Word Wars at the Joslyn Center

Every Thursday afternoon from 1:30 p.m., a group of Scrabble enthusiasts gathers in the Oasis Room at the Joslyn Community Center in Manhattan Beach and wages a war of words.

All right. It's not quite a war of words. It's more a rough-and-tumble with letters. Seven letters, to be exact.

The game of Scrabble was invented in the 1950s, long enough ago to make it a classic—but still younger than some of the players who engage in these weekly tournaments.  Each letter is worth a designated number of points, and the aim of the game is to rack up an arsenal of linguistic weapons. Land your letters on a colored square and the bonus points could bump you up on the scorecard. Use all seven of your letters in one turn and you've got a "bingo"—a Scrabble bomb—worth an extra 50 points.

Some of the seniors come for the company, others are intent on winning. But everyone is keeping an eye on that triple word score.

At the Joslyn Center, however, the atmosphere is jovial. Games like Scrabble (which means "to make or obtain by scraping together hastily") are an excellent way to keep Alzheimer's and dementia at bay, according to the National Institute on Aging, make new friends and, perhaps, boost your vocabulary.

But the secret to dominating the game isn't verbosity, says player Dick Chase. The secret is knowing the obscure two-letter words that include high-scoring letters. A favorite? Qi, meaning life energy, and worth a vivacious 11 points, or triple that on a coveted red triple-word-score square.

There's no prize to win here, says Chase, except the ongoing esteem of your peers: a  bounty certainly worth fighting for.

Scrabble at the Joslyn Center is played every Thursday from 1:30 p.m. until 4 p.m.