ISLAMABAD:Pakistan’s Syed Imaad Ali was leading the first phase of the Pharmevo WESPA Youth Cup (formerly World Youth Scrabble Championship) with 18 of the 36 games played by each participant.
The world’s premier scrabble championship for players under 18 years of age has been played annually since 2006. For the second year in a row it was being held online under the management of Pakistan, said a press release issued here.
At the halfway mark Imaad Ali was still on top with 16 wins and one match tied. Imaad has lost only one of his 18 games so far and maintains a healthy spread of 2290. The former world youth champion Imaad kept crashing his opponents with huge margins and making incredible comebacks whenever he fell behind Noah Slatkoff of Canada remains a close second with 16 wins and a spread of 2608.
Thailand’s Napat Vatjaranurathorn who was the player of the tournament last year made rapid strides to climb to the 3rd position with 15 wins and a spread of 2081 while Hasham Hadi Khan of Pakistan also maintained his 4th position.
Hasham has 15 wins and a spread of 1425. Thomson Law of Hong Kong slipped to the 5th position after being beaten by the 9 year old Pakistani Ahmed Salman.
Ahmed’s elder brother Ali Salman was currently 8th with 13 wins while Usman Shaukat made it a great day for Pakistan by climbing to the 10th position making it four Pakistanis in the top ten.
Team wise, Pakistan was on top at the halfway stage. All players would play another 18 games next weekend after which the top ten players will qualify for the final to be played the following week.
Players from 14 countries across five continents were featuring in the championship which was being played online and organized by Pakistan from their control room at Pharmevo house in Karachi.