Winning at words: Delhi student Madhav Gopal Kamath wins World Youth Scrabble Championship

New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) By closing his final game of Scrabble with the word ‘Bae’, Madhav Gopal Kamath created history at the World Youth Scrabble Championship (WYSC) by becoming the first Indian to win the tournament.

Kamath emerged victorious among 218 under-18 players from 18 countries at the 20th edition of the annual tournament held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The 14-year-old from Delhi clinched the championship, organised by the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association (WESPA), in the penultimate round, finishing with 21 wins from 24 rounds.

Kamath, a class 10 student of Sanskriti School in Chanakyapuri, was first introduced to the board game at the age of five at home by his father and uncle.

“I would just sit and watch them play and from there I picked up the basics of the game. It seemed like a fun game and then I started playing. So at first I’d play casually at home with my dad and my brothers and then started playing at tournaments when I was 6 or 7,” Kamath told PTI.

Since his first entry into the Under-18 championship, Kamath has played in the tournament seven times and stood runner-up twice.

Even though the closing word 'Bae' values only five points, Kamath said it was one of the words in the long game that helped him win.

"I don't think there was any one particular important word that turned the game. Bae was the last word that I played in my final match," he said.

Earlier this year, Kamath became the youngest-ever national champion of the 25th National Scrabble Championship in Mumbai, and is currently ranked 8th in the world across all ages.

Speaking about preparing for the word game, Kamath said that it requires constant preparation of at least an hour every day and it goes beyond “just reading the dictionary”.

“Scrabble is a mind sport just like chess, it takes a lot of preparation. So I do about an hour of Scrabble practice every day. There are some apps, websites that help you do that, it’s not just reading a dictionary. It’s more complex than that.

“Essentially you have to learn more words, not necessarily common words so that’s why there are apps and all,” he said.

Even before he started placing tiles on the Scrabble board, Kamath liked to read books, something that has helped him fine tune his game.

“I started reading books far before I started playing Scrabble, and I still read a lot of books. It definitely helps. My reading habit helped me get into Scrabble, not the other way around,” he said.

Having played the game competitively for almost 10 years, Kamath now looks at the written word differently. As each letter in the game carries a numerical value, words appear to Kamath as “important” and “unimportant”.

“I have realised I see words differently. When I see a word I think if it’s a high value word or unimportant word. In Scrabble, 7 or 8 letter words are more important than most words, so those words will stick with me a bit more,” he said.

Apart from Kamath, 11 of the country’s best youth Scrabble players participated in the WYSC, supported by the Essar Foundation and mentored by player and coach Neeta Bhatia, in partnership with the Scrabble Association of India and Wordaholix.

Suyash Manchali, 15, from Bengaluru, who was the runner-up at last year’s edition in Sri Lanka, secured fifth place with 17 wins this time.

“Madhav’s victory is a historic milestone for Indian Scrabble and a proud moment for the entire community. Over the years, our young players have shown immense promise, and this world title validates India’s growing stature in global Scrabble,” Harvinderjit Bhatia, president, Scrabble Association of India, said in a statement. PTI MAH MAH RB RB