Two documentaries about word games came out at similar times. “Word Wars” (2004) was about Scrabble and “Wordplay” (2006) was about crosswords. Both are excellent films about high-level play in these games.

After watching them, what struck me was that the best Scrabble players were all, shall I say, a bit weirder than the best crossword players.

Crossword requires a large general fund of knowledge. Scrabble only requires rote memorization. Crossword attracted well-rounded people. Top Scrabblers were monomaniacs.