The Nairobi tournament hosted by ‘The Geeks’, a group of 22 scrabble enthusiasts kicked off over the weekend with a record-breaking 126 participants gracing the event.
43 in the premier division colloquially referred to as the Animal Kingdom, 53 in the Intermediate division aka Div B and 31 in the Beginners division.
This event served as a 3rd of the four qualifiers for the WESPA championship happening in Las Vegas later on in July and also as a 3rd of the five qualifiers for the ECASA championship happening in Kenya in April.
On the first day, the entire fraternity was keen to follow the performance in the premier division and in particular, Allan Oyende’s.
The ECASA champ won the last tournament of 2022 and many were eager to witness his performance.
Oyez, as he is fondly referred to didn’t take any prisoners when he started off his day with one hundred and forty-two points more than his opponent.
In his second game, Auka Julius ‘stopped reggae’ albeit for a minute as he won the game against the people’s champ with a mere four points. It always feels more painful when beaten with such a small difference.
However, this didn’t break Oyende’s spirit and by the end of day one, he had 9 wins out of 10. A near-perfect score.
As Dr Muema says, “scrabble is played on Day 2,” Mutahi Martins came from a mere 6 points on day 1 to 13 points on Day 2, snatching 2 points from the champ. It’s worth noting that the game requires great mental fortitude.
Handling wins and losses are all part of the game and Oyende had truly mastered the art.
This is the second time in a row in which he has been gibsonized with a rating of 2008, making him the highest-ranked player in Kenya.
At the end of the tournament, Allan Oyende won with 15 games out of 18 with a positive spread of 1173, Mutahi Martins was second with 13 points with a positive spread of 670 and finally, Gitonga Nderitu alias Gigaton finished third with 12 points and a positive spread of 900.
In the intermediate division, Eric Hasenya took the day with 14 points followed closely by Joshua Ogola with 13 points and finally Were Daniel of MMUST university with 13 points.
In the Beginners division, James Ndolo won the tournament in his first debut with 14 points, Oduor Raphael followed with 12 points and finally, Preety Harpreet came third with 12 points.
