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Explanation of the NASPA/NSA Ratings

Members of the North American SCRABBLE® Players Association (NASPA) or formerly the National SCRABBLE® Association (NSA) who play in sanctioned tournaments establish a national rating which is a number in the range of about 200-2200. The value of the number has no intrinsic meaning, but it should be viewed as a number relative to other rated players. This form of rating is similar to that used in Chess.

The Lexington SCRABBLE® Club employs a rating system which also assigns numbers in about the same range. Please note that these two rating systems are not related. The Club system is an indication of how a player performs at the club only. It is based on the percentage of points a player gets in each game along with the rating of the opponent.

The NASPA/NSA rating is an indication of how a player performs in tournaments. The NASPA/NSA rating is based on win-loss records of an individual in comparison to the average ratings of that individual's opponents in the tournament.

So these two rating systems are measuring slightly different statistics. The numbers are somewhat different too.

The list of ratings of all active NSA players has been available from the NSA web site. Since NASPA is replacing NSA as the organization to support tournament play and ratings, NASPA tournament results has become the official place to seek this info. A better website for looking at ratings is: http://cross-tables.com

When you play in a NASPA/NSA sanctioned tournament, you will be able to see the results on the web within 1-2 weeks (typically) indicating your new rating.

If you know the ratings of your opponents, you can input this information along with your win/loss record at a tourney and compute your new rating. This calulator uses the updated rating change formulas which took effect in January, 2009.

You can also download an Excel spreadsheet that will allow you to calculate old or new ratings at: http://www.seattlescrabble.org/data/RatingsCalculator.xls


back to the top of this page This page, maintained by Mike Wolfberg, was last updated on February 11, 2019 .