KARACHI: The Junior World Scrabble Champ­ionship kicked off at the Torquay, England on Sunday.

The opening day was dominated by the Pakistani players. The defending champions started where they left off last year with some sterling displays of vocabulary and tactical skills.

Although, slightly weakened by the absence of some key players, Pakistan still were able to muster enough talent to completely dominate the games in a way that the top four positions were occupied by the Pakistani players on day one.

S. Imaad Ali, 13, was on top at the end of the first day with six wins out of seven. He has a spread of 1006. He is averaging a whopping 516 points per match. Imaad also managed the highest game score of the day with a massive 638

Hammad Hadi Khan wasn’t far behind as he also won six games but was second behind Imaad on a lower spread (608)

Daniyal Sanaullah was third with five wins and a spread of 596 while Hassan Hadi Khan completed Pakistan’s dominance by finishing day one on the fourth place with five wins and a spread of 296

England’s Rori Kemp was pushed to the 11th spot after making a bright start in the morning.

Interestingly, the top position by an English player at the end of day one is held by Sumbul Siddiqui who has been a part of the Pakistan youth team before migrating to England.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2019