LILLE (France): Friday turned out to be a day of high drama at the World Scrabble Championship being played at Lille, France. The Pakistani players rode a roller coaster of emotions. There were shrieks of joy one minute and cries of anguish the next.

The happiest news was Abdullah Abbasi finishing on top of division two with 19 wins. The 16-year-old was clearly the best among the 70 odd players in the championship.

Veteran Tariq Pervez was also in superb form finishing fourth with 17 wins; easily his best effort in the world championships.

Another 16-year-old Daniyal Sanaullah finished eighth and qualified for the quarter-finals which will be played tomorrow.

Inayatullah rose to the No. 1 spot in the morning but defeats in the last four games put him out of contention. Teenager Hassan Hadi Khan was desperately unlucky to miss a spot in the quarter-final when he lost his last match by a solitary point.

In the Premier division Moiz Baig played the best scrabble of his life rising to the third spot at one stage. Surrounded by current and former world champions Moiz displayed remarkable composure and impressed everyone with the quality of his game. Moiz’s campaign for the title ended in tears when he lost his last game by just one point to the former world champion Adam Logan of Canada. A win in the last game would have placed him in the quarter-finals.

Waseem Khatri finished 38th while 11-year-old Hasham Hadi won 10 of his matches; an incredible feat considering the defending world champion Craig Beevers of England also won the same number of matches.

Published in Dawn September 4th, 2016