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Abiodun Adewale.
Enoch Nwali has been crowned the winner of the 2022 Africa Scrabble Championships in Lusaka, Zambia after topping the pile with +2023 points by winning 24 games and drawing one.
He was followed in second place by compatriot and former world champion, Jighere Wellington, who finished with +1302 points, while Omosafe Prince completed Nigeria’s top-three dominance in third with +965 points.
Nwali led the pile and held forth for most part of the competition, having started his dictatorship campaign at 29th position in the first round, then moved to seventh position in the second round. He climbed to third and second positions in the third and fourth rounds.
The 26-year-old University of Lagos student has won several gold medals at the last National Sports Festival and at NUGA games. He has been consistent with this stellar performance that he is now among the world’s Top 10 going by WESPA ratings.
The third seed is now favourite to represent the country at the forthcoming World Scrabble Championship in Las Vegas, USA next year.
In his play to the top position, he ruthlessly overthrew the top position holder in the fifth round and stamped his name on the zenith of the players standings.
From then on, he was swift to set up his cabinet, redesigned the table one board and ruled with a very tight fist. Gaining the apex spot from round 5 to round 15.
He was however dislodged by his compatriot and former world Champion, Jighere Wellington in round 16 with the slightest crack on the top spot, knocking Enoch down to 2nd position.
Enoch who had solidified his grip on the top position, branding every item on table 1 his own, responded swiftly in round 17 and reclaimed the top spot again.
Having delineated the other 84 players, he reigned supreme from round 16 to round 27 with only Wellington coming close but by almost three game margin difference (2½ point).
In round 28, Wellington narrowed the gap to 1½, but Enoch countered his advances in the next round and so it went on with Enoch still on position 1 from round 17 to round 33 where Wellington could no longer withstand the stratospheric playing conditions.
With such resignation, Enoch remained victoriously unchallenged even before the last round of the tournament.
Enoch had conquered in the West African sub-region, making a loud statement of his arrival, but scrabble folks were not paying attention but this has further announced him to the world.