Imaad Ali crown champion of 13th WESPA Youth Scrabble Championship
Syed Imaad Ali closed the 13th edition of WESPA Youth Scrabble Championship with his win on the top spot at American Academy in Dubai.
At the end of the day two, Pakistan's Syed Imaad Ali continued to be in fine form and remained at the #1 spot for a long time but two defeats at the end of the day pushed him to the third spot which ended as a 5 wins and a spread of 1295 for Imaad Ali. Similarly two other Pakistani scrabble players, Sohaib Sanaullah and Hasham Hadi remained in the top ten positions for most of the day but both suffered defeats in their last games.
But the 12 year old Imaad Ali made a comeback at the start of the day third and became one of the youngest player to have won the championship. Imaad was in great form throughout the championship and dropped only four of the 24 games on his way to victory. Imaad ended with 20 wins and a spread of 1694. He was awarded a glittering trophy and a cash prize of US $1000.0
Janul De Silva of Sri Lanka lost the crucial final to Imaad and finished second with 19 wins and a spread of 1124. While Thailand’s Napat Vatjaranurathon managed the third spot with 17 wins and a spread of 1712. Pakistan's Sohaib Sanaullah finished 5th with 16 wins and a spread of 1119.
Although Sri Lanka replaced Pakistan as the top team at the end of day-two of the championship and Pakistan was lying second but the end of the championship saw Pakistan winning once again claiming the team trophy as well. Last time, Dubai hosted this championship was back in 2013 in that as well, Pakistan won the championship and the team trophy.
In the adults tournament Tariq Pervez who slipped to the second spot and had 10 wins from 14 games but he won the championship on the final day as he defeated Sudhir Kamath of India in the final game. He also won the prize for the highest game score of 609 scored against Douglas Tsang of Hong Kong.
There was another honor for Pakistan as the team leader Mr. Tariq Pervez was given the award for the "Best promoter of Scrabble in the world" in recognition of his efforts to promote the game in Pakistan which has become an example for other countries.
Pakistan have already won major scrabble titles with their skillful players such as Moiz Ullah Baig who won The Junior World Scrabble Championship, Princess Cup Youth Scrabble Championship 2017 won twice, first by Hammad Hadi Khan in 2017 and this year by his twin brother Hassan Hadi Khan, recently. Pakistan have also won Causeway Challenge Youth Scrabble title by Abdullah Abbasi and the latest victory completed the grand slam for Pakistan as they have already won all major Youth Titles and all these tournaments are won by 5 different players.
