KARACHI: The main round of the 2014 Scrabble Champions Tournament ended in London with players from three different continents occupying top three positions.

According to the information received here, Craig Beevers of England staged a late rally to take the top position with 19 wins in 24 matches.

Australia’s David Eldar, the most consistent performer of the tournament, finished second with 18 wins while Adam Logan of Canada was third with 17 wins.

Dave Wiegand (US), Brett Smitheram (England), Chris May (Australia), Chris Lipe (US) and Alastair Richards (Australia) were the other players to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Pakistan’s No. 1 Waseem Khatri had a great tournament. Waseem notched up some impressive wins against the world’s best players and remained in contention for the quarter-finals till the very end. He needed a win in the last match to qualify but a narrow defeat in the last match just edged him out.

Waseem was desperately unlucky to lose a previous match by just one point in a very high-scoring contest (502-503) against Graham Haigh. Waseem finished 13th, the highest position ever by a Pakistan contestant at the world championship.

Young Abdullah Abbasi won the prize for the highest rating points gained in the championship. Abdullah drew praise from the world’s best players for his vocabulary and tactical skills at such a young age.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals will see the top eight in action. All other players will play a side event to be held simultaneously.

Published in Dawn, November 23th , 2014