Scrabble not just about vocabulary, says expert player

Scrabble not just about vocabulary, says expert player

It’s not often that you associate Scrabble with math, but Shankar Prasad, the president of the Karnataka State Scrabble Association does just that. “The game is not just about words; it’s about strategies, logic, math and time management,” he says.

Founded in 1998, the Association was earlier known as the Bangalore Scrabble Club. The founders Rex and Lennie D’souza began with informal games and then started an international tournament, the only one in India, 16 years ago. They’ve also been conducting a national level tournament from the past year.

He got into competitive scrabble in 2016 at the insistence of a friend. “Finding a word that fit perfectly in a space and gave you a lot of points, gives you such a rush that you want to keep chasing that feeling.”

He says that while many serious players earlier used to learn from lists of words, there are apps nowadays through which you can sharpen your skills. He adds that professional players tend to spend at least an hour a day “studying”.

When asked about it’s parallels with chess, he says that the comparison is not far off. “The only major difference being the fact that there is a factor of luck in Scrabble,” he says.

This year’s tournament runs from January 9-12, at the MuSigma campus, Whitefield. For more information or to register you can write to [e-mail]