Members of Nigeria's squad to the forthcoming Scrabble World Championship holding later this month in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, dominated the top places at the just concluded 3rd edition of Governor Douye Diri National Championship.
Las Vegas bound Enoch Tochukwu Nwali, dropped just three games to emerge champion after two days of grueling competition among the top 50 Masters players. He secured 12 wins and a cumulative points of plus 705.
Another member of Team Nigeria to the World Championship, Nsikak Etim who won the Engineer Toke Aka National Jubilee Championship and also the defending champion, came a close second with 11 wins and plus 726 cumulative points ahead of Emmanuel Ofidi who recorded 11 wins but with a lower cumulative points of 343.
Former World Champion Wellington Jighere who started the final day of the championship in the 36th spot navigated his way into the top ten. His 9 wins and a plus 580 cumulative points kept Jighere in the 9th position ahead of Doko Oluwatimilehin another member of Team Nigeria in the 10th spot with 9 wins and plus 576 cumulative points on the final table of the championship named after the current Governor of Bayelsa State, His Excellency Senator Douye Diri.
It is interesting to note that no player has been able to defend the Masters title successively. In 2021, Oshivere Avwenegha was crowded champion and a year later, he was dethroned by Nsikak Etim a former African Champion.
Enoch Nwali took the top honour this year along with half a million cash prize.
The Opens title went to Clement Ijegbulem, Chuks Nwaeze came second while Tariyei Alari completed the podium in third place.
Ojior Osikhena who won the Veterans category in first edition of the championship, beat the 24 man field to take the Veteran top position in year's event. Azu Ogbogu and Dokun Esan were second and third respectively in the Veterans category.
John Adeleke won the Youth (students) category with 7 wins and plus 1221 cumulative points. August Shanon came second while Edide Pereowei came third.
Over three million naira was shared among the top ranked competitors in the tournament.
As reported by Maxwell Kumoye (NSF Media and Publicity)
The 2023 Emmanuel Egbele Annual Scrabble Tournament will be held from Friday 2nd to Saturday 3rd June, 2023 at the Eko Hotel and Suites, VI, Lagos. Games start at 9AM on Saturday daily.
The maiden edition of the Engineer Toke Aka Jubilee National Scrabble Championship will be held at the Hotel de Bentley in Utako-district, Abuja on the 17th of June. Interested players can click here to register and make payment online immediately or offline
The Jubilee National Championship as well as a Scrabble Retreat is to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Managing Director of Kadegg Ltd who is also the President of Nigeria Scrabble Federation (NSF) Chief Engineer Toke Aka.
The 29th edition of the Asaph Zadok National Scrabble Championship begins today at the National Stadium Abuja as part of the Festival of Scrabble this week from the 2oth to the 26th of March 2023. Fifty-eight (58) players will be competing for the Green Jacket - the ultimate symbol of Scrabble Mastery in Nigeria. The players were drawn from eleven states and will be joined by 4 (four) NSF wildcard players and players from the Nigerian Navy. 2019 winner and defending champion Wellington Jighere is among the top Scrabble players who shall compete for honors. Other top players like Eta Karo (2005 champion), Dipo Akanbi (2017 champion), Dennis Ikekeregor, Emmanuel Umujose, and Olatunde Oduwole (winner, 2016) are also among the top contenders for the prize. (more…)
The Nigeria Scrabble Federation (FCT Zone) invites you to the 2022 Abuja National Scrabble Open Tournament which will be held from Saturday the 1st to Sunday the 2nd of October 2022 at the Media Center Package A, National Stadium Abuja. Games start at 8.30 am on Saturday, the 1st of October. (more…)
The Nigeria Scrabble Federation in conjunction with the Kano State Scrabble Association invites you to the 18th Kano National Open Scrabble Competition from Saturday 26th to Sunday 27th of February 2022 at Kano Club (Scrabble Section), No. 2, Bompai Road, Kano. (more…)
The first edition of the Nigeria Grandmasters Scrabble Championships tagged Champion of Champions was successfully concluded today 5th December 2021 in Benin, Edo State. The competition, endorsed by the Nigeria Scrabble Federation, was organized by Words and Wits, a Scrabble event conglomerate based in Benin and headed by the current Vice President Mr. Bright Idahosa. It featured forty-four (44) players invited by the organizers based on past and current performances in the Nigeria Scrabble circuit including former World and African Scrabble champion, Jighere Wellington, former African champions, Moses Peter and Nsikak Etim, and a host of former National champions including Olatunde Oduwole. Among other invited players were former youth player Enoch Nwali (a member of Team Nigeria at the maiden Gladiators Virtual Scrabble tournament), and team members Omosefe Prince, Ofidi Emmanuel, Umujose Emma, Oshevire Avwenagha, and Anthony Odok.
A total of 21 games were played at the three-day championship. The first phase tagged the King of the Park phase was won by Jighere Wellington. Thereafter the two best players viz Jighere Wellington (who won the first phase and the Scrabble King trophy) and Olatunde Oduwole, the first runner-up moved on to play the best-of-three Challenge phase. Tunde Oduwole eventually triumphed to emerge as the winner of the maiden Champion of Champions competition and the Champions trophy. Over two million naira was shared by the top players with the King of the Park winner Jighere Wellington taking home N500,000 (five hundred thousand).
The organizers have indicated that the competition will be an annual event and the next edition will be bigger to accommodate more established and upcoming Scrabble players with the aim of further development of the game in Nigeria. Click here for round-by-round results, standings, and player statistics of the competition.
Nigeria's five-man team to the maiden Alchemist Cup finished in 4th place as the tournament ended yesterday (9th December 2018) in Penang, Malaysia. Members of the team include the reigning African Champion, Moses Peter, Eta Karo, Olatunde Oduwole and Etim Nsikan who all competed in the 13th Africa Scrabble Championship (Kenya 2018). After the tournament, they immediately jetted out from Kenya to Malaysia to join the fifth member of the team Saidu Ayorinde.
The Alchemist Cup is an elite invitational Scrabble tournament. Ten teams of five players per team will play a schedule where each player plays the 45 players from teams other than their own. The event is organized by Mr Micheal Tang who also organises the Causeway Challenge. The maiden event had teams from the best Scrabble playing nations in the world (with WESPA rating as at 28 Oct) viz Nigeria (mean rating 2065, the highest), USA (2048), Australia (eventual champions- mean rating 2043), New Zealand (1971), Thailand (1962), Singapore (1896) and Malaysia (1886). They were joined by teams from Rest of the World (1960), East Africa (1785) and Rest of Asia (1785). A total of 45 games was played over 5 days from the 5th to 9th of December 2018.
The Nigerian team performed creditably considering the fact that the bulk of the team barely had time to rest after the ASC in Kenya. Results from the event website showed that our team never placed lower than the 5th position all through the 5-day event. Nigeria won 27 rounds and had 126.5 points with a spread of +4908 which placed her in the fourth position overall.
| Nigeria | ASAI | EKAR | MPET | NETI | OODU | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games = 126.5 | 22 | 27 | 29 | 23 | 25.5 | ||
| Spread +4908 | +855 | +1033 | +1518 | +1035 | +467 | ||
| Mean | 429 | 442 | 460 | 442 | 437 |
Team Performance Table (courtesy Alchemist Cup website )
Australia won 31 rounds (with 133 points and +2739 spread) to finish as champions, the USA was first runner-up with 31 rounds, 131 points and a spread of +5362 while the Rest of the World team came third with 30 round wins, 125 points and +2609 spread. East Africa finished in 10th place (11 rounds won, 78.5 points and a spread of -6386). The Champion team won USD 10000, second placed team USD 5000 while the third-placed team took home USD 3000.
Ganesh Asirvatham of Malaysia won the top Individual Prize (for those not in the top 3 teams) of USD 1000 with 31 wins and a spread of +2560. Nigel Richards (NZL) 31 +1499 and Thacha Koowirat (THA) 30 +1880 won USD 600 and USD 400 respectively as the 2nd and 3rd best performing players for those outside the top 3 teams.
The South-South zone concluded the zonal preliminaries for the Winifred Awosika Scrabble Tournament for Schools on April 7 2018 at the Shell Club, Port-Harcourt.
The National Coach Senior Team, Anthony Ikolo acted as Technical Director and ensured that all games were entered using the standard format. There were youth players from Akwa Ibom, Edo and Rivers state. The children were well behaved and were very enthusiastic.
At the end 3 pupils (2 from Akwa-Ibom and 1 from Edo) qualified for the finals coming up in May at Lagos. They are Bassey Abasido (Akwa Ibom), Archibong Prestige (Akwa Ibom) and Ejenakevbe Ese (Edo).
Winifred Awosika Foundation a non profit, non-governmental organization focusing on the well being of children and women has been promoting the game among school children for the past few years. This year, the foundation has decided to give her annual youth Scrabble tournament, the Winifred Awosika Scrabble Tournament for Schools (WASTFS) a national outlook with the inclusion of qualifiers from each of the 6 geo-political zones.
The tournament is restricted to primary school pupils only. There will be zonal preliminaries in each zone at the zonal headquarters comprising of 3 qualifiers from each state in a particular zone.
At the end of the preliminaries, three players each will emerge to represent each zone. Lagos and Abuja are not inclusive as special arrangements are already in place for their representatives to emerge.
The qualifiers and one chaperone each for each state will be sponsored by the foundation to Lagos Chrisland School in Opebi Lagos where the finals will take place in May.
Participating students (youths) will be given T-shirts and bags while gifts will be given to participating schools. There will be medals and trophies for winning schools with cash prizes for top (youth) player and school. Find details of the cash prizes below.
Date: 31st May - 2nd June 2018
Venue: Chrisland High School, Opebi, Lagos
