Revision as of 10:26, 17 June 2019

Software plays a major role in organized SCRABBLE® activities. NASPA's Web Committee offers web hosting space to software developers, and works with them to develop standards. The Technology Committee evaluates software for use at tournaments and clubs.

Note: the Technology Committee does not evaluate or endorse the various study tools available, but has provided a list here for information purposes only.

Tournament and club software

Word judge (software self lookup)

NASPA recommends that tournaments and clubs use laptops running word adjudication software to process challenges in competitive games. The following Software Self Lookup (SSL) programs were evaluated by the Technology Committee and are approved for use in club and tournament situations as noted below.

Zyzzyva

developed by Michael Thelen, is used at all major events, including the National SCRABBLE Championship, National School SCRABBLE Championship and Canadian National SCRABBLE Championship

Systems: Linux, macOS, Windows

Acceptable for tournament and club play

WHAT

developed by Mike Wolfberg

System: Windows

Acceptable for tournament and club play

Tournament management

Tournament management software assists the director in pairing players, recording game results, generating pairing reports and standings for printing, and generating final tournament data for submission to NASPA for rating of tournaments.

There is at least one popular software package not listed below, at the request of its publisher.

tsh

developed by John Chew, is used at all major events, including the National SCRABBLE Championship, National School SCRABBLE Championship and Canadian National SCRABBLE Championship. It has a very rich set of features, but most directors need some help at first learning to use it. tsh runs under OS/X, Linux, DOS and Windows.

Study tools

Note: the Technology Committee does not evaluate or endorse the various study tools available, but has provided a list here for information purposes only.

Game analysis

Quackle

developed by Jason Katz-Brown and John O'Laughlin, is the strongest SCRABBLE playing program in the world. It is used by many players for training, and to analyze their games to improve their future play.

Maven

developed by Brian Sheppard, is also a strong program, but was withdrawn from the market when its rights were sold to Hasbro. Sheppard continues to develop the program, a branch of which was available briefly from Hasbro in CD-ROM form.

Anagramming and word lookup tools

CHECKWORD

app for the iPhone that anagrams letters to find words. Also has a word judge feature (that has not yet been authorized by the Technology Committee for official use at tournaments or clubs).

System: iPhone

WHAT

developed by Mike Wolfberg, Wolfberg's Helpful Anagramming Tool. Also authorized SSL word judge for tournaments and clubs.

System: Windows

Zyzzyva

developed by Michael Thelen, allows a variety of word lookup methods, includes definitions, cardbox studying, quizzes, etc. Also authorized SSL word judge for tournaments and clubs.

Systems supported: Windows, macOS, Linux, etc.

Legacy Software

Software that is no longer actively supported, or has not been updated to current standards, can be found in a separate list of legacy software.