SCRABBLE - The Last Word Newsletter

K N O W T H E R U L E SKnow the RulesBy Jan Cardia, NASPA Rules Committee ChairJan Cardia, a longtime expert player and chair of the NASPA Rules Committee,writes this monthly column on rules for The Last Word. We are thrilled to haveJan sharing her rules expertise with our readers, and we encourage you toemail any questions you may have about tournament and club rules toCorneliaSGuest@gmail.com. (Photo credit: Jill Jarrell)___________________________________________________________New rules are scheduled to take effect on Sept. 5 of this year. Many wording changes. Some majorchanges, which shouldn't drastically change the game, but people should take note of them. Thewebsite has the changes(*), which are still in a draft phase. The biggest change is that we'rechanging the time limit for the courtesy draw to 15 seconds. The overdraw rule is also changed, sothat the person decided which tiles to throw back has 15 seconds to decide. If they take longer,that's okay, but their clock will be started and it will be on their time. The current rule says that averbal challenge is not binding (e.g., "Challenge! I mean hold!"). I've not liked the rule becausemany people don't know about it and it is vague. It's now changed so the challenge is not bindinguntil the clock is stopped. We're suggesting in the rule that when you say "Hold,” you takepossession of the bag, and that when you hand your opponent the bag, that indicates acceptance ofthe play. Not mandatory. As a general principle, we're trying to go in the direction of fewer thingsthat depend upon speaking…the less that's said, the less that can be misunderstood.Q: How do we determine whether 15 seconds have passed if the clock hasn't been running?Jan Cardia: It's much easier to reckon 15 seconds than a minute. There's noway to be 100% sure,but it's a guideline.Q: If you're trying to take out the variability of it, why not just leave the clock running?Jan Cardia: Most people decide within 15 seconds. We don't want to penalize the person makingthe decision when it was that person's opponent who made the mistake.Q: What about a situation I observed, where somebody tried to draw tiles without hitting the clock,and the opponent was wanting to challenge?Jan Cardia: This is handled by the rules.Q: Why does the verbal challenge need to be changed? People should know the rules.Jan Cardia: Every other situation in the game is triggered by stopping the clock. We're trying to getaway from "he said/she said" situations. It also exposes the ability for the opponent beingchallenged to choose whether or not a challenge would proceed in certain conditions.(*) http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/Rules 51