A worthy Causeway
Michael Tang's pet project, the Causeway Challenge, just keeps getting bigger.
This year's event, primed to kick off on 1 December at its usual home of Johor Bahru, Malaysia, consists of three separate tournaments (or four, depending on how you look at it). There's $US100,000 of prize money at stake — more than ever before in the history of competitive Scrabble. 
Tang has succeeded in doing what no one thought possible — assembling almost all former world champions (only one of the 10 is missing) in the one place, at the same time, to face off for the title of "Champion of Champions". Read more
First there's the Premier event, with teams of five players (from each of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Nigeria, Thailand, the UK and the US, plus three multinational teams) playing off in a modified round-robin format over five days and 45 games. This is pretty much the top 50 players in the world battling it out.
Simultaneously, the Open tournament is run, also over 45 rounds, with two separate fields (Masters and Open) according to WESPA ratings.
The Premier competition carries a total prize fund of $US61,000, going down to 10th place. Masters has $US12,000, also to 10th place; and Open has $US2800, to eighth place.
The strength of some of the Premier teams is staggering — boosted by the presence in Johor Bahru of several Champion of Champions players. The Canadian team alone boasts four former world champions: Peter Morris, David Boys, Joel Wapnick and Adam Logan. Thailand has both the current world champ, Pakorn Nemitrmansuk, and the 2003 one, Panupol Sujjaiyakorn. And other former world champs are scattered among the other teams (Nigel Richards for New Zealand, Mark Nyman for the UK and American Brian Cappelletto for one of the composite teams).
The Champion of Champions event, based on an initial idea by 1993 world champion Nyman, will run after the main events so 'lesser' players can stay on in Johor Bahru and see how the superstars do it. It will be a full round-robin. The winner bags $US10,000, second prize is $3000 and third is $2000.
All players have won one world championship each, though some have appeared in more than one final. Only one former world champ is missing: Joel Sherman of the US. His place is taken by David Eldar of Australia, 2008 Causeway Challenge winner and 2007 World youth champion.
Follow all Causeway events — including round-by-round coverage, standings, photos, and hundreds of annotated games — at causewayscrabble.com.