How to spell victory

Though thousands play Scrabble in the Gulf, there’s certainly a hard-core 100-200 in the region who compete in tournaments.

Many expats brought their Scrabble boards with them when they came to the Gulf generations ago to work at oil camps, teach or take on office jobs.
In 1966, Dhahran (Saudi Arabia) Scrabble Group was the first Scrabble club in the Gulf, followed 18 years later by Bahrain Scrabble League. In the mid-1980s, the General Organisation for Youth and Sports recognised BSL.
BSL has had national championships since 1987 in addition to over 50 other competitions annually, all virtually open to players of all skill levels.
A two-month qualifying contest for the Gulf Scrabble Tournament is open, however, only to competitive word aces.
Though 20 years ago some players felt that youth should be segregated from the adults, even preteens were able to outmanoeuvre those several times their age.
However, a school Scrabble tourney was held in the mid-‘90s followed by a Bahrain-Qatar youth tourney.
About 15 clubs are found in all the gulf countries in a close-knit group, even if it’s not formally organised.
World-class players are found from Kuwait to Oman, those who’ve been on the international circuit and the World Scrabble Championship.
Playing in the living room or in a club can be the difference between night and day: time limits, an official word reference and strigent rules, following pretty much international standards.
The discipline and “those funny words” sometimes put some players off or in a state of trepidation.
Nevertheless, children as young as six years seem unconcerned with the stress and strain that might affect some adults.
To the amazement of some of the grizzled exponents in the brainy game, youth have outmanoeuvred adults in contests.
Names of teenagers like Akshay Bhandarkar, Naween Fernando, Mario Ranasuriya, Sherwin Rodrigues, Dean Saldanha and Mohammed Zafar have become quasi-legendary  to players and fans in the Gulf.
Among those aforementioned players, Mohammed, 17, is still resident in the Gulf, as is Akshay. Mario and Sherwin are still teenagers while the others are now in their 20s. Cool, calculating word whizzes, like Ralph Lobo (Oman), Salah Salih (Saudi Arabia), the world’s highest-rated Arab player, or Ricky Gonzalez (Saudi Arabia), are names noted in the Gulf Scrabble diadem from Kuwait to Oman.
Age play little role as even pre-teens have beaten
highly-rated septuagenarians. Students often have to
play teachers in international tourneys.
But then architects, engineers and accountants might find themselves across the board from bankers, marketing managers or housewives.
Though at home Scrabble may digress into squabble, in a tournament the playing hall is generally very silent except for the rattlesnake-like sound of tiles being shuffled in a bag.
Outside of an occasional outburst over a ruling, Scrabble might be called the thinking man’s (or woman’s) game.
The dean of Scrabble players, Ishtiaq Chishty, believes that Scrabble demands the same kinds of skills needed in life and career: knowing how to take risks, sizing up the opponent and using techniques and strategies designed to spell victory.
One might get the impression that Scrabble clubs are closed societies but beginners and newcomers are most often welcomed with open arms. After all, today’s beginner is often tomorrow’s competition. 
Possibly 25,000 word aces take part in contests in English in 40-45 countries. However, the game’s played in over 30 other languages including Arabic.
From Sweden to South Africa and from New Zealand westward to Canada, the mind game is played just as passionately by players as those who take part in bridge, chess, cricket or football.
In some parts of Asia, countries are Scrabble crazy where, for instance, Thailand holds its 22nd King’s Cup with a top prize of $6,000 and a phenomenol 10,000 participants.
In countries like Nigeria and the Philippines, the government grants funds to support the mind sport as Scrabble is considered important in education.
Indeed, paedagogues have included Scrabble among what they term “smart games,” that help youngsters develop analytical skills and keep oldsters from going brain numb.
Besides putting down exotic words like cwm, euoi, zo, qi or jo, many players are able to put together words with all seven tiles in their rack.
Called a bingo in Scrabble jargon, it earns 50 bonus points, catapulting him ahead in the score.
Putting down a bingo could occur once in a blue moon for living-room players but some adept exponents manage to plonk down four or five in a single game.
For some unknown reason, the game’s dominated by men but women have excelled, like Loreta Alban (Qatar) and Rohaina Taneer (Kuwait), who have been to the WSC, the “Olympics” of the game, where six to eight supremos from the Gulf meet with the globe’s best 100 masters in the mind game, battling for the “word cup.”
With Gulf Air becoming the title sponsor of both the 17th GST and other activities in the brainy game, a whole new era for the mind sport opens for the brainy game, with players and fans cheering.

Roy Keitzman