KARACHI: Proud of their recent international success in France and Malaysia, the Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) called a press conference to honour their world champions here on Saturday evening. On the occasion they also shared more good news about the formation of World Mind Sports Federation (WMSF), a global body promoting scrabble, chess and other mind sports.

Recognising Pakistan`s importance in scrabble, PSA`s director youth programme Tariq Pervez has been elected as a member of the executive committee of WMSF. As a further honour for Pakistan, Mr Pervez has also been elected as the first chairman of the Youth Committee of WMSF. He would be responsible for organizing the World Youth Scrabble Championship (WYSC) and promoting mind sports worldwide.

About the immediate benefits of WMSF for Pakistan, it was said that a scrabble and chess training programme will be launched here through Mind Sports Academy and Mind Sports Education that would bring up opportunities for Pakistani youth to polish their talent in both these games.

`PSA`s volunteers will visit schools all over Pakistan and provide free basic training while registering the players in Mind Sports Education for further training if they see potential. Training will be conducted online by the world`s best players including the reigning world champion,` Tariq Pervez said, adding that the training will also be imparted by senior Pakistani players through interactive sessions and live video. `The website of fers online leagues and tournaments with a rating system to classify all players,` he said.

It was said that the website will provide an unprecedented opportunity to students living in different parts of Pakistan to become a part of the national and global community. `They can participate in national and international tournaments while using their computer or smart phones through an android App,` he pointed out.

`The training programme is a massive initiative and will require support from local sponsors. It can also be taken on as a great corporate social responsibility activity as scrabble can help spread education here,` he said while adding that PSA has achieved all this success without any government support. Either they spend from their own pockets or have benefited from partnerships with the corporate sector.

Coming to unearthing scrabble talent in schools, Tariq Pervez said that PSA`s 2017 scrabble season is to beginwith the18thInter-school Scrabble Championship, to be played at the BVS Parsi School from Jan 28 to 29.

The biggest scrabble event in the world, 2017`s edition is expected to break all previous records with over 1,000 players taking part.

`Looking at the number of participants, we have arranged to hold the event over two days this time,` said Tariq Pervez.

About their annual inter-school championship, the director youth programme said that every year it serves as the starting point of their campaign for the WYSC.

`Based on their performance, we pick around 100 top players during this championship to be trained and coached by a professional for several months and then a team of 10 players are selected through a very tough selection process with only merit as the criteria,` he said.

Finally, trophies and shields were presented to the three crowned world champions in dif ferent age categories Moonis Khan (Under-10), Syed Imad Ali (U-12) and Hasham Hadi Khan (U-14).

Surprisingly all the three boys hail from BVS Parsi School. Of them Hashan Hadi deserves special mention as not only did he win in WYSC, he also won in the adults championship happening almost simultaneously in Lille, France.

National team coaches Moizullah Baig and Wasim Khatri were also honoured along with their teams on the occasion.