“Oxyphenbutazone.” Hasham Hadi Khan spells it out. “I think it’s a drug.” It’s also one of the highest-scoring possible plays in a game of Scrabble, a subject the 10-year-old 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 country 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 under-8 students, 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 placed second.
Javeria Mirza, 18, recalls 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 stranger for them to see me playing because I was a little girl with a scarf.” The Pakistan Scrabble Association once had to fundraise, 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 by product of Pakistan’s state of insecurity. “Parents would rather children stay indoors and play Scrabble than send them out to play physical sports,” says 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 Hasham’s older twin 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 that ‘I started playing two years ago and I’m a record holder and you are just O’” Hassan trails off. “I really am jealous.” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2015
