Scrabble Fest Casts A Spell On Word Lovers About 600 Players Follow Rules Of National Tourney To The Letter

A new breed of competitors is seeking fame in Providence this week. But they aren’t the type to be wheeling around on skateboards and dirt bikes, or sporting intricate tattoos.

Their turf is the ballroom of the Rhode Island Convention Center. Their stage is a Scrabble board, the deluxe edition. This is a meeting of the minds, and these wizards of words are lovers of Scrabble.

About 600 competitors - ranging in age from 12 to 90 - are squaring off at the National Scrabble Championship this week. The tournament has been held every two years since 1978.

The predominant noise echoing through the Convention Center ballroom was the click-clack of Scrabble tiles being shaken in tile bags or stacked up on racks.

Tournament officials and word checkers roamed up and down rows and rows of tables as participants hovered over their boards, plotting strategy.

A sign outside the ballroom doors offered a warning: “Quiet Please, Play in Progress.”

Players from 40 states, Canada and Europe competed in six divisions. Among them was Brian Cappelletto, the reigning national Scrabble champion.

Leland Fidler, a 12-year-old from Waltham, Mass., was a member of a two-player team that finished second at a state Scrabble championship for school-age children. He was the youngest player here.

Frances Gross, of Coconut Creek, Fla., was, at 90, the oldest competitor in this year’s tournament.

“Some have a lot of different hobbies, but for some of them, this is it,” said Yvonne Gillispie, marketing director for the National Scrabble Association, which sponsored the event.

In the tournament, players are divided into six divisions. In each division, players face off in mind-boggling competition. Each winner goes on to play another winner; each loser goes on to play another loser in the corresponding division.

By the end of the week, each participant played seven matches a day for four days and three matches on the last day.

The winner of each division won a cash prize, including $25,000 for the top-ranked division.

But most players - from the refrigerator repairman to the math teacher or scientist or artist or computer programmer - aren’t in it for the money.

“I love words; I love crossword puzzles,” said Margy Slavin, who has been playing the game for 15 years and traveled from California to participate.

Waheed Thompson of Houston said he originally took up the game while in grade school in Nigeria.

Thompson said he likes the game because “it makes me think.” And, he discovered, it was a good tool for helping him improve his English.

Patricia Saito Stewart of Wisconsin and Miles Dequetteville of Canada agree quite simply that “it’s an addiction.” They admit to playing 15 to 30 games on the Internet every day.

John D. Williams Jr., executive director of the National Scrabble Association, estimated that about 30 million people play the game on an occasional basis. Hasbro manufactures Scrabble and is underwriting this year’s tournament.