International scrabble championship: Inayatullah leads Pakistan charge

Veteran ends day two in fifth position in Malaysia.

KARACHI:

Veteran player Muhammad Inayatullah continued Pakistan’s impressive run on the second day of the Penang International Scrabble Championship 2013, finishing fifth after 16 rounds.

Inayatullah won eight games out of 16 and gathered +826 points.

Meanwhile, the 15-year-old Javeria Mirza showed improvement and ended day two in sixth position with +526 points. She defeated Singapore’s Jessie Lim 477-351.

She will play teammates Inayatullah and Moizullah Baig in round 17 and 18 today.

Mariam Arif remained among the top 10 players, out of a total of 50, with +470 points. She defeated Inayatullah in the 15^th round but lost to Malaysia’s Choo Zi Wei.

Mariam was followed by Baig in eighth position with +394 points.

Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) Vice-President Javaid Iqbal was eyeing further improvement on part of the players over the remaining two days of the championship.

“Our players will improve in the remaining rounds,” Iqbal told The Express Tribune. “Javeria picked up the pace when she defeated Lim who is placed second right now. At least two of our players can win second and third positions at the championship out of 50 participants.”

Meanwhile, Waseem Khatri failed to make an impression as he lost 10 out of 18 matches in the masters’ event.

Before leaving for Malaysia, the four-time PSA national champion said he will struggle to find his form after a one and a half year break from international events. New Zealand’s Nigel Richards continued to lead the master’s category with +1502 points.

The championship concludes tomorrow after 31 rounds in the regular and 35 rounds in the masters’ category.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2013.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.