KARACHI: Pakistan’s brilliant scrabble champion Waseem Khatri clinched the online Double-double Scrabble Championship this week in which 64 participants from around the world competed.

The championship, organised in the USA, kicked off on Tuesday, May 12 and the final was played on July 22. Waseem was the sole representative of Pakistan in the high profile event and did the nation proud by storming into the finals and winning it in style.

The tournament had nine rounds, and Waseem started his campaign with a 3-1 over Marty Gabriel of USA.

Waseem continued his dream run and kept taking down all his opponents, that too with sheer dominance. Waseem’s next four rounds’ results were:

Beat Matthew O’Connor (USA) 3-0; beat Tim Weiss (USA) 3-0; beat Noah Slatkoff (Canada) 3-1; beat Austin Shin (USA) 3-1

The other rounds were between the losers of the first round, while Waseem played just four before progressing to the final stage.

After the first five rounds, Waseem had to beat Hubert Wee of Singapore to secure a berth in the finals directly. At the same time, the loser would get another chance to make it to the finals, but for that, he would have to beat Jesse Day to play the final again with the same opponent they had faced in this qualifier.

Fortunately, Waseem beat Hubert 3-1, to get this advantage while Hubert was paired with Jesse Day to get another chance to grab the spot for the grand finale. Hubert and Waseem were, therefore, paired again for the final and in order to win the tournament. Waseem had the advantage of needing to beat just a single best of five series while Hubert had to make this happen twice in a row.

However, there was nothing that served as a predicament in the way of Waseem as he too ended up winning the first best of five against Hubert, clinching this vital win for his country.

The entire scrabbling world has lauded Waseem’s spectacular performance the Pakistan Scrabble Association has profusely congratulated talented Waseem on his magnificent achievement.

PSA Director Youth Programme Tariq Pervez said: “The entire nation is delighted and very proud of what Waseem Khatri has achieved and he has stamped his class once again as one of the most brilliant scrabble players on earth.”

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2020