He is 15, going on 16, and he is this year’s World Youth Scrabble champion. In fact, he is the only scrabble player in the world to have won the World Youth title two times in a row. And since Syed Imaad Ali is still so young, there are chances of him even doing a hat-trick of victories, as the age limit for the global championship is 17 years.

Imaad lifted the trophy for the second time this past August. This time, Imaad won the championship by winning nine games out of 13 in the final, with a spread of 330. Ten-year-old Madhav Gopal Kamath of India was second, also with nine wins but a smaller spread, while Napat Vatjanurathorn of Thailand was third after winning eight games.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Youth Cup, hosted by Pakistan, had to take place virtually. In fact, it was the Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA), which helped in developing the technology for it to happen at all. Basically, there are about 15 to 16 players who, through computers, software and special cameras, monitor each and every player very closely. If any of them tries to cheat, he or she is caught and expelled.

Earlier, cheating was common during online games, but not anymore and, thanks to the PSA, the World English-Language Scrabble Players’ Association (WESPA) also has shown its satisfaction to carry on with international tournaments this way until things improve.

Imaad doesn’t particularly prefer virtual Scrabble tournaments. “It’s always better to play face-to-face. And I hope that we can get back to that soon,” he says.

The 15-year-old World Youth Scrabble champion Imaad Ali is the only Scrabble player to have won the World Youth title twice. He could still win it a third time

“Though Scrabble players can be quite poker-faced, practice has taught me to even read those blank expressions. I can predict my opponent’s next move to plan my own. That’s not happening when playing online, so you can say that it is far more difficult to play virtually,” he says, adding that online matches also take away the excitement of travelling and meeting new people and getting to know other scrabble players personally.

GROWING UP JOINING WORDS

The young champion has vivid memories of when he was first introduced to the word game. “I think I was five or six when my father pulled out his old Scrabble board, complete with all the alphabet tiles, from one of the top shelves of his cupboard.

“He liked Scrabble but he had no one to play it with. My big brother was more into physical sports such as football, and my mother always found something else to do than sit down for a game. Now that I had been promoted to class one at school, he was determined to teach me how to play Scrabble and hence find a playing partner, too,” smiles Imaad.

“The only problem then was my vocabulary. Since I had only just begun to read and write, I knew small words like ‘apple’, ‘balloon’, ‘cat’, ‘door’, ‘eat’, ‘house’, ‘mouse’, etc. But the game itself was going to remedy that, which it did eventually, or should I say rapidly?” Imaad smiles as you find him carefully weighing his words, just like when he plays Scrabble.

“I was eight years old when I first beat Abbu at Scrabble. He has not been able to win from me after that, so much so that he has packed up his old board along with all its tiles and pushed it back to some obscure corner of his cupboard,” Imaad chuckles.

But despite his father happily throwing in the towel, the youngster was not at all short of playing partners.

“I had the Scrabble Society at school,” Imaad explains. His school, the Bai Virbaiji Soparivala (BVS) Parsi High School, has a proper programme in place to encourage its students to play Scrabble, as the game not just helps improve vocabulary but also sharpens the mind.

“And then there was the PSA, which would hold big inter-school Scrabble championships. Their championships were not just tournaments, they were also a talent hunt programme,” he points out.

“I was nine or 10 when I participated in one of their age categories through my school and I ended up third there. The PSA picks all the top 10 players of each age category of the inter-school championships for training. In between, we also participate in monthly tournaments among the best of players. And that’s how I got to improve my game further.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

“From novice category I went up to the recreational category by winning and winning some more. Though I was still too young to enter the seniors’ category, I played in the under-12 and U-18 championship in Pakistan to bag top positions and get selected for the World Youth Scrabble Championship in France in 2016. I was 10 years old then and I also ended up 10th there.

“This was the time when Pakistan’s Scrabble greats Waseem Khatri and Moiz Ullah Baig were making the country proud by winning laurels. I was quite satisfied with my own performance, as were my seniors and PSA officials. I won many matches to bag noticeable positions in many other international championships that followed,” he smiles.

“Throughout this time I was also receiving excellent coaching by our champions of the time. I feel very lucky to have been coached by both Waseem Bhai and Moiz Bhai. We would meet occasionally for practice until early 2020, when Covid brought lockdowns. After that I started using computer software to improve,” he says. “And the hard work paid off.”

Imaad says that he is seen as a very cool-minded player in Scrabble circles. “My seniors tell me that I remain cool as a cucumber even under pressure. Perhaps it is one of my strengths,” he shrugs.

He is now looking forward to participating in the World Championship, with seniors. About his favourite players, Imaad says that it has to be his coach Moiz Baig, who had also won the World Youth title for Pakistan in 2013.

When asked if all this playing and practice has had any effect on his studies since he is still in school and an O-Levels student, Imaad shakes his head. “My school is very proud of my achievements. It is also very supportive and lenient — I am allowed to retake exams if I miss any due to my taking part in a championship.”

The writer is a member of staff She tweets @HasanShazia

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 3rd, 2021