World Scrabble Championship: Fifteen year old Thai schoolboy still in the hunt after taming the GOAT!

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World Scrabble Championship: Fifteen year old Thai schoolboy still in the hunt after taming the GOAT!

 

Tarin can barely believe it after beating the GOAT Nigel Richards of New Zealand in Goa

 

Fifteen year old Thai schoolboy Tarin Pairor remained in the hunt for glory after Day 3 of the WESPAC world scrabble championships in Goa, India.

 

Tarin - a Year 10 pupil at Plookpanya Nakhon Ratchasima School in the north east of Thailand - stunned the championships on Friday afternoon by beating Nigel Richards to take over the number one position in the 32 game event.

 

Nigel from New Zealand is a legend of the world's most popular word game. A multiple champion in both English and French lexicons it takes a very special player to beat him and Tarin - who has only been playing seriously for two years is precisely that.

 

His Canadian father Mike Smith, a 43 year old physics lecturer at Suranaree University has spoken to Thaivisa saying that his son has surprised him and that he is "definitely in the hunt".

 

The field, now 139 strong from 31 countries, will play another seven games on Saturday after which the top two will go on to play a best of seven games head to head on Sunday. Games are being streamed to audiences throughout the world and interest in Thailand among thousands of "Crossword Game" enthusiasts, as the game is known in the kingdom, is at fever pitch.

 

Tarin both lost to Nigel and beat him on Friday. In the morning the New Zealander scraped past him by just eight points for a 453-445 triumph. But in a stellar early afternoon for the teen sensation Tarin got his revenge 437-408.

Unfortunately Tarin stumbled a little at the end of a tough day, losing to two Nigerians and an Australian.

 

The pressure mounts as Tarin, 15, takes on Australian Cameron Farlow in Game 25

 

At the end of Day 3 having completed 25 games Tarin has won 17 and lost 8 games. Nigel leads the way with a 19-6 record, Australian Cameron Farlow is second on 18-7 and David Wiegand of the US is lying third on 17-8. Thailand's Thatcha Koowirat also remains in touch in 17th place on 16-9.

 

Tarin's father Mike has lived in Thailand with his wife Puangratana Pairor for twelve years after the couple met in Toronto. Puangratana also lectures in physics.

 

Mike spoke to Thaivisa from Goa saying: "Tarin was thrilled to beat Nigel Richards and his mom and I are amazed by how well he's done.

 

"I am here on pins and needles. It will be very tight tomorrow but Tarin is definitely in the hunt.

 

"I know he is a strong player but faced with this many heavyweights I can't believe he can keep winning".

 

Tarin is a product of a Scrabble training academy in Korat called Word Wizard run by Thai expert competitor Akkarapol Kwansak. Scrabble is big in Thailand; thousands play and the game that enjoys the patronage of the Thai Royal Family and attracts sponsorship and prize money from some of the kingdom's leading companies. 

 

The iconic King's Cup in Bangkok every July is one of the best and largest tournaments anywhere in the world. 

 

Mike continued: "When Tarin started playing at Knock's (Akkarapol's) school he became passionate and obsessive about the game immediately. It is a wonderful community and Tarin is very proud of his efforts and his success.

 

"He is extremely focused on something he loves doing".

 

A massive score: Kenya's Gitonga Nderitu triumphed over reigning WESPAC champion Akshay Bhandarkar of India by 775 points to 295. The blank tiles make CANZONET (a short Italian song) and VITEX (a shrub or small tree)

 

Much of Thailand's success in Scrabble - the country has had two world champions before - is built around a determination to get very young children playing the game. 

 

Apart from the obvious benefits like improved English vocabulary it teaches children math skills, tactics and strategy. The Thai education ministry is also on board in actively promoting the game in the country's schools and the Thai Crossword Game Association has been at the forefront of the promotion of Scrabble for more than three decades.

 

"It also hooked Tarin into other games of probability like poker and maths puzzles," said Mike. David Eldar of Australia - a former world Scrabble champion - is also a poker millionaire.

 

Mike said that one of the reasons he was most impressed by Scrabble was the way Tarin got involved in civil post mortem discussions with opponents of different ages and cultures. This might come as a surprise to those that see Scrabble as merely memorizing words.

 

While knowing at least 100,000 English words in the Collins dictionary is vital at the top level few can match Nigel Richards' almost perfect mastery of over a quarter of a million words. Mike - who said that his wife and himself were just intermediate players - said that he might have a one in twenty chance of beating his son.

 

After the experiences of this week that might be an optimistic assessment!

 

Follow the latest news from the WESPAC championships here on Thaivisa throughout the weekend.

 

The leaderboard at the end of Day 3 of the WESPAC event

 

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