CHENNAI: Age is just a number, they say. Proving the dictum right is former Tamil Nadu chief secretary Mohan Verghese Chunkath, who has now become one among India’s first seven grandmasters in Scrabble, at 69.
A few days ago, the Scrabble Association of India (SAI) announced the launch of the Scrabble Tile system which recognises player excellence, much like in chess, on the lines of United Kingdom’s ABSP rankings.
Chunkath, a retired IAS officer who has been playing Scrabble, a globally popular word board game that mixes intricate knowledge of English with strategy, competitively for around three decades was recognised as a national grandmaster based on his performance in any two-year window between January 2015 and December 2022.
Not many are of his league, as the former civil servant is so passionate about English language that he says he reads the dictionary for fun.
The Chennai-resident has represented India five times in world championships, starting with Melbourne in 1999, when he was still coming up the ranks in the state bureaucracy. He recalled how he explored the opportunity in India after playing in a club in the US while on a study break in the 90s.
Though his professional commitments in the later stages of his career gave him little time for the game, he picked it up after retirement with gusto. “I prepare everyday by scanning word lists and word meanings to hone nuances. Strategy is very important in Scrabble,” he says. To keep the mind fresh, Chunkath says he plays only once or twice a week, with each session lasting three to four hours. He is also an avid crossword lover and contributes to multiple publications.
The game is popular in Indian metros like Chennai, Bengaluru, New Delhi and Mumbai among language nerds, and is slowly picking up as a professional sport in India.
Chunkath says 500-600 participants turn up at major tournaments, but Scrabble is not yet recognised by the Indian government as a sport, probably “because it is a proprietary board game”.
Like chess, Scrabble does not have a gender or age bar, and tournaments are open to anyone who pays an entry fee. Every major tournament has players grouped in four divisions based on rankings based on past performances.
Drawing parallels between bureaucracy and the game, the retired civil servant pointed out that both required maximizing results with whatever resources available. “With players required to pick the letter tiles, one also has to mentally calculate how many vowels and consonants are left in the game, how to best leverage the high-pointer tiles (J,Q,X,Z) and play accordingly,” he signs off.
What is Scrabble?
Word building board game using tiles which have one letter each.
Players need to form words on a 15x15 board, score points & draw tiles after every turn.
New Indian Scrabble Grandmasters
Aditya Iyengar, Madhav Gopal Kamath, Mohan Verghese Chunkath, Nakul Prabhu, Sherwin Rodrigues, Udayan Grover, Varisht Hingorani.