English Chess Forum

The Daily Mail, not entirely renowned for its quality journalism, has recently ridiculed the claim that Komol Panyasophonlert, the third best Scrabble player in the world cannot be deserving of his ranking, on account of the fact that he cannot speak a word of English.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... GLISH.html

It's quite an interesting article, personally I am inclined to believe that being able to speak English isn't a necessity to excel in Scrabble.

Should this even be a question?

The ckaims made by the player in question seem legitimate to me, what;s your point?

MJMcCready wrote:The ckaims made by the player in question seem legitimate to me, what;s your point?

I'm guessing Matt was referring to the thread title.

I was hoping for comments on the content.

Scrabble is just a game like any other game.

I think it's remarkable that someone that doesn't speak the language involved can reach such heights.

The Daily Fail always sensationalises stories which is why I refuse to visit its website

Andrew Bak wrote: I think it's remarkable that someone that doesn't speak the language involved can reach such heights.

I don't. Competitive scrabble has more in common with maths than English.

When I was young my family used to play a version where you could only have a word if you could say what it meant. This was a bit more educational in terms of learning the English language, although I'm not sure how much it has benefitted me to know that qat is a plant ( which I have still never encountered ) whose leaves can be used to make a stimulating tea.

Native English speakers have 20,000+ words or so in their vocabulary - that's quite a big headstart on someone who doesn't speak any English.

As someone who owns a Greek scrabble set I can say quite categorically that playing Scrabble in Greek is far more difficult (for a native English speaker) than playing it in English. Mathematics is far easier than either of the above!

I suppose it was 'all Greek to you'?