Internet Scrabble Club

The Internet Scrabble Club (ISC) is an online website which allows players from all around the world to play Scrabble. Players can join the ISC by registering a handle (username), then downloading WordBiz, a free software that allows the player to view the interface.

Using ISC

Players start games either by sending or accepting a "seek," or sending or accepting a match request. A seek is a request for a game with certain parameters, including the time limit (between 3 and 60 whole minutes), the type of challenge (SINGLE, DOUBLE, 5-POINTS, or VOID), and the minimum and maximum ratings criteria that the other player must meet.

Organisation and management

The ISC was created and is run by the player known as Carol (real name Florin Gheorghe), who lives in Romania, hence the URL www.isc.ro. The other administrator is Herve, who is the 2005 French matchplay national champion, Hervé Bohbot.

The administrators invite certain players to be moderators, also known as helpers. There is a command, 'ASK', whereby players may ask questions of the helpers; if a helper answers a question, the question and the answer will appear on channel 0. Some helpers are given the power to restrict the activities of players who have violated the rules of the site, e.g. by using inappropriate language. The primary function of the moderators, who are only intermittently present, is to answer questions about the site and to moderate the language and content of the discussions in order to make the site a pleasant site for most players.

The players are split into two broad categories—members and contributory members. The ISC is a free service; no member needs to pay to use the site's facilities. However there are benefits for contributory or support players, who pay an annual subscription. These benefits include the right to play against computer players, to save games in a library, to use an examiner program that suggests solutions for game positions, and many others. A full list of benefits can be found at the ISC website linked below.

Bots

There are about 35 robots that are playable on ISC. On the server, which is hosted in the US, you may access the list of bots by using "who C". Contributory members have priority over non-contributory members when requesting to play against these robots. The bots have different skill levels. Bamse, Adela, and Myrrhs are novices; Keres, Automat, and Dogberry are intermediates; Waxberry, Alehin, and Woland are experts. It is advisable to set your initial time relatively high, because the bots don't take any time to make their move. When you seek a game by viewing the seek graph on ISC, bots are denoted by a square instead of a dot. The bots also have C next to their names. Finally, if you intend to use an anagram program on ISC, you must inform Carol or Herve, the administrators, so they give you a "C label".

Other languages on the ISC

The ISC does its best to use official word lists—those used in club and tournament competition in various countries. It uses two English-language word sets: TWL06, which is used in the U.S., Canada, Thailand and Israel, and SOWPODS, which is used for the rest of the world. However, the ISC caters for multiple languages. It uses ODS 5 for French, LOC v.4 for Romanian, ZINGA for Italian and SWL for Dutch. There is also the "Multi" dictionary, which consists of English, French, and Romanian words, and has proved popular for online tournaments.

There is also the option of playing Clabbers, an anagram of the word Scrabble. It is not official on the ISC, but it is available. Clabbers is a game of anagramming to fit the players' liking, in terms of points being scored and so on.

Some champions on the ISC

The help file ISC.ro has a fairly extensive list of these.

External links

• ISC.ro, the main website of the ISC
• ISC.ro, the main help page of the ISC
• [1], a New York Times article about the ISC.