The world's No.1 Scrabble player is Malaysian Ganesh Asirvatham

"At my peak, I used to play at least 20 hours a week, either with another person or with the computer, but more time was spent in word study," says Ganesh Asirvatham.

Like most Malaysian children in middle income families back in the 1980s, Ganesh Asirvatham, 40, “was weaned on a steady diet of Scrabble and Monopoly”. When he was 11, he entered the YMCA youth championship’s competitive Scrabble and finished third.

After tasting victory, he was “hooked” on this word game. In fact, his passion for Scrabble drove him to excel in it. Currently, he is the world’s No.1 Scrabble player, according to the World English Language Scrabble Players Association (Wespa).