IN an unexpected upset two-time defending champion, Abigail MacDonald suffered a loss to Robert Williams, as Moen Gafoor took an early lead after claiming seven wins on the opening day of the COURTS National Scrabble Championships that got under way with fierce competition yesterday at the Bank of Guyana Roof Garden.

Following a brief opening ceremony that featured remarks from representatives from the National Sports Commission, Gervy Harry, the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players and COURTS – the sponsors of the tournament – the scrabble players began their fight for the 2013 title.
Though entering ranked number one with a 1984 rating, MacDonald ended the first day of competition in the second place position after winning all but one of her seven matches and accumulating a positive spread of 894 points. MacDonald endured a 91-point deduction after she went under against Williams (1 474).
That left the winning spot open to Gafoor, who sailed through an unblemished day as he racked up some serious points in his matches to end with a positive spread of 1 466 points.
Gafoor had better luck against Williams when he played him in the fifth round. However, the scrabble stalwart was able to squeeze only 89 points from the match. Gafoor secured much better points from his other six matches.
His first victim was Dwain Albert where he collected 339 points, he followed up with another 240 points against the number nine player Wayne Cave (1 593), then moved on to Ruby Cummings (1 596) where he won by 118 points.
Gafoor had 341 against newcomer Wazim Dalipchand and secured a win against Colin Chichester (1 681) in the penultimate round and then polished things off with a win against Michael Benjamin for 271 points.
Following Gafoor and MacDonald in the points standing is former Caribbean champion Fred Collins who ended with six wins and a positive spread of 630 points.
It was a day of mixed fate for the tournament’s number two man Leon Belony (1 948) who endured two losses and ended with a spread of 1 298.
James Krakowsky followed Belony having a positive spread of 655 and winning four matches.
Competition in the tournament is scheduled to continue today from 09.00hrs at the same venue, where the players will face another eight rounds. The tournament also continues tomorrow with a further eight rounds.