November 18, 2005

The Man of 7 Letters

By MARTHA ANN OVERLAND

When the reigning World Scrabble Champion heads to London this week to defend his title, he's going to have trouble reading the street signs. With glasses, his eyesight is fine. The problem is that even though the 21-year-old Thai university student is one of the game's great players, he doesn't understand much English.

Of course, as a Scrabble player, Panupol Sujjayakorn knows an enormous number of words. He just doesn't know what they mean.

Mr. Panupol, who is studying