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.
Pakorn Nemitrmansuk is one of Thailand's top Scrabble players and the 2009 World Scrabble Champion. An architect and resident of Bangkok, Thailand, Nemitrmansuk has competed at World Scrabble Championship six times between 1999–2011 and was the runner-up in 2003 and 2005.
Helen Gipson is a Scrabble player. On 4 December 2005 her ABSP rating peaked at third in Britain, making her the highest rated woman, and she is consistently rated as the top female player in the world. In January 2009 she won the UK Open beating a strong field including the world champion Nigel Richards.
Francophone Scrabble, or French-language Scrabble, is played by many thousands of amateurs throughout the world and the Fédération internationale de Scrabble francophone has more than 20,000 members. Just as in English, points are scored by playing valid words from the lettered tiles. In French there are 102 tiles - 100 lettered tiles and two blanks known as jokers. The official word list for Francophone Scrabble is L'Officiel du jeu Scrabble.
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.
David Eldar is an Australian amateur 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 UK National Scrabble Championship (NSC), a British national scrabble tournament, held annually since its inception in 1971. While it was formerly organised by Mattel, the copyright owners of Scrabble in the UK, since 2014 it is organised by Association of British Scrabble Players (ABSP). It is one of five major scrabble tournaments in the UK. The other four comprise of the UK Open, the British Isles Elimination Scrabble Tournament (BEST), the British Matchplay Scrabble Championship (BMSC) and the UK Masters. The current UK champion is Paul Allan.
The World Scrabble Championship 2011 was held in the Hilton Hotel, Warsaw, Poland, from 12 October to 16 October 2011. The format was a 34-round preliminary tournament and a best-of-five final. The top two players after the preliminary tournament, Nigel Richards and Andrew Fisher, played a best-of-five final for the top prize and the title of World Scrabble Champion 2011. There were 114 places allocated to competitors from around the world, with 106 players eventually competing.
The World English-Language Scrabble Players' Association (WESPA) is the overarching global body for English-language national Scrabble associations and similar entities.
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 World Scrabble Championship 2014, renamed by Mattel to Scrabble Champions Tournament in 2013, was held at the ExCeL London Exhibition and Convention Centre, London in November 2014. It was the first time that the World Championship had become an open event when MSI invited all players to compete. However, due to the high entry fee and high venue cost, only 108 players entered and the prize money had to be limited.
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.
Moiz Ullah Baig is a Pakistani Scrabble player who won the World Youth Scrabble Championship 2013 and the World Junior Scrabble Championship 2018, becoming the first player ever to win both. He won the Pakistan Scrabble Championship in 2018 and is currently the number 1 player of the country. In December 2018, with a WESPA rating of 1921, he climbed up to the 71st place in the world rankings – his career highest.
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.
