KARACHI: Twenty-six of the finest youth players under 18 years of age are taking part in the final leg of the qualifying rounds for the World Youth Scrabble Championship (WYSC) that commenced at Beach Luxury hotel on Friday.

At the end of day one, the reigning World Champion Moiz Baig was on top having won seven of his eight matches with a spread of 869. Moiz was followed closely by Mariam Arif, who also has seven wins from eight matches with a spread of 763. Abdullah Abbasi, who has flown in from Islamabad, Hammad Hadi and the newcomer Arsalan Ahmad all have six wins with spreads of 828, 699 and 175, respectively.

Another 19 matches will be played over the next two days. A 10-member Pakistan team will be selected to defend title won at the WYSC 2013 in Dubai.

Young Javeria Mirza, runner-up at the WYSC 2013 is the tournament director of this event.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2014