KARACHI: The Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) held a press conference at the Beach Luxury Hotel on Friday to celebrate the achievements of the national team that returned from Australia after taking part in a number of international tournaments there.

Addressing a crowded press conference, PSA’s director Youth Programme Tariq Pervez said: “Pakistan’s performance was phenomenal. With an average age of just 15, our youngsters have convinced international community of Pakistan’s immense potential and that our youth is actively leading the way to a brighter future”.

He shared the achievements of the players in all the events, with Abdullah Abbasi cementing his position as best Pakistani youth player by finishing runner-up in the World Youth Scrabble Championship, and runner-up in the U-16 category among 130 of the world’s best youth players. The team’s youngest players, eight-year-old Saim Usmani and 10-year-old Hasham Hadi finished runners-up in U-10 and U-12 categories, respectively, while Maryam Jalil won the award for ‘High Word of the Tournament’ for her move ‘CONTAINERS’. The team collectively bagged second place in the WYSC.

Pervez remarked that the team was top favourite to become champion this year but this was dealt a severe blow when three of the team’s most promising players — Danial Sanaullah, Taha Mirza and Tayyab Mirza — did not get their visa and the team was depleted considerably due to their absence.

Moiz Baig, the 2013 WYSC champion, displayed remarkable consistency in his game by finishing runner-up in the WYSC side tournament.

Seventeen-year-old Hassan Hadi became champion among 140 players in the Last Chance Qualifier Tournament for a berth at the World Scrabble Championship.

Abdullah Abbasi won the seat reserved for the top WYSC player while Mariam Arif and Pervez himself also qualified along with Waseem Khatri and Moiz Baig who were pre-qualified for WSC on the basis of their national rating.

Absar Mustajab won the High Game Award for his 611 score match.

Pakistan collectively finished third in the WSC among nations. This earned Pakistan an extra berth at the next WSC.

The Perth International Open was played simultaneously alongwith the WSC. Hammad Hadi became champion in Rating ‘C’ category and was awarded the title of ‘Best Junior Player’, while 12-year-old Ali Rashid was the champion in rating category ‘D’.

Two further tournaments were held where Pakistani youngsters left their mark once again. Hammad Hadi was awarded ‘Best Junior Player’ and Maryam Jalil bagged the award for High Game in the Saturday Open.

Meanwhile, M. Inayatullah won the rating category ‘B’. Waseem Khatri finished fourth in the Sunday Open among 160 players while Hasham was runner-up in category ‘D’ and Abdullah won the ‘Best Junior Player’ and and won category ‘C’.

The highlight of the entire affair was undoubtedly the display of talent shown by Pakistani players who registered a collective gain of 2,400 rating points while the second best collective gain was of Sri Lanka at just 450 points.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2015