World Scrabble Championship

This article is about the tournament in English. For other uses, see World Scrabble Championships (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with the Scrabble Players Championship or the WESPA Championship.

World Scrabble Championship

Sport	Scrabble
Founded	1991
Most recent champion(s)	David Eldar (2nd title) (2023)
Sponsor(s)	Mattel, MSA

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 most successful player in world championship history is Nigel Richards from New Zealand, who won a record five titles between 2007 and 2019.

History

Sponsorship of the World Scrabble Championship (WSC) formerly alternated between Hasbro and Mattel, the North American and global owners of the Scrabble trademark, respectively. However, after Hasbro declined to sponsor WSC 2005, Mattel has organized and sponsored all championships. Mind Sports International (MSI) began sponsoring the event in 2013 after successfully organizing their own major Scrabble tournament in Prague in 2012. As of 2018, it has been sponsored by Mindsports Academy.

On 17 May 2013, Mattel announced ^[1] that the event would be renamed the Scrabble Champions Tournament, and the tournament would be held annually as part of Mind Sports International's Prague Mind Sports Festival. MSI introduced a 'Last Chance Qualifier' tournament, giving players a last opportunity to qualify for 5 places in the main event if they failed to achieve a place on their national team. A four-way knockout stage was introduced for the top four finishers, which consisted of a best-of-3 semi-final followed by a best-of-5 final. Nigel Richards became World Champion here, making him the first player to defend his world title.

In 2014 the Scrabble Champions Tournament continued in London, but it became an open event, with all players invited to compete. A quarter-final stage was added, meaning that the top 8 progressed to the knockout stages. Craig Beevers won the event, making him the first British World Scrabble Champion since Mark Nyman in 1993.

In 2015, following cancellation of the SCT, Mattel and MSI agreed to allow WESPA to organize the 2015 WESPA Championship (WESPAC). It was held in Perth, Australia and followed the invitational format of pre-MSI WSC events. 130 players qualified to play. Wellington Jighere of Nigeria emerged as WESPA Champion after beating Lewis Mackay 4–0 in the final.

In 2016, the tournament was split into two divisions based on players' rankings. MSI also hosted world championships in other languages, including French, German, Spanish and Catalan, alongside the French Duplicate Championship.

The 2017 MSI World Championships followed the same format as the 2016 event. This was won by Australian David Eldar.

The 2018 World Scrabble Championship was organised by Mindsports Academy. The main event was held in Torquay, Devon, but the best-of-5 final was held in London to celebrate the game's 70th anniversary. The event was won by Nigel Richards.

In 2019 Nigel Richards went on to defend his title (and win his fifth championship) against David Eldar at the Riviera International Centre in Torquay.

After 2019, unofficial world championships are held at WESPAC because WESPA has been denied permission from Mattel and/or Hasbro to be called an official world championship.

List of finals

Year	Winner	Runner-up	Location	Entrants	Winner's prize	Total prize pool	Sponsor
1991	Peter Morris	Brian Cappelletto	London, United Kingdom	48	US$10,000 [2]	US$19,000 [2]	Spears
1993	Mark Nyman	Joel Wapnick	Plaza Hotel, New York City, United States	64	US$10,000 [3]	US$24,950 [3]	Hasbro
1995	David Boys	Joel Sherman	Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, London, United Kingdom	64	US$11,000 [4]	US$29,550 [4]	Mattel
1997	Joel Sherman	Matt Graham	Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C., United States	80	US$25,000 [5]	US$50,100 [5]	Hasbro
1999	Joel Wapnick	Mark Nyman	Carlton Crest Hotel, Melbourne, Australia	98	US$15,000 [6]	US$34,200 [6]	Mattel
2001	Brian Cappelletto	Joel Wapnick	Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas, United States	88	US$25,000 [7]	US$50,100 [7]	Hasbro
2003	Panupol Sujjayakorn	Pakorn Nemitrmansuk	Corus Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	90	US$17,500 [8]	US$40,000 [8]	Mattel
2005	Adam Logan	Pakorn Nemitrmansuk	Marriott Regent's Park Hotel, London, United Kingdom	102	US$15,000 [9]	US$30,500 [9]	Mattel
2007	Nigel Richards (1)	Ganesh Asirvatham	Taj President Hotel, Mumbai, India	104	US$15,000 [10]	US$30,500 [10]	Mattel
2009	Pakorn Nemitrmansuk [11]	Nigel Richards [12]	Zon Regency Hotel, Johor Bahru, Malaysia [13]	108	US$15,000 [14]	US$30,500 [14]	Mattel
2011	Nigel Richards (2)	Andrew Fisher	Hilton Hotel, Warsaw, Poland [15]	106	US$20,000 [16]	US$50,000 [16]	Mattel
2013	Nigel Richards (3)	Komol Panyasophonlert	Andel's Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic	110	US$ 10,000 [17]	US$25,000 [1]	Mattel, MSI
2014	Craig Beevers	Chris Lipe	ExCeL Arena, London, United Kingdom	108	£3,000	£7,000 [18]	Mattel, MSI
2015	Wellington Jighere [19]	Lewis Mackay	Gloucester Park, Perth, Australia	130	A$ 10,000	A$28,400	WESPA (1)
2016	Brett Smitheram	Mark Nyman	Grand Palais, Lille, France	72	€7,000	€40,000	Mattel, MSI
2017	David Eldar	Harshan Lamabadusuriya	Nottingham, United Kingdom	77	£ 7,000 [20]		Mattel, MSI
2018	Nigel Richards (4)	Jesse Day	Torquay (final in Westfield London), United Kingdom	75	£ 6,200	£ 15,500 [21]	Mattel, MSA
2019	Nigel Richards (5)	David Eldar	Riviera International Centre, Torquay, United Kingdom	46	$8,000		Mattel, MSA
2023	David Eldar (2)	Harshan Lamabadusuriya	Las Vegas, United States	134	$10,000		WESPA

From 1993 to 2023, New Zealand, represented by Nigel Richards with his 5 victories, is the most successful country participating in the World Scrabble Championship. This accounts for 27.8% of the total wins. The United States of America, England and Canada each secured 3 victories, placing them all in second place. ^[22]

Championships by country

Country	Titles [1]
New Zealand	5
USA	3
Canada	3
England	3
Thailand	2
Australia	2
Nigeria	1

See also

• World Youth Scrabble Championships
• List of world championships in mind sports

References

1. "Press Release". Forum.mindsportsinternational.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
2. WSC 1991 results at cross-tables.com
3. WSC 1993 results at cross-tables.com
4. WSC 1995 results at cross-tables.com
5. John J. Chew III. "WSC 1997 Prizes". Wscgames.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
6. WSC 1999 results at cross-tables.com
7. "2001 World SCRABBLE® Championship". Scrabble-assoc.com. 3 May 2001. Archived from the original on 8 April 2009. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
8. "Scrabble Masters". Wscgames.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
9. John J. Chew III. "2005 WSC Prizes". Wscgames.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
10. John J. Chew III. "2007 WSC Prizes". Wscgames.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
11. "WSC 2009 Standings: Round 24". live.wscgames.com. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
12. John J. Chew III. "WSC 2009: Finals". Live.wscgames.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
13. John J. Chew III. "2009 WSC Venue". Wscgames.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
14. John J. Chew III. "2009 WSC Prizes". Wscgames.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
15. John J. Chew III. "2011 WSC Venue". Wscgames.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
16. John J. Chew III. "2011 WSC Prizes". Wscgames.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
17. "Prize Table". Event.poslfit.com. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
18. "World SCRABBLE Championship – NASPAWiki".
19. "Nigeria celebrates Africa's first English-language Scrabble win". BBC News Online . 9 November 2015. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
20. "Obscure word propels Londoner to victory in world Scrabble championships". www.telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph Media Group. 27 August 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
21. "Sulky word wins Scrabble championship". BBC News. 29 October 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
22. "Percantage of World Scrabble Championship by Country (1993–2023)". www.crosswordsolver.com. Retrieved 1 August 2024.