KARACHI: The second Ranking Scrabble Tournament ended at the Beach Luxury Hotel here on Sunday.

For the first time ever three categories were created to cater for the unusually large number of participants that signed up for the event.

The ‘Master’ category was won, quite predictably, by Waseem Khatri who remained unbeaten throughout the day. Waseem had a spread of 1,133 to go with his eight wins.

Hassan Hadi Khan, 16, was the surprise runner-up, winning six matches with a spread of five. This is the highest finish of Hassan’s young career so far.

Veteran Rashid Khan finished third with five wins and a spread of 393.

In the ‘Recreational’ category, young Absar Mustajab emerged as the top player. Absar won six of his seven matches and had a spread of 700. Senior player Javed Iqbal was amongst the trophy winners after a long time finishing second with 5.5 wins and a spread of 474.

The third position was grabbed by another teenager Bisma Fatima who won five matches with a spread of 295.

The ‘Novice’ category saw plenty of new faces. Danial Sanaullah came up as the best of the lot. Danial won all his seven matches and had an impressive spread of 944.

Asdaq Kirmani was the runner-up with five wins and a spread of 771 while Ali Murtaza also won five matches and finished third with a spread of 694.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd , 2014