World Scrabble Championship: Khatri scrambling for timely receipt of visa

National champion fears facing visa issues after Nice terror attack

KARACHI: National champion Waseem Khatri — scheduled to compete at the World Scrabble Championship 2016 in France — is expecting to face a challenge even before the event gets under way as it’s a stressful time to get visas for players after the Nice terror attack.

The 27-year-old has been the national champion for more than three times and wants to follow-up on his King’s Cup performance where he finished among top 15 players with 1,927 international rating points in Thailand.

The King’s Cup is one of the biggest scrabble competitions in the world with as many as 8,000 players participating in it.



In France, he will be following his dream of becoming a world champion; however, he feels that it is a roller-coaster ride for each player in the 24-round tournament.

“Competitive scrabble players have to put in a lot of effort, and it’s not easy,” Khatri told The Express Tribune. “It is about picking up after a day, and usually the tournaments are lengthy, spanning over three days. It’s about the stamina and also about how long one can concentrate.

“At the moment, I’m in the process of applying for the visa with the World Youth Scrabble Championship squad and it’s stressful especially with a green passport,” said Khatri.



The national scrabble champion has an impressive 4-4 head-to-head record against world champion and acclaimed player Nigel Richards. However, Khatri feels he needs to do a lot more to become one of the greats in the game.

“You know, Nigel does nothing but play scrabble, he can use 11-lettered to 12-lettered words, and he is like a robot in that respect. So to be competing at the highest level, one needs to prepare extensively. Some players spend three hours a day just studying words. It’s about mental strength,” said Khatri.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2016.

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