A side tournament, the Indian International Scrabble Open, was won by Anthony Ikolo of Nigeria.
SA's contenders included Harry Wiggins, a PhD mathematician and maths teacher, who placed 94th, and Jarrod Page, from Woodstock in Cape Town, who placed 99th.
Another SA competitor, Howard Rayner, who found love on the international Scrabble circuit, placed 111th at the weekend. The businessman met his wife, Susan Rayner, at a previous world tournament in Australia.
Nigeria and Kenya are the two African powerhouses at the word game.
In SA, there are about 10 clubs playing in the Cape and Gauteng.
To grow Scrabble in this country “we need it to be included at schools and combine it with mindgame competitions such as chess and spelling bees”, said Goldberg.
“We are looking for schools to teach at and kids to mentor.”