Always game for a round of Rummy? Then chances are that you’d like to try your hand at Rummikub, a tile-based game that follows the pattern of the popular card game. And if you turn out to be any good, you could also become the first person to represent India at the 8th Rummikub World Championship being conducted at Sicily, Italy, in November this year.
"We have the license to distribute the game in India. So we thought, why not create awareness about it by sending someone for the championship?" says Philip Royappan at Funskool, the organisers of the Rummikub event in India.
Two versions of the board game are available — word building and numbers. "And the beauty is that you don’t need a board to play this game," he says. Lemada Light Industries Ltd, founded by Israel’s Board-game designer Ephraim Hertzano, first made the game in the early 1970s. Over the years, Rummikub was licensed to other countries and it became Israel’s No. 1 export game. In 1977, it became a best-selling game in the United States.
To ensure that the right person is picked to represent India at the World Championship, Funskool is organising tournaments in the four metro cities. The Mumbai leg will take place on June 9 at Landmark at Infiniti Mall (Andheri). It is open to 12-year-olds and above.
The winner from Mumbai will compete in the regional playoff on June 30 in Bangalore. The winner of that will participate in the championship in Italy in November.
Royappan says, "The game is quite simple. People can either learn to play it online or we will help them with the rules before the competition kicks off."
To participate, log on to and register. Once you register, you will be given a time slot. You need to be present at that time to play your round.