COLOMBO: The ninth World Youth Scrabble Championship started here on Friday with 120 players from 20 countries are talking part.

At the end of day one Jack Durand of England is on top. He won all his eight matches and has a spread of 750.

Migara Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka is the only other player to have remained unbeaten so far. He is currently second with eight wins and a spread of 466.

Yong Jian Rong of Singapore is third with seven wins and a spread of 877.

The hero of the day for Pakistan was Absar Mustajab who emerged as the dark horse.

Absar has seven wins and a spread of 529 placing him on the fourth position.

Hammad Hadi Khan is currently fifth with six wins and a spread of 882.

Defending champion Moiz Baig made an excellent start winning his first six matches to take the No. 1 spot after six rounds but defeats in the last two matches pushed him to the ninth position.

Abdullah Abbasi and Mariam Arif are 12th and 14th, respectively.

Team wise Pakistan is No. 1 among all countries. Pakistan is the only country with three players in the top 10.

Another 10 matches will be played on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2014