9th April 2011, Sek. Sains Haji Ahmad Shah, Pekan, Pahang
by William Kang
52 youths from in and out of the rural area of Pekan participated in the Pahang CIMB Junior
Scrabble Circuit, where a place in 15 of the top spots allotted would earn the player a ticket
to the CIMB Junior National Scrabble Tournament for a place in the annual World Youth
Scrabble Championship to be held at the year’s end.
The pre-tournament favourites for the title of Pahang state champion included William Kang
of SMK Subang Utama and Jagan Narayanan of SMK Seafield, both of whom hail from
Selangor and surprise participants for the leg, citing reasons for not being able to attend
their “home” leg just the week after.
The supposed deciding match between the two Selangor players came as early as the
second game, having pulverised their opponents in the first game by spreads in excess of
500, thus setting them up against each other. William dominated the first half of the game,
having raced into a 100-point lead with EARNEST that stretched across two double-word
premium squares. He soon took a defensive stance for the rest of the game, playing tight,
low-scoring moves to keep the board closed and blocked so as to keep Jagan from playing a
bingo. In the end, the match was indeed William’s – although his opponent had caught up to
within a 20-point deficit by exploiting unguarded triple-word lines to put the match in the
balance for the last few plays.
William and Jagan went on to win the rest of their games in commanding style to take the
first and second spots in the competition respectively. Ahmad Mursyidi Tzaka, Muhamad
Amirul Azrie and Wilson Kang round out the top five. Wilson, the younger brother of William
Kang, was also the youngest player of the tournament at 12 years old.
The highest-scoring word of the tournament was ZINGERS for 123 points by 6th placed
Ahmad Hazlami Fikri against William in the fourth game; whereas William’s 657 point-game
in the first round was the highest of the day.
The top 15 are listed as follows:
1 William Kang, 7 wins, +1798
2 Jagan Narayanan, 6 wins, +1454
3 Ahmad Mursyidi Tzaka, 6 wins, +154
4 Muhamad Amirul Azrie, 5 wins, +571
5 WilsonKang, 5 wins, +386
6 Ahmad Hazlami Fikri, 5 wins, +365
7 Haveenesh Retnasingm, 5 wins, +265
8 Mohd Hilman Abdrahma, 5 wins, +234
9 Nur Syamimi Bahru Ru, 5 wins, +188
10 Muhd Noorafiq Izani, 5 wins, +116
11 Nik Mohd Syamil, 5 wins, -118
12 Chan Wai Kee, 5 wins, -135
13 Nik Amir Hasyim N M, 4 wins, +435
14 Amirul Safwan Nasaru, 4 wins, +267
15 Aiman Dzulhelmy Shaz, 4 wins, +245
The players listed will be eligible to play in the CIMB National Youth Scrabble Tournament,
to be held on the 28th-29th of May.
I, on behalf of the all the participating players, would like to thank Martin Teo, Rainier Ng,
the supervising teachers from various schools, and administrators of Sek. Sains Haji Ahmad
Shah for providing the venue and ensuring the smooth flow of the tournament