The World Scrabble Championship 2009 was held in the Zon Regency Hotel,
Johor Bahru,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
, between November 26 to November 29.
[http://www.wscgames.com/2009/ WSC 2009] The tournament format was 24 rounds for all players, followed by best-of-five finals between the top two players. There were 116 places allocated to competitors from around the world,
[http://www.wscgames.com/2009/register.html WSC 2009 Registration] with 108 players eventually competing.
[http://live.wscgames.com/2009/standing/1/24.html WSC 2009 Standings: Round 24]
Results
The winner was
Pakorn Nemitrmansuk
Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (born 1975) is one of Thailand's top Scrabble players and the 2009 World Scrabble Champion.http://www.wscgames.com/2009/ WSC 2009 An architect and resident of Bangkok, Thailand, Nemitrmansuk has competed at World Scrabble Champ ...
of
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
who defeated the reigning champion
Nigel Richards of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
with three games to one in the best-of-five finals.
[http://live.wscgames.com/2009/finals.html WSC 2009: Finals] The two finalists earned their spots by each winning 18 games in the first 24 rounds.
Dave Wiegand
Dave Wiegand (born July 22, 1974) is an American Scrabble player who won the National Scrabble Championship in 2005 and 2009.
Wiegand placed second in the same event in 1994 and third in 2000. He also finished eighth (of 102 competitors) in the ...
of
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
won 17 games and placed third.
Pakorn set two additional WSC records at this event, by winning 14 consecutive games in the preliminaries
and by scoring 670 points in a final game,
which included a triple-triple of the word PALUDINE scoring 167 points.
The first game was close, Pakorn winning 425-419.
Bingos from Pakorn included
HOMEWARE Home accessories are furniture items which are easy to replace and easy to move, and include almost any items that are not strictly functionally necessary in a decorated space. These accessories include such items as curtains, sofa sets, cushions, t ...
, DELEtING and DRENCHING. Bingos from Nigel were STAMINAS and REDEPLOY.
The second game was a record 670-303
win for Pakorn, during which he had a personal best 5:04 remaining on the clock. Pakorn started with the bingo UNRuLES and continued with
OORIEST,
EBRIATE and the triple-triple
PALUDINE. He also had luck with the Z and Q. Nigel chipped in with bingo REAcTOR.
Nigel pulled one back in the third game, 443-394.
He had two bingos
JINKERS and
LICHTED compared to Pakorn's three:
REpTANT, STAINED and
RAMPAUGE, but Nigel scored more with his (100+ per bingo).
The fourth game saw Pakorn take the title of World Champion at last, after two runner-up positions, in a high scoring and close game 499-480.
It was a bingo-bingo start, with Pakorn getting
ADVENES and Nigel
GRIFTERS. Nigel had a further FrEEHOLD and
BOHEMIAN
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Beer
* National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst
* Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
. Pakorn followed up with
GENETRIX on the triple and a game winning
BOTANICA and
BOWATS.
Complete Results
*FINALS:
*Game 1: Pakorn 425 – Nigel 419
*Game 2: Pakorn 670 – Nigel 303
*Game 3: Nigel 443 – Pakorn 394
*Game 4: Pakorn 499 – Nigel 480
References
External links
Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:2009, World Scrabble Championship
2009
2009 in Malaysian sport
Sport in Johor
Johor Bahru