World Champs
2011 Event
The official website of the 2011 event is www.wscgames.com.
Humble beginnings
The first Scrabble World Championship was held in London in 1991, hosted by Spears, who were taken over by Mattel in 1994. It featured 48 players from 19 countries. The total prize pool was $US19,000, with $10,000 of that going to the winner.
The tournament event
was played to combined-dictionary rules (Chambers and OSPD), which may have proved problematical for the 'single-dictionary' countries. Or maybe not, given that two Americans contested the best-of-five final. The inaugural winner was Peter Morris, who hasn't returned to play in this tournament since 1993. His finals opponent, a young, fresh-faced Brian Cappelletto, came back to win the event exactly 10 years later.
Global reach
Since then the event has been held two more times in London, and once each in New York, Washington DC, Melbourne, Las Vegas, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Johor Bahru (Malaysia) and Warsaw (Poland). For the first six events, Hasbro (the brand owner in North America) and Mattel (brand owner in the rest of the world) alternated sponsorship, before Hasbro withdrew to focus more on TWL-only events.
The latest WSC — Warsaw in 2011 — had 106 players from 39 countries, including a great many for whom English is not a first language. The prize pool was up to with $50,000, with $US20,000 for the winner.
On the podium
There have been plenty of repeat finalists, showing that the genuine superstars of Scrabble always rise to the challenge on the big stage. Joel Wapnick (Can), Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thai) and Nigel Richards (NZ) have played in three finals each; Brian Cappelletto (US), Mark Nyman (UK) and Joel Sherman (US) have played in two; and Morris, David Boys (Can), Panupol Sujjayakorn (Thai) and Adam Logan (Can) have each nailed the title on their only finals appearance. Only Nigel Richards has won it twice.
| Year | Winner | Runner-up | Location | Entrants | Winner's prize | Total prize pool | Sponsor | Countries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Nigel Richards (  New Zealand) | Andrew Fisher (  Australia) | Warsaw, Poland | 106 | $20,000 | $50,000 | Mattel | 39 |
| 2009 | Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (  Thailand) | Nigel Richards ( New Zealand) | Johor Bahru, Malaysia | 108 | $15,000 | $30,500 | Mattel | 41 |
| 2007 | Nigel Richards ( New Zealand) | Ganesh Asirvatham (  Malaysia) | Mumbai, India | 104 | $15,000 | $30,500 | Mattel | 40 |
| 2005 | Adam Logan (  Canada) | Pakorn Nemitrmansuk ( Thailand) | London, UK | 102 | $15,000 | $30,500 | Mattel | 40 |
| 2003 | Panupol Sujjayakorn ( Thailand) | Pakorn Nemitrmansuk ( Thailand) | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 90 | $17,500 | $40,000 | Mattel | 34 |
| 2001 | Brian Cappelletto (  USA) | Joel Wapnick ( Canada) | Las Vegas, USA | 88 | $25,000 | $50,100 | Hasbro | 36 |
| 1999 | Joel Wapnick ( Canada) | Mark Nyman (  England) | Melbourne, Australia | 98 | $15,000 | $34,200 | Mattel | 31 |
| 1997 | Joel Sherman ( USA) | Matt Graham ( USA) | Washington DC, USA | 80 | $25,000 | $50,100 | Hasbro | 35 |
| 1995 | David Boys ( Canada) | Joel Sherman ( USA) | London, UK | 64 | $11,000 | $29,550 | Mattel | 32 |
| 1993 | Mark Nyman ( England) | Joel Wapnick ( Canada) | New York, USA | 64 | $10,000 | $24,950 | Hasbro | 24 |
| 1991 | Peter Morris ( USA) | Brian Cappelletto ( USA) | London, UK | 48 | $10,000 | $19,000 | Spears | 19 |