World English-Language Scrabble Players' Association

Last updated

The World English-Language Scrabble Players' Association (WESPA) is the overarching global body for English-language national Scrabble associations and similar entities.

Contents

Formation

WESPA was formed in the course of a players' meeting at the 2003 World Scrabble Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and formally constituted on 17 November 2005 at its first Biennial General Meeting held in London. BGMs are now held at each World Scrabble Championship (taking place every odd year), and there are currently 24 member organisations.

WESPA was created to represent the interests of international Scrabble competitors and national bodies worldwide. Its main functions are to promote global recognition of Scrabble as a serious competitive activity; to provide for the benefit of members in pursuing the game; to further the best interests of Scrabble and international tournament players; to represent such players in dealings with other bodies, including the trademark owners of the game; to promulgate and encourage international convergence towards common standards and norms (including international rules, word lists and ratings); to organise global competitions and events; to publish relevant material; and to maintain a website for the benefit of the game and its players.

The trademark for Scrabble is owned by Hasbro in North America and Mattel in the rest of the world.

Achievements to date have included the preparation of a set of international rules, the publication of a WESPA-endorsed word list which is valid for international tournament play, and the promulgation of international Scrabble ratings.

Rules

Following a six-month worldwide consultation process, the first version of WESPA's rules for global Scrabble was released in August 2009. The rules were based on key elements of existing rules that were in force in various national associations, which were synthesised to create global best practice. Following feedback from their use in various international tournaments, extensive reviews took place prior to the issue of version two in November 2010, which was used at the 2011 World Scrabble Championship in Warsaw, Poland, and other international events such as the Causeway Challenge. [1] Version three was released in 2015.

A number of national associations have adopted WESPA rules for domestic use, including the Association of British Scrabble Players.

Word list

The word source currently in use for international play, known as Collins Scrabble Words or CSW (formerly Official Scrabble Words or OSW) is not derived from a single dictionary, but combines three components: Collins (7th edition, 2005), Chambers (1998 edition) and TWL, the current Northern American wordlist. TWL (Tournament Word List) is a subset of CSW, but is itself drawn from a range of sources, mostly different editions of Webster's. North American tournaments generally use TWL alone for domestic play, but all tournaments under the auspices of WESPA must use CSW.

The current word list (CSW19) came into force internationally on 1 July 2019, [2] including updates from the most recent editions of original OSW sources as well as eliminating some inconsistencies in previous editions. CSW19 contains over 275,000 words in total (up to the theoretical maximum fifteen letters in length), of which around 119,000 are up to eight letters in length. By contrast, TWL holds approximately two thirds as many words in total. CSW is therefore substantially larger than TWL and has a more international flavour, including a number of local or dialect words from around the world.

Ratings

International Scrabble ratings have been maintained since their inception by Bob Jackman in Sydney, Australia, using a variant of the Australian ratings calculation system. All tournaments played to WESPA rules are able to be rated within the system, and regular updates are posted on the WESPA website. The first rated tournament in the system was the 1993 World Scrabble Championship, which was held in New York.

Tournaments

WESPA has established the criteria for running international Scrabble tournaments, and it is now mandatory for WESPA rules and the WESPA word list to be used. Tournament organisers are also required to pay a ratings levy on a fee per player basis, in order for the tournament to qualify for international rating.

The tournament committee oversees the calendar of international Scrabble events, and has also liaised with Mattel on a number of issues relating to the World Scrabble Championship (WSC), including the number of games to be played and the format of the finals. Furthermore, a country's allocated number of representatives may fluctuate for each WSC depending on the team performance in the previous event, and WESPA has ratified the formula [3] for changes to team allocations. In short, after each event the participating countries are ranked according to the average individual finishing rank of their players; teams falling in the top half may be entitled to gain a player for next time, while teams in the bottom half may lose a player.

Following the establishment of Mind Sports International, the title 'World Scrabble Championship' was claimed by that entity for official world titles (sanctioned by Mattel under licence). WESPA has undertaken to host biennial world events from 2015 onwards using the old WSC format, with teams qualifying from national organisations.

In 2015 the first WESPA Championship was an official World Scrabble Championship and was won by Wellington Jighere.

In 2017 the second WESPA Championship was held in Nairobi, Kenya in November, won by Akshay Bhandarkar.

In 2019 the third WESPA Championship was held in Goa, India. The best of seven final was contested between Nigel Richards and Jesse Day. The seventh and deciding game was won by Nigel Richards with a crucial triple-triple.

In 2021 the fourth WESPA Championship was called the WESPAC 2021 Virtual Gladiators Scrabble Championships and was held online at Woogles, hosted in Pakistan by the PSA (Pakistan Scrabble Association). In the seventh and final game, Alastair Richards of New Zealand won the title with a 13-point lead, defeating Australia’s David Eldar.

In 2023 the fifth WESPA Championship in Las Vegas was won by David Eldar who defeated Harshan Lamabadusuriya to capture the $10,000 first prize in a four-day, 32-game tournament.

WESPA Championships (WESPAC)

YearWinnerRunner-upLocationEntrantsWinner's prizeTotal prize pool
2015 Flag of Nigeria.svg Wellington Jighere [4] Flag of England.svg Lewis Mackay Gloucester Park, Perth, Australia 130 A$ 10,000A$28,400
2017 Flag of Bahrain.svg Akshay Bhandarkar [5] Flag of Nigeria.svg Moses Peter Nairobi, Kenya US$ 20,000
2019 Flag of New Zealand.svg Nigel Richards [6] Flag of the United States.svg Jesse Day Goa, India 140 US$ 20,000
2021 Flag of New Zealand.svg Alastair Richards [7] Flag of Australia (converted).svg David Eldar Woogles and Pakistan €3,500
2023 Flag of Australia (converted).svg David Eldar [8] Flag of England.svg Harshan Lamabadusuriya Las Vegas US$ 10,000

Youth Scrabble

The World Youth Scrabble Championships, renamed WESPA Youth Cup for 2017 further to a naming issue with Mindsports Academy, have been organised annually since 2006 under the aegis of WESPA for players under 18 on qualification date. The Youth committee has also been active in promoting the game among young players worldwide, including training workshops held in various locations.

Committee

The WESPA committee is made up of nominees representing member nations, and the current Chair is Elie Dangoor (UK). Various subcommittees are charged with matters such as promotions and communications, ratings and tournaments, rules, dictionary and youth.

The first Chair of WESPA was Allan Simmons (UK) who led the organisation from inception through to 2008. He was succeeded by Bahrain-based Roy Kietzmann, who died in 2009 prior to the appointment of Elie Dangoor. In 2019, Dangoor resigned and was replaced by Chris Lipe.

Other federations

WESPA has committee links with the two other major world Scrabble federations, FISF (Fédération Internationale de Scrabble Francophone) [9] and FISE (Federación Internacional de Scrabble en Español). [10]

Mailing list

The world-scrabble mailing list [11] discusses international Scrabble matters and WESPA issues.

Related Research Articles

<i>Scrabble</i> Board game with words

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.

The World Scrabble Championship (WSC) is played to determine the world champion in competitive English-language Scrabble. It was held in every odd year from 1991 to 2013; from 2013 onwards, it became an annual event.

The World Scrabble Championship 1997 was the fourth World Scrabble Championship. The winner was Joel Sherman of the United States.

Collins Scrabble Words is the word list used in English-language tournament Scrabble in most countries except the US, Thailand and Canada. The term SOWPODS is an anagram of the two abbreviations OSPD and OSW, these being the original two official dictionaries used in various parts of the world at the time. Although the two source dictionaries have now changed their respective titles, the term SOWPODS is still used by tournament players to refer to the combination of the two sources. There has not been any actual hard-copy list produced called SOWPODS, although the current Collins Scrabble Words, or CSW, is in effect the full SOWPODS list by a different name.

The Association of British Scrabble Players oversees competitive Scrabble in the UK. It was formed in 1987 by agreement with J W Spear & Sons, the game's trademark owner, who were subsequently bought out by Mattel in 1993. It currently has around 600 members.

The Scrabble Players Championship is the largest Scrabble competition in North America. The event is currently held every year, and from 2004 through 2006 the finals were aired on ESPN and ESPN2. The 2023 event was held in Las Vegas from July 15–19, 2023, with Joshua Sokol emerging as champion.

Bingo is a term used in North American Scrabble for a play in which a player puts seven tiles on the board in a single turn. Mattel, the game's manufacturer outside North America, uses the term bonus to describe such a word. In French, it is called a scrabble. A player who does this receives a 50-point bonus, which is applied after the rest of the play is scored.

The first World Youth Scrabble Championships were held in Wollongong, Australia 2006. Competitors from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, England, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates and United States have competed in the annual tournament so far. WYSC is open to anyone under the age of 18 on 1 January of the year of each tournament. The tournament used to be held at the start of December but was brought forward to August for 2014. So far the WYSC tournament has been held in Malaysia five times, Australia twice, Dubai twice and the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom once each.

English-language Scrabble is the original version of the popular word-based board game invented in 1938 by US architect Alfred Mosher Butts, who based the game on English letter distribution in The New York Times. The Scrabble variant most popular in English is standard match play, where two players compete over a series of games. Duplicate Scrabble is not popular in English, and High score Scrabble is no longer practised.

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 (<i>Scrabble</i> player) New Zealand Scrabble champion (born 1967)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASPA Games</span> Scrabble tournament and club organization

NASPA Games, formerly known as North American Scrabble Players Association (NASPA), is a nonprofit organization founded in 2009 to administer competitive Scrabble tournaments and clubs in North America. It officially took over these activities from the National Scrabble Association (NSA) on July 1, 2009. As of July 31, 2021, the organization is no longer associated with the North American owner of the SCRABBLE® trademarks, Hasbro, Inc.

The World Scrabble Championship 2013, renamed by Mattel to Scrabble Champions Tournament, was held in Andel's Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic during December 2013.

The Singapore Open Scrabble Championship is an international Scrabble tournament held each year in Singapore, established in 1998. The field of players is considerably large and it is not an invitational event. World Scrabble champion Nigel Richards has the most Singapore Open wins, with twelve between 2000 and 2017.

The WESPA World Scrabble Championship 2015 was organised by WESPA, the World English-language Scrabble Players' Association, which commissioned ASPA, the Australian Scrabble Players Association, to hold a World Scrabble Championship invitational event in Perth, Western Australia from November 4 to 8. Mattel and Mind Sports International agreed to this.

The MSI World Scrabble Championship 2016 was a Scrabble tournament organised by Mattel and Mindsports International (MSI) to determine the world champion in English Scrabble. It was held from 31 August to 4 September 2016 in Lille, France.

Craig Beevers is an English professional Scrabble player and former World Scrabble Champion.

The MSI World Scrabble Championship 2017 was a Scrabble tournament organised by Mattel and Mindsports International (MSI) to determine the world champion in English Scrabble. It was held from 22 to 27 August in Nottinghamshire, England.

The Mattel World Scrabble Championship 2018 was a Scrabble tournament organised by Mattel and Mindsports Academy (MSA) to determine the world champion in English Scrabble held from 23 to 28 October 2018.

The Mattel World Scrabble Championship 2019 was a Scrabble tournament organised by Mattel and Mindsports Academy (MSA) to determine the world champion in English Scrabble held from 19 to 24 November 2019.

References

  1. ↑ "Causeway Scrabble 2010". Archived from the original on September 11, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  2. ↑ "CSW19 Q and A". csw19qanda.shtml. Retrieved October 28, 2019.[ permanent dead link ]
  3. ↑ "WSC History".
  4. ↑ "Nigeria celebrates Africa's first English-language Scrabble win". BBC News Online . November 9, 2015. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  5. ↑ "We all make mistakes: Analysis of 2017 WESPAC Finals".
  6. ↑ "2019 WESPA Championship - Goa, India" (PDF). nsw.scrabble.org.au.
  7. ↑ "New Zealand's Alastair Richards wins Gladiators Virtual Scrabble World Championship".
  8. ↑ Fatsis, Stefan (August 9, 2023). "This Year's World Scrabble Champion Blew Everyone Away with a Three-Letter Word". Slate.
  9. ↑ "Home". fisf.net.
  10. ↑ "Home". fisescrabble.org.
  11. ↑ "World-scrabble : World Scrabble". Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.