The Scrabble Club

An intrepid but small group of crossword enthusiasts hopes the Penn Scrabble Club will find its way to the top of the Scrabble world someday. Most Penn students are able to satisfy their crossword cravings with the puzzle in The Daily Pennsylvanian. But some seek the greater challenge only the Scrabble board can provide. Now those who fall into the latter category need no longer feel alone. Just head to the second floor of the Van Pelt Library on a Wednesday or Sunday night, and enter the world of the Scrabble Club. Hunched over tile-covered boards, members flip through dictionaries and trade humorous glances or wary expressions of concentration -- depending on how competitive the game is -- while figuring out their next move. Usually, the players break up into groups of two or as many as four. Competitive Scrabble mandates a two-player game, so the one-on-one duels adhere strictly to the rules. The larger games play a more relaxed version -- which is exactly the variety Tony Bufort, a second-year Philosophy graduate student, was hoping for when he started the club this fall. "I wanted a place where I could come to play some good Scrabble, both casual and competitive," he explains, "where both novices and experts can both play comfortably." Indeed, while first-timers hone new-found skills, others are at work "trying to produce state champions," jokes the un-official co-President, Education student David Jelenick. Actually, it may not be such a joke: Bufort has big plans for the club. Soon he hopes to be trading triple-word scores and seven-letter tongue twisters with local professionals at a Scrabble Club in Exton, Pa. And looking even further ahead he sees visions of the big league: the New York City Scrabble Club, where cash prizes await. If he ever gets there, Bufort might land a prize himself. While he was more involved in other activities as an undergraduate at Rutgers University -- like the bowling club and College Democrats -- he spent plenty of time getting to know his Scrabble board while "drifting" for two years after graduation. But he remains modest about his skills, explaining he "hasn't really had time to develop them." And while he can recite the number of acceptable two-letter words -- about 96 -- and three-letter of words -- 997 -- off the top of his head, he feels he could "study more with the tools," such as word lists and rule books distributed by the National Scrabble Association. Nonetheless, he has high hopes for his members, like Jelenick, who he says has "a feverish talent." He also hails his less polished players "with good strategy and good vocab, but who haven't really studied, learned all the two-letter words." Once they put in the effort, he said, "they can become really hot. They can really mop the floor with people." In fact, Bufort is confident such potential Scrabble wizzes abound at Penn. "A lot of students here are really good with words," he said, citing, for example, "the bio people." "They know weird bio words," Buford added. "It's kind of cool." It's exactly these would-be players who Bufort hopes to cultivate to ensure a future for the club at Penn once he graduates in May. "We need young blood, freshmen, to keep the club alive," he said. Only then can the club achieve the future he forsees for it, a "great social hangout that will spill over into other colleges." Bufort envisions Scrabble clubs starting and rivalries being created at other Ivy League schools. "I live for the day the club I founded will kick some Harvard Scrabble ass," he said. Therefore, he encourages all students to seek that greater challenge and join the Scrabble Club. And since the group suffers frequent board shortages, he adds "bring one, if you have one. "We have a BYOB policy -- Bring Your Own Board," he noted. The Scrabble Club meets in Van Pelt's Woody Room at 7 p.m. on Sundays and 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays.