In a nation traditionally obsessed with cricket, the wordy board game Scrabble is fast becoming a major competitive sport
Hasham Hadi Khan, a 10-year-old boy, spells out “oxyphenbutazone,” adding: “I think it is a drug.”
It is also one of the highest-scoring possible plays in a game of Scrabble, a subject the player knows a lot about. Last year, Hasham racked up a whopping 878 points at a Scrabble championship in Sri Lanka — a higher score than the official world record.
Hasham is part of a new generation of Pakistani schoolchildren who are establishing the nation as a Scrabble powerhouse. In a nation where cricket is an obsession, the board game is — perhaps surprisingly — flourishing. Scrabble clubs are popping up all over: Karachi has more than 20, and, last year, 726 people competed in a national tournament.
The Pakistan Scrabble Association was formed in the late 1980s, but players did not fare well internationally until the association began to focus on students under the age of 18, who went on to score triple-triple word scores at international tournaments. The Pakistani player Moizullah Baig won the World Youth Scrabble Championship in 2013. Last year, the national team finished in second place.
Javeria Mirza, 18, recalled reactions to the Pakistani contingent on the international circuit.
“One of the kids asked us: ‘If Pakistan is a totally locked down terrorist country, how did you guys make it here?’ It was strange for them to see me playing because I was a little girl with a scarf,” she said.
The Pakistan Scrabble Association once had to partake in fundraising, but, as word of its players’ success has spread, corporate sponsors have stepped up over the past couple of years.
Scrabble’s popularity is also, in part, a macabre byproduct of Pakistan’s state of insecurity. Parents would rather children stay indoors and play Scrabble than send them out to play physical sports, said Tariq Pervez, who heads the association’s youth program.
On a Sunday morning, about two dozen people huddled over their boards in a ranking tournament held at a Karachi hotel. Players rushed to a computer to challenge moves, mused over their strategy and meticulously recorded scores. Hasham’s older brothers — 17-year-old identical twins in matching clothes — competed, as did Pakistan’s top-ranked player, Waseem Khatri.
Hassan Hadi, one of the brothers, learned to play Scrabble when their father brought the game home one day. The twins are competitive, but have been upstaged by Hasham.
“He bullies me, [saying]: ‘I’m a record holder and you are?’” Hassan said. “I really am jealous.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese