World Championships - Melbourne
The second days news:
The second day of
the World Scrabble Championship has ended with a new leader. John Luebkemann,
a 35 year old actuary from the USA, who won all eight of his games on day two to rise from
an overnight position of 50th to first place. Canadian Joel Wapnick,
World runner up in 1995, is in 2nd place just three points behind, with 1993 World
Champion and 1998 UK Champion Mark Nyman in 3rd. Another player who rose
up the field on Friday is 20 year old theology student Brett Smitheram
from Exeter, UK, winning 7 of his 8 games. 
John Luebkemann
Suresh Chinnaiyah, from Colombo, Sri
Lanka and at 18 the youngest of the 98 competitors, set the highest score and
spread (winning margin) of the tournament so far in his 643-307 of American
opponent Joe Edley. Suresh started with plays of ZEALOT for 50 and ZINEB for 37, and
followed this with APOTHEM (99), WENS (75), IONISED (78), SUQ (46), DECOYER (82), JAK (44)
and FAVORITE (78).
Phil Appleby, a technical writer from
Hampshire, UK, set a high word score in round 10 with FROTHING
played across two triple word scores for 167. Other high scoring words played during the
day’s games include GAZOGENE from Paul Cleary, DUVETYNS from John Holgate and
OVICIDES from Jim Nanavati.
Saturday sees eight more games being played with the top
two players meeting in a best of five final on Sunday. Current positions ranked by wins
out of 16 and spread (sum of points scored less points against) are as follows:
| 1 |
John |
Luebkemann |
USA |
12 |
683 |
| 2 |
Joel |
Wapnick |
CAN |
12 |
680 |
| 3 |
Mark |
Nyman |
GBR |
12 |
639 |
| 4 |
Brett |
Smitheram |
GBR |
11 |
914 |
| 5 |
Adam |
Logan |
CAN |
11 |
747 |
| 6 |
Brian |
Cappelletto |
USA |
11 |
646 |
| 7 |
Jakkrit |
Klaphajone |
THA |
11 |
560 |
| 8 |
John |
Holgate |
AUS |
11 |
499 |
| 9 |
David |
Boys |
CAN |
11 |
337 |
| 10 |
Joel |
Sherman |
USA |
11 |
218 |
| 11 |
Helen |
Gipson |
GBR |
11 |
135 |
| 12 |
Nigel |
Richards |
NZL |
10 |
1369 |
| 13 |
Andrew |
Fisher |
GBR |
10 |
792 |
| 14 |
David |
Wiegand |
USA |
10 |
539 |
| 15 |
Roland |
Filio |
BAH |
10 |
534 |
| 16 |
Virgilio |
Quiballo |
PHI |
10 |
491 |
| 17 |
Ron |
Tiekert |
USA |
10 |
372 |
| 18 |
Lester |
Schonbrun |
USA |
10 |
219 |
| 19 |
Femi |
Awowade |
NIG |
10 |
175 |
| 20 |
James |
Cherry |
CAN |
10 |
140 |
Day 1;
Day 3;
Day 4;
- Paul Golder
