ABU DHABI // The Gulf's reigning Scrabble champion has been banned from international competition for four years for cheating. Mohammed Zafar, 19, from Bahrain, was barred by the game's governing body, the World English Language Scrabble Players Association (Wespa), for breaking the rule about how players draw their letters at a major tournament in Malaysia last year. Several other players and judges, as well as audience members, complained that Mr Zafar was taking his tiles from the top of the bag and having a quick peek at them before letting go of any he did not want.
The rules of the game state that although players may give the bag a hearty shake, they must draw tiles at shoulder length while looking away from the bag. Mr Zafar was expelled from the US$10,000 (Dh36,700) Causeway Challenge tournament, which took place in Johor Bahru, the capital of Johor state in southern Malaysia, in December. Wespa then convened a special panel of four to investigate. The association imposed the ban "after due consideration of statements from all parties involved and witness accounts", said Allan Simmons, the Wespa chairman and UK national champion who headed the investigation.
The Bahrain Scrabble League Committee was meeting last night to determine whether Mr Zafar would also be stripped of both his regional and national titles. Mr Zafar denied that he cheated. Roy Kietzman, a member of the Bahrain Scrabble League Committee and acting chairman of Wespa, said the decision would have an immediate impact on the Scrabble world. "It is going to form a precedent," he said. "Now people have to be really careful about how they are drawing out tiles."
He added: "Of course, it may sound funny but it is really serious at international tournaments when the prize money can go up to $10,000." Mr Zafar became the Gulf Scrabble champion after beating Dubai's Akshay Bhandarkar, the two-time defending champion, at the regional championships last year in Manama. Michael Tang, the organiser of the Malaysian tournament, in which the world's top 50 players were invited to take part, issued a warning over the loud speaker to all competitors about their conduct after initially receiving complaints about Mr Zafar, according to Mr Kietzman.
Mr Tang then stood behind the Bahraini contestant as he played and concluded that he was indeed selecting his tiles. Mr Zafar was escorted from the competition room. The Wespa committee included another member of the association from Britain, as well as members from Singapore and Kenya. The panel took about five weeks to reach a decision and produced 17 pages of testimony. Mr Zafar was also called upon to give his version of events.
Mr Zafar's ban on international competition is effective immediately and remains valid until Jan 1 2013. He is also banned from the Malaysian tournament for life. Mr Simmons said the Wespa panel would have considered a lesser penalty if Mr Zafar had admitted to cheating when presented with its findings. While millions of people play Scrabble for fun, up to 30,000 people compete in tournaments and there are even professional players. The game can be played in about 30 languages.
Mr Kietzman said Mr Zafar had been part of the Bahraini league since he was 10. "All the time I have been here, no one has ever brought to my attention that something suspicious was going on," Mr Kietzman said. "If they had, I would've done what Michael Tang did." sbhattacharya@thenational.ae
