Waseem Wins Again at Pakistan Nationals
July 27th, 2015
Waseem Khatri confirmed his supremacy in the scrabble field by winning the Danpak 27th Pakistan Scrabble Championship (masters) at Beach Luxury hotel on Sunday.
Waseem became the first player in Pakistan's history to have won the national title four times in a row. This is Waseem's 7th national title; another new record. Waseem won his first title in 2008 aged only 18 and has since won 7 out of 8 national championships apart from a host of other tournaments.
Waseem kept his best for the third and final day after a sluggish second day. Waseem won all his 7 matches on day three giving no chance to anyone to catch up with him. Overall Waseem won 20 out of 27 matches with a spread of 2266. Waseem's immense word power can be judged from his average score of 480 per match throughout the championship.
Former world youth scrabble champion Moiz Baig gave Waseem a real run for his money. Moiz mounted a serious assault to the title and was No. 1 with two rounds to go but could not topple a determined Waseem. The final match between the two best players in the country was probably the best match of the tournament; a classic 486-490 epic of monstrous proportions.
Moiz finished runner-up with 18 wins and a spread of 1381.
Former national champion Rashid Khan finished 3rd with 18 wins and a spread of 1107.
The championship produced another hero; 15 year old Abdullah Abbasi from Quetta finished 4th ahead of many stalwarts. He is the youngest player ever to finish in the top 5 in Pakistan. Abdullah will be representing Pakistan at the World Youth Scrabble Championship in Australia later this years and is considered to be one of the favorites to take the tile.
Young Javeria Mirza finished 5th while veterans M. Inayatullah, Tariq Pervez, Hasan Ali and Javed Shamim were 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th respectively.