The MSI World Scrabble Championship 2016 was a

Scrabble ''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 t ...

tournament organised by

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

and Mindsports International (MSI) to determine the

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in English Scrabble. It was held from 31 August to 4 September 2016 in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

, France. The event was split into two divisions based on players' World English-Language Scrabble Players' Association (WESPA) ratings. The top division comprised some 72 players. 24 games were played on the first three days, after which the top eight proceeded to a 3-game quarterfinals, with the winners advancing to a 5-game semifinals on the same day; the top two players,

Brett Smitheram Brett Smitheram is a Scrabble Grand Master and one of the most successful players in the history of the game. Smitheram is the reigning (2022) UK National Scrabble Champion, defeating a high-calibre field in June. He won the 2016 World Scrabble Cham ...

and

Mark Nyman Mark Nyman (born 14 October 1966) is an English professional Scrabble player originally from London, England and now a resident in Cheshire. At the end of 2002, he was rated 205 and was top-rated in the ABSP ratings. As at 7 September 2015 he i ...

, played a best-of-five final the day after for the top prize of €7,000. Smitheram beat Nyman 3–0. The World Championship was held in conjunction with that of Scrabble in other languages.

Background

The MSI World Scrabble Championship 2016 was held from 31 August to 4 September 2016 under the auspices of Mindsports International and sponsored by

and

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

(the publisher of the official lexicon used in play), as part of the Mindsports International 2016 Championships. The playing venue was the

Lille Grand Palais Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...

. There were two divisions based on players' WESPA ratings: A (1700 and above, or by invitation by WESPA or the World Mind Sports Federation) and B (below 1700 or unrated). MSI also hosted World Championships in other languages, including French,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

, alongside the French Duplicate Championship.

Participants

The top division comprised a total of 72 players, as listed below alphabetically. * , 2107 * , 2094 * , 2025 * , 1709 * , 1736 * , 2170 * , 1520 * , 1985 * , 1869 * , 1812 * , 2157 * , 1511 * , 1795 * , 2220 * , 2013 * , 2002 * , 2168 * , 2048 * , 1767 * , 2015 * , 2053 * , 1969 * , 2061 * , 1837 * , 1781 * , 1573 * , 1093 * , 1500 * , 1437 * , 2012 * , 1565 * , 1869 * , 1047 * , 1632 * , 1986 * , 1990 * , 1528 * , 2145 * , 1140 * , 1717 * , 2115 * , 1817 * , 2065 * , 1870 * , 1804 * , 1730 * , 1702 * , 1792 * , 1705 * , 1923 * , 2258 * , 1539 * , 1770 * , 2015 * , 2053 * , 1571 * , 1828 * , 1816 * , 1808 * , 2024 * , 1661 * , 1588 * , 1821 * , 1797 * , 1655 * , 1851 * , 1933 * , 1747 * , 1928 * , 1873 * , 2132 * , 1774

Results

Preliminary

After 24 preliminary rounds, the top eight advanced to the quarterfinals. Three-time World Champion Nigel Richards (2007, 2011, and 2013) failed to qualify for the knockout rounds, as did 2015 and 2014 World Champions

Wellington Jighere Wellington Jighere (born in Umolo-Olomu, Delta State, Nigeria), is a professional Nigerian scrabble player who won the inaugural WESPA Championship in 2015 to become the first African player to be crowned World Scrabble Champion. He defeated Lew ...

and

Craig Beevers Craig Beevers is an English professional Scrabble player and former World Scrabble Champion. Professional career 2014 In the World Championship, or Scrabble Champions Tournament 2014, Scrabble Champions Tournament (SCT) as it was dubbed that year ...

. Source:

Knockout

Source: Semi-finals losers Lewis MacKay and 2005 World Champion Adam Logan were scheduled to play a best-of-three third-place playoff, but Logan forfeited and MacKay automatically clinched the title of second runner-up.

Finals

Source: UK-based recruitment consultant Brett Smitheram beat fellow Englishman and writer Mark Nyman, the 1993 World Scrabble Champion, 3–0 in the best-of-five finals, and became the 2016 World Scrabble Champion and won €7,000. Notable plays by Smitheram included

BRACONID The Braconidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. After the closely related Ichneumonidae, braconids make up the second-largest family in the order Hymenoptera, with about 17,000 recognized species and many thousands more undescribed. One analysis ...

for 181 points (176 points plus 5 points for an unsuccessful challenge by Nyman), GYNAECIA (95) and

PERIAGUA Periagua (from Spanish ''piragua'', in turn derived from the Carib language word for dugout) is the term formerly used in the Caribbean and the eastern seaboard of North America for a range of small craft including canoes and small sailing vessels ...

(76). Incidentally, Smitheram was a former contestant on the television programme ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'', and Nyman was one of its producers. In the second division, Jack Mpakaboari beat Sandy Nang 3–0 in a best-of-five finals.

References

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2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

2016 in French sport September 2016 sports events in Europe