The three day championship will kick-start in Mumbai on 9 November and will culminate with the final on 12 November 2007.

Initiated in 1991, The World Scrabble Championship (WSC) is held every second year. During WSC's 16-year history, participation in this tournament has increased rapidly from 48 players representing 19 countries in 1991 in London to 110 players representing 42 countries in the current ninth edition of WSC in Mumbai.

Mattel Toys MD Sanjay Luthra says, "Scrabble stands for 'Every Word Counts', thus illustrating the competitive, fun personality of Scrabble and the degree to which players engage in the game. We are very excited by this opportunity given to India to host the World Scrabble Championship for the first time and feel that this will take India’s number one Word Game to even greater heights."

Invented in 1948 by architect Alfred Mosher Butts in the US, the game took the world by storm. It has continued to grow in popularity ever since, reaching a near-unassailable status by being sold in 121 countries and translated into 29 languages.

Scrabble is backed by years of strong heritage, and will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year.

Over the last four years in India, Scrabble has grown successfully to become the leading word game in the country.

Until 2003 Scrabble in India was mainly popular among adult enthusiasts through Scrabble clubs spread across the country, but there was no organised platform where younger student players from schools could pit their Scrabble skills against each other.

Seeing this need, in 2004 Mattel India initiated an official tournament for school children, christened 'Mattel National School Scrabble Championship' (MNSSC) recognised by the Scrabble Association of India (SAI).

The MNSSC has grown from 30 schools / 300 participants in 2004 to 200 schools / 1000 participants in 2006. The 2006 edition of MNSSC drove awareness of Scrabble to more than 100,000 students across five cities.