The World Scrabble Championship final will take place between Joel Wapnick, a 53 year old university professor from Quebec, Canada, and Mark Nyman a 33 year old TV producer from Leeds, UK.

The group stage is now over and Wapnick was the only player to win 18 of his 24 qualifying games. Nyman and 35 year old Canadian student David Boys both won 17, but Nyman’s superior spread (cumulative points scored less points against) saw him through. Boys, the 1995 World Champion, had a chance of qualifying for his second final as he played Nyman in the final round and needed to win by 92; he won the game, but only by 420 to 386.

David Boys (left) and Mark Nyman in round 24 surrounded by some of the other competitors

Canada had an extremely strong showing with Boys and Adam Logan finishing 3rd and 4th respectively. The best performance of day three came from Briton Andrew Cook who was the only player to win all eight games, enabling him to rise from 60th to 9th place in the field of 98.

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. 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. 

The best of five final between Wapnick and Nyman is a repeat of the 1993 final held in New York. On that occasion, Wapnick led 2-0 and was 180 points ahead in the 3rd game, but Nyman recovered to win that game and went on to win the following two games to take the title. 

The two players have already met three times in this year’s competition – Round 7, Nyman winning 434-304, Round 11, Wapnick winning 423-333, and Round 18, Nyman winning 421-367. Both players are guaranteed a prize of US$6,000, with the winner taking home US$15,000.

Some of the more unusual words played on day three include:

HENBITS – a species of dead nettle (Andrew Fisher, UK)

GAMBOGE – a yellow gum resin found in Asia (Ganesh Asirvatham, Malaysia)

NAUPLII – a larva form found in many crustaceans (Gan Cher Siong, Singapore)

BABESIA – a cattle parasite (Jim Nanavati, Canada)

TAIAHAS – a Maori weapon (Saheed Jimoh, Nigeria)



The final table at the end of day three is as follows:

Day 1; Day 2; Day 4;

- Paul Golder