Help kids Learn Scrabble around the world!

NEW FUNDING NEED !

There is a big tournament coming up in 15 days in India, it is the second longest international tournament with 33 games.

https://indianscrabble.com/event/kssa-mu-sigma-international-2025/

I had previously taken part in it and was placed 4th (2020) and 3rd(2007)

Please Support!

I need to raise around 500USD / 400 GBP

to participate in the tournament.

250USD flight

100USD participation fee

150USD Accommodation and expenses.

UPDATE 2#

I played 4 tournaments during my travels abroad in THAILAND / MALAYSIA and INDIA (Oct - Nov 2024)

THAILAND - Placed 15th out of approx 150 players

Malaysia - Placed 7th out of 30 ( managed to beat Nigel Richards, the world's best scrabble player in one of the games)

INDIA - Masters tournament Placed 2nd

INDIA - Delhi Open Placed 10th

I won prize money totaling 190 USD in all of the competitions. Shows you how much you could win with Scrabble. At least it covered some of my expenses.

UPDATE 1#

Achievements of my students who I coach every week at the recently concluded WORLD YOUTH SCRABBLE CHAMPIONSHIPS IN SRI LANKA.

Alexis Koh (Malaysia) - Best Female scrabble player ( 15th Overall )

Kevan ( Sri Lanka ) 22nd and Josiah ( Malaysia ) 45th

Hosted and provided training for the the Nigerian contingent.

I met many of the students I had trained during my free online training sessions. I also coached some of them during the tournament. ( Thailand, Hong Kong, India, Nigeria,

Gave out 45 mugs to players.

Gave out 100s of Business cards to players and officials

Printed 3 Tshirts that I wore during the course of the tournaments.

Personal achievements

2nd Side tournament, 21 games ( won 250 USD)

6th Sri Lankan International Open, 24 games ( won 200 USD )

Future Plans

Visit Thailand - Autocar International Scrabble Championsip https://rb.gy/qw4j7z

Visit Malaysia - Play in the KL international Open

https://scrabble.org.my/tournaments/gatewayklia2-international-scrabble-masters-2024/

Visit India - To support my students at the Asian Youth Scrabble Championships and play in two tournaments. Also play in the side tournament during the youth scrabble championships.

I will also play in the Delhi Open scrabble tournament.

https://indianscrabble.com/event/asia-cup-side-events/

https://indianscrabble.com/event/delhi-open-scrabble-cup-2024/

The list of international tournaments could be found here

https://wespa.org/calendar/

I will be Vlogging during the events, conducting

Interviews with players and officials

Videoing post game analysis

Giving out memorabilia ( mugs / T-shirts / name stickers / business cards )

Funding needed for

Air tickets

Accommodation

Food and travel expenses

Production of memorabilia ( mugs , business cards ,T-shirts and name stickers )

_______________________________________________

Hello, my name is Suresh Chinnaiyah, I am the one and only SCRABBLEMAN, your ultimate scrabble enthusiast! I am a scrabble coach, blogger, content creator and a championship level international scrabble player. Paul Cullen who is a good friend of mine is helping me collect the funds for this campaign. I have been on a campaign to promote SCRABBLE all around the globe. Scrabble is a valuable tool to develop ones intellectual and language skills, especially amongst children. I had worked in a formal educational environment for nearly 10 years in London in teaching students A/level Mathematics and Physics. I was employed by Edexcel as an A/level examiner for 6 years. This was after I had received my Bachelors and Masters in Biomedical Engineering at 2 UK universities.

I have so far helped countless children (and adults) from across the globe for free. I have been doing this on a regular basis for the past 2 years. I have also helped many individuals from mostly South American countries help learn basic English, teaching them in SPANISH, for the past 2 years or so. This also I do voluntarily.

I believe children could be taught in different settings and we could use different approaches. At the end of my 10yr period teaching children curriculum related subjects I had reached the end of my tether. The formal method of teaching was devoid of any imagination, passion or creativity.

I had already explored helping kids learn the game by running a scrabble club at the local library in London for 3 years.

Later I returned to my home country, Sri Lanka and reignited my passion to excel at the game.

I myself am the HIGHEST RATED INTERNATIONAL PLAYER in Sri Lanka. I have played in 4 world scrabble championships. I haven't had the opportunity to play in an international tournament for nearly 4 years, because of COVID and other financial constraints. I want to make full use of the opportunity since the tournament is held here. I have always been rated within the top 100 players in the world for the past 25 years or so.

I myself have played the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS when I was a 16yro and a few times thereafter.

The WORLD YOUTH SCRABBLE CHAMPIONSHIPS will be held in SRI LANKA in 3 weeks.

3 of my students who I have been working with for more than a year have been selected by Malaysia and Sri Lanka to represent their countries at this event.

I have 9 regular students who I coach. I also do weekly events where I coach many players from around the world FREE OF CHARGE. I am fully dedicated to scrabble and and I am able to make a living out of it. But it is still not 100% financially sustainable but God has been faithful.

In addition to scrabble I teach languages FREE OF CHARGE on a regular basis to people around the world online. I teach ENGLISH and Spanish. I am a voluntary ambassador for the language app TANDEM.

I will really appreciate if you are able to financially support me to help with the projects I have planned during this season when the world championship is going to be held.

These are the activities I have planned.

** Intensive IN PERSON training session for the kids (10max) from around the world in a private villa. 2 or 3 days before the event.

Cost involved - accommodation / venue hire / food / transport refreshments etc

** ENTRY FEE for the tournaments.

** Free scrabbleman MEMORABILIA for each nation that will be represented at the championships, I plan on giving them mugs with my logo. This will help promote what I do around the world. T shirts / caps are also possible depending on the funds I receive.

** Upkeep of my website scrabbleman also requires HOSTING FEES.

** I am also in the process of writing 3 books on scrabble coaching at the various levels at which I teach, INTERMEDIATE, ADVANCED and EXPERT. These will incur publishing costs.

** Help me with the airfare and entry fees to play in international Scrabble tournaments around my region. Scrabble has not gained notoreity as some other sports, hence the prize money involved is not sufficient to cover basic costs of participating in such events.

Thanks so much for your support!