17 – 19th June, City Bayview Hotel, Georgetown Penang
Commentary by Chuah Sim Swee
City Bayview Hotel again played host to the prestigious ICT Penang Open Scrabble
Tournament which was held from 17th till 19th June. Thanks to the groundwork done in the
previous years by PSC and CIMB bank, the novice category attracted a record number of
participants and a limit of 50 participants had to be set by the organizers so as not to be
overwhelmed.
The masters category attracted 48 competitors with the largest foreign contingent from
Australia (12 participants) and Singapore ( 8 participants). Malaysians comprised half the
participants but sadly, with the absence of A.Ganesh, there was no local player who would
have a good shot of unseating the reigning scrabble champ, Nigel Richards of New Zealand,
from his throne.
Fortunately, Nigel’s reputation did not faze the rest of the field to have a go at him and
have the pleasure of taking a game off the champion. It was great scrabbling from the very
first game as everyone gave their best. The quality of the field was evident as Nigel
Richards did not rise to the top of the table at the beginning with players like Sam
Kantimathi of USA, Shim Yen Nee of Singapore, Marlon Prudencio of the Philippines as well
as Aaron Chong and Henry Yeo of Malaysia maintaining their perfect scores and winning by
bigger margins.
By game 10, Mr. Richards had stamped his authority and it was up to the chasing pack to
try and bring him down. He would go on to lose three games , one of them to Shim Yen
Nee of Singapore, the only female to hover in the top five but, by game 17, it was evident
that he had won the tournament. Henceforth, he was ‘gypsonized’ and the rest of the field
fought it out for the rest of the top positions. After a sumptuous buffet lunch, game 20 saw
Sam Kantimathi happily pipping Henry Yeo Kean Hung for second position. Shim Yen Nee of
Singapore was a well deserved fourth and Liew Kean Boon came in fifth.
