Media Information

The best way to reach us is to call John Chew at +1 416 876 7675 generally between 10:00 A.M. and 8:00 P.M. Eastern time, or between 08:00 A.M. and 12 midnight local time during major Scrabble tournaments.

Recent Mention

Date Source Description
2023-12-20 Toronto Star John Chew quoted by Andy Takagi on the origin of the most searched words in Canada in 2023.
2023-11-15 Slate John Chew quoted at length by Stefan Fatsis about the NASPA Word List 2023 Edition in “HORSEFEATHERSES!”.
2023-08-03 New York Times John Chew quoted by Josh Aronow in “How to Beat Your Friends at Scrabble”.
2023-07-23 Radio Canada John Chew quoted by Philippe Grainger about Josh Sokol’s Scrabble Players Championship victory.
2023-03-26 SaskToday.ca John Chew interviewed by Calvin Daniels (Meeple Guild) about the Scrabble For Literacy fundraiser.
2022-11-18 CBC Calgary Eyeopener John Chew interviewed live by host Angela Knight about new words in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (7th edition).
2022-11-17 Washington Post John Chew quoted in an article by Justine McDaniel about new words in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (7th edition).
2022-11-16 CTV News Channel John Chew interviewed live by host Merella Fernandez on CTV News Channel's 6:00 evening news about new words in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (7th edition).
2021-04-20 The John Oakley Show John Chew interviewed live by host John Oakley at 640 AM in Toronto from 15:48-15:58 about the removal of offensive slurs from competitive Scrabble play outside North America.
2021-01-06 7News Australia John Chew quoted about the removal of offensive slurs from North American Scrabble, in a story about a lawsuit about their continuing presence in Australian Scrabble.
2020-07-18 Sports Destination Management magazine John Chew interviewed for a trade journal by Mary Helen Sprecher about what is involved in a Scrabble tournament.
2020-07-09 National Post, p. A3 John Chew quoted in an article about the removal of offensive slurs from the NASPA Word List by Josie Ensor, reprinted from The Telegraph.
2020-07-08 BBC News John Chew discusses the removal of offensive slurs from the NASPA Word List in a news article.
2020-07-10 Newstalk FM with Sean Moncrieff John Chew talks about how offensive the word CULCHIE is with Irish radio host Sean Moncrieff.
2020-07-08 The John Oakley Show John Chew interviewed live by host John Oakley at 640 AM in Toronto from 15:35-15:45 about the removal of offensive slurs from competitive Scrabble play.
2020-07-06 Yorkton This Week John Chew interviewed by Calvin Daniels (Meeple Guild) about the state of competitive Scrabble play.
2020-07-06 The Times of London John Chew quoted by Jack Blackburn in an article about removing the N word from competitive Scrabble play.
2020-07-05 The Daily Mail John Chew referred to anonymously by title as NASPA CEO by James Robinson in an article about removing the N word from competitive Scrabble play.
2020-06-29 CBC Calgary Eyeopener John Chew interviewed by Rob Brown about removing the N word from the NASPA Word List and competitive Scrabble play.
2020-06-24 CBC As It Happens John Chew interviewed by Carol Off (at about 0h28m) about removing the N word from the NASPA Word List and competitive Scrabble play.
2020-06-24 The Globe and Mail John Chew interviewed by Jana Pruden about removing the N word from the NASPA Word List and competitive Scrabble play.
2020-06-18 Slate.com John Chew quoted at length in an article by Stefan Fatsis about removing the N word from the NASPA Word List and competitive Scrabble play.
2020-03-07 Nautilus John Chew quoted in an article by Kevin McElwee about the role of luck in Scrabble.
2020-03-14 Slate.com John Chew quoted at length in an article by Stefan Fatsis about playing competitive Scrabble at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic.
2019-09-11 What Board Games Teach Us About Life John Chew featured in a chapter about Scrabble in a book by Jonathan Kay and Joan Moriarity.
2019-07-24 KTVN 2 CBS Local news programme in Reno, NV interviews John Chew concerning the North American SCRABBLE Championship.
2019-07-24 KOLO 8 ABC Local news programme in Reno, NV interviews John Chew concerning the North American SCRABBLE Championship.
2019-07-24 The Philadelphia Inquirer The Angry Grammarian interviews John Chew on why slurs are allowed in some online games.
2019-05-02 New York Times John Chew interviewed about new additions to Collins Scrabble Words.
2018-10-04 Wall Street Journal John Chew mentioned in an article about Scrabble.
2018-09-28 Wall Street Journal John Chew quoted in an article about the addition of ZEN to OSPD6.
2018-09-26 CBC Radio John Chew in syndicated interviews with CBC Radio stations in Ottawa, Sudbury, Quebec, Corner Brook, Charlottetown, Kamloops, Calgary, Victoria, Kelowna, Sydney and Vancouver.
2018-09-24 New York Times John Chew quoted in article about new SCRABBLE words.
2018-06-19 CBC News Two photos by John Chew published in news story about the 2018 Canadian National SCRABBLE Championship.
2018-06-18 Breakfast Television (Toronto) 5-minute interview with John Chew at 2018 Canadian National SCRABBLE Championship.
2017-11-01 CBC Now or Never In a segment entitled “‘Do you know what a feminist is?’: Meet dads who are talking to their sons about harassment”, John Chew talks with his son about harassment.
2017-03-26 CTV News John Chew quoted about the expansion of School SCRABBLE in Canada.
2016-06-09 Moncton Times & Transcript John Chew interviewed in an article by James Foster entitled “Shediac stakes its claim as Canada’s Scrabble capital” about the history of the Scrabble game and the first tournament to be held in Atlantic Canada in the fall.
2016-05-16 Torontoist John Chew interviewed at length about the 2016 Canadian National SCRABBLE Championship.
2015-08-06 Ottawa Citizen John Chew quoted about the 2015 North American SCRABBLE Championship.
2015-08-04 Reno Gazette-Journal John Chew interviewed about the 2015 North American SCRABBLE Championship.
2015-05-25 CTV News Channel John Chew interviewed about new words in the Collins word list
2015-05-21 NPR and Reuters John Chew interviewed about new words in the Collins word list
2014-11-22 BBC News John Chew leads off a story about the 2014 World SCRABBLE Championship.
2014-11-21 AlJazeera.com John Chew featured in a story about the 2014 World SCRABBLE Championship.
2014-11-21 BBC News John Chew quoted about the 2014 World SCRABBLE Championship.
2014-08-10 Buffalo News John Chew interviewed about the 2014 National SCRABBLE Championship.
2014-08-05 Mental Floss John Chew contributes extensively to a list of 14 Fun SCRABBLE Facts.
2014-08-05 National Post John Chew explains the Canadian perspective on the new words.
2014-08-05 The Simi Sara Show on CKNW 980 John Chew interviewed for 18 minutes about the publication of OSPD5.
2014-08-04 New York Daily News John Chew quoted in a story about the publication of OSPD5.
2014-08-04 CNN Money John Chew quoted in a story about the publication of OSPD5.
2014-04-22 CTV National News John Chew interviewed in a story about GEOCACHE being added to OSPD5.
2014-04-10 Slate John Chew quoted in Stefan Fatsis’s “The Word That Won Scrabble’s New-Word Contest Is Totally Useless In Scrabble”.
2014-03-16 Wall Street Journal John Chew quoted in James R. Hagerty's “This Scrabble-Playing Robot Is a Sore Loser”.
2014-03-14 CTV News Channel News Anchor Merella Fernandez interviewed John Chew for four minutes about the SCRABBLE Word Showdown from ca. 16:51-16:55.
2014-03-14 CBC Radio: Ottawa Morning Morning host Amanda Pfeffer interviewed John Chew and Ross Brown about the SCRABBLE Word Showdown from 07:20-07:30.
2014-03-13 CBC News Ottawa 5:00 P.M. news programme Cory O'Kelly interview with John Chew on the SCRABBLE Word Showdown.
2014-03-13 NPR’s Here and Now 5-minute Robin Young interview with John Chew on the SCRABBLE Word Showdown.

Older Mention

2011-05-10 The Toronto Star, Page A4 John Chew quoted about the inapplicablity of new CSW words to TWL play in North American Scrabble, in an article by Sarah Millar entitled “North American Scrabble is no friend to ‘Facebook’”.
2010-04-07 The Globe and Mail, p. A2 John Chew responds to the announcement of Mattel’s Scrabble Trickster, in an article by Dave McGinn entitled “Shakira for points? Scrabble says go for it”.
2009-01-19 New Yorker, January 19th, 2009 Quoted in Judith Thurman’s article “Spreading the Word: The new Scrabble mania”
2008-08-21 SCRABBLE News, Issue 221 John Chew contributed an article on the Can-Am SCRABBLE Challenge and four photos to the lead article on the National SCRABBLE Championship.
2008-07-30 CFRA 580, Ottawa ON John Chew interviewed by Rob Snow for 5-10 minutes at 4:30 P.M. concerning the removal of Scrabulous from Facebook.
2008-07-24 York Region News, York ON Print article by Keely Grasser about local club champion Evan Berofsky features several comments from John Chew.
2008-05-21 SCRABBLE News, Issue 219 John Chew contributed an article on the 33rd anniversary celebrations of the Toronto SCRABBLE® Club.
2008-04-07 Toronto Sun John Chew interviewed by Jenny Yen about the 2008 Canadian National SCRABBLE Championship.
2008-04-06 Toronto Sun John Chew interviewed and photographed as part of Jim Slotek's alt.ent column on Scrabble with the Stars.
2008-04-01 CHQR AM 770, Calgary AB John Chew interviewed from 18:40-19:00 local time by guest host Greg Bohnert on The World Tonight, concerning the CNSC and the 60th anniversary of Scrabble.
2008-01-24 The Limelighters, Global TV (available on DVD) John Chew appears briefly in one episode of this four-part documentary on the residents of Performing Arts Lodge, as he helps direct their annual Scrabble With The Stars fundraiser.
2008-01-18 CFRA 580, Ottawa ON John Chew interviewed by Rob Snow for five minutes concerning Hasbro’s attempts to have Facebook remove the Scrabulous application.
2008-01-17 CBC News Online John Chew quoted at length concerning Hasbro’s attempts to have Facebook remove the Scrabulous application.
2008-01-14 Kingston Whig-Standard “All spell breaks loose when WORDS and MATH collide” — lead article by Jordan Press on the newspaper’s front page, John Chew quoted and photographed in connection with the annual Kingston Cup Scrabble match.
2008-01 BlogTO John Chew mentioned as organiser of the Kingston Cup Scrabble match.
2007-11-09
to
2007-11-12
Various John Chew was webmaster (web site manager, programmer, content producer and photographer, in addition to his other duties as assistant director and pairings officer) for the World Scrabble Championship in Mumbai. Many major and minor media linked to the web site and published his photographs.
2007-09-09 Test The Nation John Chew appeared on the Word Gamers team in this episode of the CBC quiz show, and was individually interviewed by host Brent Bambury.
2007-09-09 CityNews John Chew appeared briefly in a minute-long story by Muhammad Lila about the Toronto Scrabble Tournament.
2007-09-08 Toronto Star, p. A8 John Chew, quoted in an article by Surya Bhattacharya, entitled "Scrabble masters gird for word battle in world tournament".
2007-08-01 Schmap Montreal Schmap, a publisher of city guides, used John Chew's photo for their entry on the Japanese restaurant Azuma in Montreal.
2007-08-08 Vancouver Sun The Vancouver Sun (and reportedly Global News) used and credited John Chew’s photo of James Leong at the Players Championship. An offline copy of the article is available upon request.
2007-07-07 BlogTO John Chew quoted at length on raccoons and municipal “green bins” for compost.
2007-07-01 mamma magazine, Vol. 27, pp. 2-3. John Chew was the interview subject of Chiaki Hashimoto’s monthly lifestyle column: “それが私の生活・数学研究者/スクラブルゲーム会長”.
2007-06-09 And Sometimes Y John Chew and members of the Toronto Scrabble Club were interviewed by Russell Smith and Nicola Luksic for the “word game” episode of their weekly CBC Radio show on the English language.
2007-05-01 Word Ways, Volume 40, Number 2, p. 108 John Chew and his Canonical List of Anamonics mentioned in an article on anamonics.
2007-05-01 SCRABBLE News, Issue 211 Cover story biography of John Chew on the occasion of his being awarded the NSA’s Michael Wise Director of the Year award.
2006-08-18 The Globe and Mail, p. A14 A letter to the editor by John Chew gently mocks a recent typo referring to Statistics Canada’s “international pears”.
2005-03-27 The Toronto Star, Page A16 A letter to the editor from John Chew was published, pointing out that by 2017, every Torontonian would be a member of a visible minority.
2005-02-12 The Toronto Star, Page L2 John Chew quoted in an article entitled “For romance, join the club” about how various Toronto clubs compare as places for singles to meet.
2003-09-22 National Post John Chew interviewed about W.P. Kinsella and what makes a good Scrabble player by Susanne Hiller in an article entitled “It's all about points: Even author W.P. Kinsella knows the real aim of a game of Scrabble”.
2002-12-09 Kingston Whig-Standard John Chew interviewed about Kingston Cup player by Steve McKinley in an article entitled “How to tell a Scrabble fanatic? They know how to spell qat”.
2002-11-02 Niagara Falls Review Correction published stating that John Chew had been misidentified as David Chew in a widely distributed earlier article about the Can-Am SCRABBLE Challenge.
2000-09-24 The Toronto Star, Page A3 John Chew interviewed as the director of the 21st annual Toronto Scrabble Tournament, in an article by Mitch Potter entitled “Scrabble experts resist definition”.
2000-09-23 National Post John Chew interviewed about local Scrabble tournaments in Toronto by Jennifer Prittie in an article entitled “Scrabble under time pressure”.
1999-11-08 The Globe and Mail, p. A2 John Chew interviewed by John Saunders about Joel Wapnick’s World Scrabble Championship win, in an article entitled “Canadian incites 'furour' in Scrabble world”.
1999-10-18 Kingston Whig-Standard John Chew interviewed by Christina Varga about the Kingston Cup Scrabble tournament, and why Scrabble players are nicer than bridge or chess players.
1998-10-20 Calgary Herald John Chew interviewed by Sam Knight about Albert Hahn’s loss to Joel Wapnick at the Canadian National Scrabble Championship.
1981-08-07 The Toronto Star, Page C19 John Chew interviewed as a member of the first Canadian team at the International Mathematics Olympiad, in an article entitled “Canada finally tops Soviets -- in maths”.
1981-08-01 The Toronto Star, Page A3 John Chew mentioned as the winner of the first Rubik's Cube championship in Toronto in an article about the event by Neil Louttit.
1979-04-19 The Toronto Star, Page A22 John Chew publicly shamed for finishing in second place behind John Im in the Canadian Junior Mathematics Contest, in an article written by David Vienneau.
1978 The New Quiz Kids, Season 1 John Chew appeared as a contestant on 11 episdoes of this high school quiz show, aired on Global and hosted by Terry David Mulligan.