A scrabble for words

At first view, OTARINE is not a particularly memorable word. It is an adjective describing seal-like characteristics, and even in terms of face value in Scrabble, scores just seven points.

The 100 students who took part at the first ever Scrabble coaching camp conducted in Dubai know different now, however. As a seven-letter word combination of highly probable letters (as per the distribution in the game), OTARINE is very useful in placing a bonus or a bingo, a much coveted manoeuvre in competitive Scrabble, in which the player secures 50 extra points by using all their tiles in one move. Had this been football or cricket, this would be the point at which the cheerleaders would start their celebrations on behalf of the player.

The children were also taught that the tile combination OTARINE is very useful in linking up with letters already on the board to play a bingo. For example, if an ‘S’ is available on the board from a previous move, you can form the words NOTARISE or SENORITA.

By the end of the camp, all the participants were able to recite all possible combinations of this ilk (including words such as CREATION, REACTION, ANTIHERO, RATIONED, AERATION and BARITONE) at a moment’s recall, which will stand them in good stead for the World Youth Scrabble Championships (WYSC) in Malaysia in December, in which an unprecedented 10 children from the UAE will take part in a field of over 100 from around the world.

The camp was held at Dubai Academic City on October 24-25 in association with Amity University, Al Shula Trading, Jashanmal Books and Khaleej Times. Chairperson of the youth committee for World Scrabble and organiser of the WYSC, Karen Richards conducted the sessions with a view to bolstering tournament participation in the eight to 18 range, and setting the stage for the UAE to become a force in youth Scrabble worldwide.

On the senior level, the UAE has already produced a past world number five, and recently 68-year-old Mohammad Sulaiman finished 23^rd at the 11^th biennial World Scrabble Championships (WSC) in Warsaw.

“It was very exciting to work with the largest crowd of young people we have ever taught and to identify so much talent here,” said Mrs. Richards, a retired management trainer, who now travels the world teaching Scrabble to children.

“Some amazing plays were STUDIOS from eight-year-old Isra Ghonim, and TYRANTS from 11-year-old Armaan Arafat. Sudharsan Surya impressed us all with 598 points in a single game, and I have to congratulate Sanchit Kapoor for beating me in a friendly game. The hospitality of Academic City and Amity University was wonderful - they understand just how beneficial Scrabble is for students, in terms of improving problem-solving ability, memory training and mathematical computation skills.”

Mrs. Richards’ best student (and evident proof of her approach) is her son Alastair, who at 19 is a tournament veteran of 12 years and was the only teenager to finish in the top 10 at the WSC this year. Alastair now co-runs the coaching sessions focusing on the advanced players, teaching them the finer points of strategy and sharing his unique style of play with them. His primary focus this time was to work intensively with 13-year-old Dylan D’Souza, who was the sole representative for the UAE at the last WYSC, and is the only one in the group to have a world ranking, not to mention the Gulf word score record holder, with a mammoth 206 pts for SQUATTERS. Prior to the camp, Alastair also triumphed over some of the UAE’s best players in a special tournament conducted for beginners and experienced players on October 21 at Academic City.

“The whole time in Dubai was great fun — it’s nice to see a different country,” said Alastair, who recently graduated from the University Of Newcastle in Australia. “I was impressed by the large number, and quality, of players who came to our workshop. It will be great to follow these bright young players over the coming years and to catch up with some of them at the WYSC this year”.

Apart from expanding their vocabulary, the students were also schooled in the intricacies of tournament play including etiquette, fair play, time management, scoring and handling pressure. The camp concluded with a special tournament with prizes in which the attendees pitted their new found skills against five world-ranked players (including young Dylan) and in which they more than held their own, as 15-year-old Sudharsan Surya of Our Own Own Indian School finished top of the leaderboard.

According to Sudharsan, an avid chess player, “The action is so much faster in Scrabble, since there are so many more things to think of at the same time like anagrams and scoring. Once I adjusted to the pace, I was happy to be able to find at least one bingo in each game, which contributed greatly to my scores. Playing with Alastair in particular was an eye-opener, and I hope I can emulate his skill if I qualify for the WYSC.”

Origin of Scrabble

At the height of the American Great Depression in 1933, an out of work architect Albert Butts released a board game that he had designed based on his love of the crossword puzzle.

Butts read The New York Times to figure the commonness of all of the letters and assigned them a point value.

He then created a board consisting of a grid with bonus squares such as Double Word Score and Triple Letter Score. He wrote up rules and packaged it up for sale as Lexico.

It was an utter failure.

Then in 1949, (by which time Lexico had become Scrabble) the president of Macy’s played it at a party and loved it. He ordered the game for his store just in time for Christmas and one of the all-time great games was finally a success with the public.