Pakistan reach World Youth Scrabble C’ship quarter-finals

KARACHI: Pakistan defeated the Philippines and Romania to reach the quarter-finals of the World Youth Scrabble Championship here on Sunday.

The nerve-wrecking contests with 96 players from 16 countries continued for a second consecutive day on Sunday when 12 matches were played. On the second day, Pakistan made their first appearance and made their intentions clear with a convincing win against the Philippines by a 31-5 margin.

Pakistan were ruthless in their second match of the day when they beat Romania 36-0. Syed Imaad Ali and Hasham Hadi remained unbeaten throughout the day with 12-0 record each. Imaad made the highest game score of 687 for Pakistan so far while Hasham recorded 600 plus scores in three consecutive games. Pakistan have already qualified for the quarter-finals and can finish at the top in group A if they win against Hong Kong.

The championship, organised by Pakistan, is being played online for the first time. The teams are divided into four pools of four each. As per the format, each six players from one country will play individually against each of the six players from the opponent team on round robin league basis.