»Word Freaks and patzer

patzer, a bungler, and specifically an amateurish chess player. I learned the word in reading Stefan Fastis book on competitive Scrabble™ play, Word Freak (note the tactful singular in the title; I first read it as a derogatory plural), which has several dozen words I had never before encountered, and probably never will again, with the exception of patzer. Scrabble™ vocabulary is not conversational, but is tactical: use words to maximize point value, but not to show off vocabulary. For this reason the World Championships attract many players who do not speak English fluently, who acquired it as a second, or third, or fourth, language, and who may not be able to define many of the words they play on the board.

At times confusing, other times almost confessional, the book is ultimately a let-down. I enjoyed reading about strategy in the game, but found the author's three-year odyssey through the anxiety-inducing world of competitive game-playing almost patronizing. He tells a good story, and he tells it well, but he undoubtedly takes the perspective that people have to be weird, or unusual, to play this game with this intensity -- and here he goes, crossing over, and feeling himself becoming less socially adept, mawkish, and inept.

A widely-read and impressively-travelled correspondent sent this to me last year, but I only uncovered it while excavating books a few days ago. I am going to send it on to my peripatetic Scrabble™-playing sister, who has devised an excellent variation of the game well-suited for pub play. It's sort of like the Anagrams game described in Fastis' book: using tiles from one Scrabble™ set, players draw seven and begin forming words on the table. The words may intersect with other players' words; as soon as a player has used a tile, draw enough to continue with seven. Turns do not exist: play is fast and furious. First person to finish and not be able to draw additional tiles wins. Insert ale as necessary.