Eta Karo, Akintoye win 2018 MindGames Premier Championship

• Nigeria still number one in world scrabble  ranking
Eta Karo and Abdulraheem Akintoye at the weekend beat the field to win the 2018  MindGames Premier Championship in Scrabble and Chess held at the Lagos country Club Ikeja, Lagos.

The finals of the two-day event featured 76 male and female players in the scrabble event, as well as 59 players in the chess event.

Speaking after winning the scrabble competition, Karo said his determination to prove a point in the sport motivated him to give his best in the championship. He added that the victory would propel him to forge ahead to win other African tournaments this year.

Also speaking at the event, Akintoye who won the Chess competition, said his success in the championship has brought another positive dimension to his career. He disclosed that his mission to win more laurels for Nigeria in the game of Chess.

National scrabble coach, Anthony

lkolo, who listed the benefits of the event, said that the MindGames has helped scrabble players to sharpen their skills in the sport, adding, “at the beginning of the finals, I prayed for at least an upset, but to my surprise the top stars in scrabble still performed well in the championship. But we are not going to sit back; the federation will organise more competitions to discover talents from the grassroots.”

Elated by the outcome of the championship, president of the Scrabble Federation, Suleiman Gora commended the organisers for giving players the chance to  compete, adding that the board would not relent in developing scrabble to international standard.

The players got a N2.5 million prize money, with the winners of both the chess and scrabble competitions getting N500,000 each. The first runners up went home with N250,000, while the players, who finished in the top 10 positions also got various cash prizes.