World Scrabble Championship

October 23, 2003 8:02 AM

The World Scrabble Championshipis taking place this week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 98 players from 38 countries are competing in the seventh biennial WSC. The format: everyone plays 24 games over three days, then the top two finishers play a best-of-five match for the championship. Past winners include three Americans, two Canadians and an Englishman, but this year's final pits two Thai players: Pakorn Nemitrmansuk vs Panupol Sujjaykorn.
posted by Daze (15 comments total)

It's a good thing you can't use proper names 'cause those 2 guys could clean up just spelling their names.
posted by debralee at 8:08 AM on October 23, 2003

For moreon the world of high-stakes Scrabble, I highly recommend Stephan Fatsis' Word Freak. Awesome book, although it got me into trouble with my wife when I got all fired up and supercompetitive in home Scrabble games...
posted by COBRA! at 8:12 AM on October 23, 2003

The site for this year's WSC caused some controversy among international scrabblers. Malaysian law restricts Israelis from entering the country. The host committee assured Israeli players they were welcome to attend, but discrimination against Israelis at previous international events in Malaysia wasn't reassuring. The Israeli team withdrew from the WSC. Whether for political, safety or financial concerns, many top North American players opted not to attend either. (Unlike past WSCs, Hasbro declined to pay travel and lodging costs for American and Canadian qualifiers. Airfare and a week in Kuala Lumpur is pricey.)
posted by Daze at 8:21 AM on October 23, 2003

So I assume all these games are in English? Wonder if this gives non-native speakers a disadvantage, or maybe even an advantage.
posted by gottabefunky at 8:29 AM on October 23, 2003

I remember playing recently with some pretty bright friends, and we all just seemed to get the worst tiles. It was a whole game of words like "or" and "yes" and "at". So embarrassing....
posted by jalexei at 8:41 AM on October 23, 2003

The games ARE in English, which makes you wonder how these folks are able to memorize so many words in a second language.

Of course, Bono would be censored.
posted by sixpack at 8:45 AM on October 23, 2003

I second the recommendation of Stefan Fatsis's book.

Although, when I found out that when you get to the higher levels of Scrabble, it's more of a game of MATH than it is a game of LANGUAGE.

(And COBRA!, I also enraged the missus by trying to force my new Scrabble Kung Fu on her--"Where are you going? That's a perfectly cromulent word! Come back, baby! I'm winning!")
posted by ColdChef at 8:47 AM on October 23, 2003

The games are in English. There used to be separate North American and British dictionaries, but nowadays international matches use the combined NA/Brit dictionary (known by the acronym SOWPODS).

American, Canadian and Israeli clubs and tournaments still use the NA dictionary. So in that sense, players from those countries are at some disadvantage in international play because they have to keep two different dictionaries straight. The rest of the world uses SOWPODS exclusively.
posted by Daze at 8:47 AM on October 23, 2003

it's more of a game of MATH than it is a game of LANGUAGE.

that's why I'd think in some ways foreign players might have an advantage - it becomes raw memorization, like rattling off prime numbers or something. you don't have to worry about the distraction of what the words actually mean.
posted by gottabefunky at 8:52 AM on October 23, 2003

American, Canadian and Israeli clubs and tournaments still use the NA dictionary. So in that sense, players from those countries are at some disadvantage in international play because they have to keep two different dictionaries straight.

A friend of mine who is playing in the WSC (John O'Laughlin, who ended up placing 28th) ran into that. He ended up playing SOWPODS-only games for the 6 months prior to the WSC in order to prepare. Honestly, they have much cooler/funnier words - junglist, gangsta(s), chocolatiest, and otaku to name a few.

He also says that it really is a game of math and probability. In competetive Scrabble you'll see a lot of math and computer science people, but no english majors.
posted by zsazsa at 9:26 AM on October 23, 2003

Hey! I was just about to post that I know John.

Weird.

Interesting story, once we were chillin', and I was quizzing him by giving him known anagrams of my friends' names, and he'd think for about twenty seconds, then bust out the correct answer.

It's really amazing.
posted by rocketman at 10:11 AM on October 23, 2003

Amazingly anal retentive. Or should that be anal-retentive?

[scroll down a bit]
posted by ursus_comiter at 11:18 AM on October 23, 2003

john is an international scrabble superstar
posted by kjh at 12:11 PM on October 23, 2003

And if you've read Word Freak, try to watch Scrabylon so that you can see some of those players in action. The documentary is pretty entertaining.
posted by gluechunk at 1:34 AM on October 24, 2003

And the champion is ... Panupol Sujjayakorn. The WSC site has all five final-round games available for play-by-play review.
posted by Daze at 8:24 AM on October 24, 2003