CHEAH ON THE FAR EAST
Are there any differences when you play people from different countries? Style of play, camaraderie, etc?
Oh yes. We have plenty of defensive players ... sometimes borders on paranoia and the demographics vary a lot. In Australia, I note that the players tend to be more elderly, and the atmosphere relaxed and quite genteel. In Thailand, the players are young, the play intense, and the background music loud. The local Singapore and Malaysian tournaments are quite easy-going.
That brings me quite nicely to the Singapore 5-point Challenge. How did that come about? It seems quite unique.
I am told it used to be 10 points. The rationale is to make a challenger think twice; to discourage frivolous challenges. It does serve its purpose. The double challenge is too draconian. Remember, the penalty is 5 points per word challenged for an unsuccessful challenge. So the challenger has to challenge with some discrimination. It is a hard rule to draft. I have had to rewrite it several times to try and capture the intent.
[The only other points-based challenge is to be found in Malta, where they use the 10-point rule - though Malaysia dabbled in a 10-point Challenge some time ago.]
Please assess the state and future of Scrabble in the Far East. Keiichiro Hirai has reported difficulties in promoting the game in Japan.
There is obviously great potential. I can sympathize with Keiichiro. The people who are working to promote the game are basically volunteers doing it because they want to, but they are also working people with busy lives. There is only so much one can do. And of course, while Scrabble is much cheaper than, say Golf, Scrabble sets are much more expensive than, say, Weiqi [Go] sets. I shan't go into the cost of dictionaries. |
Cheah playing Mario Miranda of the Philippines in the 1st Asia Pacific Championship, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1998 |
I heard John Lam saying the other day he was having difficulty getting
sets in Penang [Malaysia]. In fact cost of dictionaries is one thing, availability is also a problem. Last time I looked the local bookshops were still selling OSW3 at full price. I have not yet seen a copy of OSW4. And I should think that Singapore is relatively well off in terms of getting new books quickly.
What is the future for big money and professional Scrabble in the Far East?
We have had a couple of relatively big prize tournaments here as you know, but sponsorship is sporadic and there is a lot of competition for sporadic. I don't expect anyone (except maybe Nigel, and he doesn't) to be able to make a living from it in the foreseeable future but it would be nice to see Scrabble's status increase.
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