Khatri clinches record scrabble title

Becomes first player to win four successive national events.

KARACHI: Waseem Khatri became the first player to clinch four successive titles, winning the National Scrabble Championship 2013 at the Beach Luxury Hotel, Karachi yesterday.

Khatri, who won a total of 19 out of 27 matches during the course of the three-day event, bagged his sixth national title after finishing with an impressive spread of 2,034.

On the third day, Khatri displayed great skills to record seven victories in nine matches. Yasir Jamshaid, who led after the opening day, finished second with 18 victories and a spread of 1,120. Inayatullah completed the podium, ending the event with 17 wins and 10 defeats to tally a spread of 1,036.

Khatri said playing scrabble as a hobby has paid its dividends. “I never thought I’d become the best scrabble player in the country when I started playing in school,” the 23-year-old told The Express Tribune. “I can say that learning all the words in the dictionary and even playing scrabble on my computer instead of a video game has paid off well.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) Vice-President Javaid Iqbal said he was looking forward to including more players in the next event with the recently-concluded national championship featuring just 33 players.

“The event went smoothly but only a few players from Islamabad and Karachi took part,” said Iqbal. “Players from Balochistan and other Sindh cities were also planning to come but the unrest here caused them to miss out.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2013.

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