THE WORLD OF COMPETITION SCRABBLE – SEPTEMBER
September in the world of Scrabble started with “fireworks” in Lille and the crowning of a new World Champion, all of which featured in our previous report. Our news this month, is no less comprehensive with news sourced from across the globe brought together into this monthly digest.
Less than a week after Lille, Vienna played host to its Continental Championship providing a beautiful city as a backdrop to those wanting to continue playing tournament Scrabble. Dave Koenig took out the Early Bird (including a top score of 629, featuring an extension of ISM to an earlier play of CHAUVIN)) with Australia’s Bob Jackman the runner-up.
CHAUVIN also featured in one of Dave’s games in the Main Event on his way to 4th place. As featured in previous reports, keen followers would have been able to follow his progress via Twitter. The UK’s Austin Shin was victorious in the main event going 13-4, taking to his Instagram account to share the great news to his followers.
Fifteen countries were represented in Vienna over two divisions: ten countries in the top division with five in the second. Anand Buddhdev shared via Twitter, his high game of 697 against Cecil Muscat, easily being the top score for the event.
The first Japanese National Scrabble Championship occurred in 1991: 25 years later and, in mid September, Keiichiro Hirai won the title for the 13th time
Waseem Khatri emerged victorious in the 2nd Ranking tournament held at the end of September, winning 8 out of 9 games: Tariq Pervez’s 552 the High Score of the tournament.
As the end of 2016 approaches, the time for planning for 2017 is now… WESPAC 2017 rounds out the year in Kenya but what events are already confirmed on the Global Calendar?
In the first few months, there are WESPA rated tournaments in Australia (The City of Sydney International Masters), India (Capgemini International), Indonesia (The Asian English Olympics), Israel (9th Israeli Open), the US (Crescent City Cup) and the UK (UK Open and Northern Ireland Championships).
With tournaments also scheduled later in the year in Niagara Falls, Montreal, Germany and New Zealand, the calendar is already looking inviting!!
If you don’t want to wait until 2017, the remainder of this year is equally as exciting; Causeway is in November, as is Princess Cup (Thailand). Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia all host WESPA rated tournaments to round out 2016….
That’s before we even consider Tema in Ghana for the African Scrabble Championship and Uganda hosting Scrabble on the Nile
The WESPA Tournament Calendar is your place to see what is coming up, and is sorted by region. Subscribe to our Events section on Facebook or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
Next month, our report will cover events in the UK and Australia, as well as news from the latest ECASA/WESPAC qualifiers from Kenya.
Until then, happy Scrabbling.