Scrabble is launching a new edition of its iconic board game for the first time in 75 years.

Called ‘Scrabble Together,’ the game will be played by teams instead of individuals and will move at a faster pace than the original edition.

The game traditionally featured a 225 squared board which players use to spell out words with tiles.

On Moncrieff today, 2023 Irish national Scrabble champion Feargal Weatherhead said the aim of the new version is to make Scrabble less intimidating to new players.

“The idea being that it’s more fun and less stressful for people at home starting off who just enjoy playing a game at home that isn’t very competitive,” he said.

“It’s still essentially Scrabble but it will also involve cards you can pick up and things like that – it’s going to be a more fun version for beginners.

“Some people find traditional Scrabble to be daunting and difficult to play."

For everyone

Mr Weatherhead said Scrabble is a game anyone can enjoy.

“You don’t need to have a massive vocabulary to be a good Scrabble player, there are plenty of good players who only use common everyday words we all use,” he said.

“There are also Scrabble players who study words and know strange and very unusual words but starting off, all you really need to know are your two-letter words and most of them are normal anyway.

“You need to know quite a lot of your three-letter words and it helps if you know seven-letter words so you can play all your tiles in one move to get a really big score.”

A scrabble board in action. Image: Tony Rolls / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Weatherhead said playing Scrabble competitively can be exhausting.

“Normally our tournaments would last for about 14 or 15 hours over a Saturday and Sunday which is a tough mental workout,” he said.

“It’s quite tiring, to be honest, but it goes by in a flash as Scrabble can be very addictive if you’re into words and you’re competitive – time can fly.”

COVID

He said the game increased in popularity in Ireland during COVID.

“There has definitely been increased interest in the game since the pandemic,” he said.

“A lot of people have taken it up and are now starting to come to competitive tournaments; it’s incredible and some of them are improving rapidly.

“They might only be playing in tournaments for the last year and some of them have become really good players, really quickly.”

Scrabble Together and the classic version of the game will be sold together, featuring on either side of a double-sided board.

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Main image: The classic Scrabble box and game. Image: Andrew Paterson / Alamy Stock Photo