One of the most popular board games in the USA is now becoming popular across parts of Asia.
Young people from countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Pakistan have taken up the game and are winning Scrabble tournaments(锦标赛）.
Scrabble is a board game played with small square pieces called tiles. There is a letter on each tile.
Players get seven tiles to start with and then take turns to make words. Each tile is worth a certain number of points. When all the tiles are placed on the board, the players add up their points. The player with the most points wins.
Scrabble tournaments have been held in the USA since the 1970s. However, the latest three youth Scrabble champions(冠军) have all come from Asia. Now, many Asian countries support after-school Scrabble clubs for young people to develop English language skills. And parents regard the board game as a fun way for kids to learn.
Scrabble became popular in Asia after a world-famous player moved there 20 years ago. New
Zealander Nigel Richards is a five-time world Scrabble champion. He is widely considered as the game's greatest player. In 2015 and 2018, he even won Scrabble's French tournament although he couldn't speak
French. He studied the French dictionary for nine weeks.
The winner of this year's Scrabble youth tournament, Thailand's Tarin Pairor, calls Richards one of his
Scrabble heroes. The teen once beat Richards during a tournament in India. Tarin said, "Everyone wants to be a world champion at least once. Even though I won the world championship, I will never stop playing. "
