Latest update April 14th, 2026 12:38 AM
James Krakowsky overcomes intense challenge to win GASP Open Scrabble tournament
Krakowsky (3rd left) is flanked by Collins (right) and Gafoor (left) while Mohabir and Ramsoondar is at extreme left and right respectively.
James Krakowsky turned in a masterful ‘come from behind’ performance to register an impeccable 6 points and a positive spread of 712 to cart off the honours when the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) hosted their Open Championship at the Malteenoes Sports Complex Thomas lands, Sunday afternoon last.
Moen Gafoor sealed off the second place after amassing 4 points and a positive spread of 427 while former national champion, Fred Collins, forfeited the inaugural sitting after arriving late but rebounded to amass a similar amount of points as Gafoor but with a lower positive spread of 182.
Enterprise Scrabble Club representative, Anand Mohabir, retained his consistency and also finished on 4 points but a lower positive spread of 161. He sealed off the 4th position and also won the prize for the best player outside the top ten.
Krakowsky dominated the morning session and started the final sitting on 5 points and a positive of 693. He was matched against Chichester for the final game with the latter player having amassed 4 points and a positive of 472. Chichester had earlier surrendered to Leon Belony by a massive 356 spread but a win against Krakowsky would have seen him redeeming himself and possibly clinching the top spot. The versatile Chichester threw his all into the game and had Krakowsky with his back to the wall at a clear 76 points lead when the bag was exhausted.
Somehow, Krakowsky managed to pull the proverbial ‘rabbit out of the hat’ and in a last gaps effort, scored a bingo after hooking ‘renames’ at the front of ‘cart.’ Not only did he score 78 points but an extra 5 after Chichester ill-advisedly challenged ‘scart’ much to his detriment; Krakowsky sneaked past his score by 19 points.
Gafoor’s victims were Maurice Munru (62), Orlando Michael (26), Grace Hercules (117) and Leon Belony (342). He dropped games to Fred Collins (101) and Anand Mohabir (19). The latter player also defeated Kevin Williams (152), Kamta Ramnarine (20) and Belony (16) but lost to Collins (23) and Robert Williams (23).
President of GASP, Leon Belony, lauded the players for the keen rivalry and envisaged that the standard of the sport will reach unprecedented heights providing the players continue to apply themselves. He also congratulated Mohabir for his consistency and urged the players to continue attending practice sessions at the same venue but on Thursday evenings from 19:00hrs.
The winners received trophies and other prizes donated by Serious Off Roader of Premnaranjan Place, Prashad Nagar and the Chief Finance Officer of that firm, Gavin Ramsoondar, visited the venue to hand over the prizes to the respective winners.
He joined in congratulating the winners even as he pledged support to the organizers for future tournaments.
Share this:
Discover more from Kaieteur News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.