There are many opportunities to play Scrabble online with players from around the world or against the computer.
Some of these have tournaments set up. There is often a choice of lexicons, but we would like to have Collins Scrabble Words to match what we play at clubs and tournaments.
On web based platforms you can sometimes watch live games or view archived games.
On programs such as Quackle there is also deep analysis via simulations. Expert players use such programs to do post mortems.
CSW21Woogles
is a web resource for competitive, real-time games. You need to register.
You can play against an AI bot (several types are available), against a friend or a stranger.
You can observe games in progress or examine a
completed game.
The 2021 WESPA World Championship, an elite invitational event, was conducted online using Woogles.
Other online tournaments are held using Woogles.
CSW21Scrabble Go
This is the Scrabble app commissioned by Mattel and is available for Android and iPhone mobile devices. The app unfortunately
displays advertisements and nags you to buy in-app purchases. It uses so-called free challenge, where if you
play a disallowed word, the computer tells you and you get to have another go.
CSW19PlayScrab offers games with your friends, friendly games with strangers, or hotly fought league matches
Choose from a variety of game lengths: finish a game in as little as ten minutes or take as long as three weeks
Try it out by playing ten friendly games then subscribe for 5 GBP per year.
CSW19www.isc.ro is the Internet Scrabble Club which has been going since 2002. The website design is very simple and minimalistic, offering a retro feel with simple characters and colors. You can play against an opponent (worldwide or an AI bot) or observe a game in progess. Several game options include time limits per game. It is free to use (although paid subscribers get benefits) and is ad-free. The way that ISC works is explained here David Webb, one of Britain's top players, has a YouTube channel zapateo99 which has videos of games he has played on ISC, with a voiceover explaining his thinking.
CSW19Quackle
is a free artificial intelligence and analysis tool that rivals the best players in the world. It is available
for Windows and Mac OS X and Linux. Here is how Kenji Matsumoto describes Quackle:
Quackle was created by two extremely strong Scrabble players: Jason Katz-Brown and John O’Laughlin. Quackle
uses Monte Carlo simulation based primarily on points earned and letters left on the rack to make decisions, and allows you to input any
position and then simulate, providing an analysis of which play is best as well as key statistics, such as
bingo percentage, average score, and standard deviation.
CSW12Elise
is another free artificial intelligence and analysis tool similar to Quackle. It is available for Windows. Elise is state-of-the-art crossword puzzle game analysis software with a design philosophy inspired by modern chess engines. It is a useful tool for serious players of Scrabble®. Elise plays a sharp game that will rival the best human players. Moves can be generated instantly using the "quick move find", or Elise can ponder moves deeply in simulation. Most simulations are done quickly, but long simulations can be interrupted at any time.
Elise uses exhaustive search to play a perfect end-game.
It
has not been updated since 2013. You need to provide a lexicon (it has CSW12) .
CSW21Aerolith
is a web app written by César Del Solar. Its main program is WordWalls where 50 scrambled words are shown and you try to solve them as
quickly as possible. You must register to play.
Lexicon?Wordle
became very popular at the start of 2022. It poses one puzzle per day, a mystery five letter word which you try to find with six or fewer guesses.
Each guess elicits a response where each letter in your guess is displayed as green if it is correct and in the correct position, yellow if the letter is correct but in the wrong position and grey if it is not in the target word at all. The word may contain repeated letters. Your guess must be a real word (in its lexicon of over 10 000 words). The target word is chosen from a smaller lexicon of about 2500 more common words.
It became popular because you can boast on social media how many turns you took.
There are variants such as
Absurdle which frustrates you by apparently changing the target word so you are given the least amount of information, while keeping answers to guesses still valid.
Hello wordl which allows you to choose word length (4 to 11)
Jotto Mastermind which only tells you how many Jots (letters contained) and how many of these are in the correct position. Words do not contain repeated letters.
lexicon?Bee
is a free web based version of the addictive daily competition in the New York Times (the New York Times puzzle is only available to paying subscribers ). There is a daily puzzle, but you can also try ones from earlier as well.
The goal of the puzzle is to find all of the words that can be created with the given seven letters.
Words must be 4 letters or longer.
Words must contain the middle letter.
Letters can be used more than once.
Unforunately many words that you try are not in their lexicon. The E C D H I K W puzzle shown has 49 solutions in their system including what they misleadingly call a pangram (just one in this instance). They, and the New York Times, use pangram to mean a solution which uses all seven letters (perhaps with repeated letters).
Each guess elicits a response where each letter in your guess is displayed as green if it is correct and in the correct position, yellow if the letter is correct but in the wrong position and grey if it is not in the target word at all. The word may contain repeated letters. Your guess must be a real word (in its lexicon of over 10 000 words). The target word is chosen from a smaller lexicon of about 2500 more common words.
