KARACHI: Seventeen-year-old Moizullah Baig, who has become the face of scrabble in Pakistan, said he is hoping to successfully defend his title at the 2014 World Youth Scrabble Championship later this year.
Among recent events, Baig played an exhibition match at the inaugural Islamabad Open Scrabble Championship last month, where he was received with great respect.
During the championship, he bagged an award from the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust for his achievement in the sport and expressed his resolve to focus fully on defending his title this year.
If he wins again, Moizullah, who has one more year to compete in the U18 competition, will become the first player to defend a title successfully at the World Youth Scrabble Championship.
“Defending the title is tougher than winning,” Moizullah told The Express Tribune. “I’m definitely feeling the pressure this year as now people expect more from me.”
Meanwhile, another responsibility for Moizullah is to promote the game among other players.
In Karachi, scrabble is played every weekend at the Beach Luxury Hotel, while it is comparatively a newcomer in Islamabad.
“Playing in Islamabad was different. There weren’t many young playerrs there, but people seemed enthusiastic about scrabble. Now the older players who compete in the Islamabad Open will bring their children to the scrabble competitions and this will help us find more talented players from the capital as well.”
The teenager further stated that he himself had a tough time competing in Islamabad. He lost thrice to Tariq Pervez during the tournament, while seasoned scrabble player M Inayatullah walked away with the title in the masters’ category.
“Now I’ll be concentrating on improving my game further. I want to defend my title in the World Youth Championship successfully by the end of this year. Losing in a tournament only teaches us more about the game, so I’m hoping to take this experience further.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 8th, 2014.
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