Chennai sweeps Scrabble honours

CHENNAI, MAY 23. The Chennai contingent swept all honours in the recently concluded (May 17-20) National Scrabble Championship in Hyderabad. Mr. Mohan Verghese Chunkath, a career bureaucrat from Chennai, who represented India in the last World Scrabble Championship held at Melbourne in November 1999, won a hassle- free first place. In a pyrotechnic display of word wizardry, Mr. Chunkath played 24 bingos in 11 games. A bingo is a move which exhausts all seven tiles on the rack and earns a bonus 50 points.

The second place was secured by Mr. Ranganathan Chakravarthy, an advocate from Chennai. Mr. Chunkath and Mr. Ranganathan, both members of the Chennai Scrabble Club, will be representing India in the World Scrabble Championship, to be held in Las Vegas in December 2001. Mr. Shaik Ahmed from Hyderabad finished third after a hotly contested decider against Mr. Ranganathan. The fourth place was bagged by Mr. Sam Joseph of Kochi. Strong teams of IIT students from Mumbai and Chennai played well to bag the next few places.

Hyderabad also hosted the fist ever National Scrabble Championship for schoolchildren. In this event also the Chennaites prevailed, winning the first five places. The first place was won by Mr. M. Anand of Padma Sheshadri. Ms. Anuttama Sheela Mohan of P.S. Senior Secondary School was placed second.

Chennai, the chess capital of the nation, is now also Scrabble capital. Scrabble, which is the world's most popular word game, is a recognised event in the Mindsports Olympiad. The World Scrabble Championship event is held every two years and India was represented for the first time in 1999.

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