The World Scrabble Championship (WSC) is the most-prestigious title in competitive English-language Scrabble. It was held every second year after 1991 until 2013 when it began to be held annually. Although the official brand name and organizations of the event have changed over recent years, many Scrabble enthusiasts from more than 30 countries compete to become World Scrabble Champion. The reigning World Scrabble Champion is David Eldar, who won the title at the MSI World Championships in Nottingham, England in 2017.
Video World Scrabble Championship
Overview
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.
The number of players competing in the tournament has risen steadily over time, from 48 in 1991 to 108 in 2009. Each country is allocated seats for the championship, and individual countries' national associations determine which of their players represent them. This is typically done by means of a national rating system or qualifier tournaments. A good performance by a national team according to specific criteria will earn further permanent places for that country.
The official dictionary, used in the majority of English-language Scrabble-playing countries and colloquially known as SOWPODS (an anagram of OSPD and OSW), was used until 2007. It is a combination of two dictionaries: OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary), published in the US, and OSW (Official Scrabble Words), published in the UK. Local tournaments used only their respective dictionary for the tournament, and each contains words chiefly used and spelled in US English and UK English. Since 2007, Collins supplies the only dictionary used in the WSC, Collins Scrabble Words, which is published in the UK. It was updated on 21 May, 2015 before later being approved by the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association (WESPA) for tournaments on 1 September.
On May 17, 2013, Mattel announced 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.
In 2014 the Scrabble Champions Tournament continued in London, but it became an open event, with all players invited to compete.
In 2015 Mattel and MSI agreed to allow WESPA to organize their own traditional unofficial World Championship, branded the WESPA Championship (WESPAC). It was held in Perth, Australia and followed the invitational format of earlier WSCs. 130 players qualifyied to play. Wellington Jighere of Nigeria emerged as WESPA Champion after beating Lewis Mackay 4-0 in the final.
In 2016, the tournament was branded as the MSI World Championships and 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 were to be held in Doha, Qatar in August 2017, but on 13 June it was announced that the tournament was to be relocated to Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was also split into two divisions based on players' rankings. The second WESPA Championships (first held in 2015) were held in Nairobi, Kenya in November and won by Akshay Bhandarkar.
Maps World Scrabble Championship
History
See also
- Brand's Crossword Game King's Cup
- Canadian Scrabble Championship
- List of world championships in mind sports
- North American Scrabble Championship
- National School Scrabble Championship (North America)
- Scrabble
- World Youth Scrabble Championships
References
External links
- WSC official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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