National champion, Olatunde Oduwole, last Sunday emerged Nigeria’s scrabble king after winning the Champion of Champions championship in Benin City, beating former world champion Wellington Jeghire in a hard-fought final match.
Oduwole won 2-1 to upset world No.4 Jighere, to claim the star prize of N500,000 and a giant trophy at the event, which held at the multi-purpose hall of Prestige Hotel.
Tidesports source reports that Douglas Ese won the youth event at the three-day event, which had 44 players vying for honours.
Oduwole admitted that it was a tough final game against Jighere.
“It was a crunchy final but I had better tiles to decide the game. I was very lucky to have won,” Oduwole said.
“It’s not easy playing against a world champion. We’ve met on different occasions and it is anybody who wins that decides the tournament. I could have lost today (Sunday) but I won because I was destined to win and not because I did anything extraordinary.”
“It was a marvelous championship with very stiff opposition, on the standard of the competition,” Oduwole added.
“I struggled from Table 17 and 16 at some point and thought it was all gone. But I crawled to the fore of the event and I maintained my position to win.”
President, Nigeria Scrabble Federation, Olabatoke Aka, expressed delight at the height the sport had attained globally.
“In the past, we had national champions and grandmasters, but the champion of champions is a variant. Previously, scrabble was not spectator-friendly but today, the game can now be viewed on our phones and TV. This event is very commendable,” he said.
Aka, however, lamented the lack of corporate sponsorships for the sport.
“The only people who sponsor scrabble are those who love the sport, the players of the game. We need to go out to advertise the sport. We need to capitalise on this event and broaden our scope.”
Edo State Sports Commission chairman, Godwin Dudu-Orumen,a special guest on the final day of the competition, said, “We are proud of the champion of champions competition.
“Scrabble produces good people, sound minds in sound bodies. We (Edo State) will take the sport to schools, starting from secondary schools, and we will continue to support the sport.”