John Chew, co-president of the North American Scrabble Players Association, told BBC News that he often hears criticism of Scrabble’s scoring system, but that any changes would bring about "catastrophic outrage." He devised his point system by studying the front page of The New York Times and calculating how often each of the 26 letters of the English language was used. Scrabble was invented during the Great Depression by Alfred Mosher Butts. The letter Q, which Lewis called an "outlier" because it is much harder to play than the others, remains at 10 points, though Lewis said he considered raising its value to 12. Other letter values are also modified slightly: U, which is currently worth one point, would be worth two in the new version, and M and G, which are now worth two points each, would be worth three. The Letter X, currently worth eight points, would only be worth five. Under Lewis’ new system, the letter Z, currently one of the highest-valued tiles at 10 points, is only worth six. The new system looks at three factors: frequency of the letters in the English language, frequency by word length and how easy it is to play the letter with other letters. Lewis created a program called Valett that recalculates the values of each letter to better reflect modern usage. The centre square, usually marked with a star, counts as a double-word square. Additional points can be obtained from placing letters on Premium Squares, which multiply the number of points awarded: triple-word squares, double-word squares, triple-letter squares and double-letter squares. The score for each turn is the sum of the letter values in each word(s) formed or modified on that turn. New words can be formed by adding one or more letters to a word or to letters already on the board, placing a word at right angles to a word already on the board, or placing a complete word parallel to a word already played so that adjacent letters also form complete words. Players take turns forming a word with their set of letter tiles and placing it on the board to read either across or down. Scrabble is played by up to four players on a board with a 15-by-15 grid.
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