Scrabble Challenges

In the game of Scrabble, if a player feels that any word in the opponent's last play is not a valid word that appears in the agreed upon dictionary, that player may choose to challenge the play. The player does this by calling for an adjudicator to verify if the word or words are in the agreed dictionary. However there are multiple potential results of a challenge. In tournament play there are three current variations: single challenge, double challenge and penalty challenge.

Single challenge

In single challenge, if a player places a word and his opponent wishes to challenge, the challenger may do so with no penalty. If the word is valid, it remains on the board. If it is invalid, it is removed from the board, the players gets back exactly the same letters as he had, and the move is noted as a pass with a score of zero points. The challenger receives no penalty in terms of points deduction or loss of a move no matter if the move challenged is valid or invalid.

A suggested criticism of this is that a player can challenge any word at any time, and thus buying himself time to think about his next move. A player can gain an unfair advantage by challenging a word he knows to be valid, and using the thinking time unfairly.

Double challenge

If a player makes a move and the opponent challenges, the opponent will lose his right to make a move (that is, to play a word) if the play he has challenged turns out to be valid. However if the move is invalid, the tiles are taken off the board and he retains his right to make a move. In other words, whoever loses the challenge loses one turn.

A criticism of double challenge is that it is more conducive to bluffing. A player may play a word he knows is invalid in the hope that his opponent will not risk a challenge or even wait for their opponent to make a word that can help the player play an eight letter word to try and gain even more points.

Penalty challenge

In penalty challenge, a fixed amount of points for the penalty is agreed before the game, either by the two players or more often in tournament play, by the organizers. If a player challenges his opponent's move and it is invalid, the letters are taken back as usual. However if the word is valid, the word remains on the board and the challenger loses 5, 10 or however many points the agreed penalty was. This can either be given to the opponent or subtracted from the challenger's score, depending on the agreed rules.

This is a medium between single and double challenge, and carries a lot of the strengths and weaknesses of these two. Players are unlikely to challenge a word they know for thinking time, because it costs them 5 points, but 5 points may be enough to discourage a player challenging a word they believe to be invalid, increasing the odds of an invalid word remaining throughout the game.

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