Scrabble showdown: Mind your Ps and Qs, they may come in handy

Scores of big brains across Karachi turn up to make words out of tiny letters.

KARACHI:

“It’s a double word score,” reminded a bored contestant to her counterpart. Two others stood up to check. “I’ve challenged her word – JAT,” said a boy, before nervously asking, “Is it a word?” For the record, it isn’t, but Taj is.

Contestants fidgeted, stared at the board and calculated sums in their head as they placed their tiles on coveted double-word and triple-word spots at the Scrabble Showdown organised by the Pakistan Scrabble Association and sponsored by The Express Tribune on Saturday.

Over 300 students from 80 schools crowded around screens to see if their names were on the list of contestants, and then settled down at their seats.

US President Barack Obama is a fan of Scrabble, as was noted writer Vladimir Nabokov. But the game often comes with a label that it is for ‘nerds’. “Scrabble is cool,” declared Tariq Pervez, the director for the association’s youth programme. “It’s just a matter of how much you know about the game.”

Froebel Education Centre student Easarunn agreed. “People do think nerds play Scrabble, but that’s not true. I’m very diverse; I’m into sports as well.”

Sindh Minister for Youth Affairs Faisal Subzwari put in an appearance as the chief guest, and described the tournament as a “good omen”. “These are the kind of opportunities we lacked in our school years,” he mused, and then added, almost as an afterthought: “My daughter now asks me to play Scrabble with her, but I think today’s children will beat me.”

And in fact, the grownups at the showdown had a thing or two to learn from the new media savvy brains on the floor. Shehryar Qamar and Arsalan Mehmoodi from the Ladybird Grammar School explained that they played on all sorts of platforms, from online, on Facebook or the traditional way – face to face, on a board. “With Facebook, it’s easy to be distracted by chat and you can’t tell if someone is looking up words,” Mehmoodi sagely warned.

While Scrabble players at home can rely on a dictionary to check up on a word that an opponent has challenged, software provided by the World Scrabble Association tells contestants if their play is valid. Aside from this, there were guidelines and rules to be followed: no text messaging, chatter or advice from parents or teachers.

Goshpi Avari, the president of the Pakistan Scrabble Association, said that these sort of joint events were very important for young people as Scrabble was a word game which enhances their vocabulary and gives them a sense of confidence.

The game is picking up traction at schools with many starting clubs and asking the Pakistan Scrabble Association for support in organising tournaments. This is a welcome development for the association that has been at the board and hoping to attract more and more to it over the last 24 years. There have been several success stories of children going on to be the country’s top players. “That’s Wasim Khatri,” pointed out Pervez, gesturing to one of the busiest volunteers. “At 18, he became the national champion and came 13 in the last international tournament he competed in.”

While Scrabble may seem like a highly intellectual game that attracts vocabulary sticklers, players will tell you of plenty of sneaky tricks. “If you have a 7-letter word (additional 50 points), you can start counting tiles on a part of the board you don’t want so your opponent blocks it,” offered Easarunn. Aside from fake counting, people also bluff by complaining, ‘I have so many vowels’ so that the other player becomes overconfident.

At the showdown, each contestant had to play five games each, regardless of how many they won or lost. The winners will then face off. The player who’s won the most number of games will take the trophy. If the number of wins is equal, Pervez explained, the winner will be calculated on the basis of the total margin they won by. On Sunday, visitors can also compete in an ‘open’ category.

The Scrabble Showdown continues on Sunday at the Expo Centre’s Hall No. 3.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2012.