Joel Sherman | |
---|---|
Born | 1962 (age 61 or 62) |
Other names | GI Joel |
Alma mater | Bronx High School of Science |
Occupation | Professional English-language Scrabble player |
Years active | 1988–present |
Joel Sherman (born 1962), nicknamed GI Joel, is an American professional English-language Scrabble player and former world champion. He is featured in Stefan Fatsis's book Word Freak , [1] in Eric Chaikin's film Word Wars , [2] and in Scott Petersen's film Scrabylon. [3] [4] He is also mentioned in Collins Gem's reference book.
He was born in The Bronx, New York in 1962, and is an alumnus of the Bronx High School of Science.[ citation needed ]
Sherman's major Scrabble tournament victories include:
Since beginning his career in 1988, he has played at least 4,750 tournament games, winning about 64%, and earning at least $135,000 in prize money. [5] He is director of NASPA Games Club #56, which meets on Thursday evenings in New York City.[ citation needed ]
Sherman holds the record for the highest score recorded in a tournament game played with the North American lexicon, having defeated Bradley Robbins 803-285 at a tournament in Stamford, Connecticut on December 9, 2011. [6]
His nickname is derived from a health problem, gastrointestinal reflux syndrome, and a pun on the G.I. Joe action figure.[ citation needed ]
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left to right in rows or downward in columns and are included in a standard dictionary or lexicon.
Mark Nyman is an English professional Scrabble player originally from London, England and now a resident in Cheshire. At the end of 2002, he was rated 205 and was top-rated in the ABSP ratings. As at 7 September 2015 he is rated 200. His 27 consecutive tournament game wins is an ABSP record. He is most widely known as the first British player to win the World Scrabble Championship, which he accomplished in 1993. He married in 2004 and has two children, Max and Kizzy.
Joel Wapnick is a Scrabble player from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, best known for winning the 1999 World Scrabble Championship (WSC).
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Word Freak is a non-fiction narrative by Stefan Fatsis published in 2001 (ISBN 0-618-01584-1).
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Stefan Fatsis is an American author and journalist. He regularly appears as a guest on National Public Radio's All Things Considered daily radio news program and as a panelist on Slate's sports podcast Hang Up and Listen. He is a former staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
Word Wars is a 2004 documentary film directed by Eric Chaikin and Julian Petrillo about competitive Scrabble playing. Its full title is: Word Wars - Tiles and Tribulations on the Scrabble Circuit. The film was an official selection at the 2004 Sundance film festival, had a 25-city theatrical run, was included as part of the Discovery Times Channel's "Screening Room" series, and was nominated for numerous awards including a 2004 Documentary Emmy for "Best Artistic or Cultural Programming" and an International Documentary Association (IDA) Award. The film is distributed by 7th Art Releasing.
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David Eldar is an Australian Scrabble player and pro-amateur poker player who specializes in Omaha hold 'em. He is the World Scrabble Champion of 2017, sweeping Harshan Lamabadusuriya 3–0 in the final, and 2023, again beating Lamabadusuriya by a score of 4–3.
Nigel Richards is a New Zealand–Malaysian Scrabble player who is widely regarded as the greatest tournament-Scrabble player of all time. Born and raised in New Zealand, Richards became World Champion in 2007, and repeated the feat in 2011, 2013, 2018, and 2019. He also won the third World English-Language Scrabble Players’ Association Championship (WESPAC) in 2019.
The World English-Language Scrabble Players' Association (WESPA) is the overarching global body for English-language national Scrabble associations and similar entities.
Peter Morris is an American baseball researcher and author. A lifelong love of baseball led him to membership in the Society for American Baseball Research, where he became an active member of the Biographical Committee, researching the lives of early major league baseball players.
Will Anderson is known as a tournament Scrabble player and Scrabble content creator on YouTube. He is the North American national champion in 2017, winning 25 out of 31 games, finishing ahead of runner-up Mack Meller.
Harriet T. Righter was an American businesswoman, the president of Selchow and Righter, a game company, which was co-founded by her father. Her best-known addition to the company's properties was Scrabble, which she thought was "a nice little game".
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