GB2117255A - Apparatus for playing a word board game - Google Patents

Abstract

The apparatus comprises a board 1 having a chequered pattern of tile locations 2, 3 of different colours and lettered tiles 5, 6 of the same size and shape as the locations 2, 3. Lettered tiles 5 carrying at least one consonant are of the same colour as the tile locations 3 and lettered tiles 6 carrying at least one vowel are of the same colour as the tile locations 2. The locations 2, 3 are each surrounded by a margin 4 to enable any tile to be placed in position, or be removed, without disturbing any tile occupying a neighbouring location. A variant is described in which the vowel tiles (6) are omitted and the vowels are marked directly on the surface of the game board 1 at the locations 2. The tiles may be magnetic. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Apparatus for playing a board and tiles game This invention relates to apparatus for playing an alphabet board and tiles game of the kind in which a game board comprises a plurality of locations intended to receive tiles, marked with letters of the alphabet, in relationships that are basically determined by a prescribed set of game rules. The apparatus and the game to be played therewith will be described as based upon the "latin" alphabet and English language used in Great Britain, North America, Australasia and so on but it is emphasised that other alphabets and/or languages, such as Arabic, Cyriilic/Russian, Greek, Hebrew or Thai, can equally well be used as the basis of the game.

Board and tiles games which rely upon the production of "dictionary" words on the boards, often in a "crossword" format, are well known and, as well as relying on the vocabularies of the individual players, usually involve a considerable element of luck in the particular lettered tiles which each player randomly receives at the commencement of each game of a series and during the progress of each game. An object of the present invention is to provide apparatus of the kind set forth which can be used to play an alphabet board and tiles game that is, in some respects, the antithesis of known alphabet or word games.

According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided apparatus of the kind set forth, for playing an alphabet board and tiles game, the apparatus comprising a game board marked with a chequered pattern of not more than eighty-one tile locations with each such location spaced from its immediate neighbours by a distance sufficient to facilitate the manual placing and removal of tiles without disturbing any tiles occupying such immediately neighbouring locations, the apparatus also comprising two sets of lettered tiles whose sizes and shapes substantially match those of the tile locations on the game board, each tile of one set carrying at least one vowel of the alphabet and each tile of the other set carrying at least one consonant of the alphabet.

For a better understanding of the invention, and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of a game board of apparatus in accordance with the invention, and Figure 2 is an isometric view, to an enlarged scale, of three different lettered tiles of the same apparatus.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 thereof illustrates a game board 1 that is square in shape, being formed from a substantially rigid material such as plywood, heavy duty cardboard or the like, the board conveniently, but not essentially, being foldable about a line (not shown) that extends parallel to two opposite edges of the board at a location midway between those edges. Such a foldable construction reduces the size of the board 1 for storage purposes and protects the illustrated side thereof from being damaged. Whether or not the board is foldable, the side thereof which is not visible in the drawings may be coloured and may carry a name, such as "DOUBLE DUTCH" by which the whole game is known commercially.

The illustrated side of the board is marked with a chequered pattern of eighty-one tile locations 2 and 3 which tile locations 2 and 3 are differently colour printed in an alternate manner so that each tile location 2 of the one colour is immediately neighboured in both or all directions that are parallel to outer edges of the board 1 by tile locations 3 of the other colour. It is preferred, but is by no means essential, that the tile locations 2 should be coloured black whilst the tile locations 3 are coloured red whereby, with a nine-by-nine chequered pattern of locations 2 and 3, there will be 41 "black" locations 2 and 40 "red" locations 3. A nine-by-nine arrangement of tile locations 2 and 3 is preferred by a smaller number thereof, such as sixty-four or forty-nine can be employed, if desired.Experience has shown that a number of tile locations 2 and 3 in excess of eighty-one is somewhat cumbersome and would detract from, rather than increase, the enjoyment of the game. It will be noted from Figure 1 of the drawings that each tile location 2 and 3 is spaced from its immediate neighbours by a distance sufficient to facilitate the manual placing and removal of tiles without disturbing any tiles occupying such immediately neighbouring locations and, when the locations 2 and 3 are coloured black and red, respectively, the space 4 which surrounds each such location may conveniently, but not essentially, be coloured white. Provided that the colours of the locations 2 and 3 and of the surrounding space 4 are clearly distinct from one another, any desired colours may be chosen.

The apparatus which has been described also includes two sets of lettered tiles 5 and 6 (Figure 2), respectively. The tiles 5 and 6 may be made from ivory, wood, a synthetic plastics material, cardboard or any other substantially rigid material having good durability. Each tile has a size and shape that substantially exactly matches the size and shape of each of the tile locations 2 and 3 and therefore, in the example that is being described, is square. It is emphasised at this point that, whilst a square shape for both the tile locations 2 and 3 and the tiles 5 and 6 themselves is simple, convenient and economic as regards use of the available space on the board 1 and the material from which the tiles 5 and 6 are made, it is by no means essential that a square shape should be used.Circular, oval, triangular and other regular polygonal shapes could, if desired, equally well be employed as alternatives provided only that the tiles 5 and 6 can clearly be marked with letters of the alphabet on one surface thereof. The tiles 5 and 6 comprise two distinct sets, the tiles 5 each carrying a single consonant or two consonants and the tiles 6 each carrying a single vowel or two vowels. The tiles 5 all have one colour, which is preferably red if the locations 3 are red and the tiles 6 all have a different colour which is preferably black if the locations 2 are black. Whatever the colours of the locations 2 and 3, the tiles 5 and 6 preferably, but not absolutely essentially, have corresponding colours, those colours being applied to the tiles 5 and 6 by a suitable process depending upon the material from which said tiles are formed.The letters of the alphabet which appear on one surface of each tile 5 and 6 have a colour which contrasts with that of the tiles and said colour may advantageously be white when the locations 2 and tiles 6 are black and the locations 3 and tiles 5 are red.

The complete apparatus of the game which has so far been described comprises the game board 1 , forty-one black tiles 6 and forty-eight red tiles 5 so that the total number of red tiles 5 and black tiles 6 exceeds the number of tile locations 2 and 3 on the game board 1. The preferably foldable board 1 and the eighty-nine tiles 5 and 6 are contained in a box together with a set of the rules and, optionally, a timer that may be employed to signal the end of any game. Figure 2 of the drawings shows two red tiles 5 each of which carries a pair of consonants that are "dr" and "sh", respectively. Some of the red tiles 5 will carry only single consonants, such as "d", "j", "m", "v" and "z" whilst others will carry further pairs of consonants such as "ck", "kn", "th" and "tt".Similarly, the single black tile 6 that is shown in Figure 2 carries a single vowel "u" whilst further tiles 6 will carry other single vowels and still further tiles 6 will carry pairs of vowels such as "ai", "ay", "ea", "ee", "oa" and "ou".

Any number of players between two and six may play the game and the game is commenced by separately shuffling the two sets of tiles 5 and 6 both with their plain backs uppermost. The forty-one black tiles 6 are then arranged randomly, as they come, in the forty-one black tile locations 2 with each tile 6 having its lettered side uppermost. The set of forty-eight red tiles 5 is then divided equally amongst the players allotting 24 tiles 5 to each player if there are two of them 1 5 tiles 5 to each player if there are three of them, 12 tiles to each player if there are four of them, nine tiles to each player if there are five of them and eight tiles to each of them if there are six players.

The participants may play the game either with the lettered sides of their tiles uppermost and visible to the or each other participant or, alternatively, each participant may conceal his/her tiles from the or each other participant. Both versions of the game are interesting and addictive.

The players take alternate turns (if there are two of them) or successive turns (if there are three or more of them). In contradistinction to known alphabet board and tiles games, the object of each player is to avoid, whenever possible, forming a dictionary word of two or more letters in a left-toright direction that is parallel to the upper and lower edges of the board 1 or in a top-to-bottom direction that is parallel to the left and right edges of the board 1, no notice being taken of any word that may be formed in a direction at 45 to any edge of the board 1 or in a direction opposite to one of the two allowable directions that have just been mentioned. Any English dictionary word of two or more letters is allowable except for abbreviations, prefixes, suffixes, colloquial and slang words, exclamations and animal sounds (e.g.

oh, ah, gee, lo, moo) and proper nouns which are the names of people and/or geographic places.

Each participant takes his/her turn by placing one of his/her allotted red tiles 5 in any empty red tile location 3, all of the locations 3 obviously being empty at the commencement of the game.

Purely for example, assume that the illustrated black tile 6 occupies the top left hand location 2 of the illustrated board 1 and that a further tile 6 bearing the two vowels "ay" occupies the next location 2 counting along the top horizontal row of the board and that a tile 6 bearing the single vowel "i" occupies the second location 2 counting down the left hand edge of the illustrated board 1.

If the first player should, again for example, place the illustrated red tile 5 bearing the two consonants "sh" in the first red location 3 along the upper edge of the board 1, counting from the left, the first three locations would then read "ushay" and this would be a bad move because the three words "us" "shay" and "hay" are all formed. If, as an alternative, the first participant were to place the illustrated red tile 5 bearing the two letters "dr" in the first red location 3 counting from top-to-bottom down the left hand side of the board 1 , the combination "udri" would be formed and this would be a good move since that combination does not contain any English dictionary word as discussed above. The placing of one of the red tiles 5 in one of the locations 3 completes the move.It is the next participant's task to inspect the preceding participant's move to see whether or not any dictionary word was formed during that preceding move. If he/she finds that a dictionary word was produced during the preceding move, then he/she declares that word and is rewarded by removing from the board 1 and thus "capturing" the or each red tile 5, but not the or each black tile 6, that forms part of the or each declared dictionary word. For instance, if the first participant has unwisely produced the words "us", "shay" and "hay", and had not noticed any of them, the second participant, as his/her turn, would declare these three words and would be awarded the red tile 5 bearing the letters "sh". If, on the other hand, the first participant had wisely formed only the combination "udri", then the second participant would not be able to declare any dictionary word, and, instead of capturing any tile(s) 5, would himself/herself have to place one of his/her allotted red tiles 5 in any chosen location 3 on the board 1 not already occupied by a tile 5.

If a participant declares two or more words as his/her move, then he/she wins all of the red tiles 5 involved in the formation of all of the words concerned and this is true even if one or more such word(s) was/were formed several moves earlier without being noticed by any of the players.

It will already be apparent from the example of a bad move which is given above that dictionary words may begin and/or end in the middle of either a red "consonant" tile 3 or a black "vowel" tile 6 bearing two consonants or vowels. Such tiles 5 and 6 are considered as if the second letter thereon is carried by a separate tile which is placed after the first tile considered either horizontally from left-to-right or vertically from top-to-bottom. However, the whole of a dualconsonant tile 5 is captured by a participant who declares a dictionary word that includes only one of the two letters appearing on the tile 5 concerned.

In the event of a dispute as to whether or not a declared word is a "dictionary" word, then the participant who declares that word must, in the case of such a dispute, also specify the meaning of the word and only then is an English dictionary consulted. If the declaration is found to be false, then the participant making the declaration must pay a penalty which is to give a red tile 5 chosen by him/her to the participant whose turn immediately proceeded his/hers. If the dispute concerning a declared word is an allegation that it is an exclamation or is colloquial, and both or all of the players agree that such a word exists, then the dictionary should be consulted but no penalty is awarded against the declarant if his/her declaration is found to be wrong because the word in question is either an exclamation or is colloquial.Apart from these circumstances, the rules of the game preclude the use of a dictionary.

The game continues until only one player has any red tiles 5 left, the other player, or all of the other players, having lost all his/her/their tiles 5.

Alternatively, the game terminates when the board 1 is full and this is considered to be when a participant fills the last empty red location 3 with a red tile 5 and the other or following participant fails to make any declaration of a dictionary word.

When a timer is optionally employed, the player having the largest number of red tiles 5 when the timer indicates the end of the game is the winner, it being possible for a draw to take place if the game is ended in this way.

The fact that red tiles 5 are continually being placed upon and removed from, the red locations 3 demonstrates the necessity for the spacing 4 around every location 2 and 3 so that any chosen tile can be moved into position, or be removed, manually without interfering with any adjacent tiles 5 and/or 6. It is not essential that there should be eighty-one of the locations 2 and 3 and a lesser number, such as sixty-four or forty-nine can be employed, if preferred, particularly if the game is to be played primarily by young children.

A corresponding reduction in the numbers of the two sets of tiles 5 and 6 will be required under these circumstances. It is not even absolutely essential that the board 1 should be square, although this is greatly preferred, and an oblong, for example, configuration could be employed as an alternative. However, even under these circumstances, there should not be more than eighty-one of the locations 2 and 3 to avoid the game becoming too cumbersome and so difficult to play as to detract considerably from the enjoyment thereof. The formation of "dictionary" words becomes progressively more difficult to avoid as each game progresses since the number of red locations 3 remaining free and the number of tiles 5 left to fill them becomes progressively less.The turn of each player comprises either declaring a dictionary word formed by a preceding player or, if no such declaration can be made, placing one of his/her stock of red tiles 5 in one of the empty locations 3.

An alternative version of the game can be employed either to reduce the cost thereof or to facilitate a small version that can be played whilst, for example, travelling. In this version, the black "vowel" tiles 6 are dispensed with and, instead of being merely coloured blanks, the locations 2 are each marked with one or two vowels. Thus, only a single set of tiles equivalent to the tiles 5 is required. In such a version, the tiles 5 could be formed from magnetised metal and the board 1, which could still be foldable, could be formed from an alloy containing iron. This considerably assists in preventing vibration during travel from shaking magnetised tiles, equivalent to the tiles 5, out of appointed positions on the locations 3. A still further alternative, in both versions of the game, would be to make the board 1 of significant thickness and to form the centre of each location with a hole and the back of each tile 5 or 5 and 6 with a peg arranged to fit frictionally in any one of the holes. Under these circumstances, when both tiles 5 and 6 are provided, the holes in the locations 2 could be shaped to match only the pegs carried by the tiles 6 and the holes in the location 3 could be shaped to match only the pegs carried by the tiles 5.

Claims (12)

1. Apparatus of the kind set forth, for playing an alphabet board and tiles game, the apparatus comprising a game board marked with a chequered pattern of not more than eighty-one tile locations with each such location spaced from its immediate neighbours by a distance sufficient to facilitate the manual placing and removal of tiles without disturbing any tiles occupying such immediately neighbouring locations, the apparatus also comprising two sets of lettered tiles whose sizes and shapes substantially match those of the tile locations on the game board, each tile of one set carrying at least one vowel of the alphabet and each tile of the other set carrying at least one consonant of the alphabet.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the game board is square in shape.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein each tile location and each lettered tile is square in shape.

4. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said two sets of lettered tiles are differently coloured.

5. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein alternate tile locations in two relatively perpendicular directions on the surface of the game board are differently coloured.

6. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein some of the lettered tiles of one set carry one vowel whilst others carry two vowels, and wherein some lettered tiles of the other set carry one consonant whilst others carry two consonants.

7. Apparatus of the kind set forth, for playing an alphabet board and tiles game, the apparatus comprising a game board marked with a chequered pattern of not more than eighty-one locations with alternate locations in two relatively perpendicular directions on the board surface each marked with at least one vowel of the alphabet, the apparatus also comprising a set of tiles whose sizes and shapes substantially match those of the unlettered tile locations on the game board, each tile of said set carrying at least one consonant of the alphabet.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein some of the lettered tile locations on the game board are marked with one vowel whilst others are marked with two vowels, and wherein some of the lettered tiles are marked with one consonant whilst others are marked with two consonants.

9. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein means is provided to assist in retaining said tiles in chosen positions on the game board.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein said means comprises magnetic co-operation between the tiles and the game board.

1 Apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein said means comprises pegs and holes.

12. Apparatus of the kind set forth, for playing an alphabet board and tiles game, the apparatus being substantially as hereinbefore described with or without reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 3. Apparatus of the kind set forth, for playing an alphabet board and tiles game, the apparatus comprising tiles each marked with at least one letter of the alphabet and a board marked substantially as described with reference to Figure 1 of the drawings, the lettered tiles being movable to and from locations on the board in accordance with the directions hereinbefore described.