Pakistan dominates Junior World Scrabble Championship opener

The boys in green dominated the proceedings on the opening day with some sterling performances at the Junior World Scrabble Championship which began in Torquay, England. At the close of play, each of the top three positions was secured by Pakistan. 

Pakistan’s first-ever world champion Moiz Ullah Baig shot into an early lead, winning the first four matches. Moiz suffered a huge loss against Jason Yin of Hong Kong which displaced him from the top slot briefly but Moiz recovered swiftly and reclaimed the No. 1 spot.

Moiz ended day one of the championship with six wins out of the seven matches played and maintained a spread of 830.

Former national champion Sohaib Sanaullah was also in fine form winning six of his seven matches with his only loss coming at the hand of compatriot Moiz. Sohaib ended day one in the second spot with six wins and a spread of 810.

Hammad Hadi Khan completed Pakistan’s dominance by finishing in the third spot with five wins and a spread of 682.

Defending champion Matthew O’Connor of US found the going much tougher this time as he lost two of the seven matches, finishing fourth on day one after losing a closely fought match with Taha Mirza of Pakistan.

Hassan Hadi who was the only unbeaten player after five games lost his next two to finish seventh.

The 11-year-old Monis Khan, who started the day with a huge win in the first game, found the going tougher as the tournament progresses. Monis’ score of 684 against Moisey Joshua of England is the highest match score of the tournament so far.

Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by the chairman of District Council Ian Doggett which was followed by a cake cutting ceremony to celebrate the 70th anniversary of scrabble. The local Member of Parliament Kevin Foster joined the festivities by playing exhibition matches with the former world Scrabble Champion Brett Smitheram of England.