Pakistan dominate World Youth Scrabble Championship

KARACHI: Pakistani players were off to a rollicking start at the 11th World Youth Scrabble Championship which began at Lille, France, on Saturday.

According to information made available here, 10-year-old debutant Imaad Ali was surprisingly the early leader winning his first two matches by huge margins to climb to the No 1 spot.

Imaad lost his No 1 spot to the former world youth champion Jack Durand but another pre-teen Pakistani Hasham Hadi snatched the No 1 spot two matches later.

At the end of day one, 11-year-old Hasham was at second spot with seven wins out of eight with a spread of 644, his only defeat coming at the hands of compatriot Daniyal Sanaullah.

Daniyal was at third spot with seven wins and a spread of 602.

Sorawit Chucharoen of Thailand is the only unbeaten player so far.

Abbas Ali of Pakistan was at ninth position.

Pakistan was the only team with six players in the top 16 at the end of day one.

Nine-year-old Saim Usmani won four of his eight matches to top the under-10 age category.

Pakistan is currently No 1, followed by Sri Lanka and Thailand. Pakistan’s Abdullah Abbasi won six of his eight matches and was 13th.  The championship ends on Monday (today).