One of the most popular board games of the twentieth century, Scrabble is a crossword-style game designed for two, three, or four players. Participants make interlocking words by drawing randomly from a stock of one hundred tiles, each bearing a letter of the alphabet. Letters are distributed according to their relative frequency in the language—there are twelve "E's" and nine "A's," for example, but only one "Q" and one "Z." The point value of the letters varies accordingly. By placing the tiles strategically on the game board, players can double or triple the point value of letters and words. Using seven letters in a single play (the number of tiles required to be drawn in each turn) is worth a bonus of fifty points.

Scrabble is one of the most popular board games of all time, selling around two million sets worldwide each year. Photograph by David...