Dubai student among top 10 scrabble champs

Dubai - Beating 99 of the 106 competitors who travelled to Australia to compete for the title, Kapoor's seventh place feat is impressive to most.

Over three days, 24 tournaments and 16 solid hours of scrabble play, 15-year-old GEMS Modern Academy student, Sanchit Kapoor, bagged himself a top ten spot at this year's World Youth Scrabble Championship - making it his third in as many years.
Beating 99 of the 106 competitors who travelled to Australia to compete for the title, Kapoor's seventh place feat is impressive to most, but the modest Indian expatriate said it was nothing short of frustrating.
"You consider it a feat but for me, I know I could have come third. Some bad luck and poor decisions on the third day cost me that place."
Landing in Dubai at 5am on Tuesday morning after the mammoth trip from Australia, Kapoor had just completed a day at school when he spoke to Khaleej Times.
"This year I focused more on tactical moves, rather cool words, so I didn't really come up with anything too impressive. I had little time to prepare for the tournament so tactics was my focus," he said.
Playing nine games on day one, 10 games on day two and five games on the day three, Kapoor said the final day proved the toughest.
With each game lasting between 40 to 45 minutes, he was victorious in game one, but lost game two, three and four.
"I was annoyed at myself. All the pressure was on the last game. I knew I had to win game five to get a top ten finish and luckily, I pulled through."
Kapoor won 16 out of 24 games to complete his third successive top 8 finish at the annual tournament, which featured 106 participants aged 17 and under from 15 countries.
Singaporean Nicholas Hong was crowned the champion, with 18 wins.
"There was a one game win in it between second and eighth place. It was so close. Next year I'll go for the win ... but I'll be happy with a top three place, too."
kelly@khaleejtimes.com

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