FOR most people a game of Scrabble can take hours.
Taking time to create a word from seven letters, the decision of where to place it on the board and the inevitable squabble over whether the word is in the dictionary.
But Scrabble expert and world number nine Chris May is hoping to spend just five minutes each on 28 games he will be playing simultaneously – as he attempts to break a world record.
The Oxford Scrabble Club member will take on the challenge of smashing the world record for the most simultaneous games of Scrabble played by an individual on Tuesday. The record stands at 25 games and was set in India in 2007 by Ganesh Asirvatham Mr May, a PhD musicology student at Oxford University, said: “It is actually something I’ve always wanted to do.
“I don’t know what to expect, I have never done anything like this before. At the same time it’s a world record and it wouldn’t be worth doing if it wasn’t a challenge.”
The 29-year-old, who has been playing since the age of five, has to win 75 per cent – at least 21 games against different opponents – to break the record.
He will be playing against opponents from the UK Scrabble tournament community and staff and students from Oxford University.
His training consists of solving anagrams for one hour a day and he also spends time playing games and brushing up on his strategy.
It is expected that the challenge, which will take place in one room at Oxford University Press, will take between three and five hours.
Mr May said: “It will be a relief to get started but I am really excited to try.
“If you are concentrating on one game then you are familiar with how the board looks but I will have to consistently change my focus.
“Recalling words and having to find them is of course a huge part of it too, but that is what I practise routinely.”
Mr May, originally from Sydney, Australia, has been playing competitively for 14 years and competing internationally for nine years.
He came fifth in the last World Scrabble championships in Warsaw, Poland, in 2011. His highest score in a tournament is 732 points. His favourite word is Acquight, which he once scored 257 points with in a single turn. Acquight is an obsolete spelling of Acquit.
Guinness World Records requires all opponents to be experienced and well versed in gameplay.
The challenge is in aid of Assisted Reading for Children (ARCh), which helps youngsters experiencing difficulties with reading.
The charity’s volunteers use games including Scrabble to help children with reading.
Jane Rendle, ARCh development manager, said: “We are delighted he has chosen ARCh as his charity to support, and hope the event will help highlight the importance of reading as well as showing how much fun can be had with words.”
- Donate by visiting https://secure.thebiggive.org.uk/donation/to/7770/?charity_id=7770 or email info@archoxfordshire.org.uk
- The Oxford Mail is supporting the Oxfordshire Reading Campaign, which was launched in September by Oxfordshire County Council in an attempt to address poor test results in county schools. In all 54 schools across the county are taking part in the two-year scheme and roughly 100 volunteers are working in schools.
TOP TIPS
DO NOT think of Scrabble as a word game – instead think of it as a strategy game, where words are just used as tools to outscore the opponent. Elegant or flashy words are not necessarily the best tools to do that.
Pay a lot of attention to the letters you keep back after making each turn – the flexibility of these leftover letters is an investment in future turns. It might be worth sacrificing points now in order to keep more options open for the future.
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