BENGALURU:Playing scrabble has always been a fun way to help build one’s vocabulary. And the Bangalore Scrabble Club has capitalised on this idea and has invested in promoting the game. The club was founded in the year 1998 and their main agenda is to provide training and promote scrabble across the city. Shankar Prasad, president of the Bangalore Scrabble Club says, “We want to popularise scrabble in Bengaluru as it helps in increasing the vocabulary, it exercises our minds and improves our mathematical skills. I started getting serious about the game only about two years ago, when I played for the first time in the Capgemini International Tournament, 2016.”
The club holds scrabble tournaments every month and the Bengaluru scrabble tournament this month marks the conclusion of the Bangalore Scrabble League-5, which was held between the month of February and May. The members of the club typically meet between 2pm to 6pm at Ulsoor. And the more passionate gamers even meet each other and play the game over the week. Shubha Shivashankar, the member coordinator of the Bangalore Scrabble Club says, “Since my childhood, I had a tremendous love for these letters, words and played only with my friends and families. I started playing online as I grew older.”
Currently, there are 70 members in the club and it caters to all age groups – ranging from eight years to 70 years.
Eight-year-old Suyash Manchali is the youngest member of the club. He has won prizes in tournaments such as ‘The Capgemini International Travel Tournament’ and recently in ‘Shankara Vishwanathan Tournament’. The Bangalore Scrabble Club conducts one-day tournaments every month and since the last 14 years, they have been hosting the Capgemini International Tournament in the month of January. There is an upcoming national level tournament starting in the month of October from 12 to 14, which will be sponsored by the Phoenix Mills. The tournament this month will be held on June 3.