KARACHI: Former world youth champion Syed Imaad Ali of Pakistan emerged as the early leader in the Pharmevo WESPA Youth Cup (formerly World Youth Scrabble Championship) which got underway at Pharmevo house on Sunday.

At the completion of the first 12 rounds Imaad is in top position with 11 wins and one tie. He has a spread of 1581. Imaad is the only unbeaten player in the championship so far.

Another pre tournament favorite Noah Slatkoff of Canada is currently second with 11 wins and a spread of 1774 while Tho­mson Law of Hong Kong is third with 11 wins and a spread of 1045.

Nattapat Nak-in of Thailand and Hasham Hadi Khan of Pakistan are fourth and fifth respectively with 10 wins each. Ali Salman is the third Pakistani in the top ten. He is on seventh position with nine wins.

The highest individual score of the championship so far was notched up by Imaad with 658 against Aarush Jotwani of India while Slatkoff has the biggest win of the championship with 447 points win against Raymond Tri of Australia.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2021