KARACHI: The annual scrabble championship, the Horlicks 26th Pakistan Scrabble Championship, this year coincides with Pakistan Scrabble Association’s (PSA) silver jubilee.

A press conference to announce the forthcoming event was held at the Karachi Press Club here on Friday where Horlicks extended its support once again as the event sponsor.

“Pakistan has achieved great success in international scrabble events, particularly in the youth segment. Due to such great achievements scrabble is gaining popularity in Pakistan especially among the youth,” said tournament Tariq Pervez.

“We feel proud to say that all this success has been achieved without any government support. Scrabble has flourished due to the support of the corporate sector as we form a nice partnership with some reputable companies, which help us meet our expenses while we hold successful tournaments featuring world famous stars,” he added.

“The US Education Foundation has been partnering us for some time now, too and I hope that this cooperation will last for years to come,” he added about their other supporters.

The upcoming championship is a day-long event, starting at 11:00am and ending at 6:00pm on Oct 12. It is an open event, meaning it is open to all with no age limit on participants.

“The Master’s category participants have already played their matches and only the general public, casual and recreation players will be featuring on Oct 12. Therefore, there are no favourites as most players will be roughly of the similar calibre.

“The players will be divided into six categories age-wise.

“Trophies will be given to top three players in each category,” the tournament director explained.

“We have, due to the Eid holidays, decided to extend the last date of registration till 1:00pm on Oct 11. Registration can be submitted at Beach Luxury Hotel during the Eid Holidays as well.

“This can also be done online at www.pakistanscrabble.org,” Pervez pointed out.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2014