Karo, Abdulraheem claim 2018 Mind Games Premier Championship titles.
The 2018 Mind Games Premier Championship came to a colourful close at the Lagos Country Club on Sunday with Eta Karo and Abdulraheem Akintoye taking home the N500,000 top prizes and trophies in the Scrabble and chess events respectively after a grueling round of 16 games.
Eta emerged tops with 13 wins and a cumulative of 954 to claim his first title in four years while Segun Durojaiye and Emmanuel Umujose received N250,000 and N125,000 each for placing second and third respectively.
Speaking after the closing ceremony Eta said ‘’It’s been a wonderful MPC tournament after playing against the best players in the world like Wellington Jighere, Peter Moses and others. The Nigerian style of scrabble is the most difficult because of it’s defensive nature so, playing against these great minds on this international settings shows that the standard is very high.’’
Meanwhile, in the chess event, it took Abdulraheem an extra move to rise above all oppositions to pick the top prize ahead of Kigigha Bomo and Ajibola Olarewaju who came second and third after a close finish.
‘’it was a very tough tournament’’ Abdulraheem said, ‘’I played against all the international Masters in the country, it was very difficult though I lost one round out of 16, taking the first position in this tournament wasn’t a joke.’’
In a competitive but conducive ambiance, top players across the country including their counterparts from, Liberia, South Africa, Gambia, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom displayed guile to win prizes and points at the second edition of the annual championship.
Nigeria Scrabble Federation President Sulaiman Gora said the synergy between scrabble and chess at the championship was necessary for mind games in the country to thrive and attract the necessary attention from the corporate world.
122 players from both sports participated at the Grand Finale which was organised by Mind Games Incorporated to deepen the importance as well as set standards on how international games should be organised in the country.