News: Scrabble: Year of the youths

thestaronline(Malaysia): Scrabble: Year of the youths
Youngsters put Malaysia in good stead.

IT IS official! The 11th edition of the World Scrabble Championship (WSC) will be held in Warsaw, Poland. And with lucrative prize money and priceless recognition at stake, it is bound to be the tournament of the year.

As the Malaysian team prepares to qualify for the big event, raking up precious rating points is essential to enable them to be at the top. With only two spots reserved for Malaysia in the championship, the top players in the country made no deferment in joining every local tournament before the end of the qualifying period.

So far, fellow Malaysian Ker Jen Ho who won the World Youth Scrabble Championship 2010 in Manila was offered a spot in the WSC. He will be representing the youths of the world in this illustrious event.

Malaysian Scrabble Association (MSA) is definitely looking forward to sending the two best Scrabble prodigies in the country to join Jen Ho in Poland as the trio level to bring back honours for our country.

Thus, the MSA Chinese New Year Scrabble Challenge 2011 was no exception to these top Scrabble players in the country as they gathered at the 3K Complex, Subang Jaya, hoping to improve their national rankings.

Pre-tournament favourites include national No.1 Aaron Chong, World Youth Scrabble Championship (WYSC) 2010 second runner-up, William Kang, Cheah Siu Hean and Pui Cheng Wui. All four had won tournaments before and withstood the intense mental demands that this tournament exacts on competitors.

The tournament also witnessed the comeback of youngsters, Khoo Beng Way and Scott Chung who had been away from the Scrabble fraternity for more than a year.

This time around, the youngsters posted a gallant comeback as they overcame gargantuan challenges by their seniors. They showed no sign of nerves as they remained calm, winning their games with appraisable analytical, tactical and strategising skills.

William, 16, who was the youngest representative in the history of the World Scrabble Championship (he represented Malaysia in 2009), set the milieu clear that he was vying to be the front-runner to qualify for WSC this year.

Rattling a competitive side since the start of the tournament, William faced a setback during the first four games, suffering three losses in a row to Cheng Wui, Shim Yen Nee and Tengku Asri.

Despite the three painful defeats, William crusaded with a creditable seven winning streak, beating Cheng Wui in the 11th game. Pui managed to pull off a win against William in the 12th round, beating the youngest competitor 458-380 to take the lead.

After the defeat, William dropped to third place as he was overtaken by Beng Way who had a half point advantage over him. Still in the running, William made use of his experience to outplay Scott and Singapore’s WSC representative, Siu Hean.

“He caught up from behind and the crucial point was when I had EEINQRT, and had two spots to get rid of the Q near the end of the game. But either of the two plays allows him to outscore me, in retrospect,” recalled Siu Hean who is also the President of Singapore Scrabble Association.

William managed a 418-392 victory over the Singapore Grand Master.

After the penultimate round, William and Cheng Wui was tied at 10 points apiece with the latter having a better margin advantage. It was another close battle between the two strong contenders and in the end, the game favoured William.

He was crowned champion, one point ahead of Cheng Wui and Aaron who garnered 10 wins each. Beng Way and Siu Hean rounded up the top five.

The best female performer was Singaporean Yen Nee. Hoping that the rabbit year would bring her good luck, Yen Nee, who was born in the year of the bunny, hopped into the leader board on day one with only two defeats. The Singaporean however, lost steam on Day Two to slip out of the top five.

Fellow bunnies, Tan Jin Chor, Martin Teo and Seshi Ramanathan finished eighth, 15th and 18th respectively.

In the Intermediate section, Ker Ken Wa was the runaway winner, outplaying and outscoring all his opponents during the entire tournament.

Andrew Chung, Thong Yi Kun, Matthew Mathan Raj and James Chin joined Ker in the top five.

The first quarter of the year has ended and it looks like the youngsters are rocking the local Scrabble circuit like true champions.

After the eventful series of achievements last year, especially by the youths during the WYSC, we are looking at a third consecutive WYSC title this year. Carrying the flag this year are William, Cheong Yi Wei and Cheong Yi Hua who will be gunning for a spot to represent Malaysia. All three had participated in previous WYSC and are globally known as strong contenders.

In addition, MSA will be running the Junior Scrabble Circuit this year in search for the best youths to be selected for WYSC. So, are you up for the challenge?