Young ‘word-makers’ on a roll on world stage
Lankan success: The Best Team at the World Youth Scrabble Tournament and inset L to r: In the Top Ten- Aabid Ismail, Thavalakshman Yoganathan and Qays Sangani
When the Sunday Times last met the team representing Sri Lanka at the World Youth Scrabble Championship, they were full of hopes for the world tournament in Lillie, France and their prospects of winning the Best Team title again this year. Those hopes and dreams were fulfilled and it was a happy group who shared the news of their win at the championship in late August.
The World Youth Scrabble Championship takes place over the course of three days. There are nine or ten rounds a day, each round a single game played till completion or for the duration of fifty minutes. Each player takes part in four rounds in quick succession, with little time to relax between rounds until the 30-minute break at the end of four rounds. This continues until all nine or ten rounds are finished, broken only by a slightly longer lunch break. The competition was stiff with teams from 15 countries. Yet “it isn’t as gruelling as it sounds,” team member Thirandi de Silva states. “You don’t feel it because all you think about is the next game and if your final game is bad, then you’re itching to play another game to make up for it,” she says.
The 10-member team comprised Aabid Ismail, Janul De Silva (Royal College), Migara Jayasinghe, Thavalakshman Yoganathan (Lyceum International, Wattala), Vignesh Pirapaharan (Lyceum International, Panadura), Radinka Dissanayake (Bishop’s College), Hayati Rassool, Thirandi de Silva (Ladies’ College), Hansi Weerasooriya (Musaeus College) and Danusha Muhandiramge (Lyceum International, Nugegoda).
Thavalakshman Yoganathan was placed First Runner-Up overall and his performance was the best ever by a Sri Lankan at the World Youth Scrabble Championship. Thavalakshman is proud of the team’s performance and thrilled to be in the Top Ten. His favourite part of the game is playing a ‘bonus’ word – using all seven tiles in your rack is considered a ‘bonus’ because apart from the points gained for the word, players are also awarded an additional 50 points. “Everything depends on the tiles you get. Sometimes you don’t get good tiles and you can’t play bonus words,” he says.
Aabid Ismail was placed Second Runner-Up overall while winning the title of Under 16 World Scrabble Champion. He also shared the prize for highest word score with team-mate Hansi Weerasuriya and Sohaib Sanaullah of Pakistan, each earning 158 points. Aabid’s most memorable moment came in his final game. “I won my last game by two points, which allowed me to be placed Second Runner-Up overall and that was a great moment,” he says. He played the word ‘obedient’ for 158 points while Hansi’s word was ‘filament’.
Having taken part in the championship in 2014 when it was held in Sri Lanka, Hansi felt that this year’s competition was quite different. “When you play in Sri Lanka, you’re on familiar ground, while taking part in France was an entirely different experience,” she says.
Qays Sangani, who took part as a private candidate from Sri Lanka, was placed eighth overall. Qays is happy with his improved ranking. “There has been a significant improvement in my ranking this year when compared to the last time I took part in this tournament so I am very happy about that,” he says.
An interesting feature this year was the live broadcast of the games at the ‘top tables’. The top tables are the five tables where the players with the top ten rankings at the end of the previous rounds play. These top players had the option of playing in a glass observatory from which the game was broadcast live onto a website where anyone could watch the proceedings. “At first it felt like someone was watching over your shoulder, and it’s a bit scary because you don’t know who’s watching you, but after the first ten minutes you don’t feel nervous anymore,” says Janul.
The presence of their parents was a great source of support for the young team and the best part of the experience was the camaraderie they shared and the friendships they forged, they say. In the midst of fierce competition, they also had their lighter moments to share. “Once I sat at the wrong table and played most of the game before realizing my mistake. There was also the common issue of players drawing tiles from the wrong bag. When my opponent did this once, he got no advantage because the tiles he drew were terrible,” laughs Hansi. Overall, the entire team was overjoyed to have won the title of Best Team at the World Championship– a great team effort, they agree.
The Sri Lanka Scrabble League is proud of their collective achievement, President Kandhan Mahendran said. “The team who took part this year did even better than last time because the First and Second Runners-Up were from Sri Lanka,” he said. There has been an increased interest in the game following the peak performance of the team, especially among young people – a trend which he hopes will continue.