We are happy to announce the launch of the Scrabble Title System in India—a landmark step in recognizing player excellence. For the first time, Indian Scrabble players will now be awarded official titles such as National Grandmaster (NGM), National Master (NM), and National Expert (NE), based on consistent performance in SAI-rated tournaments.
Click to View the current title holders here.
Why a Title System?
The Title System has been created with two key goals:
- Recognise consistent performers with official titles of excellence.
- Encourage greater participation in tournaments by rewarding sustained performance rather than one-off peaks.
- How It Works
- Titles are awarded based on performance in major SAI-rated tournaments.
- Only tournaments with 15 or more games are considered for the title computation.
- Each tournament provides players with an updated SAI rating (end-of-tournament rating), called a mark.
- To earn a title, a player must achieve 5 marks at or above the threshold within a rolling 24-month period.
- One-off strong or poor performances do not determine a player’s title—consistency does.
- Eligibility criteria: A player must be an active SAI member and must have played at least 500 SAI-rated games to date.
- The titles are permanent once awarded but may be revoked if a player is found guilty of ethical misconduct.
Illustrative Example:
To earn the title of National Expert (NE), the following criteria must be met:
- The player must finish at or above a SAI rating of 1200 in at least 5 separate SAI-rated tournaments (each with 15+ games) within a rolling 24-month window.
- For example, Siddharth Nithyanand finished with the SAI rating of 1268, 1348, 1347, 1324, and 1308 respectively in 5 tournaments held between Jan 2023 and Dec 2024.
List of Title Holders (2025)
The inaugural list of title holders (as of Jan 1, 2025) above was computed using either:
- Consistent performance (as defined above) during Jan 2023 – Dec 2024, covering 21 tournaments, or
- Consistent performance (as defined above) during any two-year period between Jan 2015 – Dec 2022.
This list will be updated annually (Feb-Mar). The next update will be published in March 2026.
Titles & Thresholds
● National Grandmaster (NGM): Rating ≥ 1600
● National Master (NM): Rating ≥ 1400
● National Expert (NE): Rating ≥ 1200
For clarifications on the title system or the calculations, you can write to indianscrabble@gmail.com or reach out to Siddharth N (+91-9990475138).