May 26–28, 20 games
|-
|Where the ZO meets the ZA, Portland, OR
| 
|May 29, 6 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|May 29, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lucky Lab, Portland, OR
| 
|May 30, 8 games
| 
| 
|-
|NAST One Day, Revere, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 5, 6 games
| 
|-
|Scrabble Tournament at the Peak, Hancock, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 18–19, 16 games
|Jun 8–10, 16 games
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|May 21, 8 games
|Jun 9, 8 games
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
|Jun 12, 7 games
| 
|-
|Washington, DC
| 
| 
| 
|Jun 23–24, 14 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jun 25, 6 games
| 
|-
|16th Annual Nor’easter Main Event, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Jul 1–4, 6+21 games
| 
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
| 
|Jul 6–8, 21/39 games
|-
|NASPA Club 171's 11th annual summer tournament, Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Jul 9, 8 games
| 
|-
|Rubber City Collins Classic/Classic II, Akron, OH
| 
|Jul 10–11, 15 games
|Jul 15–17, 16 games
| 
|-
|US World Championships Qualifying Tournament, Akron, OH
| 
| 
|Jul 15–17, 20 games
| 
|-
|Toronto, ON
| 
|Jul 16, 7 games
|Jul 15–17, 7,12 games
|Jul 20–22, 7,12 games
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Jul 17, 7 games
| 
|-
|Old Greenwich, CT
| 
| 
|Jul 22–24, 20 games
|Jul 27–29, 16 games
|-
|Victoria Early Bird
| 
| 
|Jul 22, 6 games
| 
|-
|Victoria, BC
| 
|Oct 2–3, 14 games
|Jul 23–24, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jul 30, 6 games
| 
|-
|Canadian WSC Qualifier, Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|Jul 30-31
| 
|-
|NSC Directors' Tournament, Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 5, 4 games
| 
|-
|National Scrabble Championship 'Lunch Bird', Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 6–10, 5 games
| 
|-
|World Players Championship, Dallas, TX
| 
|Aug 13–16, 32 games
| 
| 
|-
|National Scrabble Championships, Orlando, FL
| 
| 
| 
|Aug 11–15, 31 games
|-
|Utica, NY
| 
| 
|Aug 20–21, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 27, 6 games
| 
|-
|Dover, DE
| 
| 
|Aug 27–29, 19 games
| 
|-
|Burlington, MA
| 
| 
|Sep 3–5, 18 games
| 
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Sep 11, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Leah Katz/Mike Wise Memorial, Toronto, ON
|Sep 11–13, 8+12 games
|Sep 24–26, 8+13 games
| 
|Details TBA
|-
|Toronto International Scrabble Open
| 
| 
|Sep 22–25, 26 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Sep 18
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Sep 24, 6 games
| 
|-
|Wisconsin Dells, WI
| 
|Oct 1–3, 15 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Oct 2, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lake George, NY
| 
| 
|Oct 13–16, 15 games
|Oct 18–21, 15 games
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Oct 17, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Cambridge, MD
| 
| 
|Oct 28–30, 16 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Oct 29, 6 games
| 
|-
|Toronto vs. Montreal, Kingston, ON
|(Jan 16–17, 2010, 12 games)
|Oct 30–31, 12 games
|Oct?, TBA
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Nov 6, 7 games
| 
|-
|Sacramento, CA
| 
|Nov 6–7, 20 games
| 
| 
|-
|Emerald City Scrabble, Seattle, WA
| 
|Nov 12–14, 20 games
|Nov 11–13, 20 games
| 
|-
|6th Annual Green Mountain Challenge, Essex, VT
| 
| 
|Nov 18–20, 15 games
| 
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|Nov 19, 8 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Dec 3–4, 13 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Dec 4, 7 games
| 
|-
|Stamford, CT
| 
| 
|Dec 9–11, 16 games
| 
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Dec 10, 8 games
| 
|-
|Delaware Scrabble Festivus, Newark, DE
| 
| 
|Dec 23–25, 20 games
| 
|-
|New Year’s 2012 Scrabble Tournament, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Dec 30–Jan 02, 22 games
| 
|}

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

CSW Tournaments

2011-12-23T11:37:17Z

Nball: Updated

This page lists '''[[tournaments]]'''
rated in the <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS</a> system,
and is part of our introduction to
[[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

==Collins (SOWPODS) in North America: Tournaments==

While there have been occasional tournaments played to the international lexicon in the US since the 1990s (the ’93 Worlds in New York, for example: the Worlds have always been SOWPODS), and occasional others such as Wisconsin Dells, Toronto, and Texas, it has been in 2010 that the number of CSW tournaments has really started to increase. This is in large part due to NASPA’s decision to allow CSW to be rated, which has given the impetus to several organizers to add CSW
divisions, or create new tournaments to meet demand.

It remains to be seen how much these numbers will continue to
increase, and whether we have reached a tipping point toward a
viable CSW scene, but the possibility of being able to play CSW
exclusively, particularly on the west coast of the US, if one would like to, is becoming much more workable. Although, perhaps right now, it would be reasonable to say that this is still more the case for either the less prolific tournament player, or one with a large travel budget.

Also of note is that there is an increasing number of prominent
international tournaments with quite substantial sponsorship and prizes, several of which are well into the $1000s, and some over $10,000. The Causeway tournament in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, in December 2011, will have a top prize of $50,000, and a prize fund of $180,000. These and other upcoming tournaments are listed on <a
href="http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/upcoming.html">Bob Jackman’s SOWPODS site</a>, and at the <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA</a> site.

Since the NASPA SOWPODS rating system went into effect, the following tournaments in North America are either CSW, or have a CSW division. Some earlier tournaments were played in 2009.

Events are listed below in their usual order in the calendar year. Some events will only (or did only) include a Collins division if a quorum of four players registers (or registered) in time. Also, non-NASPA sanctioned CSW events are not listed.

Please note that this page is manually edited, based on the official page of [[tournament results]] and the
[{{SERVER}}/tourneys/calendar.html calendar of future events].
Another good source for tournament information is [http://www.cross-tables.com cross-tables].

For information on directing a CSW tournament, or adding a CSW division to a tournament, see the page on [[Directing SOWPODS tournaments]].

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0
!Event
!2009
!2010
!2011
!2012
|-
!Total events listed
!2
!17
!60
!20
|-
|New Orleans, LA
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 14–16, 20 games
|-
|Boards on the Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 21–23, 19 games
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 21, 8 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jan 22, 6 games
|Jan 28, 6 games
|-
|Cornwall, ON (TCC)
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 28
|-
|Utica, NY
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 28, 8 games
|-
|Boston, MA
| 
| 
|Feb 5–6, 12 games
| 
|-
|Eastern Championship, NC
| 
| 
| 
|Feb 17–20, 24 games
|-
|Las Vegas, NV
| 
| 
| 
|Feb 17–20, 28 games
|-
|Phoenix, AZ
| 
|Feb 13–15, 20 games
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
| 
|-
|Eastern Championship, Charlotte, NC
| 
| 
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Feb 26, 6 games
|Feb 25, 6 games
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Mar 19–20, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Mar 26, 6 games
|Mar 31, 6 games
|-
|West Coast World Championship Word list Challenge (WCWCWC), Ashland, OR
| 
|Mar 27–28, 16 games
|Mar 25–27, 20 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Apr 3, 7 games
| 
|-
|Boston Area Tournament 2011 Late Bird, Westford, MA
| 
| 
|Apr 10, 6 games
| 
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
|Apr 22–24, 20 games
| 
|-
|NEOSCRABBLE Spring Fling, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
| 
| 
| 
|Apr 21–22, 13 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Apr 30, 6 games
|Apr 28, 6 games
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
| 
|May 4–6, 20 games
|-
|Bermuda Treasures Scrabble Cruise
| 
| 
| 
|May 6–13
|-
|Portsmouth, NH
| 
| 
|May 14–15, 12 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|May 21, 6 games
| 
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|May 21, 8 games
| 
|-
|Kelowna, BC
| 
| 
|May 21–23, 20 games
| 
|-
|Lake Arrowhead, NY
| 
| 
| 
|May 26–28, 20 games
|-
|Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|May 28–29, 14 games
| 
|-
|Arden Cup, Chicagoland, IL
| 
| 
|May 28–30, 20 games
| 
|-
|Where the ZO meets the ZA, Portland, OR
| 
|May 29, 6 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|May 29, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lucky Lab, Portland, OR
| 
|May 30, 8 games
| 
| 
|-
|NAST One Day, Revere, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 5, 6 games
| 
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
|Jun 12, 7 games
| 
|-
|Scrabble Tournament at the Peak, Hancock, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 18–19, 16 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jun 25, 6 games
| 
|-
|16th Annual Nor’easter Main Event, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Jul 1–4, 6+21 games
| 
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
| 
|Jul 6–8, 21/39 games
|-
|NASPA Club 171's 11th annual summer tournament, Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Jul 9, 8 games
| 
|-
|Rubber City Collins Classic/Classic II, Akron, OH
| 
|Jul 10–11, 15 games
|Jul 15–17, 16 games
| 
|-
|US World Championships Qualifying Tournament, Akron, OH
| 
| 
|Jul 15–17, 20 games
| 
|-
|Toronto Early Bird
| 
| 
|Jul 15, 7 games
| 
|-
|Toronto, ON
| 
|Jul 16, 7 games
|Jul 16–17, 12 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Jul 17, 7 games
| 
|-
|Old Greenwich, CT
| 
| 
|Jul 22–24, 20 games
|Jul 27–29, 16 games
|-
|Victoria Early Bird
| 
| 
|Jul 22, 6 games
| 
|-
|Victoria, BC
| 
|Oct 2–3, 14 games
|Jul 23–24, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jul 30, 6 games
| 
|-
|Canadian WSC Qualifier, Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|Jul 30-31
| 
|-
|NSC Directors' Tournament, Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 5, 4 games
| 
|-
|National Scrabble Championship 'Lunch Bird', Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 6–10, 5 games
| 
|-
|World Players Championship, Dallas, TX
| 
|Aug 13–16, 32 games
| 
| 
|-
|National Scrabble Championships, Orlando, FL
| 
| 
| 
|Aug 11–15, 31 games
|-
|Utica, NY
| 
| 
|Aug 20–21, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 27, 6 games
| 
|-
|Dover, DE
| 
| 
|Aug 27–29, 19 games
| 
|-
|Burlington, MA
| 
| 
|Sep 3–5, 18 games
| 
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Sep 11, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Leah Katz/Mike Wise Memorial, Toronto, ON
|Sep 11–13, 8+12 games
|Sep 24–26, 8+13 games
| 
|Details TBA
|-
|Toronto International Scrabble Open
| 
| 
|Sep 22–25, 26 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Sep 18
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Sep 24, 6 games
| 
|-
|Wisconsin Dells, WI
| 
|Oct 1–3, 15 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Oct 2, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lake George, NY
| 
| 
|Oct 13–16, 15 games
|Oct 18–21, 15 games
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Oct 17, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Cambridge, MD
| 
| 
|Oct 28–30, 16 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Oct 29, 6 games
| 
|-
|Toronto vs. Montreal, Kingston, ON
|(Jan 16–17, 2010, 12 games)
|Oct 30–31, 12 games
|Oct?, TBA
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Nov 6, 7 games
| 
|-
|Sacramento, CA
| 
|Nov 6–7, 20 games
| 
| 
|-
|Emerald City Scrabble, Seattle, WA
| 
|Nov 12–14, 20 games
|Nov 11–13, 20 games
| 
|-
|6th Annual Green Mountain Challenge, Essex, VT
| 
| 
|Nov 18–20, 15 games
| 
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|Nov 19, 8 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Dec 3–4, 13 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Dec 4, 7 games
| 
|-
|Stamford, CT
| 
| 
|Dec 9–11, 16 games
| 
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Dec 10, 8 games
| 
|-
|Delaware Scrabble Festivus, Newark, DE
| 
| 
|Dec 23–25, 20 games
| 
|-
|New Year’s 2012 Scrabble Tournament, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Dec 30–Jan 02, 22 games
| 
|}

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

Important Collins words

2011-12-12T00:31:19Z

Nball: Edited cheat sheet text to add link to Mike Baron's OWL2 original

This page describes which '''[[Collins]]'''-only '''words''' are '''important''' for an [[OTCWL|OWL2]] player to learn, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

== How many more words are there, and what would I need to learn? ==

Technically, of course, you don’t need to learn anything! (All OWL2 words remain valid.)

In practice, of course, there are some useful basic words to start with.

Because CSW contains all the OWL2 words, you can continue to play the same game, and anything that was good in OWL2 remains good. And because the fundamentals of the game have not changed, the kinds of words that are the most useful to study in OWL2 are also the best to study in CSW. Thus the player who has studied the 2s, 3s, JQXZ words, some 4s, high probability bingos, etc., can continue to use the same methods for CSW.

So how many words are there? In total, the OWL2 contains 178,691 words. CSW, meanwhile, contains 267,750. About half of these are 9–15 letters, and while some 9s can be useful, the vast majority (about 98%) of the gain is with the 2–8s. OWL contains 83,667 of these, while CSW has 30,908 more. This means that, for approximately every 3 OWL2 words, there is an extra CSW word.

However, it is likely that you didn’t start out playing OWL with the intention of learning 178,691 words. Likewise, you can play a good CSW game without needing anything like the extra 30,908 2–8s that are actually present. In fact, you can play a decent game with just the 2s and 3s. Sounds unlikely? Well, the thing to remember of course is that 'every word you know from OWL2 is still valid'! So, as we have already seen that three quarters of the words are OWL2, you are already three quarters of the way there. And in many cases, even more than this, because there will be a choice of moves, many of which will be OWL2.

So, what should you actually study? Here are some lists. In some cases we’ve presented just the most useful words from a list, but you can see the full list by following the link in the heading.

== Two-letter words ==

Start with the 2s. There are 23 of these:

CH DA DI EA EE FY GI GU IO JA KO KY
NY OB OO OU PO ST TE UG UR YU ZO

While that’s not too many, you probably won’t remember them all straightaway (I’ve played in the [[WSC|Worlds]], and I certainly didn’t remember the 2s in one sitting!) They’ll just become a natural part of the game over time.

== [[Three-letter words]] ==

Following the 2s, there are 277 3s. The most useful 3s are:

EXO AIA WOX ZEX REZ BEZ WOF WAI OOF ZHO
JAI ZEA JIZ TIX AUA RIZ HOX DZO ZEL FAW
IWI WEX YEX OYE NOX AUE UEY TEX LUZ AYU

Obviously, like in OWL2, you don’t have to be 100% on all the 3s before continuing! While ZIZ may come in handy some day, the chances are, various 4s and bingos will come up first.

The next most useful words are the same as in OWL2: short words with many vowels, high-scorers with J, Q, X and Z, some of the most useful 4s and 5s (words which are likely to be much better than other moves if you have those tiles, such as FAUVE), high probability bingos, dump-words such as 4s with 2 Is, and, of course, words with Q but no U.

== [[Vowel dumps]] ==

2s: EA EE IO OO OU
3s: AIA AUA AUE
4s: EUOI HIOI VIAE HUIA EVOE EOAN ONIE UVAE EINE MOAI ...
5s: AIDOI AINEE AULOI OUIJA ZOAEA ZOOEA
6s: EUOUAE ZOAEAE ZOOEAE
7s: ETAERIO AIERIES OLEARIA EATERIE EUGARIE EQUINIA DOULEIA
AURELIA MOINEAU DIANOIA ...
8s: ERIONITE AEROTONE ETAERIOS AEGIRINE DOUANIER TAENIATE
AEGIRITE AURELIAN INAURATE OLEARIAS ...

== [[Short JQXZ words]] ==

J: JA
JAI JIZ JOR JAP JUD ...
JEDI JUVE BENJ JEAT JIRD ...
OUIJA JEWIE JAXIE EEJIT JIRRE ...
Q: WAQF QUEP QUOP QUAT QUIM
NIQAB QORMA TALAQ QIBLA QUOIF ...
X: EXO WEX WOX YEX ZEX ...
GREX FAIX WEXE DIXI LANX ...
VITEX JAXIE XOANA VIBEX WUXIA ...
Z: ZO
ZEA JIZ ZEX REZ BEZ ...
ZITE ZATI TREZ ZILA ZOOT ...
ZOAEA ZOOEA GRENZ AVIZE WAREZ ...

== [[High-playability bingos]] ==

7s: ETAERIO OTARINE EROTISE AIERIES ORIGANE OTARIES SEALINE
OLEARIA RIOTISE OARIEST ...
8s: ERIONITE AEROTONE ETAERIOS AEGIRINE DENTARIA DOUANIER
TAENIATE LITERATO AEGIRITE AURELIAN ...

== I and U dumps ==

I: DIVI DIXI FIFI FINI MIHI HIOI WILI SIMI PIPI SIRI ISIT
U: PUDU WUDU HUHU KUKU PUKU KUTU KUZU PULU ZULU RURU SUSU
UTUS YUZU

== Q-not-followed-by-U words ==

INQILAB -s QASIDA -s TALAQ -s
MUQADDAM -s QAWWAL -s TSADDIQ -s
NIQAB -s QAWWALI -s TSADDIQIM
QABALISM -s QIBLA -s TZADDIQ -s
QABALIST -s QIGONG -s TZADDIQIM
QABALISTIC QINGHAOSU -s WAQF -s
QAIMAQAM -s QORMA -s YAQONA -s
QALAMDAN -s QWERTIES

==Going Further==

The basics above are more than enough for a good CSW game. But you may decide you enjoy it, and wish to go further.

The major downside to going further is that it can be difficult to keep the two lexica separate. Although remembering which of the words you now know are “new” (think back to the last dictionary update, if you have been playing that long) is not too bad, remembering a word and remembering which lexicon it is in are not the same thing, especially over a period of time. Those CSW words may come back to haunt you a few months down the line!

But nevertheless, some people have high [[CSW ratings|ratings]] at both OWL2 and CSW, and one can get to quite a high standard quite quickly.

Chosen correctly, it can be shown that learning the top 1% of the words when ordered by playability is equivalent to learning 25% of all the words. So, for the 2-8s, learning the top 300 from CSW is effectively learning one quarter of all the words newly allowed by that lexicon. This top 25% (or any other fraction) can be accessed by playability in Zyzzyva.

==Collins Cheat Sheet==

I have incorporated the above into a [[Media:Collins cheat sheet.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet]], that is designed to be used by new-to, or occasional player of, CSW. It resembles the original <a href="http://www.cross-tables.com/cs">Cheat Sheet</a> by Mike Baron, and the NSA’s “Important Words to Raise Your Score” sheet that was given to new members, except that it concentrates on CSW words.

There is also a [[Media:Collins cheat sheet part 2.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet Part 2]], which contains a useful array of the hooks to CSW 2s, and the full set of CSW 4s.

The sheets have now been updated to [[CSW12|CSW12]]. The rest of this section and the wiki will follow in due course.

The full set of extra CSW words is available via <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/hardcover/bobs-color-british-bible-2007-hardcover-%28sowpods%29/5345269">Bob’s British Bible</a>.

==Zyzzyva==

Finally, while the lists above are useful, is there any word study software for CSW? The current best answer is the same as for OWL2: [[Zyzzyva]]. This can easily be set up to supply the regular set of OWL2 words, and, in addition, the CSW words. The latter can be marked with a # sign to distinguish them, and searches can be conducted so that only the CSW words are returned, or, if you want to leave them, the CSW words can be suppressed. One can also, for example, require the correct lexicon as part of a quiz answer.

To set Zyzzyva up with CSW, go to Zyzzyva→Preferences, select “General’ in the left navigation bar in the resulting pop-up window, check the box “Load Lexicons’ if it is not checked, and click on Edit. In the “Select Lexicons’ window, click the toggle button in the leftmost column (“Default”) that is next to CSW. The button one to the right should then be checked, but grayed out. Then, check the box in the second column (“Load”) next to “OWL2+LWL”. Do
<i>not</i> check any of the other boxes, which should all be empty. Finally, click OK. The program may need to rebuild the database, which will take a few minutes. The settings as given are telling Zyzzyva to be CSW by default, but to remember which words are CSW-only, i.e., still good in OWL2. You can get at just OWL2 by requiring “In Lexicon’ OWL2 when searching, or ignoring the words with a # mark.

If the CSW words are not already marked by a #, go to Zyzzyva→Preferences, click on “Word Tables’ on the nav-bar, and edit accordingly.

If this fails (I haven’t run through it myself, because my copy is already set to CSW), or you need more information, please check out the [http://www.zyzzyva.net Zyzzyva site],
or the Yahoo Groups [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zyzzyva-users zyzzyva-users] email list.

Comments concerning this page may be directed to [[Nick Ball]].

File:Collins cheat sheet part 2.pdf

2011-12-12T00:28:16Z

Nball: uploaded a new version of "Image:Collins cheat sheet part 2.pdf"

File:Collins cheat sheet.pdf

2011-12-12T00:26:49Z

Nball: uploaded a new version of "Image:Collins cheat sheet.pdf"

Important Collins words

2011-12-10T21:47:53Z

Nball: Updated cheat sheet to CSW12

This page describes which '''[[Collins]]'''-only '''words''' are '''important''' for an [[OTCWL|OWL2]] player to learn, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

== How many more words are there, and what would I need to learn? ==

Technically, of course, you don’t need to learn anything! (All OWL2 words remain valid.)

In practice, of course, there are some useful basic words to start with.

Because CSW contains all the OWL2 words, you can continue to play the same game, and anything that was good in OWL2 remains good. And because the fundamentals of the game have not changed, the kinds of words that are the most useful to study in OWL2 are also the best to study in CSW. Thus the player who has studied the 2s, 3s, JQXZ words, some 4s, high probability bingos, etc., can continue to use the same methods for CSW.

So how many words are there? In total, the OWL2 contains 178,691 words. CSW, meanwhile, contains 267,750. About half of these are 9–15 letters, and while some 9s can be useful, the vast majority (about 98%) of the gain is with the 2–8s. OWL contains 83,667 of these, while CSW has 30,908 more. This means that, for approximately every 3 OWL2 words, there is an extra CSW word.

However, it is likely that you didn’t start out playing OWL with the intention of learning 178,691 words. Likewise, you can play a good CSW game without needing anything like the extra 30,908 2–8s that are actually present. In fact, you can play a decent game with just the 2s and 3s. Sounds unlikely? Well, the thing to remember of course is that 'every word you know from OWL2 is still valid'! So, as we have already seen that three quarters of the words are OWL2, you are already three quarters of the way there. And in many cases, even more than this, because there will be a choice of moves, many of which will be OWL2.

So, what should you actually study? Here are some lists. In some cases we’ve presented just the most useful words from a list, but you can see the full list by following the link in the heading.

== Two-letter words ==

Start with the 2s. There are 23 of these:

CH DA DI EA EE FY GI GU IO JA KO KY
NY OB OO OU PO ST TE UG UR YU ZO

While that’s not too many, you probably won’t remember them all straightaway (I’ve played in the [[WSC|Worlds]], and I certainly didn’t remember the 2s in one sitting!) They’ll just become a natural part of the game over time.

== [[Three-letter words]] ==

Following the 2s, there are 277 3s. The most useful 3s are:

EXO AIA WOX ZEX REZ BEZ WOF WAI OOF ZHO
JAI ZEA JIZ TIX AUA RIZ HOX DZO ZEL FAW
IWI WEX YEX OYE NOX AUE UEY TEX LUZ AYU

Obviously, like in OWL2, you don’t have to be 100% on all the 3s before continuing! While ZIZ may come in handy some day, the chances are, various 4s and bingos will come up first.

The next most useful words are the same as in OWL2: short words with many vowels, high-scorers with J, Q, X and Z, some of the most useful 4s and 5s (words which are likely to be much better than other moves if you have those tiles, such as FAUVE), high probability bingos, dump-words such as 4s with 2 Is, and, of course, words with Q but no U.

== [[Vowel dumps]] ==

2s: EA EE IO OO OU
3s: AIA AUA AUE
4s: EUOI HIOI VIAE HUIA EVOE EOAN ONIE UVAE EINE MOAI ...
5s: AIDOI AINEE AULOI OUIJA ZOAEA ZOOEA
6s: EUOUAE ZOAEAE ZOOEAE
7s: ETAERIO AIERIES OLEARIA EATERIE EUGARIE EQUINIA DOULEIA
AURELIA MOINEAU DIANOIA ...
8s: ERIONITE AEROTONE ETAERIOS AEGIRINE DOUANIER TAENIATE
AEGIRITE AURELIAN INAURATE OLEARIAS ...

== [[Short JQXZ words]] ==

J: JA
JAI JIZ JOR JAP JUD ...
JEDI JUVE BENJ JEAT JIRD ...
OUIJA JEWIE JAXIE EEJIT JIRRE ...
Q: WAQF QUEP QUOP QUAT QUIM
NIQAB QORMA TALAQ QIBLA QUOIF ...
X: EXO WEX WOX YEX ZEX ...
GREX FAIX WEXE DIXI LANX ...
VITEX JAXIE XOANA VIBEX WUXIA ...
Z: ZO
ZEA JIZ ZEX REZ BEZ ...
ZITE ZATI TREZ ZILA ZOOT ...
ZOAEA ZOOEA GRENZ AVIZE WAREZ ...

== [[High-playability bingos]] ==

7s: ETAERIO OTARINE EROTISE AIERIES ORIGANE OTARIES SEALINE
OLEARIA RIOTISE OARIEST ...
8s: ERIONITE AEROTONE ETAERIOS AEGIRINE DENTARIA DOUANIER
TAENIATE LITERATO AEGIRITE AURELIAN ...

== I and U dumps ==

I: DIVI DIXI FIFI FINI MIHI HIOI WILI SIMI PIPI SIRI ISIT
U: PUDU WUDU HUHU KUKU PUKU KUTU KUZU PULU ZULU RURU SUSU
UTUS YUZU

== Q-not-followed-by-U words ==

INQILAB -s QASIDA -s TALAQ -s
MUQADDAM -s QAWWAL -s TSADDIQ -s
NIQAB -s QAWWALI -s TSADDIQIM
QABALISM -s QIBLA -s TZADDIQ -s
QABALIST -s QIGONG -s TZADDIQIM
QABALISTIC QINGHAOSU -s WAQF -s
QAIMAQAM -s QORMA -s YAQONA -s
QALAMDAN -s QWERTIES

==Going Further==

The basics above are more than enough for a good CSW game. But you may decide you enjoy it, and wish to go further.

The major downside to going further is that it can be difficult to keep the two lexica separate. Although remembering which of the words you now know are “new” (think back to the last dictionary update, if you have been playing that long) is not too bad, remembering a word and remembering which lexicon it is in are not the same thing, especially over a period of time. Those CSW words may come back to haunt you a few months down the line!

But nevertheless, some people have high [[CSW ratings|ratings]] at both OWL2 and CSW, and one can get to quite a high standard quite quickly.

Chosen correctly, it can be shown that learning the top 1% of the words when ordered by playability is equivalent to learning 25% of all the words. So, for the 2-8s, learning the top 300 from CSW is effectively learning one quarter of all the words newly allowed by that lexicon. This top 25% (or any other fraction) can be accessed by playability in Zyzzyva.

==Collins Cheat Sheet==

I have incorporated the above into a [[Media:Collins cheat sheet.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet]], that is designed to be used by new-to, or occasional player of, CSW. It resembles the NSA’s “Important Words to Raise Your Score” sheet that was given to new members, except that it concentrates on CSW words.

There is also a [[Media:Collins cheat sheet part 2.pdf|Collins Cheat Sheet Part 2]], which contains a useful array of the hooks to CSW 2s, and the full set of CSW 4s.

The sheets have now been updated to [[CSW12|CSW12]]. The rest of this section and the wiki will follow in due course.

The full set of extra CSW words is available via <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/hardcover/bobs-color-british-bible-2007-hardcover-%28sowpods%29/5345269">Bob’s British Bible</a>.

==Zyzzyva==

Finally, while the lists above are useful, is there any word study software for CSW? The current best answer is the same as for OWL2: [[Zyzzyva]]. This can easily be set up to supply the regular set of OWL2 words, and, in addition, the CSW words. The latter can be marked with a # sign to distinguish them, and searches can be conducted so that only the CSW words are returned, or, if you want to leave them, the CSW words can be suppressed. One can also, for example, require the correct lexicon as part of a quiz answer.

To set Zyzzyva up with CSW, go to Zyzzyva→Preferences, select “General’ in the left navigation bar in the resulting pop-up window, check the box “Load Lexicons’ if it is not checked, and click on Edit. In the “Select Lexicons’ window, click the toggle button in the leftmost column (“Default”) that is next to CSW. The button one to the right should then be checked, but grayed out. Then, check the box in the second column (“Load”) next to “OWL2+LWL”. Do
<i>not</i> check any of the other boxes, which should all be empty. Finally, click OK. The program may need to rebuild the database, which will take a few minutes. The settings as given are telling Zyzzyva to be CSW by default, but to remember which words are CSW-only, i.e., still good in OWL2. You can get at just OWL2 by requiring “In Lexicon’ OWL2 when searching, or ignoring the words with a # mark.

If the CSW words are not already marked by a #, go to Zyzzyva→Preferences, click on “Word Tables’ on the nav-bar, and edit accordingly.

If this fails (I haven’t run through it myself, because my copy is already set to CSW), or you need more information, please check out the [http://www.zyzzyva.net Zyzzyva site],
or the Yahoo Groups [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zyzzyva-users zyzzyva-users] email list.

Comments concerning this page may be directed to [[Nick Ball]].

File:Collins cheat sheet part 2.pdf

2011-12-10T21:44:36Z

Nball: uploaded a new version of "Image:Collins cheat sheet part 2.pdf": Updated for CSW12

File:Collins cheat sheet.pdf

2011-12-10T21:44:04Z

Nball: uploaded a new version of "Image:Collins cheat sheet.pdf": Updated for CSW12

SOWPODS

2011-12-03T20:03:31Z

Nball: Updated map

(This page has been revised with contributions from [[Nick Ball]].)

The '''SOWPODS''' lexicon, more commonly now referred to as '''Collins''' or '''Collins Scrabble Words''' ('''CSW'''), is a word list published in 2007 by Collins, and is used in the majority of countries where the game is played in English as the SCRABBLE® lexicon. In January 2010, the NASPA [[Advisory Board]] authorized the creation of a separate [[SOWPODS rating system]] for NASPA-sanctioned games played using the SOWPODS lexicon.

[[Image:CSW_countries.png|400px|center|alt Map of the CSW world]]

This map shows countries according to the lexicon(s) they use. Currently, 47 countries use CSW (green), and 4 use predominantly OWL2, with some CSW play (blue: Canada, Israel, Thailand, and the United States).

The name “SOWPODS” was coined as an anagram of OSW+OSPD, the names of the two lexicons (the British Official Scrabble Words and the American Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary) that were originally merged to form SOWPODS. The SOWPODS word list is currently edited by the [[WESPA]] Dictionary Committee; comments concerning the list should be directed to the NASPA [[International Committee]]. The SOWPODS word list contains all words found in [[OTCWL|OWL2]], as well as a large number of other English words from around the world.

The purpose of these webpages is to provide informative and, hopefully, interesting information to those North American tournament and club players who are curious about trying out the CSW game. They do not, therefore, aim to introduce Scrabble play as a whole, but those parts of it that change if one plays CSW. Thus, we start with how the game differs from OWL2, introduce the most useful extra words to know, address some commonly asked questions and concerns, then describe the current CSW scene as it is evolving in North America.

The sections below follow on from each other in order, but each can be read on its own.

* [[How Collins differs|How is the game different?]]
* [[Important Collins words|How many more words are there, and what would I need to learn?]]
* [[Obscure Collins words|Are all the words obscure, obsolete, foreign, etc.?]]
* [[Collins updates|How often is the list updated?]]
* [[Downsides to Collins|What are the downsides?]]
* [[CSW Tournaments]]
* [[CSW ratings]]
* [[CSW links]]
* [[CSW12]]
* [[Try it|Try it!]]

Comments concerning this page may be directed to [[Nick Ball]].

File:CSW countries.png

2011-12-03T20:01:46Z

Nball: uploaded a new version of "Image:CSW countries.png"

Map showing which countries use CSW

CSW Tournaments

2011-09-23T16:16:40Z

Nball: Updated

This page lists '''[[tournaments]]'''
rated in the <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS</a> system,
and is part of our introduction to
[[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

==Collins (SOWPODS) in North America: Tournaments==

While there have been occasional tournaments played to the international lexicon in the US since the 1990s (the ’93 Worlds in New York, for example: the Worlds have always been SOWPODS), and occasional others such as Wisconsin Dells, Toronto, and Texas, it has been in 2010 that the number of CSW tournaments has really started to increase. This is in large part due to NASPA’s decision to allow CSW to be rated, which has given the impetus to several organizers to add CSW
divisions, or create new tournaments to meet demand.

It remains to be seen how much these numbers will continue to
increase, and whether we have reached a tipping point toward a
viable CSW scene, but the possibility of being able to play CSW
exclusively, particularly on the west coast of the US, if one would like to, is becoming much more workable. Although, perhaps right now, it would be reasonable to say that this is still more the case for either the less prolific tournament player, or one with a large travel budget.

Also of note is that there is an increasing number of prominent
international tournaments with quite substantial sponsorship and prizes, several of which are well into the $1000s, and some over $10,000. The Causeway tournament in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, in December 2011, will have a top prize of $50,000, and a prize fund of $180,000. These and other upcoming tournaments are listed on <a
href="http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/upcoming.html">Bob Jackman’s SOWPODS site</a>, and at the <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA</a> site.

Since the NASPA SOWPODS rating system went into effect, the following tournaments in North America are either CSW, or have a CSW division. Some earlier tournaments were played in 2009.

Events are listed below in their usual order in the calendar year. Some events will only (or did only) include a Collins division if a quorum of four players registers (or registered) in time. Also, non-NASPA sanctioned CSW events are not listed.

Please note that this page is manually edited, based on the official page of [[tournament results]] and the
[{{SERVER}}/tourneys/calendar.html calendar of future events].
Another good source for tournament information is [http://www.cross-tables.com cross-tables].

For information on directing a CSW tournament, or adding a CSW division to a tournament, see the page on [[Directing SOWPODS tournaments]].

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0
!Event
!2009
!2010
!2011
!2012
|-
!Total events listed
!2
!17
!60 (y.t.d.)
!10
|-
|New Orleans, LA
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 14–16, 20 games
|-
|Boards on the Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 21–23, 19 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jan 22, 6 games
| 
|-
|Boston, MA
| 
| 
|Feb 5–6, 12 games
| 
|-
|Eastern Championship, NC
| 
| 
| 
|Feb 17–20, 24 games
|-
|Las Vegas, NV
| 
| 
| 
|Feb 17–20, 28 games
|-
|Phoenix, AZ
| 
|Feb 13–15, 20 games
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
| 
|-
|Eastern Championship, Charlotte, NC
| 
| 
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Feb 26, 6 games
| 
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Mar 19–20, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Mar 26, 6 games
| 
|-
|West Coast World Championship Word list Challenge (WCWCWC), Ashland, OR
| 
|Mar 27–28, 16 games
|Mar 25–27, 20 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Apr 3, 7 games
| 
|-
|Boston Area Tournament 2011 Late Bird, Westford, MA
| 
| 
|Apr 10, 6 games
| 
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
|Apr 22–24, 20 games
| 
|-
|NEOSCRABBLE Spring Fling, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
| 
| 
| 
|Apr 21–22, 13 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Apr 30, 6 games
| 
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
| 
|May 4–6, 20 games
|-
|Bermuda Treasures Scrabble Cruise
| 
| 
| 
|May 6–13
|-
|Portsmouth, NH
| 
| 
|May 14–15, 12 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|May 21, 6 games
| 
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|May 21, 8 games
| 
|-
|Kelowna, BC
| 
| 
|May 21–23, 20 games
| 
|-
|Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|May 28–29, 14 games
| 
|-
|Arden Cup, Chicagoland, IL
| 
| 
|May 28–30, 20 games
| 
|-
|Where the ZO meets the ZA, Portland, OR
| 
|May 29, 6 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|May 29, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lucky Lab, Portland, OR
| 
|May 30, 8 games
| 
| 
|-
|NAST One Day, Revere, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 5, 6 games
| 
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
|Jun 12, 7 games
| 
|-
|Scrabble Tournament at the Peak, Hancock, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 18–19, 16 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jun 25, 6 games
| 
|-
|16th Annual Nor’easter Main Event, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Jul 1–4, 6+21 games
| 
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
| 
|Jul 6–8, 21/39 games
|-
|NASPA Club 171's 11th annual summer tournament, Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Jul 9, 8 games
| 
|-
|Rubber City Collins Classic/Classic II, Akron, OH
| 
|Jul 10–11, 15 games
|Jul 15–17, 16 games
| 
|-
|US World Championships Qualifying Tournament, Akron, OH
| 
| 
|Jul 15–17, 20 games
| 
|-
|Toronto Early Bird
| 
| 
|Jul 15, 7 games
| 
|-
|Toronto, ON
| 
|Jul 16, 7 games
|Jul 16–17, 12 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Jul 17, 7 games
| 
|-
|Old Greenwich, CT
| 
| 
|Jul 22–24, 20 games
|Jul 27–29, 16 games
|-
|Victoria Early Bird
| 
| 
|Jul 22, 6 games
| 
|-
|Victoria, BC
| 
|Oct 2–3, 14 games
|Jul 23–24, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jul 30, 6 games
| 
|-
|Canadian WSC Qualifier, Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|Jul 30-31
| 
|-
|NSC Directors' Tournament, Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 5, 4 games
| 
|-
|National Scrabble Championship 'Lunch Bird', Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 6–10, 5 games
| 
|-
|World Players Championship, Dallas, TX
| 
|Aug 13–16, 32 games
| 
| 
|-
|Utica, NY
| 
| 
|Aug 20–21, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 27, 6 games
| 
|-
|Dover, DE
| 
| 
|Aug 27–29, 19 games
| 
|-
|Burlington, MA
| 
| 
|Sep 3–5, 18 games
| 
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Sep 11, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Leah Katz/Mike Wise Memorial, Toronto, ON
|Sep 11–13, 8+12 games
|Sep 24–26, 8+13 games
| 
|Details TBA
|-
|Toronto International Scrabble Open
| 
| 
|Sep 22–25, 26 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Sep 18
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Sep 24, 6 games
| 
|-
|Wisconsin Dells, WI
| 
|Oct 1–3, 15 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Oct 2, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lake George, NY
| 
| 
|Oct 13–16, 15 games
| 
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Oct 17, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Cambridge, MD
| 
| 
|Oct 28–30, 16 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Oct 29, 6 games
| 
|-
|Toronto vs. Montreal, Kingston, ON
|(Jan 16–17, 2010, 12 games)
|Oct 30–31, 12 games
|Oct?, TBA
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Nov 6, 7 games
| 
|-
|Sacramento, CA
| 
|Nov 6–7, 20 games
| 
| 
|-
|Emerald City Scrabble, Seattle, WA
| 
|Nov 12–14, 20 games
|Nov 11–13, 20 games
| 
|-
|6th Annual Green Mountain Challenge, Essex, VT
| 
| 
|Nov 18–20, 15 games
| 
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|Nov 19, 8 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Dec 3–4, 13 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Dec 4, 7 games
| 
|-
|Stamford, CT
| 
| 
|Dec 9–11, 16 games
| 
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Dec 10, 8 games
| 
|-
|Delaware Scrabble Festivus, Newark, DE
| 
| 
|Dec 23–25, 20 games
| 
|-
|New Year’s 2012 Scrabble Tournament, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Dec 30–Jan 02, 22 games
| 
|}

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

CSW links

2011-09-09T23:43:24Z

Nball: /* Books & Articles */

This page provides links related [[Collins]], and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

== CSW Links ==

==General==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA</a></td>
<td>World English Scrabble Players Association</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/">International SOWPODS page</a></td>
<td>Bob Jackman's site with international ratings, publications, etc.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOWPODS">SOWPODS (Wikipedia)</a></td>
<td>Wikipedia's description of SOWPODS</td>
</tr>
</table>

==Word Lists==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td><a href="http://tilefish.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=66">CSW</a></td>
<td>The official word list, equivalent to the blue OWL2 book</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://tilefish.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=67">COSD</a></td>
<td>As CSW but with definitions, hence larger. Equivalent to OSPD, but there is no expurgation in Collins.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://tilefish.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=68">CSL</a></td>
<td>Useful word lists derived from CSW</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.seattlescrabble.org/study.php#collins">Seattle SC</a></td>
<td>Seattle Scrabble Club's CSW lists</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/hardcover/bobs-color-british-bible-2007-hardcover-%28sowpods%29/5345269">Bob's British Bible</a></td>
<td>The ultimate list for converting to CSW from OWL2</td>
</tr>
</table>

==Software==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td><a href="http://people.csail.mit.edu/jasonkb/quackle">Quackle</a></td>
<td>The well-known software will also play CSW (see the <a href="../try.html">'Try it!'</a> page)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.zyzzyva.net">Zyzzyva</a></td>
<td>Similarly, Zyzzyva is good for CSW study</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zarf/id353428453?mt=8">Zarf</a>, <a href="http://cowboyprogramming.com/2008/07/06/checkword">Checkword</a></td>
<td>iPhone apps which adjuicate and perform searches, such as anagrams, on both OWL2 and CSW</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.math.utoronto.ca/jjchew/software/tsh">tsh</a>, <a href="http://www3.telus.net/director">Director!</a></td>
<td>Tournament software that can easily run a CSW tournament, or incorporate a CSW division</td>
</tr>
</table>

==Books & Articles==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td><a href="http://tilefish.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=91">Collins Scrabble: Play Like a Champion</a></td>
<td>UK National Champion Allan Simmons describes CSW play</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.thelastwordnewsletter.com">The Last Word Newsletter</a></td>
<td>Covers tournament play in North America, including CSW. The June 2010 issue (page 24) contains an annotated game, which is quite advanced, but shows the sort of thinking possible in a CSW game. The July 2010 issue (page 12) contains a writeup of the two CSW tournaments in Portland, May 2010, which includes quotes from some Collins 'newbies' on their experience. Sep 2011 includes a summary of Collins play in North America, and a second article by 'The Wordsmith', Chris Sinacola, on trying out Collins for the first time. The back issues are downloadable from the 'Archives' section of the site.</td>
</tr>
</table>

==Etc.==

<table style="width: 100%; text-align: left;" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_To_Win_At_Scrabble">How to Win at Scrabble</a> and Wordgame magazine</td>
<td>Two of the best resources for CSW play are 'How_To_Win_At_Scrabble', by Andrew Fisher and David Webb, and 'Wordgame' magazine from 2000-1 by Mark Watkins. Unfortunately, neither is currently available, but it may be possible to track them down.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www.word-buff.com/darryl-francis.html">Interview with Darryl Francis</a></td>
<td>Interview from <a href="http://www.word-buff.com>Word Buff</a> with CSW co-creator, Darryl Francis, including information about the next edition, due out May 2011.</td>
</tr>
</table>

How Collins differs

2011-08-24T05:18:11Z

Nball: Added paragraph on defense/offense balance

This page describes '''how [[Collins]] differs''' from [[OTCWL|OWL2]] as a playing lexicon, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

== How Collins differs ==

Fundamentally, the game does not change. It is still the same Scrabble experience, as enjoyed by many worldwide. The overall game, and the basic strategy, such as finding a good score plus rack leave, are not changed by moving from OWL2 to CSW. In other words, it will still feel like the same game, just one with more words. If one were handing out a sheet of tips for new players, the same sheet could be handed out for CSW as it has been for OWL2. There is a far greater difference between the kitchen table and the club than there is between the two lexica.

So the differences are not in the fundamentals, but in the details. The extra words are the most noticeable, and because there are so many of them, you will use them, particularly the short ones.

==Challenge Rule==

After the words, the next biggest difference is the challenge rule: CSW games are generally not played to double-challenge, but with a points penalty. This is not intrinsic to the lexicon (the international [[WESPA]] rules do, in fact, allow double challenge, if desired), but has emerged as the de facto standard between no penalty at all (as played in Britain), and loss of a turn. In looking at the differences in more detail below, I thus start with the challenge rule. The words are described in [[Important Collins words]].

The challenge [[Rules|rule]] is as follows:

If your opponent makes a play, you challenge, and their
play is good, instead of losing your turn, as in North
America, instead the opponent gains points. Typically,
this is 5 or 10 points per word challenged. So after you
have made an unsuccessful challenge, it is still your
turn. The determination of move acceptability is done the
usual way: the play is ruled either acceptable or not,
regardless of the number of words challenged, and which
individual words are good or bad is not revealed.
Likewise, if you challenge correctly, the rule is the same:
the phony play is removed and the opponent loses their
turn.

So if you, say, challenge two words, the play is ruled acceptable, and the penalty is the 10-point described above, the opponent gets an extra 20 points, but it is still your turn.

Note, however, that there is a subtlety. Like double-challenge, the rule still applies on the final move. But, unlike double-challenge, the penalty still has an effect. So the free challenge when the opponent plays out is lost. The opponent can still gain the penalty if you challenge incorrectly, which something to keep in mind if it is a close game.

It is not yet clear whether North American games will in fact end up as penalty and not double challenge, but the current norm is 5 or 10 point penalty.

==More Choices==

Generally, there will be more choices for each play. The increased number of 2-3 letter words and hooks means there are often more possibilities to make overlapping plays, or play a bingo. While increased hooks can make it harder to block the board, increased overlaps can make it easier to play without creating openings: while a high scoring open game can thus be played, this style of play is not forced upon the player.

Some of the most significant sources of extra choices are:

;The 2s: There are 23 extra two letter words: CH, DA, DI, EA, EE, FY, GI, GU, IO, JA, KO, KY, NY, OB, OO, OU, PO, ST, TE, UG, UR, YU, and ZO. Note that the C thus now has a 2, CH, but there are still no 2s with a V.
;High-scorers: JA and ZO, and more threes, such as EXO, JAI, ZEA, and WEX, mean there is more potential for a 50- or 60-point J, Q, X or Z play. While sometimes your opponent might get these, because there are more of them, it is more likely to even out: your opponent may get one, then you get one too.
;Vowel dumps: Short words with numerous vowels have a greater variety, including such things as EUOI, AIA, AUA, and AUE.
;Bingos: There will be a playable bingo more often. Some high probability sets of letters that make no words in OWL2 now make a playable word, such as ETAERIO, OTARINE, EROTISE, AIERIES, ORIGANE. Of course, many combinations, such as ADEILNR or ADEILNT, still make no words.
;Comparatives and superlatives: CSW is more generous in allowing -er -est or -ier -iest, e.g., FOU, FIE, FAVE, GEY, QUARE, or OORIE.
;Gerunds: More -INGS words are good. Some of the perhaps suprising omissions from OWL2, such as HEALINGS, are good in CSW. But care is still required: some surprising examples, such as COSTINGS*, are still phony.

For more on the words, see [[Important Collins words]].

==Fewer exchanges==

For the same reason that there are more choices, it is also usually more feasible to be able to make a play rather than be forced to exchange. The increased number of twos and short words such as the vowel dumps above often mean that there is something, even if only a score such as 10–20 points, that can be played that is better than exchanging. This is because the play uses the same or similar tiles to what would have been exchanged.

==Can catch up from behind==

In an OWL2 game, if a player bingos quickly early in the game, their strategy is often simply to close down the board and make it difficult for the opponent to catch up. While the same principle applies to CSW, because there are more words, it is often possible to create more chances to catch up again, through the increased numbers of possibilities for creating hooks, and the extra 2-letter words making it more likely that a bingo lane is available. Thus, the game is rarely “won” after a few moves.

A converse to this is that sometimes the opponent can run away to a big score, and you are powerless to stop them. Those who have played CSW on the computer can attest to this!

==Higher game score==

Game scores are higher. Although, not by as much as one might expect. A top-level player, or the computer, will average about 425 points a game in OWL2 against an equally matched opponent. In CSW, they will average about 450. This is not much more than a 5% difference, or about 2 points more per move. Obviously against lower rated opposition, or on a good day, scores can be higher.

==Harder to play phoneys==

The challenge rule, described at the start of this page, generally means that it is harder to play and get away with phoneys. In particular, an expert player cannot just put down anything against a novice, because the novice can still challenge! Thus, for a new CSW player facing an expert, the experience may not be quite as intimidating as under double challenge. However, experience shows that the rule is by no means trivial: many phoneys can and do still get played, and the point penalty can alter the game outcome. The purpose of the penalty is to retain the stop-and-think aspect of the double challenge, but to keep more onus on the player making
the move to play valid words!

==Balance between defense and offense is shifted==

There is a prevailing opinion that Collins encourages a more offensive rather than defensive playing style, favoring word finding rather than considering the strategic merits of different moves. This is because it generally seems easier to just keep scoring, with less regard for board position, or what the opponent does. However, it is not clear exactly to what extent this is really the case, compared to simply playing the same open style in TWL for the majority of the game. Given the prevailing opinion, it seems likely to be true, but little empirical or quantitative evidence has been presented.

==Overall==

While playing CSW is not identical to playing OWL2, the game as known and loved by thousands of tournament players across North America is not fundamentally changed by playing CSW.

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].

CSW12

2011-08-21T04:44:44Z

Nball:

This page describes the upcoming new edition of the Collins word list, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

== CSW12 ==

CSW12 is the next edition of the Collins word list, and will take effect worldwide on January 1st 2012. It will replace the current list, which has been the official source since Jan 1st 2007, and forms the basis for the rest of the Collins sections of the NASPA wiki.

It is anticipated that all CSW tournaments, including those in North America, will use the new wordlist as soon as it is adopted.

Currently, the next edition of OWL (OWL3) is not anticipated until 2014. How this will impact CSW12 (since CSW by definition contains OWL) is not yet known.

For clarity, we will refer to the current CSW list on this page as CSW07.

== The numbers ==

The number of additions is not as large as some previous lexicon editions, totaling 1477 [1] for 2-8 letter words, and 2809 in total, representing an increase of just over 1%.

There are also 396 deletions (140 2-8 letters), resulting from changes in the source dictionary, corrections, or criteria for inclusion. An important point to note is that ''no OWL2 words are deleted''.

The numbers of additions and deletions are summarized in the following table:

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 align="center"
!Length
!CSW07
!CSW12 additions
!CSW07 deletions
!Total in CSW12
|-
|align="center"|2
|align="center"|124
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|124
|-
|align="center"|3
|align="center"|1292
|align="center"|19
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|1310
|-
|align="center"|4
|align="center"|5454
|align="center"|76
|align="center"|4
|align="center"|5526
|-
|align="center"|5
|align="center"|12478
|align="center"|186
|align="center"|18
|align="center"|12646
|-
|align="center"|6
|align="center"|22157
|align="center"|279
|align="center"|26
|align="center"|22410
|-
|align="center"|7
|align="center"|32909
|align="center"|406
|align="center"|41
|align="center"|33274
|-
|align="center"|8
|align="center"|40161
|align="center"|511
|align="center"|50
|align="center"|40622
|-
!Total 2-8
!114575
!1477
!140
!115912
|-
|align="center"|9
|align="center"|40727
|align="center"|546
|align="center"|63
|align="center"|41210
|-
|align="center"|10
|align="center"|35529
|align="center"|362
|align="center"|64
|align="center"|35827
|-
|align="center"|11
|align="center"|27892
|align="center"|200
|align="center"|54
|align="center"|28038
|-
|align="center"|12
|align="center"|20297
|align="center"|107
|align="center"|36
|align="center"|20368
|-
|align="center"|13
|align="center"|13857
|align="center"|63
|align="center"|24
|align="center"|13896
|-
|align="center"|14
|align="center"|9116
|align="center"|35
|align="center"|10
|align="center"|9141
|-
|align="center"|15
|align="center"|5757
|align="center"|19
|align="center"|5
|align="center"|5771
|-
!Total
!267750
!2809
!396
!270163
|}

As is always the case, only a small fraction of the words are needed to play a good game.

Note also that there are no new 2 letter words, and none are deleted.

== New words ==

A small sampling of useful or fun new words (definitions adapted from Zyzzyva 2.1.5) is

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 align="center"
!Word
!Definition
|-
|QIN -s
|a Chinese zither with silken strings, also GUQIN
|-
|FIQH -s
|an expansion of Sharia Islamic law
|-
|VLOG -s
|a video blog
|-
|XRAY -s
|a code word for the letter X in international radio communication
|-
|BOOAI -s
|a remote rural place, also BOOHAI, BOOAY
|-
|FILII
|pl. FILIUS (Latin), a son
|-
|GRRRL -s
|as in riot grrrl, a young woman who plays or follows this style of punk rock, also GRRL
|-
|HYPHY
|a style of hip-hop music from the San Francisco Bay Area [HYPHIES]
|-
|BASEEJ
|Iranian vigilantes who enforce strict Islamic behavior and dress code, especially on women, also BASIJ
|-
|TZADDI -kqs
|the 18th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, also SADHE, SADE
|-
|ENQUEUE -ds
|to add to a list of data processing tasks awaiting processing in a buffer
|-
|LOANEES
|pl. LOANEE, a person who receives a loan, or, a sportsperson loaned from one organization to another
|-
|NGARARA -s
|a New Zealand lizard
|-
|NOILIER
|NOILY, pertaining to a noil, a kind of short fiber
|-
|NOTAIRE -s
|in France, a public official authorized to attest and certify certain legal documents, etc.
|-
|OATIEST
|OATY, like oats
|-
|ENARGITE -s
|a minor copper ore, dark-grey crystalline copper arsenic sulphide
|-
|FACEBOOK -s
|to look for someone's profile on Facebook
|-
|LITREAGE -s
|volume in liters
|-
|QINTARKA
|pl. QINTAR, a monetary unit of Albania
|-
|REALTONE -s
|a ringtone that closely resembles an original sound recording
|-
|UILLEANN
|as in uilleann pipes, Irish bagpipes
|-
|CELECOXIB -s
|an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat arthritis
|-
|IRUKANDJI -s
|a venomous Australian jellyfish
|-
|TIKTAALIK -s
|an extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned) fish genus from the late Devonian period
|-
|ZWANZIGER -s
|an old Austrian silver coin, equivalent to twenty kreutzers
|-
|LAMESTREAM -s
|the traditional media, such as newspapers, television and radio
|-
|WHATABOUTERY
|of two communities in conflict, the practice of repeatedly blaming the other side, and referring to the past [WHATABOUTERIES]
|}

Various other modern words, such as computer terms like WIKI, INBOX, README, DARKNET, ROOTKIT, PERMALINK, KEYLOGGING, CROWDSOURCING, and so on, also appear, and there is more consistent treatment of some contentious words from CSW07, such as those of Maori origin. Some well-known former phoneys, such as COSTINGS, also make an appearance.

The full list of new 3s is:

ALU -ms
AME -ns
ANS -a
ATS
AWK -s
ERM
GAK -s
GAW -dkps
GER -emst
ING -os
MEH
OIS
PEL -aeflst
QIN -s
RAV -es
SOZ
SUG -hos
TIK -aeis
UMS

New short words containing JQXZ are:

GOJI -s
BASIJ
JAFFA -s
JAMON
JIBBA -hs
JUVIE -s

QIN -s
FIQH -s
GUQIN -s

FLOX
XRAY -s
BOXTY -ies
CAPEX -es
COXIB -s
INBOX -es
OXIES

SOZ
RONZ
ZARI -s
CEZVE -s
LEEZE

New vowel and consonant dumps are:

AIDA -s
ALOO -fs
AUAS
BOOAI -s
BEEDIE -s
LOANEE -s
OATIER
TOOLIE -s
WOOHOO
DEQUEUE -ds
ENQUEUE -ds
ANIRIDIA -s
AUTOSAVE -ds
BOOGALOO -s
EQUATIVE
FEIJOADA -s
HONOUREE -s
IOPANOIC
KALOOKIE -s
KOEKOEAS

GRRL -s
GRRRL -s
HYPHY -ies
SCHELLY -ies
SKRONKS
SKYLESS
SPYCAMS
FLYSPRAY -s

New high probability bingos are:

ATTONED
FANSITE -s
LOANEES
NANITES
NOTAIRE -s
NOILIER
OATIEST
ENARGITE -s
GAITERED
LIONHEAD -s
LITREAGE -s
LOUNGIER
NANOWIRE -s
NOILIEST
NOTAIRES
PINOTAGE -s
REALTONE -s
RETINOIC
SLANTIER

Short words deleted from CSW07 are:

YOS
FIFI
FOHS
OHOS
WASM
CHONS
CIAOS
EPROM
FREON
GRENZ
HEROE
NICKY
ODSOS
PHOHS
PURIM
RETES
RIVOS
ROMAS
SWONE
TABIS
TAHOU
TOHOS
WASMS

== Effect on the game ==

The overall effect on the game is likely to be minimal, the most significant thing being simply adjusting to the more common newly allowed plays, and occasional deletions. QIN will likely be played a lot, but if and how much it impacts strategy is not really known yet.

== More Information ==

For further details, an excellent set of documents introducing the new words, giving such information as words that newly take -S, the deletions, and so on, is available on the <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA website</a>. These do not differentiate between OWL2 and CSW, but of course in this case that does not matter, since all words referred to are new to CSW. The website also gives information on where to buy the new lexicon in book form.

The new lexicon is available in Zyzzyva, which can be configured to supply all three of OWL2, CSW07, and CSW12, with the ability to switch between the lexicons. There are also plans to add CSW12 to Quackle.

== Notes ==

[1] http://www.wespa.org quotes different numbers (1532 and 149). It is not clear why. The numbers on this page are derived from Zyzzyva 2.1.5, which is assumed correct.

Comments concerning this page may be directed to [[Nick Ball]].

CSW12

2011-08-21T04:18:27Z

Nball:

This page describes the upcoming new edition of the Collins word list, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

== CSW12 ==

CSW12 is the next edition of the Collins word list, and will take effect worldwide on January 1st 2012. It will replace the current list, which has been the official source since Jan 1st 2007, and forms the basis for the rest of the Collins sections of the NASPA wiki.

It is anticipated that all CSW tournaments, including those in North America, will use the new wordlist as soon as it is adopted.

Currently, the next edition of OWL (OWL3) is not anticipated until 2014. How this will impact CSW12 (since CSW by definition contains OWL) is not yet known.

For clarity, we will refer to the current CSW list on this page as CSW07.

== The numbers ==

The number of additions is not as large as some previous lexicon editions, totaling 1477 [1] for 2-8 letter words, and 2809 in total, representing an increase of just over 1%.

There are also 396 deletions (140 2-8 letters), resulting from changes in the source dictionary, corrections, or criteria for inclusion. An important point to note is that ''no OWL2 words are deleted''.

The numbers of additions and deletions are summarized in the following table:

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 align="center"
!Length
!CSW07
!CSW12 additions
!CSW07 deletions
!Total in CSW12
|-
|align="center"|2
|align="center"|124
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|124
|-
|align="center"|3
|align="center"|1292
|align="center"|19
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|1310
|-
|align="center"|4
|align="center"|5454
|align="center"|76
|align="center"|4
|align="center"|5526
|-
|align="center"|5
|align="center"|12478
|align="center"|186
|align="center"|18
|align="center"|12646
|-
|align="center"|6
|align="center"|22157
|align="center"|279
|align="center"|26
|align="center"|22410
|-
|align="center"|7
|align="center"|32909
|align="center"|406
|align="center"|41
|align="center"|33274
|-
|align="center"|8
|align="center"|40161
|align="center"|511
|align="center"|50
|align="center"|40622
|-
!Total 2-8
!114575
!1477
!140
!115912
|-
|align="center"|9
|align="center"|40727
|align="center"|546
|align="center"|63
|align="center"|41210
|-
|align="center"|10
|align="center"|35529
|align="center"|362
|align="center"|64
|align="center"|35827
|-
|align="center"|11
|align="center"|27892
|align="center"|200
|align="center"|54
|align="center"|28038
|-
|align="center"|12
|align="center"|20297
|align="center"|107
|align="center"|36
|align="center"|20368
|-
|align="center"|13
|align="center"|13857
|align="center"|63
|align="center"|24
|align="center"|13896
|-
|align="center"|14
|align="center"|9116
|align="center"|35
|align="center"|10
|align="center"|9141
|-
|align="center"|15
|align="center"|5757
|align="center"|19
|align="center"|5
|align="center"|5771
|-
!Total
!267750
!2809
!396
!270163
|}

As is always the case, only a small fraction of the words are needed to play a good game.

Note also that there are no new 2 letter words, and none are deleted.

== New words ==

A small sampling of useful or fun new words (definitions adapted from Zyzzyva 2.1.5) is

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 align="center"
!Word
!Definition
|-
|QIN -s
|a Chinese zither with silken strings, also GUQIN
|-
|FIQH -s
|an expansion of Sharia Islamic law
|-
|VLOG -s
|a video blog
|-
|XRAY -s
|a code word for the letter X in international radio communication
|-
|BOOAI -s
|a remote rural place, also BOOHAI, BOOAY
|-
|FILII
|pl. FILIUS (Latin), a son
|-
|GRRRL -s
|as in riot grrrl, a young woman who plays or follows this style of punk rock, also GRRL
|-
|HYPHY
|a style of hip-hop music from the San Francisco Bay Area [HYPHIES]
|-
|BASEEJ
|Iranian vigilantes who enforce strict Islamic behavior and dress code, especially on women, also BASIJ
|-
|TZADDI -kqs
|the 18th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, also SADHE, SADE
|-
|ENQUEUE -ds
|to add to a list of data processing tasks awaiting processing in a buffer
|-
|LOANEES
|pl. LOANEE, a person who receives a loan, or, a sportsperson loaned from one organization to another
|-
|NGARARA -s
|a New Zealand lizard
|-
|NOILIER
|NOILY, pertaining to a noil, a kind of short fiber
|-
|NOTAIRE -s
|in France, a public official authorized to attest and certify certain legal documents, etc.
|-
|OATIEST
|OATY, like oats
|-
|ENARGITE -s
|a minor copper ore, dark-grey crystalline copper arsenic sulphide
|-
|FACEBOOK -s
|to look for someone's profile on Facebook
|-
|LITREAGE -s
|volume in liters
|-
|QINTARKA
|pl. QINTAR, a monetary unit of Albania
|-
|REALTONE -s
|a ringtone that closely resembles an original sound recording
|-
|UILLEANN
|as in uilleann pipes, Irish bagpipes
|-
|CELECOXIB -s
|an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat arthritis
|-
|IRUKANDJI -s
|a venomous Australian jellyfish
|-
|TIKTAALIK -s
|an extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned) fish genus from the late Devonian period
|-
|ZWANZIGER -s
|an old Austrian silver coin, equivalent to twenty kreutzers
|-
|LAMESTREAM -s
|the traditional media, such as newspapers, television and radio
|-
|WHATABOUTERY
|of two communities in conflict, the practice of repeatedly blaming the other side, and referring to the past [WHATABOUTERIES]
|}

Various other modern words, such as computer terms like WIKI, INBOX, README, DARKNET, ROOTKIT, PERMALINK, KEYLOGGING, CROWDSOURCING, and so on, also appear, and there is more consistent treatment of some contentious words from CSW07, such as those of Maori origin. Some well-known former phoneys, such as COSTINGS, also make an appearance.

The full list of new 3s is:

ALU -ms
AME -ns
ANS -a
ATS
AWK -s
ERM
GAK -s
GAW -dkps
GER -emst
ING -os
MEH
OIS
PEL -aeflst
QIN -s
RAV -es
SOZ
SUG -hos
TIK -aeis
UMS

New short words containing JQXZ are:

GOJI -s
BASIJ
JAFFA -s
JAMON
JIBBA -hs
JUVIE -s

QIN -s
FIQH -s
GUQIN -s

FLOX
XRAY -s
BOXTY -ies
CAPEX -es
COXIB -s
INBOX -es
OXIES

SOZ
RONZ
ZARI -s
CEZVE -s
LEEZE

New vowel and consonant dumps are:

AIDA -s
ALOO -fs
AUAS
BOOAI -s
BEEDIE -s
LOANEE -s
OATIER
TOOLIE -s
WOOHOO
DEQUEUE -ds
ENQUEUE -ds
ANIRIDIA -s
AUTOSAVE -ds
BOOGALOO -s
EQUATIVE
FEIJOADA -s
HONOUREE -s
IOPANOIC
KALOOKIE -s
KOEKOEAS

GRRL -s
GRRRL -s
HYPHY -ies
SCHELLY -ies
SKRONKS
SKYLESS
SPYCAMS
FLYSPRAY -s

New high probability bingos are:

ATTONED
FANSITE -s
LOANEES
NANITES
NOTAIRE -s
NOILIER
OATIEST
ENARGITE -s
GAITERED
LIONHEAD -s
LITREAGE -s
LOUNGIER
NANOWIRE -s
NOILIEST
NOTAIRES
PINOTAGE -s
REALTONE -s
RETINOIC
SLANTIER

Short words deleted from CSW07 are:

YOS
FIFI
FOHS
OHOS
WASM
CHONS
CIAOS
EPROM
FREON
GRENZ
HEROE
NICKY
ODSOS
PHOHS
PURIM
RETES
RIVOS
ROMAS
SWONE
TABIS
TAHOU
TOHOS
WASMS

== Effect on the game ==

The overall effect on the game is likely to be minimal, the most significant thing being simply adjusting to the more common newly allowed plays, and occasional deletions. QIN will likely be played a lot, but if and how much it impacts strategy is not really known yet.

== More Information ==

For further details, an excellent set of documents introducing the new words, giving such information as words that newly take -S, the deletions, is available on the <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA website</a>. These do not differentiate between OWL2 and CSW, but of course in this case that does not matter, since all words referred to are new to CSW. The website also gives information on where to buy the new lexicon in book form.

The new lexicon is available in Zyzzyva, which can be configured to supply all three of OWL2, CSW07, and CSW12, with the ability to switch between the lexicons. There are also plans to add CSW12 to Quackle.

== Notes ==

[1] http://www.wespa.org quotes different numbers (1532 and 149). It is not clear why. The numbers on this page are derived from Zyzzyva 2.1.5, which is assumed correct.

Comments concerning this page may be directed to [[Nick Ball]].

CSW12

2011-08-20T19:23:58Z

Nball: Created page

This page describes the upcoming new edition of the Collins word list, and is part of our introduction to [[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

== CSW12 ==

CSW12 is the next edition of the Collins word list, and will take effect worldwide on January 1st 2012. It will replace the current list, which has been the official source since Jan 1st 2007, and forms the basis for the rest of the Collins sections of the NASPA wiki.

It is anticipated that all CSW tournaments, including those in North America, will use the new wordlist as soon as it is adopted.

Currently, the next edition of OWL (OWL3) is not anticipated until 2014. How this will impact CSW12 (since CSW by definition contains OWL) is not yet known.

For clarity, we will refer to the current CSW list on this page as CSW07.

== The numbers ==

The number of additions is not as large as some previous lexicon editions, totaling 1477 [1] for 2-8 letter words, and 2809 in total, representing an increase of just over 1%.

There are also 396 deletions (140 2-8 letters), resulting from changes in the source dictionary, corrections, or criteria for inclusion. An important point to note is that ''no OWL2 words are deleted''.

The numbers of additions and deletions are summarized in the following table:

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 align="center"
!Length
!CSW07
!CSW12 additions
!CSW07 deletions
!Total in CSW12
|-
|align="center"|2
|align="center"|124
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|124
|-
|align="center"|3
|align="center"|1292
|align="center"|19
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|1310
|-
|align="center"|4
|align="center"|5454
|align="center"|76
|align="center"|4
|align="center"|5526
|-
|align="center"|5
|align="center"|12478
|align="center"|186
|align="center"|18
|align="center"|12646
|-
|align="center"|6
|align="center"|22157
|align="center"|279
|align="center"|26
|align="center"|22410
|-
|align="center"|7
|align="center"|32909
|align="center"|406
|align="center"|41
|align="center"|33274
|-
|align="center"|8
|align="center"|40161
|align="center"|511
|align="center"|50
|align="center"|40622
|-
!Total 2-8
!114575
!1477
!140
!115912
|-
|align="center"|9
|align="center"|40727
|align="center"|546
|align="center"|63
|align="center"|41210
|-
|align="center"|10
|align="center"|35529
|align="center"|362
|align="center"|64
|align="center"|35827
|-
|align="center"|11
|align="center"|27892
|align="center"|200
|align="center"|54
|align="center"|28038
|-
|align="center"|12
|align="center"|20297
|align="center"|107
|align="center"|36
|align="center"|20368
|-
|align="center"|13
|align="center"|13857
|align="center"|63
|align="center"|24
|align="center"|13896
|-
|align="center"|14
|align="center"|9116
|align="center"|35
|align="center"|10
|align="center"|9141
|-
|align="center"|15
|align="center"|5757
|align="center"|19
|align="center"|5
|align="center"|5771
|-
!Total
!267750
!2809
!396
!270163
|}

As is always the case, only a small fraction of the words are needed to play a good game.

Note also that there are no new 2 letter words, and none are deleted.

== New words ==

A small sampling of useful or fun new words (definitions adapted from Zyzzyva 2.1.5) is

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 align="center"
!Word
!Definition
|-
|QIN -s
|a Chinese zither with silken strings, also GUQIN
|-
|FIQH -s
|an expansion of Sharia Islamic law
|-
|VLOG -s
|a video blog
|-
|XRAY -s
|a code word for the letter X in international radio communication
|-
|BOOAI -s
|a remote rural place, also BOOHAI, BOOAY
|-
|FILII
|pl. FILIUS (Latin), a son
|-
|GRRRL -s
|as in riot grrrl, a young woman who plays or follows this style of punk rock, also GRRL
|-
|HYPHY
|a style of hip-hop music from the San Francisco Bay Area [HYPHIES]
|-
|BASEEJ
|Iranian vigilantes who enforce strict Islamic behavior and dress code, especially on women, also BASIJ
|-
|TZADDI -kqs
|the 18th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, also SADHE, SADE
|-
|ENQUEUE -ds
|to add to a list of data processing tasks awaiting processing in a buffer
|-
|LOANEES
|pl. LOANEE, a person who receives a loan, or, a sportsperson loaned from one organization to another
|-
|NGARARA -s
|a New Zealand lizard
|-
|NOILIER
|NOILY, pertaining to a noil, a kind of short fiber
|-
|NOTAIRE -s
|in France, a public official authorized to attest and certify certain legal documents, etc.
|-
|OATIEST
|OATY, like oats
|-
|ENARGITE -s
|a minor copper ore, dark-grey crystalline copper arsenic sulphide
|-
|FACEBOOK -s
|to look for someone's profile on Facebook
|-
|LITREAGE -s
|volume in liters
|-
|QINTARKA
|pl. QINTAR, a monetary unit of Albania
|-
|REALTONE -s
|a ringtone that closely resembles an original sound recording
|-
|UILLEANN
|as in uilleann pipes, Irish bagpipes
|-
|CELECOXIB -s
|an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat arthritis
|-
|IRUKANDJI -s
|a venomous Australian jellyfish
|-
|TIKTAALIK -s
|an extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned) fish genus from the late Devonian period
|-
|ZWANZIGER -s
|an old Australian silver coin, equivalent to twenty kreutzers
|-
|LAMESTREAM -s
|the traditional media, such as newspapers, television and radio
|-
|WHATABOUTERY
|of two communities in conflict, the practice of repeatedly blaming the other side, and referring to the past [WHATABOUTERIES]
|}

Various other modern words, such as computer terms like WIKI, INBOX, README, DARKNET, ROOTKIT, PERMALINK, KEYLOGGING, CROWDSOURCING, and so on, also appear, and there is more consistent treatment of some contentious words from CSW07, such as those of Maori origin. Some well-known former phoneys, such as COSTINGS, also make an appearance.

The full list of new 3s is:

ALU -ms
AME -ns
ANS -a
ATS
AWK -s
ERM
GAK -s
GAW -dkps
GER -emst
ING -os
MEH
OIS
PEL -aeflst
QIN -s
RAV -es
SOZ
SUG -hos
TIK -aeis
UMS

New short words containing JQXZ are:

GOJI -s
BASIJ
JAFFA -s
JAMON
JIBBA -hs
JUVIE -s

QIN -s
FIQH -s
GUQIN -s

FLOX
XRAY -s
BOXTY -ies
CAPEX -es
COXIB -s
INBOX -es
OXIES

SOZ
RONZ
ZARI -s
CEZVE -s
LEEZE

New vowel and consonant dumps are:

AIDA -s
ALOO -fs
AUAS
BOOAI -s
BEEDIE -s
LOANEE -s
OATIER
TOOLIE -s
WOOHOO
DEQUEUE -ds
ENQUEUE -ds
ANIRIDIA -s
AUTOSAVE -ds
BOOGALOO -s
EQUATIVE
FEIJOADA -s
HONOUREE -s
IOPANOIC
KALOOKIE -s
KOEKOEAS

GRRL -s
GRRRL -s
HYPHY -ies
SCHELLY -ies
SKRONKS
SKYLESS
SPYCAMS
FLYSPRAY -s

New high probability bingos are:

ATTONED
FANSITE -s
LOANEES
NANITES
NOTAIRE -s
NOILIER
OATIEST
ENARGITE -s
GAITERED
LIONHEAD -s
LITREAGE -s
LOUNGIER
NANOWIRE -s
NOILIEST
NOTAIRES
PINOTAGE -s
REALTONE -s
RETINOIC
SLANTIER

Short words deleted from CSW07 are:

YOS
FIFI
FOHS
OHOS
WASM
CHONS
CIAOS
EPROM
FREON
GRENZ
HEROE
NICKY
ODSOS
PHOHS
PURIM
RETES
RIVOS
ROMAS
SWONE
TABIS
TAHOU
TOHOS
WASMS

== Effect on the game ==

The overall effect on the game is likely to be minimal, the most significant thing being simply adjusting to the more common newly allowed plays, and occasional deletions. QIN will likely be played a lot, but if and how much it impacts strategy is not really known yet.

== More Information ==

For further details, an excellent set of documents introducing the new words, giving such information as words that newly take -S, the deletions, is available on the <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA website</a>. These do not differentiate between OWL2 and CSW, but of course in this case that does not matter, since all words referred to are new to CSW. The website also gives information on where to buy the new lexicon in book form.

The new lexicon is available in Zyzzyva, which can be configured to supply all three of OWL2, CSW07, and CSW12, with the ability to switch between the lexicons. There are also plans to add CSW12 to Quackle.

== Notes ==

[1] http://www.wespa.org quotes different numbers (1532 and 149). It is not clear why. The numbers on this page are derived from Zyzzyva 2.1.5, which is assumed correct.

Comments concerning this page may be directed to [[Nick Ball]].

SOWPODS

2011-08-20T17:48:27Z

Nball: Added CSW12 link

(This page has been revised with contributions from [[Nick Ball]].)

The '''SOWPODS''' lexicon, more commonly now referred to as '''Collins''' or '''Collins Scrabble Words''' ('''CSW'''), is a word list published in 2007 by Collins, and is used in the majority of countries where the game is played in English as the SCRABBLE® lexicon. In January 2010, the NASPA [[Advisory Board]] authorized the creation of a separate [[SOWPODS rating system]] for NASPA-sanctioned games played using the SOWPODS lexicon.

[[Image:CSW countries.png|400px|center|alt Map of the CSW world]]

This map shows countries according to the lexicon(s) they use. Currently, 45 countries use CSW (green), and 4 use predominantly OWL2, with some CSW play (blue: Canada, Israel, Thailand, and the United States).

The name “SOWPODS” was coined as an anagram of OSW+OSPD, the names of the two lexicons (the British Official Scrabble Words and the American Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary) that were originally merged to form SOWPODS. The SOWPODS word list is currently edited by the [[WESPA]] Dictionary Committee; comments concerning the list should be directed to the NASPA [[International Committee]]. The SOWPODS word list contains all words found in [[OTCWL|OWL2]], as well as a large number of other English words from around the world.

The purpose of these webpages is to provide informative and, hopefully, interesting information to those North American tournament and club players who are curious about trying out the CSW game. They do not, therefore, aim to introduce Scrabble play as a whole, but those parts of it that change if one plays CSW. Thus, we start with how the game differs from OWL2, introduce the most useful extra words to know, address some commonly asked questions and concerns, then describe the current CSW scene as it is evolving in North America.

The sections below follow on from each other in order, but each can be read on its own.

* [[How Collins differs|How is the game different?]]
* [[Important Collins words|How many more words are there, and what would I need to learn?]]
* [[Obscure Collins words|Are all the words obscure, obsolete, foreign, etc.?]]
* [[Collins updates|How often is the list updated?]]
* [[Downsides to Collins|What are the downsides?]]
* [[CSW Tournaments]]
* [[CSW ratings]]
* [[CSW links]]
* [[CSW12]]
* [[Try it|Try it!]]

Comments concerning this page may be directed to [[Nick Ball]].

CSW Tournaments

2011-08-08T00:04:08Z

Nball: Updated

This page lists '''[[tournaments]]'''
rated in the <a href="http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/SOWPODS_rating_system">NASPA SOWPODS</a> system,
and is part of our introduction to
[[SOWPODS|Collins (SOWPODS) in North America]].

==Collins (SOWPODS) in North America: Tournaments==

While there have been occasional tournaments played to the international lexicon in the US since the 1990s (the ’93 Worlds in New York, for example: the Worlds have always been SOWPODS), and occasional others such as Wisconsin Dells, Toronto, and Texas, it has been in 2010 that the number of CSW tournaments has really started to increase. This is in large part due to NASPA’s decision to allow CSW to be rated, which has given the impetus to several organizers to add CSW
divisions, or create new tournaments to meet demand.

It remains to be seen how much these numbers will continue to
increase, and whether we have reached a tipping point toward a
viable CSW scene, but the possibility of being able to play CSW
exclusively, particularly on the west coast of the US, if one would like to, is becoming much more workable. Although, perhaps right now, it would be reasonable to say that this is still more the case for either the less prolific tournament player, or one with a large travel budget.

Also of note is that there is an increasing number of prominent
international tournaments with quite substantial sponsorship and prizes, several of which are well into the $1000s, and some over $10,000. The Causeway tournament in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, in December 2011, will have a top prize of $50,000, and a prize fund of $180,000. These and other upcoming tournaments are listed on <a
href="http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/upcoming.html">Bob Jackman’s SOWPODS site</a>, and at the <a href="http://www.wespa.org">WESPA</a> site.

Since the NASPA SOWPODS rating system went into effect, the following tournaments in North America are either CSW, or have a CSW division. Some earlier tournaments were played in 2009.

Events are listed below in their usual order in the calendar year. Some events will only (or did only) include a Collins division if a quorum of four players registers (or registered) in time. Also, non-NASPA sanctioned CSW events are not listed.

Please note that this page is manually edited, based on the official page of [[tournament results]] and the
[{{SERVER}}/tourneys/calendar.html calendar of future events].
Another good source for tournament information is [http://www.cross-tables.com cross-tables].

For information on directing a CSW tournament, or adding a CSW division to a tournament, see the page on [[Directing SOWPODS tournaments]].

{|border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0
!Event
!2009
!2010
!2011
!2012
|-
!Total events listed
!2
!17
!53 (y.t.d.)
!5
|-
|New Orleans, LA
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 14–16, 20 games
|-
|Boards on the Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ
| 
| 
| 
|Jan 21–23, 19 games
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jan 22, 6 games
| 
|-
|Boston, MA
| 
| 
|Feb 5–6, 12 games
| 
|-
|Las Vegas, NV
| 
| 
| 
|Feb 17–20, 28 games
|-
|Phoenix, AZ
| 
|Feb 13–15, 20 games
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
| 
|-
|Eastern Championship, Charlotte, NC
| 
| 
|Feb 19–21, 20 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Feb 26, 6 games
| 
|-
|Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Mar 19–20, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Mar 26, 6 games
| 
|-
|West Coast World Championship Word list Challenge (WCWCWC), Ashland, OR
| 
|Mar 27–28, 16 games
|Mar 25–27, 20 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Apr 3, 7 games
| 
|-
|Boston Area Tournament 2011 Late Bird, Westford, MA
| 
| 
|Apr 10, 6 games
| 
|-
|Gatlinburg, TN
| 
| 
|Apr 22–24, 20 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Apr 30, 6 games
| 
|-
|Bermuda Treasures Scrabble Cruise
| 
| 
| 
|May 06–13
|-
|Portsmouth, NH
| 
| 
|May 14–15, 12 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|May 21, 6 games
| 
|-
|Tucson, AZ
| 
| 
|May 21, 8 games
| 
|-
|Kelowna, BC
| 
| 
|May 21–23, 20 games
| 
|-
|Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|May 28–29, 14 games
| 
|-
|Arden Cup, Chicagoland, IL
| 
| 
|May 28–30, 20 games
| 
|-
|Where the ZO meets the ZA, Portland, OR
| 
|May 29, 6 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|May 29, 7 games
| 
|-
|Lucky Lab, Portland, OR
| 
|May 30, 8 games
| 
| 
|-
|NAST One Day, Revere, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 05, 6 games
| 
|-
|Wilmington, DE
| 
| 
|Jun 12, 7 games
| 
|-
|Scrabble Tournament at the Peak, Hancock, MA
| 
| 
|Jun 18–19, 16 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jun 25, 6 games
| 
|-
|16th Annual Nor’easter Main Event, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Jul 1–4, 6+21 games
| 
|-
|NASPA Club 171's 11th annual summer tournament, Bethesda, MD
| 
| 
|Jul 09, 8 games
| 
|-
|Rubber City Collins Classic/Classic II, Akron, OH
| 
|Jul 10–11, 15 games
|Jul 15–17, 16 games
| 
|-
|US World Championships Qualifying Tournament, Akron, OH
| 
| 
|Jul 15–17, 20 games
| 
|-
|Toronto Early Bird
| 
| 
|Jul 15, 7 games
| 
|-
|Toronto, ON
| 
|Jul 16, 7 games
|Jul 16–17, 12 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Jul 17, 7 games
| 
|-
|Old Greenwich, CT
| 
| 
|Jul 22–24, 20 games
| 
|-
|Victoria Early Bird
| 
| 
|Jul 22, 6 games
| 
|-
|Victoria, BC
| 
|Oct 2–3, 14 games
|Jul 23–24, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Jul 30, 6 games
| 
|-
|Canadian WSC Qualifier, Montreal, QC
| 
| 
|Jul 30-31
| 
|-
|NSC Directors' Tournament, Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 05, 4 games
| 
|-
|National Scrabble Championship 'Lunch Bird', Dallas, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 06–10, 5 games
| 
|-
|World Players Championship, Dallas, TX
| 
|Aug 13–16, 32 games
| 
| 
|-
|Utica, NY
| 
| 
|Aug 20–21, 14 games
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Aug 27, 6 games
| 
|-
|Dover, DE
| 
| 
|Aug 27–29, 19 games
| 
|-
|Burlington, MA
| 
| 
|Sep 03–05, 18 games
| 
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Sep 11, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Leah Katz/Mike Wise Memorial, Toronto, ON
|Sep 11–13, 8+12 games
|Sep 24–26, 8+13 games
| 
|Details TBA
|-
|Toronto International Scrabble Open
| 
| 
|Sep 22–25, 26 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Sep 18
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Sep 24, 6 games
| 
|-
|Wisconsin Dells, WI
| 
|Oct 1–3, 15 games
| 
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Oct 2, 7 games
| 
|-
|Portland, OR
| 
|Oct 17, 7 games
| 
| 
|-
|Austin, TX
| 
| 
|Oct 29, 6 games
| 
|-
|Toronto vs. Montreal, Kingston, ON
|(Jan 16–17, 2010, 12 games)
|Oct 30–31, 12 games
|Oct?, TBA
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Nov 6, 7 games
| 
|-
|Sacramento, CA
| 
|Nov 6–7, 20 games
| 
| 
|-
|Emerald City Scrabble, Seattle, WA
| 
|Nov 12–14, 20 games
|Nov 11–13, 20 games
| 
|-
|Philadelphia, PA
| 
| 
|Dec 4, 7 games
| 
|-
|Stamford, CT
| 
| 
|Dec 9–11, 16 games
| 
|-
|Delaware Scrabble Festivus, Newark, DE
| 
| 
|Dec 23–25, 20 games
| 
|-
|New Year’s 2012 Scrabble Tournament, Albany, NY
| 
| 
|Dec 30–Jan 02, 22 games
| 
|}

Please direct comments about this page to its author, [[Nick Ball]].