WSC goes to the Poles

The 11th World Scrabble Championships will be held in Warsaw, Poland, from 12 to 16 October.

The long-awaited announcement from Mattel may come as a surprise to many, given that Poland has never been a powerhouse of English-language Scrabble, even in Europe.

Other major developments this year are that the event will extend to five days, and the round-robin will involve 36 games (up from 24 in previous years) — nine games a day. The finals day is a given, but Mattel is still consulting with WESPA on the exact structure.

A total prize pool of US$50,000 is on offer, with US$20,000 for the winner. Also, a trophy will go to the best-performing country for the first time.

Poland, as host, receives two extra places.

Organiser Philip Nelkon, of Mattel, has reiterated a requirement that any domestic events used for deciding WSC places must have at least six participants.

On the various global Scrabble forums, there had been annoyance for some time at the announcement delay. Responses and opinions expressed since the announcement have included:

• Poland will be easier, travel-wise, for players from UK
• It will be harder and costlier, travel-wise, for players from New Zealand, as they compete for flights with the hordes going home after the Rugby World Cup.
• Why a non-English-speaking country? It's like the Spanish-language Scrabble world champs being held in Lithuania.
• It's just a Blackadder-style "cunning plan" — i.e. cheap.

In Nelkon's reply to all the chatter, he said cost-saving was not a factor. "Scrabble is the No 1- selling game in Poland, in the Polish language," he wrote on the 'world-scrabble' forum. "Everyone learns English at school and speaking English is prestigious. It's our assessment that we will get good publicity in Poland, despite the tournament not being in the native language."

3 March 2011